Odesday, 3rd of Aprillia, 470th year of the 5th Era

As Josias was clapping and teasing Hesekiel and Safira who were practically in each other's arms while they were in the middle of practice, Safira couldn't help but blush a little as she noticed the two men walking in. In slight embarrassment, Safira covered her blushing face as she planted her face to Hesekiel's chest for a couple of seconds before sitting herself straight again as she cleared her throat to recompose herself, though a slight blush was still evident in her otherwise regular, beautiful and elegant face.

“To what do we owe the pleasure?” Safira said with a smile as she cocked her head slightly while talking to Josias and Johannes “I wouldn't expect either of you to be at church on regular weekdays. Well, maybe Johannes, but Josi?”

“Tut, tut, Nuh-uh… What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Josias said as he pointed his finger at Safira “With whatever you two were doing here, you don't get to comment on my presence in church on a weekday.”

“We were clearly practicing for Sunday Church services, Iban (cousin).” Safira said confidently, not giving up her composed tone “Unlike some people, we actually make a point to prepare for important events at church. Isn't that right, Jojo? Well, maybe you'd understand if you bothered to hold regular choir rehearsals…”

“Oy, Sap, we do hold regular sessions on Sabatsday!” Johannes retorted

“Oh sure, ‘Hey guys, practices are in the afternoon’...” Safira impersonated Johannes' deep voice for a bit before she pointed back at him “But then our very own youth coordinator arrives two hours late with Maria after coming from God-knows-where with a disheveled appearance!”

“Eh, what?” Josias did a double take as he shot a glance to the usually prim and proper Johannes “Did I just hear that right?”

“I keep telling you, one of the Juvenile tiger cubs escaped the pens and we were busy helping out to look for it!” Johannes said in his defence.

“Oh yeah? Is that the story you told Bang Timo? Really believable!”

Josias saw that Johannes was starting to actually get legitimately annoyed at Safira’s accusations as his tone was increasing and the annoyance couldn't be hidden “Forget about me for a second, Maria is your friend! How could you even imply she'd do that?!”

“Oh, what do you think I'm implying?” Safira kept up her tone as she crossed her arms while locking eyes with Johannes.

“This obstinate bitch-…!” Johannes let a little emotion slip out as he immediately covered his mouth but it was a step too late as Safira now had a shocked expression on her face as her eyes widened and her mouth lay agape. Josias only closed his eyes and tilted his head backwards while he rubbed the bridge of his nose. What started out as regular teasing turned into this.

“Look, guys, this is dumb, we-...!!” As Josias was about to cut in and settle the situation, Hesekiel had closed the casing of the piano keys with an audible bang, before he looked at his cousins with his usual disinterested expression, but a hint of a frown could be seen on his face. Immediately, everyone quieted down.

“Why are you here?” Hesekiel asked with a curt tone yet slightly raised voice.

Josias finally gave an exasperated sigh before he pulled up a chair for himself to sit on and started relaying to Hesekiel the news of the Gotilon Festival and the consequent tournament that would be held between the Halak realms.

“So in essence…” Josias said as he summarized his intentions “As is the authority granted to me by the King as well as the blessings of Elder Rihar, I am here to invite you - Hesekiel - to be a part of our contingent. While I say invite, which implies that there are choices for you in the matter, this is more of a notice as with the Realm's honour at stake, I won't be accepting any answer other than that of a yes.”

After hearing Josias' ‘notice’, Hesekiel couldn't help but give out an exasperated sigh before he nodded.

“Also, my father said training starts in the afternoon at the guard’s training yard.” Josias added with a big grin while he rubbed his hands together.

Hesekiel sighed once more before he opened up the piano case again to start playing it again. But before he played the piano again, he asked Josias, “Is that all?”

“Is that all we need from you? Yes, I suppose so… buuuut…” Josias followed up with another grin as Hesekiel could only narrow his eyes at what Josias could be asking for now “But nothing. Actually, this is more of a question to your hallet (girlfriend) here…”

“...Me?” Safira raised an eyebrow in a scrutinizing look.

“Yes, indeed. Well, I say question, but I more so mean that as a notice as well. Considering I'm in need of capable warriors, I was planning on having Lae Sadrach on the team as my third warrior. Are you okay with that?”

“...Yeah, so?” Safira had a confused expression written all over her face “Why are you even asking me? What am I, his mom?”

