Silver Winds

Chapter 8

“As you move outside of your comfort zone, what was once the unknown and frightening becomes your new normal.”

-Robin S. Sharma

Astra steepled her fingers under her chin, frowning. Volos had not arrived, nor had the other boys. Nervousness was beginning to stir in the pit of her stomach. To distract herself, she decided to stop Rune’s babbling about healing in favor of a conversation she could actually invest in.

“And that’s why that’s the best thing for a fever,” Rune concluded with a grand gesture, looking sated. Astra jumped on the pause.

“Do you think you’ll be joining this year’s training?” she interjected, not allowing Rune to follow on a tangent. His eyes widened, his jaw dropped, and his arms fell limp at his sides.

“Me?” he choked out after a few seconds that had stretched out for what seemed like forever.

“Yes,” Astra continued. “You must be inside the age requirement.”

“Well, yes,” he admitted. “But I’m not like that.”

“Like what?” Astra pressed. She sat up and tucked her heels under her rear end. Rune’s fingers twitched for a few moment, as if grasping for a suitable answer.

“Like . . . well, you know . . .” he stammered, shrinking into his already overlarge clothing. An amusing picture of a mouse in a blanket flashed through Astra’s mind, and she struggled to hide the resulting smile.

“I’m not quite sure of what you’re trying to say, Rune. Could you clear it up for me?” she quipped, allowing the smile to spread over her mouth. Rune’s ears turned red.

His face showed signs of relief when hollering grew near.

“Hey, they’re back. Let’s go greet them,” he said, standing and heading toward the entrance of the cave. Astra came up just behind him, and whispered into his ear.

“You know, physical strength isn’t everything.” Then she took a few paces back from him, and purposely missed his reaction.

Four boys marched into the cave, each bearing their own resemblance to Rune. The first that entered looked almost alike, save for the blond hair instead of brown. The reddish brown birthmark was on his left ear, whereas Rune’s was on his right. Astra was pleased that there was yet another who shared her height, though the boy looked just a bit taller than Rune. He ruffled his hair as he clomped into the cave and sat by the fire, removing his soaked shirt. Astra turned her eyes to the next boy.

The second shared his nose, but was tall and thin. Willowy was a word that came to Astra’s mind. His crystalline green eyes jumped out at Astra, so much so that she felt an urge to step back. He was also the one who had grabbed Rune’s wrist back when they had run from what she supposed was a dog, but she hadn’t seen anything. He also sat by the fire, but did not remove his shirt but instead wrang out the bottom near the fire, which the smaller blond berated him for.

The third carried Rune’s soft jaw line, but his dark hair was stringy and looked like it was in good need of a wash. He yanked off his shirt like the first, but instead of spreading it out so it would dry, He rolled it up and whipped the second boy with it. The willowy blond shouted, and wrenched the shirt from his hands, a glare becoming fairly obvious as he shoved the shirt to the fourth. Stifling a chuckle, Astra looked at the last remaining boy.

The fourth looked almost nothing like any of the rest. The sole resemblance to Rune were his eyes, a deep sapphire that seemed similar to the ocean Astra had lived near when she was young. His hair was a curly platinum blonde, nearly white, where the rest of the boys had straight hair, so straight that Astra doubted that even if she tried to use sticks to curl their hair, it would. He was tall and broad, though not as large as Volos or Berg. A lopsided smile covered his face as he watched his brothers. He shook his hair out as though he was a dog and went to sit with them.