[Aster]
Two days. Two whole days of doing nothing but lazing around their little burrow. Two days of sleeping in, nibbling on the heavy dark bread Aster had earned with a bruised shoulder, of wrestling in pine needles until breathless, of cuddling until muscles ached from staying still too long, of evening rubs and morning kisses. Two days of peace they'd needed.
But they went by too fast. On the dawn of the third day, that loaf was gone, and so was their little vacation. So they packed their old bag, dressed in stolen clothes—with Aster throwing a very manly tantrum about it, as always—and went back on the road, heading further south with no idea where it might lead them, exactly. Just south.
The entire morning was spent finding the road they'd left behind, a whole lot of wandering in circles and freezing their butts off, but they managed it eventually. Then came the afternoon, an afternoon of nothing but walking.
For every twenty minutes they spent trudging through thigh-deep snow, they had to stop for another twenty, warming up by the fire, as it was just terribly cold for the girls. More often than not, Aster found himself with both of them snuggling to him for the extra warmth. The day went that way, one step at a time, one fire at a time, all while trying to hunt something for dinner along the way.
But no such luck. Not a single rabbit, not a single squirrel, not even a bird crossed their path. By the time the grey, overcast sky began to dim, the rumbling in their bellies grew loud enough to drown out the howling of the wind. Not wanting to spend the night with empty stomachs, Nivalis began calling on her Blessing like there was no tomorrow, not caring how dizzy it made her feel, all to find something, anything, for them to eat.
— "Anything?" Aster asked, stepping closer to his mother and putting a scarred hand on her waist to steady her as she wobbled on her feet after another attempt, her eyelids fluttering open. His silver braid and dress, which he tried not to think much about, fluttered gently in the wind, the embroidered flowers on the collar of the tunic peeking out from beneath.
It took her a moment to find his face amid the swirls of colors, then she shook her head with a quiet sigh. "Nothing," she mumbled, leaning against him for support. Her chest rose and fell as she took a few deep breaths to chase away the dizziness, plumes of steam leaving her lips with every exhale.
She had a cloth tied on her head today, his old half-cloak now serving her as a headscarf, covering most of her hair and, more importantly, making it impossible for her longer ears to poke out again as they did in the inn. It looked good on her, as pretty much everything did.
Silvia stood nearby, hands tucked into her armpits, shifting her weight from one foot to the other, her old boots disappearing into the snow again and again. "I-It's probably too cold for them," she said, her golden eyes sweeping the forest, a few stray strands of silver escaping her braid to whip across her cheeks in the wind. "Let's just... find a place for the night and maybe drink some tea. We'll find something tomorrow."
Nivalis shook her head, her sad blue eyes tracing the dark shapes of trees against the fading light. "A few more tries. There has to be something," she murmured, taking another steadying breath, then pointed towards a small clearing in the distance. "Let's try that way."
Letting go of her waist, Aster gave a quiet, "Okay," then followed her through the snow, with Silvia trailing right behind. The walk was short and quiet, but it took a while anyway because the snow sometimes piled higher than he was tall, until they found themselves standing at the very edge of that small, open space in the forest, with bushes and trees lining its perimeter.
Then, with a quiet hum, Nivalis closed her eyes again. And while she did her thing, Aster stepped behind the trembling girl and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her small, shivering body against his own.
She looked like she really needed it. "Hey," Aster mumbled into her pointy ear, resting his chin on her shoulder. Silvia wiggled her cold butt against him, humming back. "I'll warm you up in the burrow tonight so much, you'll be sweating," he whispered, not moving his golden gaze from their mother just a step away. "Instead of doing my magic practice, I'll spend all my mana on you. Sounds nice?"
A tiny, tired huff escaped the girl as she leaned her head against his, the wind tossing her silver locks across her face. "And massage... I want a massage," she demanded quietly, her small hands coming to rest on top of his around her tummy. "My thighs hurt. Badly."
Aster sighed into her neck, the skin there all soft and warm despite her trembling all over. "Fine. And a massage it is," he agreed, then gave her cheek a quick peck. She didn't say anything to that, just gave him a slow blink and a tiny smile.
Before they could say another word, Nivalis whispered, "Asty, could you...?" without opening her eyes. She didn't need to finish for him to understand what she wanted. After nodding against Silvia's shoulder, the boy took a lungful of air and let out the best, most convincing bird-call he could manage, something between a dying crow and a chicken being stepped on.
Two, three times he did that, the sound echoing through the quiet forest, loud enough to make the girl in his arms flinch and cover her ears with a slight whine.
"Ugh... you're so terrible at it," she grumbled when he was done, her small hands leaving her ears and going back to their previous spot on top of his. Aster gave her soft tummy a little pinch for that, which made her yelp and squirm in his warm embrace. "Ah! You little..." she began, turning to glare at him, but didn't get to finish as their mother suddenly crouched down into the snow.
Thinking that maybe she got herself so dizzy with her Blessing that she fell, Aster quickly untangled himself and rushed to her side, with Silvia right behind him. "Mom? You okay?" he asked, grabbing her by the elbow to help her up, but instead she dragged him down and shushed, her eyes still closed. "Wh—" he tried to ask again, but she shushed him again, more insistently this time.
