𝕺𝖗𝖊𝖓𝖉𝖆

ℭ𝔥𝔞𝔭𝔱𝔢𝔯 6

"Aristos! Come here, my beautiful boy!" An angelic voice hollers out. She cupped her hands around her mouth, trying to get her words across the land to him.

The boy looked up, dropping his wooden sword to the ground, having his friend giggle. "Go on, Ari, tell your Ma that I'll be over tomorrow for supper." The little girl grins, grabbing his wooden sword, soon running off back to her family for her supper.

He waves towards the girl, yelling goodbye to her, before hurrying to his mother for dinner. His father was out hunting again, leaving Ari with his mother at home. In a couple of days, he was going to turn nine, excited about finally being able to help his father hunt for fish and sheep.

Ari has always admired his father's work, bringing home dinner in the morning, but leaving right after. He was hardly around, but his mother would always say that it was needed. He rarely saw him, never enough time to hug him or show him the new things he's learned from his new friend, Katala.

His hair tied into a low ponytail, having a few braids in. He started to smile brightly when he saw his mother sitting on the steps. She wore a dark purple dress, having a white apron wrapped around her waist. Her dark, ginger hair let down, having braids wrapped in light violet ribbons.

She soon stood up, spreading her arms out, ready to hug her beautiful boy. He ran faster up the small hill, hugging her tightly as he felt her warm embrace. "Did you have fun with, Kat?" She asks, pulling away from the hug, looking at him with a comforting smile.

"Yeah. We played with the swords that her papa made for us and hunted for flowers." He says, grabbing the small dandelions from his pocket. A few petals have crumbled off, making Ari's smile fade into a small frown.

His mother quickly grabbed the yellow flowers carefully, tilting his head up to look up at her. "These are beautiful, my son." She reassures her son.

Ari shook his head. "They're ruined, Ma..."

"And they're still beautiful flowers. Everything in this world is beautiful, even if it looks slightly messed up, it never loses its beauty." She says, gesturing to the flower. "It just has a story to tell." She says, making her son soon smile, nodding.

She carefully holds the flowers close to her, gesturing to the door. "Let's head inside and get these flowers in a vase, shall we?" She suggests, having Ari quickly run in, finding a vase.

Before she followed behind her son, she looked out, seeing the ocean. She took a deep breath, letting the reality hit her. "Not yet... don't turn my son into a killer... Please..." She says quietly before hearing her son yell for her.

The sails on the boat raised, having the crew pull on the ropes, suddenly gaining speed from the wind. Grith stood at the front of the ship, watching as the island in the distance soon came into view. "You see that, boys? It's a new island!" He hollers, getting the men to cheer and whistle out of excitement.

Ari, on the other hand, did nothing. He continued to draw in his notebook, trying to get the details right on the sketch. As it was finished, it still looked incorrect, like some important detail was missing. It was on the tip of his tongue, but he couldn't figure it out.

Katala sat down next to him, leaving back as she sharpened her axe. "So, Hunter, what are we hunting down?" She questions, looking over at him when he didn't answer. She looked down at the notebook, seeing the sketch. It was a boy, messy hair, freckles, even some streaks in his hair were a different shade.

"Woah, who is that?" Katala asks, pointing at it. He quickly shuts the book, putting it away from her view.

"Nothing, it's just a sketch." He says, quickly changing the subject entirely. "My father wants us to hunt down a Wyvern again, or a Quil-Spint." He says, looking over at her excitement bubbling over her expression.