novelraw Chapter 154 — Lake
Chapter 154 — Lake
[Aster]
"This looks... ugh... like a nice spot," Nivalis tiredly muttered, leaning heavily on her spear as she panted for air, looking like a walking snowman with how much snow stuck to her old pants and tunic. Her silver hair was wet and stuck all over her flushed face, eyelashes frosted white, nose running a little. "W-what do you think?" she breathed with a sniffle, looking behind her at the exhausted duo.
Aster and Silvia didn't look any better, snow clinging to their hair and clothes, faces flushed red from the cold and exertion. The boy nodded, giving his mother a tired little thumb-up, leaning against an old tree for support while his sister leaned against him from behind, shivering. "I can feel snow in my b-butt," she mumbled into his back.
They had finally found a decent place for them to fish, a quiet little corner of the lake, where the shore gently curved inwards, hidden among the ancient pines whose heavy branches sagged under the weight of fresh snow. It wasn't too far from their home, perhaps a ten-minute slow trudge at most, but they somehow managed to stretch into almost an hour of laughter and squeals and very, very cold hands and numb bottoms.
With a sigh, Aster pushed himself off the tree and grabbed his sister's delicate hand with his ugly one, dragging her through the waist-deep snow towards their new fishing spot. "Sit," he managed to wheeze out between panting breaths that fogged the air in front of his face. "Both of you. I'll... I'll do everything," he muttered, and without waiting for a reply, made his mother sit in the snow near the edge of the ice, then plopped the miserable girl onto her lap.
They didn't protest and obediently sat there as he told them to, just watching him stomp around, clearing the area of snow and forming a semicircle with it to protect them at least a little from the wind. Silvia kept shivering atop her mother's lap like a small, trembling kitten, wrapped tightly in her arms, occasionally sniffing back a runny nose. Despite looking no better, Nivalis did her best to rub some warmth into her daughter's small hands, blowing warm air on them, while her eyes followed her son's every move.
When enough space was cleared, Aster knelt near his mother and grabbed the knife from the bag on her shoulder before moving towards the nearby bush. A series of frustrated grunts and snaps of wood followed, lasting just a few minutes, before he came back with an armful of thin branches that he dumped near them with a breathy, "Here." With a little flick of his wrist, the entire pile caught on fire in a matter of seconds.
Sighs of relief left both his sister's and mother's lips at the sight and warmth, their tired shoulders slumping in relaxation as they leaned closer to the flames. A grateful "Thank you, honey," from Nivalis and a mumbled "F-finally," from Silvia came a moment later.
Aster gave them a tired little smile, dropped the knife back into the bag, and turned his attention to the frozen lake. "Now, the hole..." he muttered quietly, walking just a few steps away from them until he felt the ice beneath his old boots. For someone who spent the last half a year melting literal rocks, melting through a bit of ice wasn't much of a challenge. Kneeling with a sigh, Aster placed his scarred hand flat against the surface, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath of the cold, pine-scented air.
For a whole minute, nothing happened. The boy just knelt there, the wind ruffling his silver hair and cloak, his brows furrowed in concentration, silent and still like a statue. Then, in an instant, everything changed. The ice before him began to hiss like an angry snake, making the girls behind him flinch at the sudden sound, followed by a series of cracking and popping sounds that echoed off the nearby trees. There was no steam; instead, the ice simply started to break apart and disappear beneath his palm, eaten by the invisible, fiery force coming from his scarred hand.
Soon enough, a dark hole with perfectly smooth edges appeared in the otherwise vast, white expanse of the lake, the water within it completely black and eerily calm. After eyeing it for a moment longer, Aster pushed himself up and trudged back to the fire, only to flop down next to his mother with a long, tired sigh. "Here you go," was all he had the energy to mumble.
The reward that followed made it all worth it, just a soft kiss and a quiet, "Good job, honey. Thank you for taking care of us," against his cold cheek. She then took off her bag and rummaged through it for a moment, taking out the chopped, frozen guts from yesterday's catch, tossing a few pieces into the hole. "Sweetie, prepare your icicle," she added, nudging the shivering girl on her lap.
Silvia groaned at that but did as told, her hand trembling for a few tense seconds until a sharp, clear icicle formed above her fingers, smaller than even her pinky. She let it drop to the ground near their spears and slumped back against her mother, and curled up as tightly as she possibly could, her knees pressing into her flat chest. "I hate fishing," she mumbled ever so quietly.
Nivalis responded by wrapping her loving arms around both Silvia's trembling knees and shoulders, holding her tightly against her bosom. "Just one fish, okay? One, and we can go home," she whispered, laying a tender kiss on her daughter's silver hair. "Who knows, maybe one will swim by... right now?" she added optimistically, staring intently into the black water.
That, however, didn't happen. For the next hour, nothing happened at all. The entire time, Aster watched as that hard-earned smile he literally fought for slowly disappeared from his mother's face, replaced by that same thoughtful, guilty expression. "...are you okay, Mom?" he eventually asked, quietly, looking up at her from his side. Silvia didn't pay much attention, too busy being a trembling ball of misery inside her mother's arms, still.
