Eisso watched as Ocielle, his childhood babysitter and current landlord-of-sorts, used her bow to hit some targets he had set out earlier. His adoptive older sister, Kenzie, was inside making lunch, which saved him the worry of accidentally hitting her once he took a turn.
"Okay, kid," Ocielle said. "Try your best." She sat down her bow and tossed him an arrow, which he caught clumsily. "Only aim for the target. Don't do anything stupid. And never aim it towards yourself or an ally; even if you wanted to wait for the damn squirrel to leave the tree."
"I only did that once," Eisso said. He walked over to the bow and tried to do exactly what Ocielle had just shown him.
"I don't have the patience to be your mother," Ocielle replied. "Shoot this arrow and let me get back to work, or you're going back onto the streets like you were when your father died."
The comment made Eisso lose his focus—hopefully that was the point, and she didn't actually mean it. He fiddled around with the bow too much, almost dropping it.
"Weak," Ocielle muttered. She started walking inside after she said, "Put my bow away when you're done. Then you and your sister can do whatever until dinner."
Eisso nodded silently. As soon as Ocielle went inside, he let himself lay on the grass. Mother had taught him magic, and after she died, Ylisse's tactician Robin offered to teach him—and to this day, she still was. He had asked Ocielle to teach him how to use a bow, but it's been months and he's been doing horribly. He needed to stop bugging her; Ocielle didn't have the patience for slow-learners such as himself. Eisso probably would've had better luck taming a horse and wielding a sword.
Kenzie came out with two sandwiches. Eisso sat up, letting her sit beside him.
"No luck?" She asked, handing him a sandwich.
Eisso shook his head. "No one ever said Ocielle would be a good teacher," he replied. After a short pause, he added, "She…mentioned Father."
"She was just trying to get under your skin," Kenzie said. "She probably didn't mean it."
"What if she did?" Eisso said.
"Ocielle is many things, but she isn't cruel," Kenzie replied. "As long as one of us is helpful, she'll let us both stay."
Eisso didn't want to argue. He started eating his lunch. In between bites, he said, "Ocielle gave me permission to wander around until dinner. I was going to go to Ylisstol—would you like to come with me?" They didn't live that far from the capital; about an hour's walk. Normally they rented horses or carriages to make the trip shorter.
"Sure," Kenzie replied. "I'll need to change, though. And it looks like you still need to clean up from training."
"In thirty minutes, we'll leave," Eisso decided. He finished his sandwich, thanked Kenzie for the food, and started cleaning up. A few moments later, Kenzie stood up and went back inside.
Eisso gathered up the arrows and put them and the bow in the bin just outside of Ocielle's room. Then he went downstairs, sitting on a stool in the waiting area until Ocielle came out of the 'forbidden room,' as Eisso used to call it (the room itself was where the meat was stored; Eisso never went inside the room for that very reason).
"Me and Kenzie are going to Ylisstol," Eisso declared.
"Okay," Ocielle replied. "I don't care what you do. Just be back before dinner. You have about six hours."
Eisso nodded, standing up and heading back upstairs. The door to his and Kenzie's bedroom was open, so he entered. Kenzie had changed from her gray cleaning gown into a light purple dress with drape-like sleeves, and was now brushing her hair.
"I'm almost done," she said.
"I wanted to feed my rabbit before we left," Eisso said.
Kenzie nodded. Eisso weaved through the small room to get to the little cage beside his bed, where a rabbit sat. Eisso got out some of his pet's food, opened the cage door, and put it in the small food bowl. The water bowl was still full from this morning, so he closed the cage door again. His little rabbit—with a long and embarrassing name from back when Eisso was considered too young to know any better (although he was twelve at the time)—had somehow survived the move from Eisso's old house to Ocielle's shop, although Eisso couldn't play with his pet as often as he wanted to. But daily food and water was all the rabbit needed, so he tried to provide that as much as possible.
"Okay, I'm ready," Kenzie said.
"So am I," Eisso said—although he looked over himself just in case. He picked up his bag—which held his tome, some bandages, and some other random items—and put it over his shoulder, letting Kenzie lead the way outside.