“You're his beloved younger sister, I thought it proper to at least proper to tell you that we're gonna go with your Abang.” Josias smirked as he could see Safira's face was still smiling but twitched a little.

“Did you just say, my Abang…?!” Safira asked just to make sure “Since when was that idiot my Abang? You're doing this on purpose, aren't you, Iban? You KNOW I was born eight minutes earlier!”

“Pffft-hahahah! Yeah, sure, okay.” Josias said as he waived his hand dismissively while looking at Johannes which only irked Safira more.

“Josi, why are you being so incredibly mean to me today?” Safira crossed her arms as she pouted while looking at him “So you don't like me, anymore? You hate me?”

As she was saying that, Hesekiel could only shake his head as he started playing the piano again softly.

“Well, first off, Hesekiel is right there so that's a wild thing to say to me.” Josias said as he started counting on his fingers “Secondly, you made it so that Serena didn't want to talk to me for three whole days, so no thank you for that!”

“How's it my fault that you're the one ogling me at church?!” Safira continued to protest

“Yea well, I'm not perfect. Anyways, thirdly, you need to be knocked down a peg. You're way too comfortable thinking you're the prettiest girl in the bloody realm when you're in fact a decent second-place to my Serena so there's that.”

Safira could only drop her jaw at Josias’ comment while Johannes couldn’t stop himself from snickering.

“You just like pale skinned foreign women more, admit it!” Safira accused Josias as she pointed at him.

“As if it was ever even a secret.” Josias nonchalantly said as he brushed off her comment “Anyways, we're getting sidetracked. I wanted to ask where the hell Sadrach is right now.”

“Yeah well, where do you think that idiot is if not out being a bother to the other girls?”

“Yes, I gathered, but where specifically is he being a menace to the females of the realm?”

“I don't know, this morning he said he was going to visit the girl of his dreams and pour his heart out in song at her house.”

“For Christ’s sake, who's the lucky girl this time?”

“Well of course it's-...” Safira was about to answer immediately before her gaze stopped at Johannes and she immediately palmed her face before muttering, “Ah crap…”

“Wait, what do you mean-...!!” Johannes had a concerned expression on his face before his eyes widened and as if he realised something and his expression contorted into something terrifying “... I'm going to kill him!!”

Johannes immediately rushed out of the church looking like he was chased by a ghost. Josias only stood there flabbergasted as he saw that before he looked back to Safira with a questioning expression. Seeing this, Safira quickly got up and shouted at Josias while Hesekiel continued playing music with an energetic rhythm.

“What are you doing just standing there, Josi?!!” Safira immediately pushed Josias towards the door “Hurry up and stop him before he kills my little brother!!”

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Immediately Josias rushed out of the church but not before reminding Hesekiel once more about training in the afternoon while he was running. Josias was slightly worried as he was running after Johannes but at the same time he felt greatly amused by the situation as he knew exactly where they were headed. He just hoped nothing bad would happen before he gets there.

***

Helena was sitting on the wooden floor of her house as she was brushing her waist-length hair to keep it neat and to get all sorts of grime and what not from it. All this while she was humming to herself. Her brother and the Young Lord of the Sigumogo had left a while ago on some sort of job or what not. As she was brushing her hair, several small children were running around the hall of the house creating a little bit of a ruckus. There were about three children running around, two boys and a girl, with the boys being about eleven and eight years old while the young girl was only around six years old.

The older one of the boys was holding what looked to be a stuffed animal made of textiles in the form of a tiger. He was running around being chased by the younger boy who had an annoyed expression on his face while the little girl was laughing along and also chasing the older boy while waving around what looked like a wooden sword.

“Abang, give me back my tiger!! I was playing with him!” The younger boy said in annoyance as he was running around trying to chase his faster older brother

“You can have it if you can catch me, bleh…” the Older boy teased his younger brother as he stuck his tongue out and blew a raspberry

“Don't worry, Abang Martin!” The little girl said as she made a heroic pose with her sword “I will defeat the evil Abang Michael and save Mr. Tiger!! Hyahhh!!”

The three continued to chase each other as Helena could only give a slightly exasperated sigh seeing the chaos in her house which was a very much a regularly recurring scene especially when it came to her younger siblings. She finished brushing her hair before she tied it into a beautiful chinon and placed a hairclip through it. As she was done with that, she could only continue to watch as her rowdy younger siblings were still running around.