A faint "...yeah, honey," was all she managed to mutter after a few heartbeats of silence, after which she leaned her cheek against the top of Silvia's head and continued watching the hole for any movements. The fire crackled beside them, spitting embers now and then as the wind tried to choke its life with a sudden gust, only for it to roar back to life a moment later. A few lazy snowflakes drifted down from above, adding even more weight to already burdened branches of the surrounding trees.
He could see it in her eyes, the way her brows furrowed, how her lower lip was a bit puffier than usual from biting it so much. She wasn't okay at all. "Tell me what's on your mind, maybe it will help," Aster whispered as quietly as he could, giving her clothed thigh a little squeeze, worry all over his young face.
That made his mother shift her gaze from the water to him, then back to the water before finally landing on him again. With a long, heavy sigh, an even heavier, "You know why..." left her, after which she went quiet for a good while.
When his small hand didn't stop rubbing her thigh, she took a deep breath and continued, "The more I think about what happened... yesterday... and even before... the worse it gets," she whispered, covering the girl's ears when she said that, pretending to brush her hair. "It was easier in the caves, somehow... what we did. And now, everything's rushing back, and I can't shake the thought that you'll... see me differently when you grow up a bit. Maybe even... h-hate me, or... I don't know," she stuttered, taking a deep breath, then another, to keep the tears at bay. "That silly snowball fight we had today... what if it was the last happy memory I'll have with you before that happens? I-I..."
That was a lot. Truly a lot, more than he ever expected. He kept staring at her, noticing a faint glimmer of tears in the corners of her blue eyes, her trying so very hard not to spill them. When the time came to speak, his words came out in a chuckle. "Don't worry, Mom. I can beat you at snowball fights anytime you want. It won't be the last," he assured her with a bit of a forced, but still cheeky grin of his.
A watery giggle escaped her, the guilt and sorrow melting away just a little. She even pinched his side, to which Aster made sure to produce the cutest yelp. "That didn't look like winning to me, honey. It was you begging me to stop. You and your sister," she whispered, wiping away a single tear that managed to escape before it could freeze on her rosy cheek. Her arm then returned to its rightful place, wrapped around her daughter.
Aster shook his head with the same silly smile on his face. "That wasn't begging at all. It was a clever tactic to lower your guard," he muttered, his eyes darting to the dark hole for a few seconds to pretend he was paying attention to the fishing, then back to her. "And besides..." his voice going quieter, "...you kinda worrying about the wrong thing?" he scratched his cheek when he said that, a bit of color rising to his cheeks.
He then motioned for her to cover Silvia's ears once more, which she did without a word, looking at him a bit confused. "After yesterday, and before that..." he continued, "I don't know how I could possibly love someone but you..." he mumbled shyly, fidgeting with his hands a little.
The look she gave him in response was the kind you get when showing your first crayon drawing, all warm and adoring, surely mistaking his confession as something silly and cute, not meant to be taken seriously. Before she could mutter that ominous, 'That's very sweet of you, honey,' Aster quickly added, "Wait... uhmm..." to hush her. His face got more scrunched the harder he tried to decide whether it was a good idea to do it. In the end, he just did, "I-I... wrote a song. For you, to understand."
Hearing only the tail end of his words, Silvia stirred and turned to him with her tired, sleepy golden eyes, mumbling a curious, "What? A... song? Did I hear that right?" as she tried to focus on the blurry image of her brother. "I didn't sleep!" she quickly added, even though no one asked anything.
Nivalis's face grew even more into that 'Oh that's so sweet' look of hers as she watched her baby boy get all flushed and shy all of a sudden. "You did? For... me?" she asked, squeezing her daughter's knees to keep her from squirming too much from excitement. "Shush. Don't laugh at him, I want to hear that," she then whispered when Silvia tried to say something. Aster wasn't supposed to hear that, but he did. "Can I hear it, then? Please?" she asked, her blue eyes looking down at him with all the love in the world.
He nodded, but very reluctantly. For a bit of while, Aster did nothing but sit there, gazing nervously into the fire nearby, looking like he was about to be executed, not sing a little song for his mother and sister. Eventually, he took a deep breath, cleared his throat, and began humming. Softly, almost in tune with the wind that passed by them, oddly making it seem like it was helping him sing. Slowly, rhythm gentle like a lullaby.
Then, words began to form from his soft hums. "To fall in love isn't easy when you're afraid of heights..." His cheeks and pointy ears turned red from the words, even more so when his golden eyes met his mother's. "...but, I can't help but fall when I look into your eyes. So blue, I love the hue..." Her eyebrows rose in surprise at that, more and more with each word that left his lips. Silvia, on the contrary, furrowed hers the more she listened.