"What? What is it?" Silvia whispered, already crouching as well, her grey dress bunching up around her knees. No answer came; their mother just stayed there, still as a stone and barely breathing, her head tilted slightly to one side as she listened to the forest.
Just when Aster was about to start freaking out that someone was coming, like those armed men from a few months ago, or maybe something even worse, Nivalis finally opened her blue eyes and... smiled? That got him calmed down, mostly.
A real, genuine, tired smile touched the corners of her lips as she looked from one face to another, even though dizziness made her sway slightly. "There's something, I don't know..." she whispered, so quiet they had to lean closer to hear her. "...a boar, maybe? Over there, behind those bushes." Her arm shot up, pointing towards a cluster of snow-covered bushes quite a distance away from them, at the very far end of the clearing.
Aster and Silvia both looked that way, but of course, they couldn't see anything. Just bushes. Lots and lots of them.
After taking a moment to steady herself, Nivalis continued, "It woke up at your noise, but didn't run. It's lying down now, listening. A boar." Her eyes darted back and forth between her children's faces, her smile widening as she did so, then reached into her dress pocket and pulled out her rusty old knife. "Get your mana ready, as much as you can. And I saw a few good branches over there," she nodded towards a patch of young pines nearby, "let's quickly make ourselves some spears. Just in case."
Aster and Silvia exchanged a look, equal parts nervous and excited, before both nodding. They scrambled up from the snow together, Nivalis leading the way as quietly as possible to those young pines she'd spotted earlier. It took them just a minute to find a few good ones—straight, thick, and about as tall as Aster himself—and Nivalis cut them from the trees with quick, efficient strokes of her knife.
As Silvia began forming sharp shards of ice on each branch, her hands trembling from the cold of her magic, Aster leaned close to whisper, "Don't freeze when it's charging at you." His warm breath misted in the cold air, his eyes flicking from the growing ice to her face, then to their mother's sitting just nearby. "It's really scary, but don't freeze and just duck behind a tree. That's what I did last time. I kept circling around, and the boar kept ramming itself into the tree. They're not that clever."
The girl gave him a tight nod and kept forming her icicles, while Nivalis hummed thoughtfully and looked at the boy, her blue eyes scanning his face as she thought about what he said. A quiet, "Alright," came out of her, her gaze moving to the bush where the boar was supposedly hiding. She didn't say anything else and just waited for Silvia to finish with their spears. When she did, and everyone got something deadly to poke with, she spoke again, "Now, listen."
The two of them shuffled even closer to her, until their knees touched hers in the soft snow. "Sweetie," Nivalis said, looking into the girl's golden eyes, "When we get close enough, throw everything you can at the bush I'll point at. Don't hold back. I'll carry you if you get too shaky to walk afterward."
Then her gaze shifted to Aster. "And you, honey. That... oily thing of yours—use it as well, but don't burn through all your mana. Keep some in case something goes wrong, and the boar gets too close." After a brief pause, Nivalis added in a much more serious tone, "Both of you, if I say 'duck,' you duck. If I say 'run,' you run. No questions, just do it. And please, be careful with your spells."
Aster and Silvia both nodded, their expressions matching hers in seriousness, spears held tight in their small hands. After that, their mother took a deep, shaky breath and whispered, "Stay quiet and follow my steps. Let's go and get ourselves some dinner." She then pushed herself up to a half-crouch and began leading them into the clearing with soft, careful steps, her faded-brown dress dragging in the snow behind her.
It was hard to stay quiet with how hard his heart was pounding in his ears, but Aster did his best. The familiar burning in his chest flared up as he ignited his mana, more and more with every step he took after his mother. Beside him, Silvia did the same, pumping so much cold into herself that her teeth started clattering through her closed lips. Every few steps, Nivalis paused, listened, looked around, then moved again, guiding them closer and closer to the bush she saw in her mind, ignoring countless identical ones along their way.
It took them an embarrassingly long time to circle around to the other side of the clearing, with how careful they were being with their steps and the deep snow slowing them down, but they made it eventually. "There," Nivalis mouthed with her lips, her gaze locked on a particular bush a good thirty steps ahead, as unremarkable as the rest.
The sibling peered at it through swirling snowflakes, noticing nothing out of the ordinary, at all. There wasn't even a single track leading to it, just more of the same deep snow as everywhere else. Their mother, however, looked very, very certain; she kept pointing at the bush to make sure they got the right one, with a bright smile on her chapped lips.
Aster and Silvia exchanged a nervous look, then nodded, and with a final glance at their mother, they both began readying their spells. The boy's hands trembled before him as he pictured the thick, oily substance, forcing the wild fire in his chest into that dangerous, liquid form. Beside him, Silvia reached into her pocket and pulled out a handful of pre-made icicles she kept there for emergencies, each no bigger than her pinky, shimmering faintly under the grey sky.
