Velon stared at his hand, tracing the veins as the flowed from his wrist to between his fingers. He stared, trying to imagine a sigil, interrupting their spots. He idly wondered if his would be a brand, something permanently disrupting his skin forcing the structure to change. Or would it be a mark, like the tattoos drunk Hu Cheng Torman had along his arm. Would it cover the entirety of his hand, or would it be a small mark? How would the color affect it? Does the color affect it?

Velon continued his thoughts as he idly counted his breaths. In and out, he attempted to split his concentration between the count and imagination. “Was that 60?” He mumbled. “I think that was 60. Or 60ish. Doesn’t matter.”

Velon let out a sigh, moving on to part two. Technically, there wasn’t a part two. But after 100 days he figured no one would care if he changed things up. Not that anyone watched his coming-of-age ceremony. With his other hand, he moved to pick up the coin to the farthest left, the sign of the Rat, before pausing. He withdrew his hand before moving to the center, only to remember at an even number there was no true center.

He stared at the spot between Snake and Horse wondering if it would be even more sacrilegious to flip one of the coins to decide where to start. Instead, he did a simple counting game he learned before his first ceremony, pointing at a different coin with each word.

“…not it.” He finished, finger hovering over Snake. He paused again, wondering if he should start with Horse since Snake was not it.

“Oh, for the love of.” He spat out, roughly grabbing the coin, and placing it on his hand. Nothing happened. He continued, repeating with another random coin with the same result. He stared at the stack before he began to pile the coins on top of his hand.

He continued, until he realized he was being silly. He lifted his hand, allowing the leaning tower to collapse on the velvet. He spent a thought to reorganize the coins back to their preferred shape before moving on. Tomorrow, he figured he’d try new shapes for part one. Because to be fair, he was getting tired of semicircles.

“Maybe I should do it one at a time.” Velon said under his breath. “That way I can stare them down until they break. Or maybe I will threaten to use them to gamble. That might work…”

Velon continued to scheme how to get the coins to respond to him. He paid half a mind as he continued to get ready for the day, putting on his pants before cinching them tight with a rope. A rough hemp shirt was next before looping a bag across his chest. He paused at the doorway of his room, looking back at where he left the coins.

Grimacing, he quickly moved back, rearranging the coins to their proper position before folding his hand and dipping his head. He knew it didn’t matter, but better safe than sorry. Maybe if he did this, they’d react tomorrow.

Stolen novel; please report.

“Or maybe I should show disrespect to get a rise out of them.” He said aloud as he left. “Then they’d at least do something.”

“I take it the ceremony did not work.” Asked his father, Nerb. He was hunched over his breakfast, shoveling his food. Even that question did little to slow down how rapidly he moved.

Velon’s eyes widened as he sprinted to the table. He attempted to dip his bowl into the porridge pot residing at the center of their table only to come up with a smear at the edge. Setting his bowl down, he picked the entire pot and attempted to pour anything remaining into his bowl.

“Don’t bother.” His sister, Spair, said, matching their dad for spoonful for spoonful. “We already ate it all.”

Velon was very tempted to through the pot at her. Instead, he slammed it on the table with enough force to startle the other three. As they paused in their eating, Velon attempted to snatch Spair’s bowl only to be warded off by her hand.

“Velon don’t do that. You could break the pot.” Unlike the other two, his mother Mero attempted to keep a relax air about her. The scene was slightly broken by her clutching her bowl to her chest, wielding her spoon better than any swordsman he’d ever seen as the others attempted to steal from her.

Velon groaned as he leaned away from the table. “So I am to go hungry today?” He asked the ceiling.

“Not at all.” Nerb responded. He leaned back, his bowl empty and spoon residing in his mouth. Velon gave him a hopeful look before Nerb finished with “You go hungry this morning. Its only if you’re slow for lunch and dinner will you go hungry for today.”

Velon scowled at his dad while Spair laughed. Mero only looked between the two before collecting the empty bowls. A quick smack atop Nerb’s head caused his spoon to pop out, Mero gracefully collecting it in her stack before she moved to the kitchen.

“Don’t take all his food.” Mero warned her family. “Or else you’ll be down a meal tomorrow. Or maybe more.” There was a small clatter as she set them down to be washed later. “I haven’t decided yet.”

She kept her back to them, missing Spair’s mischievous grin or Nerb rolling his eyes. He looked at his son’s frustrated face before breaking into a smile.

“Don’t worry Vel, you’ll get picked soon enough.” Nerb encouraged. “The animals are probably waiting for the Blessed Elders to return before deciding.”

“Maybe you got a bad set. Let me try, see if anything happens.” Spair interjected.

“No you don’t.” Mero said. “Those are for Vel to use until he gets chosen. Otherwise trap you in your room.”

Spair attempted to hide her wide eyes with an equally wide smile. Vel chuckled, seeing her expression. He remembered when he was trapped in his room. It took him nearly a full day to escape. With the expectant look on his father’s face, Vel figured it would take Spair at least one, maybe even two if she broke the rule.

“Welp,” Nerb began, leaning forward to use the wooden table to help him rise, “It is time for me to work, your mother to look pretty, and you two to get off to the teacher.” A spoon came out of nowhere to smack him at the same spot as before.

“I work too.” Mero informed her husband.

“Ai, while looking pretty. Its impressive.” Nerb countered, rubbing his head while returning the spoon to his wife. “And it’s why you tend to work alone. Everyone else would be to busy staring to focus.”

Mero shook her head while Vel and Spair dashed out of the house before their father did anything embarrassing.

Well, it’s nice that they don’t fight Vel thought as the two of them began their journey into the village, could they at least not do that where we can see?