[Flashback] Siblings Should Only Hunt Each Other (Solo)

[Aello]

Timestamp: Summer 10, 506 AV Location: Forests just outside Zeltiva The trees seemed to be growing all the more dense as they moved deeper and deeper into the forest. They seemed to pack themselves more tightly together, making it all the more difficult for Aello and her brother to make their way through. It was as though the two had to view the line as a maze- something to be meandered about slowly, lest they should soon find themselves hopelessly lost. Now that they had finally come to this place, made it this far, the sun had moved from its first rising, to a position high within the sky, almost directly over their heads. The air seemed warm, but not as warm as it could be should the afternoon truly hit, causing Aello to think it was still early enough in the day. A slight breeze also trickled through the trees, although, with them being so close to their brethren, it seemed as though it weren't there at all. It seemed silent save for the children's footsteps. Aello could only hope that there was something about for she and Leon to bring back to her parents for dinner. After traveling in silence for a time, Aello lowered herself down, into a squat. She cupped her hand under the leaves of a small flowering brush, holding them out to her brother. Her eyes followed the length of the teardrop-shaped green, taking note of the color, of the bits which seemed to have been torn away. "It looks like something had this for breakfast," she commented absently, before glancing over her shoulder at her sibling. Leon simply shrugged, but said nothing, causing Aello to sigh as she eased herself back into a standing position. "You're a help," she grumbled, as her fist tightened around her father's bow. He had lent it to her in the morning, when she and Leon had been given permission to go on their first solo hunting trip. She felt honored to have it in her hands. To have his quiver filled with special arrows upon her back. Her father never trusted anybody with his things. Never leant them out. She was surprised he had given it to her to use. Perhaps he finally understood she would take good care of it. "Well sorry Aello," Leon groaned, as his own fist tightened around his bow, the one their father had given him for one of his birthdays. Aello couldn't remember which. "Dad never bothers to teach me anything useful like he teaches you." Aello rolled her eyes. "That's not true and you know it. He got you a bow and a dagger didn't he?" she asked. Leon simply nodded. "And he taught you how to use each. He only taught me to use a bow. It's too unlady like for me to learn the dagger too," she groaned. "Which is why I always get stuck doing boring stuff with mama in the kitchen." "Or running off on one of your stupid adventures," Leon cut in. Aello growled. "You know what, we should be quiet so we don't scare everything away. Think you can manage that little brother?" Leon simply rolled his eyes and nodded, making a motion with his fingers about zipping his lips. Aello was grateful for that. She wanted silence. She was sick of him. But that was normal. They were brother and sister after all, and couldn't be expected to get along all the time. As the air thickened between Aello and her brother, the girl moved forward, deeper into the line of trees. She was hoping that her brother was following, but she could never be so sure with him, considering he too, had a mind of his own, and a heart for adventure. Not only that, but he moved far more stealthily than she, causing her to wonder if she weren't simply alone. After a time, of having grown convinced that he was no longer following her, Aello peered over her shoulder, to find her brother right behind her. She stepped behind a larger tree, hoping to find cover from prying eyes. Anything that may be able to spot two young, and generally inept hunters coming after them. "Do you remember what father taught you?" Aello asked, "about shooting a bow?" Leon nodded. "Some." "Show me," Aello insisted, causing her brother to reach for an arrow and pull it from his quiver. He slowly laced it onto the serving on his bow, and raised it after wrapping his fingers around the nock. He pulled back on the string a little, inching it back, directing his shot at Aello's right eye. The girl smiled, as she crept around the side of his body, so that she could more clearly see what her brother was doing. She started with his legs, since he was left eye dominant, unlike her, his stance was a bit different. The opposite of what she would do when it was time to shoot. His right leg was held out before the left. His foot pointed towards his target, while the left pointed towards the left portion of his body, where his chest was facing. He had his feet no more than a few inches apart, causing Aello to ram the lower portion of her bow into his right heel. Instantly, Leon pushed his foot forward a few inches. That caused the girl to smile all the more furiously, as her eyes followed the line of his body, up to his arms. His right hand rested against the bow's grip, his left was held nearly straight, his fingers hugging the arrow's nock. Aello tapped his pinky, causing him to pull it off the string. She then tapped his thumb, the one around the bow's grip. "Keep this lower," Aello insisted. "While it helps you to aim at first, it should be kept down so it doesn't impede your arrow's flight." Leon nodded, as Aello's hand trailed against the gentle curve of his bow, towards its bottom. She pushed up against it lightly, inching it up by the tiniest bit. There, that should be good, she thought, as she watched her brother close his right eye. "Now you're ready to shoot," she assured him. Leon simply smiled. As he did, Aello looked around at their surroundings. "And just to show you that your big sister is right... as usual, you're going to shoot... that," Aello pointed with her free hand, towards an area on a nearby tree. There was a knob on it. A twisted piece of bark. "That?" Leon asked incredulously as Aello lowered her hand. "Yes, that," Aello insisted, as Leon sighed. "All right," he mumbled as he pulled the string back, and took aim. Seconds later, he shot his first arrow, sending it soaring towards the tree. Within a few seconds, it had struck it, about three inches to the south of Aello's improvised target. "Again," Aello insisted, as the arrow bounced off the tree, and clattered on the forest floor. Leon sighed, but obeyed, reloading his bow and raising it to take aim again. Seconds later, he had released another arrow, striking about six inches above his previous shot. He was overcompensating now, aiming high. "Again, and aim a little lower this time," Aello instructed, as her brother lowered her bow, and reloaded. "You're not so far from this target where you need to aim all that high to account for the wind, or other elements." Leon nodded, as he raised his bow and shot again, this time, knocking the lower portion of Aello's target. "Good, now go get your stuff and lets go. You're ready enough for this," Aello insisted, sending her brother forth as she moved onwards. She wasn't about to wait for him to catch up. OOCYes, she is using the same bow and set of arrows which later become her heirloom. Ironic, no?

