Summer Solstice

Sights And Smells

{{"What. Are. You. Doing?" His voice boomed, resonating around the entire clearing.}}

It took me a moment to realize what I was looking at, and I glanced towards Miki and Teddy, who seemed to want no part of what was going on.

"Mud wrestling?" I asked, and Teddy directed his focus to the sky, as if I hadn't spoken. Miki rubbed his temples, "It would seem so."

I couldn't help it, I smiled. I'd been so worried about how intimidating they would be, how mystical or magical they might act. But this, this was normal teenage behavior. Sort of.

It looked like five boys were in the process of having a huge brawl in the middle of the clearing. The snow-covered ground had been trampled on so much that it had become a huge circle of mud.

One figure one was laying on the ground with two others pining him down. The pair obviously having had too much fun pilling mud on top of him. Beside them was a taller boy, even taller than Konai, who had a smaller boy held above his head, ready to drop him headfirst into the mud.

At the sound of Konai's voice, the taller boy dropped the one he'd been holding, and the smaller boy managed to twist just before landing sideways on the ground. Mud splattered in all directions, and all five boys scrambled to their feet.

Konai was obviously not impressed, he stood with his hands on his hips, glaring at the group of boys. Before he could even ask what had happened, a chorus of excuses were thrown at him.

"We were practicing and uh..."

"Well you see, the thing is..."

"Tin meant to tackle Cailan but he tackled Tor, who kinda got in the way."

"Yeah and Tor went to tackle Tin, but slammed into Dasan."

"Sorry, I got in the way."

"Of course Cailan laughed, so Dasan tackled him,"

"And it kind of went south from there."

There was a pause as I was sure Konai was trying to sort out exactly what had happened before we'd arrived. All five boys were covered entirely in mud, twigs, leaves and other random debris.

"I didn't do it..." This from the smaller one who was nearly dropped on his head.

Konai rubbed his forehead in aggravation, "I don't care who started it, but I just finished it." He turned slowly towards me, a look of apology on his face. "Andrea, these are the other guardians," he gestured to them with a hand and I waved politely. "Guys, this is... Andrea."

I smiled softly at his introduction, I loved the way he said my name. The five boys waved back and murmured an embarrassed "Hello." And he started introducing them in the order they were standing.

Konai gestured towards a boy wiping mud off his jeans, "That's Tin." The tall, scrawny boy waved. From what I could tell, he had shoulder length hair and a huge smile that seemed to light up his whole face. Konai leaned towards me and whispered, "Don't believe a thing he says." The boys grin faltered, then he shrugged and laughed.

"That's Tor," this one was much stockier than the first, with two long braids hanging almost to his waist. He only smiled for a moment and didn't wave. I thought he might be offended by my being there, but then he tilted his head and shook, twigs and rocks flying. He reached up and cleaned a clump of mud out of his ear, then he stood straight and smiled again.

"This is Cailan," he pointed to a boy who was just a few inches shorter than Miki. This one had long hair to his waist in a single braid. I recognize him from one of the science classes I'd had at school.