The Boy From The Forest {1Px2P HongIce}

Part Five

As promised, a chapter from Erikur's P.o.V.

Everything went back to its usual silence once Leon left and Erikur stayed until the fire began to die down. He wasn't entirely sure why Leon left him with all of the pencils and paper, in truth, he didn't even know why Leon left him in the first place. As the fire lost its energy to leap up into the sky, Erikur decided to pass time by drawing the flames using a mixture of oranges and reds.

The sky went dark and the fire light dwindled to a small pile of embers and hot coals, signalling that it was time to go back home. He threw some loose dirt on the coals to cover then and gathered his things, stuffing the old tartan blanket into the tree hollow that he kept a lot of his things in and began his walk back home. It was a bit of a walk, but he was used to it and it was worth it to get as far away from the house as possible.

The lights were on in the house, illuminating just enough of the backyard for Erikur to spot the familiar rusting wire fence that bordered the two worlds. The backyard was bare save for the occasional tuft of dried grass, weeds and broken glass, but even in the dark, Erikur new the safe pathway through the mess. Any usual person would enter the house through a door, but doors weren't exactly Erikur's thing seeming that entering through them brought far too much attention to him. So, he would climb up the back of the house, minding his step on the rotting wood and climb through his bedroom window.

His bedroom consisted of a small bed that he never saw the point of making, a lamp that sat sadly on the floor, a basket where he kept his things and an inconspicuous pile of the papers that Leon had given him. He hid the brightly coloured pencils under his pillow so his brothers couldn't see. Anything colourful brought a lot of attention seeming that there was a fundamental lack of it throughout the house.

After shutting the window to keep the cold of the approaching night out, Erikur skipped downstairs with the memories of Leon still fresh in his mind. He arrived at the lounge room where Markell sat on the only couch smoking one of his cigarettes and looking tired as usual. He sighed heavily as he saw Erikur approach and moved his bottle out of the way so that it wouldn't get knocked over.

"Hello Markell!" Erikur greeted, leaping from his place onto Markell in an attempt to capture him in a hug.

"Fucks sake, Erikur. Get off me," Markell grumbled, pushing Erikur off. He slunk off and sat on the floor at Markell's feet with a hopeful but hurt smile. "I swear to god, I don't understand why you're so happy all the time despite the fact that you're treated like shit." Erikur had no idea how to respond so he attempted to ignore the comment and not let it take his smile away.

"Can I have one?" Erikur asked as politely as he could manage, pointing to the cigarette in Markell's mouth.

"Do you want Loki to kill you?" Markell asked in a condescending sort of tone that only made Erikur shake his head in fear. The boy went silent and looked around trying to find something else to do. "Your black eye looks like shit," he commented, taking a quick sip from his bottle. Erikur looked down and bit his lip, remembering what had happened that morning.

"Your scar still looks like shit," Erikur retorted in defence, throwing a dirty look at the scar that ran diagonally down Markell's cheek. He was the only one of his brothers who let him get away with throwing insults back and forward, mostly because Markell was just too lazy to care what anyone thought and couldn't be bothered to get mad.

"You smell like shit, go wash up. I swear you always smell like burnt wood," he grumbled, nudging for Erikur to go with his foot. "It's a wonder you haven't burnt down the entire forest yet." Erikur rolled his eyes and did what he was told, quickly washing up and then dried off. The sound of the front door unlocking signalled that Bernard was home from work. As usual, Erikur dropped everything and sprinted to the door to greet Bernard with a crushing embrace.