Aster's childish voice trembled a bit at first, but he kept going, closing his eyes to make it easier, "But, more than that, I do love you. And—" he took a sharp breath. "Every night I'm in bed, I fight to keep you from my mind, and almost every day, that's how I spend most of my time..." He tilted his head a bit, his voice softening to almost girlish, a delicate half-whisper. "It's true, there is no use. I can't escape the thought of you. So—"
His eyes fluttered open again, his voice growing back to normal, sweet one. "Would you trust me to catch you at the bottom of the lake?" They both switched expressions, he noticed; now Nivalis furrowed hers while Silvia looked surprised. Aster continued without a pause, "If I told you, my whole heart, that I loved you. That I loved you, that I loved you?"
The way they looked at him made him want to take a bath in the lake. Instead of doing that, however, he just closed his eyelids and leaned closer to the fire, "But I'm afraid, I'm scared, of those romantic words, you see?" The very flame seemed to lean towards him, listening, along with the two girls. "Ain't it ironic how those are just the songs I sing about? My lovely, do you rеally love me? When I hеar your guilty whisper under your breath."
After, Aster went back to humming, much like in the beginning, not daring to look at them. The humming continued for a while until his voice returned, much quieter this time. "All the fire I felt within my bones became eclipsed," a sharp breath, "Just the touch of your hands, your heart... and, oh my gods, your lips..." his voice cracked a little at that last part before going much quieter again as he finished with, "Oh, I just wish that... I just wish that you would trust me to catch you at the bottom of the lake." Then, a sudden silence.
Silence, for everyone except Aster, as his heart hammered a panicked rhythm against his ribs, awfully out of rhythm with the song he just sang. Biting at the inside of his cheek, he forced his eyes to open and look at them. It was his mother's turn to be all flushed from his words now, maybe even more than he was. Silvia, on the other hand, was still as pale as the snow around her, shocked, lips slightly agape.
A long and heavy silence stretched between the three of them, punctuated only by the sigh of the wind and the gentle lapping of water against the edges of the hole in the ice. That was probably a fish swimming by, but no one paid it any attention. "...what?" Silvia was the first one to speak when it became too awkward, her voice small and full of confusion. "You can't just... what?" She kept turning her head from her stunned mother back to him and back again.
Aster shrugged his small shoulders, meeting his mother's gaze, only to look away in the next instant, his heart doing a little flip in his chest. "No one's ever done anything like that for me, honey. It was... sweet and so beautiful. The way you... I can't believe how talented you are," she eventually breathed out, leaning down to leave a lingering, tender kiss right on top of his messy hair. She smelled like pine needles and cold, but underneath it all, he could still smell that warm, sleepy scent that was just Mom. "Thank you, but..." Nivalis tried to say—most likely something about how wrong it was for a son to have those feelings for his own mother—but was cut short by the girl in her lap.
That high-pitched, girlish voice rang out of her, echoing against the nearby trees, "How did you even come up with that? I don't... you...!" Silvia couldn't even finish a single sentence, pointing her trembling finger at him, not quite sure why.
Shrugging his small shoulders once again, Aster answered with a quiet, "I had a lot of inspiration... yesterday," before casting his mother another shy look, this one far shorter than the last. His words made her blush even more than she already was. Very much.
If Nivalis tried to say something this time, Silvia interrupted her before she even started, her voice suddenly going much softer. "D-do you have something for me? Not that I'm jealous or anything... but... that was... not too terrible. Maybe even, maybe, good, or something... I dunno. But if you have one, I guess..." she rambled on, barely making any sense, only her golden eyes told the truth of how badly she wanted it, big and pleading. In case he was dense and didn't understand, she added an extra, "Pwease?" at the end.
The boy went silent for a moment, scratching his cheek as he thought about it. "I guess I do have... something?" he muttered uncertainly, which made the girl almost vibrate from excitement in her mother's arms. Aster straightened his back, cleared his throat, and took a long, deep breath. "I call it, 'The way she poops,'" he said as he closed his eyes, hearing a chuckle from his mother, who so desperately tried to muffle it that she almost choked. Silvia was suspiciously quiet, only shuffled a bit, but he paid it no mind as there was a masterpiece to sing.
Clearing his throat again, he began, "Something in the way she poops... attracts me like no other—" he didn't get any further as a snowball suddenly and firmly connected with his face, sending him stumbling sideways with a yelp, straight into the heap of snow he'd piled up earlier. His mother burst out laughing as he fell, her voice carrying through the quiet forest. His voice, too, though muffled by the snow.
Angry stomps were heard next, then a grumpy, "Mhm, I see. Laughing at me, you two. Alright," her voice flat, dangerously so. Ten perfectly round snowballs rose into the air the very next second and rained down upon the laughing boy and mother with absurd speed and precision, making them both shriek and cover their heads, all while desperately trying to form their own ammunition between frantic giggles.
The snow fight that followed was short, brutal, and ended with three completely soaked, snow-covered idiots shivering their butts off around their pathetic fire, yet smiling brighter than the sun that was peeking through the clouds above.