Repurposed | Quirrel x Sheo x Nailsmith

Chapter Fourteen: In Which Sheo and Mato Arrive At The Edge Of Hallownest

With how drastically the other regions of Hallownest had changed since the kingdom fell, Kingdom's Edge was practically untouched. Aside from the common hoppers, great hoppers, and primal aspids, there was no sign of the infection anywhere.

Night was threatening to fall when Mato and Sheo arrived, so they immediately looked to set up camp. After not long of searching, they found a cave that would provide ample protection and started a fire. The wind made it hard to keep a small flame going, but after a few tries, it was done.

"I suppose we'll go looking for Oro's hut in the morning," Sheo said as he sat down, going through his bags for what would soon be the two bug's dinner.

"Yeah," Mato agreed, having already sat down and leaning against the cave wall. There was a stretch of silence, only being broken by Sheo placing their dinner over the flames to heat. "Hey."

Sheo perked up.

"Do you really think Oro will be happy to see me?" Mato asked, uncertainty clouding his expression.

"Of course I do. He's our brother."

This only made Mato frown. "Look, I'm not asking you to be reassuring, I'm asking you to be honest. Do you think he'll be happy to see me?"

Sheo seemed confused. "I am being honest. Why do you think I would lie?"

Mato shrugged with a huff. "Well, 'lying' makes it sound like I'm accusing you of something but... I know you, and I know you have a special skill when it comes to saying the right things to cheer someone up."

Sheo paused for a moment, "Hm, Nailsmith told me something similar," which was leading him to believe that he might be doing such a thing unintentionally. He truly does believe that Oro wants to see Mato, but maybe saying that he'll be happy to see him might've been too optimistic.

"Perhaps I should rephrase," Sheo started. "Oro needs to see you as much as you need to see him. I might've not been there to witness how... nasty the argument got, and I can't be sure if he'll welcome you with open arms but... some part of his soul wants to see you. I'm sure of that."

"Why are you so sure?"

"Because we're family," he spoke the simple fact with a smile.

"Don't give me that," Mato said as he rolled his eyes. "I want a real reason."

"That is my reasoning. There's not much else to it."

Sheo doesn't say any more, occupying himself with the task of making sure their dinner didn't burn. If he was being truthful with himself, he would agree that this wasn't much reasoning. Going off all of his memories of Oro and Mato's many bickerings, it never escalated to a point where either brother had felt estranged from the other. Usually, they would forget about the argument and things would become normal again by day's end, or Sheo would step in to smooth things over if his brothers weren't doing it themselves. If this argument hadn't occurred just before they all went their separate ways, if Sheo had been there or at least known of what had happened before they said goodbye to each other, perhaps this conflict wouldn't have lasted long at all. Perhaps they would've made up by now.

"It's not very convincing," Mato muttered. The silence seemed to prompt him to start talking again, though now he was just echoing his thoughts out loud. "Would he be happy to see me? Of course not. The guy went out of his way to live as far away from me as he possibly could! The other side of the kingdom for god's sake! He hasn't even sent me so much as a letter- and it's been how many years? No, he won't be happy to see me. Who am I kidding?"

"You haven't been much better at keeping in touch," Sheo commented, making Mato jump with guilt. "That letter was the first piece of mail I've ever gotten from you. Actually, if it weren't for The Little One learning your nail art, I would have never known you were still alive. But, I suppose you told Oro how to keep in touch with you?"