[Aello]

Aello kept on walking for a long time, her eyes scanning the forest for any sign of life. She made more of a point now, about being careful about where to place her foot. She tried not to step on fallen twigs, knowing they'd snap beneath her weight, producing noise which could scare the animals away. But even so, Aello wasn't the most graceful girl in the entire world, and made several mistakes. Unlike her brother, who somehow seemed to glide over the forest floor, as he trailed behind her. After a few more chimes had passed, the pair heard a rustling sound. They stopped dead in their tracks, their ears prickling as they listened. "Sounds like something is about," Leon commented dumbly. "Thank you for stating the obvious," Aello replied in a whispered hiss, just as a young boar stepped out from behind a series of low-lying shrubs. Aello watched it closely, noting how its nostrils flared as it sniffed the area about it, as its large, black eyes settled on her own. Leon was the first to react, loading an arrow onto his bow, and taking a shot, which somehow managed to miss, despite their proximity to the wild creature. The shot landing somewhat nearby, startled the pig, causing it to squeal and run off back into the forest. "Damnit Leon! Can't you do anything right?" Aello growled, as he moved after it. "Just get your arrow and come on, I won't be missing a chance at an excellent dinner tonight just because you made a stupid blunder." As she ran after it, Aello could hear its tiny hooves thundering against the uneven terrain. Pushing against it, propelling its body forward much as her own feet were pushing her forward. She could hear it snorting from time to time as it kept on moving, and then, was lost to her. She started to slow as the sounds it made died out. As it was lost behind a line of trees. Leon slowed behind her. "We'll just have to chase after it slowly. We can't let it know we're coming. We'll follow its tracks to it, it has to have left a few," Aello explained, as she glanced down at the ground. She couldn't see much where she was now, so she kept on walking, after awhile, she saw something in the mud. Two teardrop shaped marks held closely together. Aello pointed to them. "Think a boar made those?" she asked her brother, as he came up beside her. He shrugged. "Maybe," Leon responded. "Well that's good enough. These things obviously lead to something. Whether or not it's a boar doesn't matter, it's food," Aello explained, as she crouched a little lower, and followed the line of fresh, gooey looking tracks with her eyes, through the forest. She moved slowly, steadily, as the trail meandered, careful not to veer from it too much. If she found nothing, she'd go off in one direction, and then the other until she found something. If nothing, she'd keep heading in the way she had been before, until she found where the tracks had left off. After about half a bell had passed, the siblings finally spotted the boar. It was grazing in the middle of a clearing, minding its own business. The two crept behind a nearby tree, seeking cover until they had a clear shot. "Ok," Aello whispered, "we should shoot at it at the same time, trying to hit the vitals. That way, if one of us misses, the other may still hit it. It should weaken from the blood loss, making it easier for us to kill." Leon nodded. "We should probably try for the neck. Or the heart or lungs or something." Leon said nothing. "You go for the neck, I'll go for the heart. I'm a better shot than you, and there's the ribs to deal with." "Ok," Leon responded, as they each reached for an arrow to lace onto their quivers. There was a simultaneous click as the nocks took to their servings, causing each sibling to hug the arrow with their fingers as they began to inch it back. They stepped around the tree, one sibling crouching around either side. Aello closed her left eye, while her brother closed his right. They inched the strings back in unison, listening to them creak as they both took aim. Leon on the neck, Aello on the heart. She was inching the point of her arrow to the right, and then a little lower, hoping that she wasn't directing her weapon to a rib instead of the organ. The two watched in silence, barely breathing as the boar kept on eating. Finally, Aello released her bowstring, after jerking it back, just past her ear. The arrow erupted off the string, sending it into a series of wild vibrations. A heartbeat later, Leon had done the same. They listened to their bowstrings hum, as they lowered their weapons and watched the arrows soar. The feathers which lined them quivering in the wind. They watched as the arrows dipped towards their target towards the end of their flight, and then fell to the forest floor. Aello's arrow having stopped just short of its front leg, and Leon's having brushed past its nose. Enraged, the boar scampered away. Neither sibling bothered running after it. Not again, they were too tired from the last time. "We should just let it go," Leon insisted after a few moments, breaking the silence that hung between them. "It took too long to hunt it back down before. We don't have time for that." "We have time to hunt it down again if you want to. For if we leave it, we'll have to find something else to replace it with," Aello replied. Leon shrugged. "But then one of us has to carry that thing home, and I know you don't want to be breaking your pretty little back." Aello scowled. "Well if you were big and strong like dad, we wouldn't have to worry." "If you weren't such a girl, then we wouldn't have missed out on dinner," Leon shouted. "First off, I am a girl so that doesn't even make sense, and secondly, you missed it too," Aello shouted in response. "Yeah, but you're the better shot," Leon sneered. "But you missed it at close range... twice! That's worse than I am!" Aello hollered, causing the nearby plants to shudder. Leon groaned. Aello grit her teeth as her eyes blazed. "Lets just get our things and keep moving. Maybe we'll find something you can actually bother to carry home to mom and dad." As the words left her lips, Aello moved forward, grabbing her arrow shortly before her brother, and returning it to her quiver. "The boar was probably gamey anyway."