Picking up the biggest out of the bunch, she made it float in front of her and began casting her strongest, deadliest spell, one of her very first and loudest, the one that explodes mist to propel the ice. A few heartbeats later, her breath hitched as the wisps of mist began to leave her trembling fingers and gather right behind the floating icicle, her face scrunching up with effort.
With an expression comically identical to hers, Aster was busy with his own magic. A small, golden-red droplet swirled into existence in the palm of his right hand, wobbling dangerously with countless bubbles swirling within it faster than his eyes could follow, lighting up his scarred fingers in a sickly glow.
Heat, unlike any other, emanated from it, melting the snowflakes that fell too close with a quiet hiss. Yet Aster kept dumping more and more of his wildfire into it, amounts he could only dream of when he had only gotten his affinity. The droplet grew bigger and bigger, until it was about the size of his thumb, at which point Aster stopped and breathed a tired, "Whenever you are," his sweaty brows furrowed in concentration.
Silvia gave him a tiny "mhm". Then, an explosion. All the mist she condensed behind her tiny icicle erupted violently, causing all the surrounding snowflakes to vanish under the pressure of it. The entire clearing was filled with the loud, sharp crack of it, followed by a whistling sound as the small shard of ice cut through the air. It disappeared into the snowy branches without so much as a rustle from the bush; just death, the only way to describe it.
Before the echoes of her shot faded, Aster flicked his wrist, sending the oily droplet flying toward the same spot. A faint roar of fire was all there was as it left his palm, more like a whisper than anything else. It flew through the air in a wide arc, leaving a golden-red trail behind it, and then splashed all over that bush.
Silence. For a heartbeat, nothing but the sound of the wind and the soft, distant creaking of tree branches. But it didn't last long, as Silvia was quick to throw another icicle, this time without using mist but with her mana alone.
It wasn't as powerful and required tremendous amounts of mana from her, but it was much, much faster to cast, precisely what she needed in that moment. Another followed, then another, and another—all aimed at the same bush, whistle after whistle. Aster also kept the fireblobs coming, though at a much slower pace than her despite all the practice he had with the spell. 'I need to train more...' he found himself thinking in the heat of it.
Not a movement from the bush. Not a squeal, not a rustle, not a single sign of their boar being there at all. But they just kept throwing, and throwing, and throwing, getting more and more tired with each spell.
Aster was the first to stop, gasping as a familiar emptiness appeared in his chest. Two-thirds of his mana was gone, and so was all the pain that came with it, his breath coming in ragged pants that misted in the cold air. Beside him, Silvia kept going, her teeth clattering so violently that she could barely aim properly, yet still she sent icicle after icicle flying towards the silent bush. 'Damn...' was all Aster could think as he watched her being so deadly like that.
Nivalis stood behind them, her faded-brown dress fluttering in the wind as she patiently waited for the girl to exhaust herself. The moment the first sway appeared in her daughter's posture, she stepped in. "Stop, sweetie. That's enough," she murmured, putting one hand on her small, shaking shoulder to steady her. "Need me to carry you?"
Not moving her golden eyes away from the bush, Silvia shook her head, her small chest heaving as she fought for breath. "A-are... are you sure it was there?" she managed to ask between gasps, her knuckles white as she gripped her spear.
A hint of doubt crossed Nivalis's face as she eyed the bush as well. "Let's get a bit closer," she eventually decided, her fingers tightening around the handle of her own spear. Giving Aster's shoulder a little squeeze, she added, "Be ready." He nodded, what little was left of his mana flaring up hot inside him.
Slowly, carefully, the three of them began moving forward, crunching through the snow, spears held at the ready. With every step they took, Aster expected the boar to burst out of the bush and charge at them, but nothing happened. They got closer and closer, until the bush—or rather, a collapsed, half-burned version of it—was just a few steps away. Still nothing.
Then Nivalis pushed the remaining branches aside with her spear, and there it was. A little, adorable piglet, all brown and curly-tailed... turned into a smoking, melted, pierced mess of a thing. It had no chance of surviving the barrage of their spells, and probably died from the very first icicle that hit it, poor thing. It was such a sad sight that Aster wished he had a hat to take off.
But what worried him more was how Silvia would take it. More times than he could count over the last few months, she cried her eyes out at the sight of a dead rabbit or almost anything fluffy, and this... this was much, much worse. Without thinking, he darted to her side and tried to cover her eyes with both of his hands, but it was too late; she had already seen it.
Her bottom lip began to quiver. Tears started welling up in her beautiful, golden eyes, then spilled over her cheeks and froze there. A quiet, choked sob escaped her, then another, as she looked at their dinner lying there in the snow, a pathetic, "I-I'm a monster..." coming out of her.
Nivalis and Aster both sighed through their noses and exchanged a knowing look. With just her eyes, she motioned him to take care of that mess of a crying girl while she dealt with the meat. Nodding, Aster did just that and wrapped his arms around the crying girl, turning her away from the bush. The mere thought of how much rubbing and massaging it would take tonight to comfort her made his arms ache, a long sigh escaping him as he held her close.
...