"It's done. Ready?" asked Blanc, tying the last knot on the makeshift carrier they would use to haul the stag back.
Kael didn't answer. His eyes were locked somewhere beyond the trees.
But they were not looking at anything. His mind was.
He lingered on the repeated failures of today's hunt. In the image of Blanc drawing the Raw Vita into himself.
He had questions. Oh, how many questions there were. But there were just as many regrets.
Father will be disappointed, he thought. And yet, he did not wish to linger too much on such thoughts, he hated it.
As the third son of an important Noble Blood, he knew he didn't matter.
Only Valar did. But failure… was not an option either.
He wanted to complain, to scream even. But not to Blanc. Not him.
He did not want to burden him.
"Kael," Blanc called again, sharper this time, hoping his voice would be loud enough to cut through his brother's brewing mind.
"Yes?" Kael replied, his head turning slightly, but his eyes lingering on the same spot he was watching.
Blanc sighed seeing him, but still refused to address the issue, "Are you ready? We need to go. Rain might start again soon."
"Ah, yes, yes. Let's go," inhaled his little brother, suddenly back in control of his eyes, as he jumped back to his feet and rose from the bed of wet leaves.
"Is everything alright?" He checked again.
"Yes, a little bit wet, perhaps," replied Kael, with a stiff smile that breached the corners of his lips, but didn't go much further than that, "let's be on our way."
"Very well," nodded Blanc, his eyes lingering on his brother's smile a moment longer.
It looked convincing. But Blanc had seen too many fake smiles in his young life to be fooled. After all, he was taught the same lessons in the past.
Yet, he said nothing, only bent to pick up his side of the carrier.
And as Kael picked his part on his shoulders, they began walking.
Minutes passed without either one of them saying a word.
Yet they had several conversations in their heads, each one saying what they wanted to say. But they held their tongues.
Even though Blanc was eighteen and Kael only eight, they were taught the same lessons from their father and mothers.
Never say more than is required, for it might give away your weaknesses.
But, these lessons were taught to be used in Imperial Courts and to gain advantages over others, not against one's family.
Yet, the lessons persisted, forbidding them to talk as their heart desired.
Instead, Blanc, angry with his reasoning, tried to distract himself by watching his surroundings and feeling this new addition to his powers he received from the stag's Raw Vita.
He could smell the leaves, a beautiful golden color as they were all year long until late autumn when they would fall and turn a sickly brown.
The grass, wet with rain, now smelled way too appetizing for his meat-filled stomach, making him run away from such thoughts.
He could feel the wind scraping along his skin, the smooth skin where a person his age would now have a beard, was being the most affected, which annoyed him.
So, he focused on the other senses.
His eyes caught a small bird flying close by, and even at a relatively fast speed, he was able to follow it with ease, but it felt as if watching a snowflake fall to the ground.
He did not feel as if he was watching a bird, he was only aware of the movement, not of what was moving.
He knew what it was, yet his eyes told him otherwise, which disappointed him.
And after trying to sense everything around him, he looked inward, trying to sense his new addition to his strength, and he clenched his fists around the wooden carrier, feeling all the muscles in his forearm, as they contracted, and then he switched his mind to his legs, as he walked, and he was sure by then, that his strength increased.
Perhaps not as much as he would have liked in his arms and upper body, but his legs grew stronger, and he could feel it. It was hard to tell by how much, but he knew it was a welcome sight.
And the last thing he had to check was his mind.
Suddenly, a crow called overhead, cutting through the stillness.
Blanc blinked, coming back to himself just for a second before returning inward.
And he realized then that maybe, the panic he felt earlier when he saw his brother overthinking, was not only his care for him, but also the stag's Raw Vita.
The panic a prey animal might show when one in its herd is panicking.
The stag's mental traits… he thought, realizing they were attaching themselves to his personality. And that was an issue for Blanc.
This wasn't the first stag he killed, but after this realization, it would surely be the last he took Raw Vita from.
He grew closer to the beast, and he feared he might become too much like it if he were to continue to do so.
"I need to hunt some predators from now on…" he muttered to himself, as with a sharp exhale returned to reality.
"Are you talking about Raw Vita?" asked Kael.
Blanc sighed, hearing his brother's question, "So you heard that, huh? Yes. I'm starting to become like a stag, I have to be careful with what I kill and absorb next time."
Kael giggled, "Haha, so maybe next time we go hunting, you might start grazing?"
"If I have to kill that one as well, perhaps." Blanc threw a wicked smile over his shoulder as he walked in the front.
"That was uncalled for," he muttered, lowering his head to the ground. "I really thought I did great for my first hunt. Well, at least until you pointed out the obvious. That I'm useless."
"Hey now! I've never said that, now did I?" Blanc replied, insulted by Kael's words, "For what it's worth, you gained experience doing something you have never done before. No amount of shooting arrows at a stack of straws makes you ready to take a life, Kael. And I've never said you are useless. Stop listening to Sera and her antics, and stop believing every poisoned work she tries to put into your head. You are not useless, Little Kael."
"But I-"
Blanc clicked his tongue, stopping his words mid-sentence, "If we are to go that way, my first hunts went well because I had Valar with me. Whereas I failed to direct you to your first successful hunt, I even had to kill it in your stead and take its Raw Vita! Wouldn't that make me the useless one here?"
Kael panicked at his brother's words.
He was fine with taking the blame in his heart, but not Blanc.
After all, he was the one who saved him and his sister, now, and many times before, not the one who failed him, "Brother, the fault does not lie with you…"
A memory flashed in Kael's mind from a few winters ago.
He had convinced his twin sister to run across the frozen surface of one of the forest's hidden lakes.
That afternoon, the ice had been thinner than they expected. And Lune fell. Into water that was far too deep and far too cold for her small body.
But Blanc, without a second thought, ran out onto the lake.
The ice cracked beneath every step as he broke through more than once, plunging deeper, until he reached her and pulled her free.
Even then, his care didn't stop. While he and Lune cried, one from fear, the other from freezing, Blanc didn't hesitate or complain. He just ran.
He carried her all the way home in his arms and didn't stop until he collapsed on the mansion's porch, half-frozen and out of breath.
That day, Blanc saved them both. And later, once he'd recovered, he took the blame too.
"Then neither does it with you, Kael," Blanc replied in the next instant, pulling Kael back into the present.
Fearing that Blanc would continue blaming himself, Kael took the draw his older brother offered before changing the subject, "Can we take a small break?" He asked.
Stopping in his tracks, Blanc replied, "Sure thing."