[Kyrit]

“You can’t leave!”

The loud words piercing his ears were shortly followed by the full force of a younger Tabaxi slamming in to the back of his left thigh, causing his leg to buckle slightly and almost send him tumbling over. His ears lowered only briefly, understanding why she was so upset.

[Kyrit]

She’d only recently learned that he’d be leaving the village. It had been kept from her as long as possible, knowing exactly how she’d react. He wasn’t going to change his mind though, and she’d have to come to terms with that eventually. For now though, he made no attempt to pull away from her, instead only turning a bit to look down at the youngest of his siblings.

[Kyrit]

“Come on, Wonder, I can’t get ready for the festival like this! Can’t you help me get ready instead of getting in the way?”

He could feel her shaking her head as she tightened her grip on his leg, using what little weight she had to hold him in place as she’d slid down to the ground. Not a single word was given in response.

[Kyrit]

“I’ve been planning this like… since before you were born,” Friend broke the silence, doing his best to pull her arms from his leg so that he could crouch down to speak to her eye to eye. Or, well, as best he could as she turned to look away from him the moment their eyes would have met.

[Kyrit]

He kept his grip light on Wonder’s arms as he continued, “This has been my dream for so long, and it’s not like it’ll be the last you’ll see of me! I’ll be coming back to visit. I’ll have all kinds of cool stories to tell you about the outside world and all kinds of cool things to bring back as well.”

[Kyrit]

His explanation seemed to be getting him nowhere, as his sibling still seemed to refuse to look at him, despite clinging to him moments ago. After a moment of silence, he pulled the small child in to a hug, rubbing the back of her head. “You’ll understand one day, once you know what you want to do with your life. Maybe you’ll want to go on adventures too, and if that happens I’ll be happy to take you with me one of the times I come back to the village. The moment you do decide what you want to do though, I doubt anyone will be able to change your mind either.”

[Kyrit]

He pulled back a bit again, smiling down at her. “Come on, help me get ready. You don’t want to be mad at me still when I leave, do you?”

“No….” The word was hard to hear and could have been taken in several different ways. No, I won’t help you. No, I don’t want to be mad at you. Eventually she pulled away from her brother, rubbing her arms across her face to rub away the tears she’d been keeping him from seeing.

[Kyrit]

She didn’t want him to leave. She’d gladly do anything she could to keep him from leaving, but in the end… she understood the dangers of staying angry even at the young age of seven. She’d heard of people that parted on bad terms, only to learn of a death later and regret for the rest of time their choices not to make amends. She still wanted to force him to stay though.

[Kyrit]

The little Tabaxi sniffled as she finally brought herself to look up at her brother. “You promise you’ll come back…? You won’t find some new home out there and settle down and forget about us?”

“Promise.”

As he began to stand back up, Friend held out his hand, waiting for Wonder to take it and pull her back to her feet with him.

[Kyrit]

As the two began to walk hand in hand, the younger of the two looked up at her brother and gave one last retort, “Fine, but I’m picking out your outfit for the festival.”

He’d probably come to regret it later, but Friend simply let out a chuckle and smiled. “Alright, alright.”

[Kyrit]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Are you… really going to go out like that?”

Friend’s ears gave a small twitch, perking up at the voice as another one of his siblings seemed to enter the room from behind them. He couldn’t risk turning around, but he could tell from the voice who had entered the room. Doing his best not to interrupt Wonder, he turned his head only the smallest amount to acknowledge his brother.

[Kyrit]

“Yeah, sure. Though I think at this rate we… might be running out of time.” He gave a tiny glance down at the tiny child that was currently winding chains of flowers in to his tail. She’d been at this for what felt like hours now, using some sort of paste at times to help get the flowers to stick. Other times she just simply linked the flowers together to keep them from budging.

[Kyrit]

“Stop moving so much! That’s why it’s taking so long!” she blurted back at him, giving a small huff as she angrily picked up a flower that had fallen from its given place. Turning to face her other brother, she put a hand on her hip, little hand tightly wrapped around a bundle of buds. “If you aren’t going to help out, Nap, go away. Distracting him is just going to make this harder.” For one so young, she apparently had a bit of a sassy side as well.

[Kyrit]

“Well, I guess you’re definitely taking his much better than mom and dad expected…” Nap murmerred, leaning back against the wall, one of his legs lifted up with his foot resting against the wall. This one looked a bit younger than his brother, but certainly a fair bit older than the small one among them. Perhaps only a year or two separated the two brothers. “Is that why you’re putting up with this, Friend? To get her to accept that you’re running off?”

[Kyrit]

“Not running off. Running off would imply that I was leaving without approval.” Now Friend turned slightly more, as best as he could without turning his lower torso, to look over at Nap. “I proved to mom, dad, and the elders that I can fend for myself out there, so now they’ve got no reason to keep me from heading out anymore. Which… I know is sad for everyone else, but it’s really, really exciting for me. And if wearing flowers from mom’s garden is enough to keep Wonder from being sad at least for this one day, I’m fine with that. I’d rather see all of my family happy when they see me off. Some might think it’s silly to walk around like this, but I don’t mind, really.”