Kor awoke to the smell of breakfast cooking.
It was a faint smell, as if it had only just started to heat, but it didn't take much at all to fill this small cabin with a scent.
It was a tiny and quaint little log structure, a hunter's cabin, that Aphid and Kor had stumbled upon a week ago.
And its state of vacancy and disrepair when stumbled upon said its owner was not, nor would be, on the premises.
Aphid had taken quick advantage of such a turn of luck and had that hovel turned into a home within a day.
Truthfully, he had worried it was vacated for a reason, but the surrounding area was bountiful in game and wild harvests.
Deer, foxes, and rabbits frequently bounded past the lodge and wild produce, such as gourds, leeks, cabbages, and berries--such as lingonberries and blackberries, were just steps out the door.
Even a walnut tree over hung the cabin, its bounty bouncing off the roof with a hard thunk every now and then.
A creek was just a very short trek behind the home, and it was beautifully crisp and clear and abundant in small fish.
That had initially worried Aphid more on why a hunter would abandon such a bountiful location, but after a couple days of seeing no particularly dangerous critters or the like, he figured maybe the owner had simply decided to move on—perhaps actually wanting more challenging game.
And so, they had taken shelter there.
At the very least, for a break from the worries of the wilderness.
It would give Aphid enough time to more properly get their bearings and rest a bit.
He certainly had made it quite cozy for them, even if it was quite a cramped space.
Kor's groggy eyes adjusted to see the wall he was practically snuggled against. The single sized bed was pressed up against it, and he has been sharing the space at night with his big brother.
Although skinny Aphid wasn't exactly big, but he was very tall. His legs, when in bed, had been forced to draw up a bit, since the foot of the bed prevented him from stretching out.
This meant Kor hadn't much space to stretch out either, especially since Aphid insisted he sleep between him and the wall, in case there was any dangers that could barrel into the cabin. They'd have to get through Aphid first.
Kor didn't mind any of it. In fact, he'd cuddle up to his big brother even if the bed was enormous.
He didn't feel or sense his brother's presence in the bed now though and so slowly flopped himself over.
Despite having the smell of food cooking waken him, his sleepy stupor wasn't quite registering anything except the absence of his brother from bed.
Kor did notice though, that Aphid had wrapped his own red security blanket around the little brother's pillow.
Probably to keep the boy lulled to sleep longer, with Aphid's scent still close, but Kor wondered for a moment when and how Aphid wrapped it without waking him up.
The boy's eyes soon caught a movement at the small table in the middle of the cabin.
There was Aphid.
He was seated with his back to the bed and was working on something upon the table.
Kor couldn't quite make out what he was doing until he saw Aphid plop a small dough ball to the side with a poof of floury air.
The big brother was shaping biscuits out of rolled dough with the rim of a small cup.
Where did he find the ingredients? Kor found himself thinking, before wondering if he was simply dreaming.
His eyes began to drift close again when Aphid suddenly looked over his shoulder at the boy, as if sensing the boy's eyes upon him.
"Oh! Baby brother!" Aphid smiled and turned the entire chair around to face him, "Good morning, polka dots. I was trying to let you sleep in, but I figured the cooking might wake ya...Didn't want you to wake up late though and not have anything ready to eat."
"..good morning," Kor sleepily replied but suddenly seemed to wake up a bit more, "..L-Late? …For what?"
Aphid waved a hand.
"Oh, sorry. No, I just meant wake up later than usual. Like I said, I was letting you sleep in."
Kor pushed himself up and noted the sunlight shining upon the drapes of the east facing window. The sun had to be up quite further than when he's been waking with Aphid the past week.
"How come?" the little brother asked.
"Because you're sleepy, sleepyhead!" Aphid smiled and his smile widened even further as he leaned forward and added, "Aaaand…Happy Birthday, baby brother."
Kor's eyes widened, his grogginess instantly evaporated and replaced with a sudden confusion and tilt of his head.
"It's my birthday?" he asked, as he had not been keeping track of the days pretty much since escaping Riften, nor did it cross his mind that Aphid had been.
"Mmhm," Aphid confirmed, "Tenth of Sun's Dusk."
"You remembered," Kor stated, sort of just blurting it out as he was collecting his mind again—but not from grogginess now.
"Of course I remembered," the big brother replied, "And not just because it's so close to my own."
"…Twenty-fourth of Sun's Dusk," Kor said.
Aphid chuckled.
"You remembered!"
Kor smiled a little, but Aphid could see his little brother's mind starting to make realizations.
The big brother expected this, knowing exactly what of, and he quickly got up, dusted the flour off his hands, and sat beside the boy on the bed.
He put an arm around Kor and the boy immediately tucked into the older brother and broke into sobs.