“You can't catch me, you can catch me, na na na…” Michael teased his younger siblings. As they had caught up to him but he leveraged his greater height as he raised the toy up in the air

“Give it back!!” The shorter Martin protested while jumping and standing on his tippy toes to get his toy back but he couldn't quite reach it.

Soon enough, the little girl - Hanna - ran up to Michael and swung her wooden sword with quite a bit of force for a six year old child, “Take that you bad guy! Release that tiger! Hyahhh!!”

“OUCH!! OW! Hanna that actually hurt!” Michael said seriously but the girl was having none of it.

“Release himm!!! She said as she continued her relentless assault until eventually Michael called out to his elder sister Helena.

“Kakak help, please!!” Michael said to which Helena only gave him a tired look before sighing and getting up.

As she approached her younger siblings, Helena quickly snatched the stuffed tiger from Michael's grasp before saying, “That's enough annoting your younger siblings for now. Besides, shouldn't you be helping father out in the fields? Don't be lazy and go! Either that or go train with the other boys like you're supposed to!”

“I mean I was gonna… a little later…” Michael smiled sheepishly as he shifted his gaze but one stern look from his usually gentle older sister was all it took for him to run to the door. “On second thought, I think Jakob and the other guys are already waiting for me, bye Kak!”

As the boy ran out of the house, Helena focused her attention back to the other siblings. She gave the stuffed animal back to Martin but added, “Martin, aren't you getting a bit too old to play with dolls?”

“I was playing with Hanna, but bang Michael was messing with our fun!” Martin said as he protested his sister as he sat down while Hanna was still winging around her sword before doing a victory dance.

“We have defeated the bad guy!!” Hanna raised her sword triumphantly with one hand on her hip.

“And you, little lady…!” Helena quickly took the sword from Hanna’s hand before picking her up.

“Ahhh!! The witch took my sword!!” Hanna was continuing her playfighting as she rustled in her sister's arms “Abang Martin help me!!”

“That's enough from you, you little monkey!” Helena said as she proceeded to smother her sister's soft and plump cheeks with her own before she proceeded to kiss her cheeks “You shouldn't play with swords because you're going to be a lady someday!”

“No!! That's boring!!” Hanna protested as she pouted “I want to be a warrior! Like Abang Jo!”

“Why do you want to be a warrior? That's a dangerous job. And you're going to chase away the men if you're like that!”

“I want to be a warrior! Like Ompung Ester!” Hanna continued to protest.

Helena couldn't help but shake her head as she was unable to give a proper retort at the moment. Their maternal grandmother, the Lady Ester - wife of Elder Rihar - was indeed one of the very few female warriors in perhaps all the Halaklands.

“...Well, if you want to be like Ompung Ester, you still have to learn how to be a proper lady, and for that, we'll have to start by taking care of your hair!” As Helena said that, she grabbed the comb made of ivory and proceeded to brush her sister's long hair. “You'll have to know how to keep your hair pretty and neat so it doesn't bother you when fighting…”

“...okay…” Hannah nodded before finally settling down.

As Martin saw the toy sword being free to use, he immediately grabbed it before running out of the house laughing. “I'm gonna go out too, kak!”

“Hey, don't stay out too late or too far! Stay where I can see you!” Helena said as she too walked out the Bolon House and sat herself on the stairs while she put her sister on her lap.

Martin had gone out to play with the other children his age as he ran around the streets with the wooden sword. Helena continued to comb and brush her sister's hair while keeping an eye on Martin. Her father was either out on the fields helping to tend to the crops that would soon be ready to harvest or training with the rest of the village guard while her mother was out in the market square with her youngest sister.

It was a relatively quiet day as Helena was on a break from both her nursing volunteer work at the hospital and her usual activity as a seamstress weaving the beautiful and traditional Ulos cloths. She enjoyed the quiet days where she was free to spend time with her family. Though, she didn't quite enjoy being pestered constantly by the women and elders of the Clan to get married. She had just turned seventeen a few months ago and wasn't in any rush. Besides, it wasn't like there were any boys that had shown her any interest… well except for maybe one.

Helena began thinking about some very peculiar things that had happened to her in regards to a certain young man who was about the age of her eldest brother. He was the son of the village Jeweler and known as one of the most handsome men in the village, with his dark brown curly hair, striking blue eyes, and tanned bronze skin courtesy of his mother's foreign blood. Tuan Sadrach Hagogoan Hutabaru. There was no young lady in the village who didn't know who he was, mainly due to his looks, but also because he was a dangerously charming flirt.

Helena knew his sister well enough because of church activities and he himself would sometimes join the youth choir but they never really had any meaningful interaction. Well that was until on one day which was late at night when she was heading home from volunteering at the Church-Hospital, it began raining hard and she had forgotten to bring an umbrella. Just so it happened, she saw Sadrach was walking around with an umbrella and so decided to call out to him to see if he would help bring her home. Surprisingly enough, he agreed. While at first, she was a little apprehensive in being in such close proximity to the boy because of the rumours of his flirting, it seemed like he sensed her unease halfway to her house and just lent her the umbrella and told her to return it afterwards before dashing away to his house, running in the pouring rain while laughing. Helena thought he was an odd man.

As if fate would have it, a few days afterwards, Sadrach had come into the hospital accompanied by his sister while Helena was again on shift. He had gotten a fever and looked worse for wear throughout the ordeal. At first they had only wanted to get the medicines and go back home, but due to feeling slightly guilty, Helena had suggested for Sadrach to just be admitted to the hospital so he can receive proper care. While at first he was apprehensive, her insistence and his non optimal conditions finally won him over. And so she took care of the sick young man for the next few days.

Fast forward some time after that to the night of the feast to celebrate her brother's first Great Hunt, as most of the young women were made to be dancers to serve the food during the feast naturally she was one of them. And luck would have it that the section she had served the plate she was carrying was the Hutabaru clan’s and naturally, she had locked eyes with the young Lord Sadrach and the usually suave Casanova was reduced to a bumbling ball of awkwardness as he complimented her. After that there were a few more instances, with him offering to accompany her on walks from church practice and the such.

Without her noticing, Helena had been smiling the entire time while thinking about Sadrach as she was tying her sister's hair in a braid. It was a fluttery feeling that she hadn't really felt before but she wasn't dumb enough that she didn't understand that she most probably had an infatuation with the young man. But as she was about to shake her head off her fantasies, her sister had pointed to a direction all of a sudden and said to her, “Look, kak! It's the handsome Abang!!”

As Helena looked to where her sister was pointing, she saw the very same man she had been thinking of walking towards her house, a Western guitar in his hands as he was singing while looking at her. Helena couldn't help but let her jaw drop as she blushed from embarrassment at what the young man was doing as she saw the other young girls in the area were either fawning over him or snickering. Even Hanna was laughing at the situation. Finally, the man stopped singing and playing his guitar as he stopped at the foot of the stairs to her house.

“Lady, Helena!!... And uh…” Sadrach said with a charming smile.

“I'm the warrior, Hanna!” Hanna said as she saw Sadrach was trying to remember her name.

“And her brave warrior, Hanna!” Sadrach continued.

“What's all this about, Bang Sadrach?” Helena said as she tried her best to remain composed while she slightly tightened her hold on her younger sister while she raised her up on her lap used her like a pillow to partially cover up her blushing face. “Why are you all the way in this part of the village?”

“Could I interest the fair Lady Helena to accompany me on a walk?” Sadrach answered “I heard they're selling some interesting snacks there… if you'd be interested…?”

“OHH SNACKSS!!” Hanna said excitedly as she raised both her arms “Can I come too, pleasee…???”

“What? Who said anything about going anywhere-...!” Helena said

“Of course you can come! How can I let a lady go anywhere without an escort from her brave guard!” Sadrach said with confidence as he patted Hanna's head.

“Bang, you don't have to do this, besides-...” Helena was still trying to find a reason to evade though she'd be lying if she said she wasn't the least bit interested.

“I don't have to do it, I want to… all treats are on me.” Sadrach said as he took a seat on the stair step below her while awaiting her answer with those strikingly lovely blue eyes.

“...Well, if you insist… I guess there shouldn't be any harm in-!!!” Just as Helena was about to give an answer in the affirmative, her attention was snatched when from afar she could hear her brother shouting.

“SADRACH!! GET THE HELL AWAY FROM MY SISTER!!” Johannes was rushing in, coming in hot as he ran along the streets like a madman. Sadrach was frozen stiff, confused at the sight of it while Helena couldn't hide the surprise in her eyes.

It looks like the day was about to get a little less quiet than she'd hoped.