[Aello]

The siblings moved along in silence for quite some time. Neither bothering to break it lest they piss the other off so much that they turned to violence. As the sun began to sink in the opposite direction from which it had risen, the pair heard a low rustling sound. They heard a stick snap. They followed the sound in a heartbeat, soon finding its source. A pair of squirrels which were scurrying up a nearby tree. They supposed they had knocked a branch down, which had snapped on the ground, as they chittered and fought for their territory. "You take one and I take the other?" Aello asked her brother. "They should be good for a stew or something." Leon merely nodded as he reached for another arrow, and laced it onto the serving. Aello did the same, before raising her bow, and guiding her arrow's point over one of the squirrels. She inched back on the string a bit more, and when she felt as though she had locked on, she released it. The arrow went flying only moments before her brother's. They watched as the projectiles flew, slicing through the air towards their targets. Within moments, each had struck their unsuspecting prey, causing them to fall to the ground in a bloody heap. Dead. "Thank goodness," Aello whispered, as she darted forward to collect her father's arrow. She wiped the blood off on the ground, before returning it to his quiver. Her brother did the same with his arrow. "We should get these things home, since it's getting late and they still need to be skinned, and then cooked for our dinner. It's a pity I'm going to be stuck in the kitchen the rest of the day doing that." Leon chuckled. "I am thankful I am not a girl." "Yeah, but you get to help dad skin them, and get blood all over yourself. We both know how squeamish you get sometimes," Aello responded, as her eyes glimmered playfully. Leon punched her arm. That only caused Aello to laugh. "You promised you wouldn't mention it." "To dad." "At all," Leon retorted. "No, just to dad, and I haven't. Just like you're going to promise not to mention how poorly I shot today," Aello responded. "Only if you do the same for me," Leon replied. "But that's not fair. You were the one who said we wouldn't go after the boar because you didn't feel like lugging it home on your back," Aello said, as she got to her feet. Leon rolled his eyes. "Why don't we just hand them the squirrels and tell them we're too tired to help with anything? That way, we'll both be sure to keep our mouths shut." "Deal," Aello whispered, her eyes sparkling. She wasn't so sure she'd keep it.

[Chevalier]

Aello

LORE

• Making Deals with Family
• Sibling Rivalry

EXPERIENCE

Skill	XP Earned
Teaching	1
Shortbow	2
Stealth	1
Tracking	1
Hunting	1

Storyteller Notes

Secret :

How cute, a young Aello. Still pretty angsty though!