"I know, baby," the motherly big brother said, "I know…The first birthdays without them...well honestly, even the second and third…doesn't seem any easier…but your Papa is still celebrating you, I assure you."
"I w-wish he was hereeee," Kor cried.
"He does too, sweetface, I know it."
Aphid wrapped both his arms around the pitiful boy and rested his cheek atop Kor's head.
"And he wouldn't want all these tears now, would he?" the big brother soothed, "Especially on your birthday! But you go ahead and shed every tear you need. Me and my shirt are here to catch them."
Normally Kor would offer Aphid's light humor in such depressive situations at least a small acknowledgement, but he was very deep in his grief at the moment. Very deep.
All he could think about was his previous birthday and how it was his last birthday with his Papa and how he wished he had known--now trying to remember and savor every moment of that day and all his previous birthdays.
And his Papa's birthdays…
Kor practically wailed in grief.
"I know, baby brother…," Aphid's voice softly pushed through the boy's cries, "…I know. I'm sorry."
Aphid knew it would hit the boy hard, but it was still a bit heartbreaking to see a child in such grief… and in such grief on their birthday no less.
The big brother was going to let him cry as he needed though and hold him throughout.
That was, until he could smell and hear the food he had already cooking really heating up now.
"Oh, uh-oh…," Aphid said and Kor pulled back a little upon hearing it and feeling Aphid straightened up.
"W-what? What's w-wrong?" the boy asked through his tears and chattering.
"Oh, nothing with you, sweetie," Aphid replied and looked over to the wood-burning stove that had a skillet sizzling and popping away upon its top.
"Just, um, I gotta grab that real quick. Are you alright enough for me to—"
Kor, although tears still steadily streamed down his face, quickly nodded. He wasn't going to let his grief start a fire now…
"I'll be right back, baby brother. Right back," Aphid said as he hopped up and took quick steps to the stove.
He immediately went about flipping things in the pan with a wooden spoon, about the only cooking utensil in the cabin, but there had been plenty of cookware left behind. Skillets, pots, a metal grate for grilling over a camp fire, and even a big stew cauldron set up over a firepit and under the weather protection of a big lean-to attached to the side of the cabin.
But one skillet was all Aphid apparently needed right now.
"…what…w-what are you cooking?" Kor asked, having stiffled a little of his crying with curiosity.
"Your birthday breakfast," Aphid glanced at him with a smile, "Making you some fried eggs and bacon! …'Cept, sorry, it's not REAL bacon. It's just some thinly sliced meat from a fox I shot right outside our door this mornin'. But the eggs are eggs."
"…eggs?" Kor questioned and kept it that one word as he hiccupped and focused on keeping his sobs at bay.
"Mhm," Aphid nodded and made a gesture towards the door, "Found a nest this morning too, in a knothole of the walnut tree."
A shaky chuckle escaped Kor.
"Y-you, you've been b-busy," the boy said, humor finding its say through his tears. His big brother certainly had been busy—how on Nirn did Kor sleep through all this?
"Mhm," Aphid nodded and shot Kor a smile.
He noticed the boy gesture at the table then.
"…And where did y-you get flour?" Kor asked of the biscuits he had seen Aphid working on when he first woke up.
"Oooh! Get this!" Aphid said excitedly and pointed towards the wall adjacent to the stove, "See that loose board? There's a little makeshift pantry behind it!"
"What, really??"
"Yeah! I found a couple bags of good flour, a satchel of salt, dried herbs, aaaand even a few jars of pickled vegetables!"
"Really??"
"Really! I'm gonna tap along all the walls today to see if there's any other treasure hiding about! Maybe find some butter or lard for some better biscuits later, heh. Sorry, those are gonna be a little flat with just flour and water—and ah, shoot! Shoulda put an egg in it…"
"It's gonna be good," Kor assured as his voice was becoming much steadier, "Your food is always good."
Aphid gasped.
"Kor Bjergsen!" he said with a scolding tone, but a a bit of cheek in his expression, "I believe you've just lied to me!"
Kor had slightly startled to that tone, but then smiled at that obvious tease.
"I did not!" he giggled, "You're a good cook!"
"Even my squirrel medley?" the older brother asked suspiciously.
"Yes!" Kor laughed, "I really liked that dinner!"
"Pssh," Aphid blew through his lips, "Well, yeah. Compared to the nothin' else I had to serve up, heh."
"Aphiiid, I did! I liked it! I never had squirrel before then…and now you're making me want more squirrel!"
"You want some for your birthday dinner tonight?"
"Yeah!"
Aphid chuckled.
"Wow, no hesitation at all," he said, "You did like it! Alright then, I'll shoot us down a few tree rats in a bit. There's too many of them little nutters coming for the walnuts anyway."
A couple moments after that last sentence, Aphid gasped.
"Oh!" he exclaimed, "Oh, Kor! How'd you like a birthday cake, buddy? With some berries and walnuts?"
Kor tilted his head.
"Did…you find milk too?"
Aphid chuckled.
"No, but how about a sponge cake?" he explained, "I can do that with just eggs and flour. I bet I can find more eggs—I know I saw another nest a few trees east of the house. And I can sweeten it with berry juice and toppin' it with more berries and chopped walnuts. How's that sound?"
Kor was quiet for a shy second, before bashfully starting to reply.
"You don't have to make—"
"I'm gonna make you a cake," Aphid smiled at him as he happily slid the finished fried eggs out of the skillet.
"But we don't have an oven," Kor said and Aphid responded by kicking upon the bottom door of the stove.
"That compartment's an oven, hon," he explained, "The other one's for the fire."
"Oh," Kor replied, "Papa's stove only had the fire compartment. We had a big separate stone oven for breads and pies…and cakes…and stuff."
Aphid could see the memories swirling up in Kor's mind again, and despite the possibility of releasing the flood gates once more, he figured a good time to think of the happy memories would be on a birthday.
"What was your Papa's favorite type of cake?" the big brother asked as he finished frying up the fox meat and got more slices into the pan.
Kor straightened up, his eyes wide and unreadable for a moment, but a small smile crept his lips and he spoke fondly: "He liked blackberry cake…with the juice of the blackberries mixed in the batter and he'd top it with more blackberries, sliced and sugared."
"Oh, I bet that was quite a sweet treat! And what's your favorite cake?" Aphid asked next.
"…Any!" Kor giggled and Aphid laughed as well.
"Well," Aphid said, "hopefully my walnutty sponge thing will make that list."
"What's your favorite?" Kor asked.
Aphid looked up in thought for a moment.
"I don't know," he said, "I'm not the biggest sweets eater, after all. Hmmm… My Mama made really good cakes out of yams."
"Yams?" Kor repeated questioningly.
"Heheh, yeah," Aphid chuckled, "Yams and sweet 'tatos can make a few good sweet treats. Beets too…Especially beets."
"Huh," Kor replied with astonishment.
"Mhm," Aphid nodded, "Want me to make you a yam cake sometime?"
"Sure!" the little brother chippered, which earned a soft chuckle from the big brother.
Aphid figured any other child would gag at the thought. Bark certainly would have. The tricky trio probably all would have given him grief over it, but Kor's sweetness could find a sweetness in almost anything.
"So, birthday boy," Aphid spoke again and asked, "When would you like to open your presents? After breakfast? Or after dinner? Or throughout the day?"
Kor simply titled his head.
"…Presents?" he finally said.
"Yes, polka dots," Aphid smiled, "Presents. Did y'all do presents for your birthdays?"
"Yes, but…," Kor replied, "You got me presents?"
"Of course I did! Lots!"
"H-How? …When!??"
Aphid openly laughed.
"I made most of them myself," he explained, "Over the past few weeks. Mostly while you were sleeping. And I actually found one of the things in this cabin."
Kor looked at a loss for words. He was certainly racking his brain trying to remember if he'd maybe seen, at any point, Aphid working on these sneaky gifts. And, of course, he was simply overwhelmed.
"Y-you…," he stammered, chin quivering, "You…T-Thank you…"
Aphid would have scooped that boy up in a big comforting hug right then if he wasn't busy finishing up the frying, so he settled with humor.
"Oh don't thank me yet, baby brother," he said, "You may not even like 'em."
"I'll like them," the boy replied with a seriousness to which Aphid softly smiled.
"I know…," he said, "…So, hey, not to make ya work on your birthday or anything, but you wanna get the those biscuits put on that tray there and hand 'em to me. I should have got 'em in the oven first thing, really, but they were kinda a last second idea—"
"Yeah!" Kor pepped right up and got to getting those biscuits gathered up for Aphid.
Once breakfast was served up, Kor happily dug into the decent morning meal and was even happier to see Aphid enjoy a good bit of meat sandwiched in a few biscuits.
The older brother had been skimping himself quite a bit lately and Kor was beginning to worry.
Aphid always brushed his concerns over the skimping of food for himself off, and just a couple weeks ago, the older brother even threatened to swat him! The first real threat, outside of the orphanage, that Aphid had ever given him!
"Kor Bjergsen! Don't you dare try that with me!" he had scolded, "I split that portion any smaller and you'd starve!"
"But--!"
"No! No more of it! Not one more 'but', mister, you hear! