Space Address: 2D - Childhood
Bonus: None
Challenges: In a Flash
Stacked With: Individual Challenges and Fills
Word Count: 935
Warning: None
A/N: the names of Fiyero's parents and sister are taken from vinkunwildflowerqueen. She's a great author, you should check her out. This is a very short chapter. I call it an exposition chapter. None of the others will be this short, I promise.
~o0o~
Fiyero was what his father called "a wild child," a "loose cannon," a "force of nature". But more often than anything else, he would always say "if that boy got on the right track, he could be a great king someday." And while Fiyero couldn't wait to grow up, the thought of being king seemed an impossible one. He was certain his father would live forever. Besides, just because he was the first-born son didn't mean that his older sister couldn't become Queen should she choose. She was much more serious than Fiyero. While he terrorized the tutors, she was studying sociology. It wasn't that he was stupid, he was just hyperactive and didn't like being treated like he was stupid. He liked to learn, but these monotonous men and women wanted to drone on about the same topic even after he understood it.
What the boy really enjoyed was the outdoors. Books were all well and fine for a rainy day, but they couldn't beat sleeping under the stars or hunting. When he was six, his father took him into the thick Vinkun forest to hunt. Fiyero cried at first at the thought of killing something, until his father told him that they wouldn't be killing anything. Instead, they sat along a deer trail and sat quietly and waited until they were approached by a doe. She had licked Fiyero behind the ear before moving on. It was supposed to be a lesson about patience and waiting for good things… but Fiyero got licked by a doe! It was the coolest moment of his little life and he had been addicted to the wild ever since. Something that would serve him well when he turned sixteen.
Whenever a Vinkun boy reached the age of sixteen he would be given the opportunity to earn his tattoos symbolizing manhood by completing the Wilderness Trials. He would spend six months in the wilderness fending only for himself. He was given a single satchel and anything he could fit in the satchel, he could bring with him. Not many did that anymore and most Vinkun boys got their tattoos on their birthdays. Not Fiyero. Fiyero was a foolhardy boy but if he was going to be king one day then he wanted to earn those tattoos. He would earn the highest ranking and most respected of tattoos. The time in the wilderness was usually spent solstice-to-solstice. Those who still did the Wilderness Trials usually picked Spring Solstice to Autumn Solstice so he could be guaranteed food. His main problems would be the summer heat and, quite possibly, a drought.
Not Fiyero.
Fiyero chose the Autumn Equinox to Spring Equinox, meaning he would have to survive the Vinkun Winter, which was the harshest season throughout all of Oz. If he survived, he would be given the royal blue diamonds.
In his satchel, he packed a hunting knife, a carving knife, a whetstone, a book on edible and poisonous plants, a tinder box, and (much to his father's amusement) a deck of cards.
"Do you expect to be playing Poker with a rabbit," Ibrahim, his father, asked in amusement.
"Well, I imagine I will be spending plenty of time alone," Fiyero reasoned. "I bet I'll get real good at solitaire."
Ibrahim chuckled then turned somber. "You're still a child Fiyero. When I was your age I thought I was ready to be a man. Looking back, I don't know how I ever thought I knew everything."
"You can't stop me from going."
"No, I can't," Ibrahim agreed. "I do want you to know, however, that there would be no shame if things got difficult and you had to return home. You're used to a very particular lifestyle, Fiyero."
"Then maybe this will get me un-used to it," Fiyero countered and pulled a warm poncho over his layers of traditional clothing. It was actually his mother's idea to layer up despite the autumn still being unusually warm.
"You're just trying to get out of school," his sister, Kastle, said teasingly.
It was no secret Fiyero hated school. He'd been through more private tutors than he could recall, none of them were able to keep up with this hyperactive child who preferred doodling to division. He knew how to do that stuff but he got bored easily and each one of the pompous prats who claimed to school the most upper of upper classes seemed keen on treating him like he was stupid. So he let them believe so if it meant getting them to leave faster.
"Oh, I'm sure Mother and Father are already preparing on filling up my lovely summer with catch up work," Fiyero teased back.
Kastle smiled and tossed her long, dark braid over her shoulder as she crossed the room to give her little brother a hug.
"Stay safe, dork-brain."
"Have fun in finishing school, booger-breath."
Kastle stuck her tongue out and walked with Fiyero and their parents to the edge of the city. It felt like the entire Vinkus was there to send their prince off on his journey before going back to their solstice celebrations.
"Be safe," said Kasmira, giving her son a hug tighter than any bear.
"I will, I promise," said Fiyero.
After their goodbyes, Fiyero walked up the hill towards the thick tree line. His stomach clenched with anxiety for the first time, but he knew there was no turning back. He was determined to earn his diamonds. Come next spring, he would get those blue tattoos marked in his ocher skin.
Fiyero would enter this forest a child and return a man.