In Jinnie’s near one thousand years of existence, he never believed he would find himself on the quiet side of the country Maerahwin, in the town—he translated from the mush of letters on the screen of a small device—named Pheohstatsia. It was a miniature settlement hidden in the nook of a massively sized country. Jinnie found that this hamlet he’d been sent to was a quaint, peaceful place, contrary to the town’s portrayal in mortal media. A soft sigh escaped his lips as his amber eyes scanned the buildings.
‘Two mortal youths of tender age cannot be hard to find; where may they be? I wish Madame had imparted unto me more knowledge.’
Despite the internal complaint, he couldn’t deny the way Pheohstatsia functioned wasn’t a delight to witness. Jinnie kept his brown hair tied in a messy bun. He moved his pale brown hands to the black tie around his neck, tightening it, then rolled up the red sleeves of his shirt. With a blank expression, he walked around town for a bit, until he spotted a young lady with white hair who seemed to be in her teen years. He strolled over to her, lightly tapping her shoulder.
Cyra jumped back, a sharp, curt turn of her head to face the figure. Red eyes met amber. She sniffed the air, stared at him for a solid few moments as a miffed expression painted her face.
“Do I know you, sir?” she inquired, pointedly.
Jinnie tilted his head, noting the hints in her body language as he spoke. "Greetings, fair maiden. I seek an Atlas and Elios Connor. Dost thou know where they may be found?"
Cyra took a moment to process that. “My apologies, I don’t Shakespearean. I could hardly understand that,” she complained with a huff before she continued, “but ‘seek’ is an easy term to translate. Atlas and Elios are out of the country with their father on vacation. Why might you be looking for them?”
An unpleased expression shifted into place on Jinnie’s face. "It mattereth not; the door hath opened. The lads are gone. I shall bid my kin prepare, maiden of blood; thy kind shall not have blood to drink in due course once the event cometh to pass."
Had been Jinnie’s cryptic response before leaving behind a confused Cyra, who did not seem to quite care.
The Yaonua closed his eyes. ‘It is too late, my lady. Commune with the wolf prince; bid him target one. We require one of them to be a wolf for the event that shall strike.’
Was what he communicated into the telepathy link. Then left behind one last message, ‘I shall scorch the folk of the lady of blood, for so it seemeth to be what is required to make the young princess act.’
Then hours began to pass, or so was the case over in Diresdale. The brothers strolled through the festival with their father in tow, an excited Atlas running ahead of his family.
Well, that had been what Atlas tried to do; however, Elios was determined to run behind him, as they chased each other through the crowd of people—Atlas notably apologizing numerous times swiftly for bumping into the surrounding bystanders on accident, while Elios had an easier time navigating through the sea of attendees, not accidentally hitting anyone. Their dad chased after them in suit.
“ATLAS!” Elios’s voice echoed. “COME HERE YOU DIPSHIT, LET’S PLAY GAMES!”
“BOYS, CALM DOWN!” their dad shouted behind them.
All Atlas did was giggle. Or so such was happening until Elios was dragged away from the crowd of people with a hand on his mouth. “Arhmpf!”
The silence that followed from Elios made Atlas stop what he was doing. “Uhhhh E? Elios!?”
He retraced to hunt his brother down. While Orion held him and proceeded to try to drag Elios away, the teen managed to kick a trash bin down. This caught Atlas’s attention, and despite panting, he ran toward them, launching himself at them.
“Orion?? The hell are you doing!?” he asked in between breaths.
This was a joke, right? Orion answered, “It is not what you think! I just wanted to talk to Elios!”
Orion proceeded to push the brothers off as he continued, “And... offer to play some games..? Is something wrong with this?”
For Elios, something felt off—like it had been a lie. A terrible one. The kind of lie Atlas would come up with in a frenzy.
Atlas was more so gullible than Elios. “You don’t need to kidnap him, man!”
“BOYS!”
All three of them turned their heads.
“Why are you looking at me like that? I don’t have the energy you kids do nowadays! I swear my heart’s burnin’...” their dad complained.
After that, Atlas and Elios seemed more inclined to apologize to their father, following the man out of the little nook in the festival. Orion walked behind them while the four looked around at games.
“A water gun game?” Elios questioned, an ecstatic look on his face.
“No, no, we are not playing water targets—you are far too good at shooting guns,” Atlas complained. Elios gave him puppy eyes, their dad letting out a huff of amusement.
Orion suggested, “What about the strength test? You know, the game with the hammer.”
Elios raised an eyebrow. Atlas laughed, speaking, “Oh yeah, ’cause we totally don’t have noodle arms,” was his answer to Orion.
Orion rolled his eyes. “Oh come on? Surely Elios is strong enough too…”
Elios shook his head. “I can hardly pick up a pan of cooked pasta without dropping it.”
Orion linked his arm with Elios. “Then how about you watch me?” he said, dragging Elios slowly along. Lucian and Atlas followed.
Orion paid with the use of the festival’s tickets. There was a scale of strength going from ‘wimp’ to ‘average’ to ‘bodybuilder’ in ranks, with a few off comments in between that had numbers. These were point numbers in order to even get one of the prizes.
There were three prizes: a teddy bear, a small bag shaped like a cute-styled fox face, and a sun necklace. “Just watch, okay?” Orion told the Connors. He lifted up the hammer and smacked it onto the pressure plate.
The marker skyrocketed up to ‘bodybuilder,’ which was ranked at six hundred points. The person running the game gave Orion one of the sun necklaces.
Elios and Atlas clapped while their dad shrugged with a smile.
“Good job, Orion. Where do you put those muscles though?” Elios asked jokingly.
Orion replied, “Eh, workouts are normal in my family, just a bit of routine.” He pulled Elios closer to him. An “Eh?!” escaped Elios’s mouth.
“Just give me a moment,” he said, tying the sun necklace around Elios’s neck. “There, that looks good on you.”
Elios was about to protest before Orion clamped his mouth shut. “No, take it. I won that for you, believe it or not. Call it compensation for earlier.”
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