The Sand-sail Part 1

It’s a nice and clear evening, the sun was starting to settle nicely towards the horizon…

Groans could barely be heard coming out of the bedroom doors, the two siblings kicking at each other and laying on the floor, entirely bored out of their minds…

“Arty? Hun, why don’t you go out with your friends? It’s been a whole month and you still haven’t been to the festival. And the weather’s lovely today!” - the words came out of the towering nyulop mother as she joined the room and opened the windows “And you can take your friend Eeva with you~”

–“MOooom. I don’t wanna go out. There’s finley there!” –“And he’s got a crush on her! mwah mwah mwah” – “I DO NOT! SHUT UP!” – “MWAH! MWAH! MWAH!”

The sight of the bickering kids was rather cute, if a little annoying, but something had to be done… For their wellbeing of course, at least that’s what Mithra wanted them to think, a break from them wouldn’t hurt.

– “Arty, the festival has been quite uneventful this month, so get up and go, and take this basket for her.” The gentle nudge with her paws could easily be mistaken for a kick if seen from another angle, but it was enough, and with much protest Arthemis got up, petting his sleeping varkery and heading out the front door, all that packing a basket full of assorted candies.

–“Ow! What the-” - A flying rock hit him, or rather, another packet of candy was sent from the doorway, with Athena standing there at the verge of crying – “Mom forced me to go with you…” he was close, but oh so close to exploding on her… But she actually seemed quite upset, huh that’s strange… "Fine, Atty, just put those candies in the bag" - was said grabbing it by handful and shoving on the basket.

The short walk towards the Vladislav residency had only brief exchanges of looks, ending with both stopping by the door and whispering. “hit it” “no, you do it” “c’mon I did it last time” “are you crazy? that draken is as scary as mom” “Athena for the love of… UGH! Fine”.

From behind the door it was impossible to discern what was happening, a jumble of noises, screams and… was that FIRE? Yeah things were definitely transpiring. With a deep breath Arty let two short knocks that barely made any noise and with that, the whole chaos stopped briefly, only to resume on the previous level. That was it, THEY WERE DEAD! Their bodies will never be found! Hey at least there’s no school anymore…

After a short moment the door opened revealing a tall grey draken with a tired expression, probably from all the commotion, looking at nothing before hearing the muttered greetings.

– “Good evening, little ones. Are you looking for someone?“ - the difference in height was so massive that he had to take a step back to look down, letting the mess that was happening show behind him.

– "E-ev-evening Mr Vladislav… Is Eeva home? We brought this" - the tiny paws sheepishly pushing the basket full of sweets.

– "Yeah! We’re going to the festival, can she go!?"

– "Of course. I’ll summon her, please wait a moment" - after fetching the basket and turning to leave, he stopped for a moment to think. Grabbing two pieces of candy he placed on the kids paws - "Could you hold these for her? This basket will be devoured the moment I get in…"

– “The candies?” She asked, only to be met with a mournful shake of head.

“ . . . Yeah he’s scary!” “Yeah…” “You think he’s going to turn you into an ice pop once he knows about the crush?” “SHUT UP ATHENA!” “But he-’” “NO!”

Nix comes back and the kids promptly get back into looking directly at him, not a single noise coming out of their mouths.

The black and white nyulop was hiding right behind the behemoth of a draken’s leg, barely poking her paw out to wave at the duo.

– "Come on, darling, go amuse yourself" – and while being so kind with her, the two orange eyes turned back to gaze at the tiny statues at his door. The cold yet kind voice piercing their ears – "Please bring her back safely after the festival".

– “Y-YES SIR!”

 They come out of the porch, with Eeva waving to her father, non-expressive as ever. The trio now standing and facing each other, Athena fixed on Arthemis, with his eyes fixed on the candy.

– “Uhm… Mom told me to bring you these” he stuck out the bag right out in the open for her to hold, making sure to give a LOT of room for them to not touch paws.

Athena decided to choose war once she woke up today and whispered in Arthemis' ears…

– “So are you two going to hold paws now?”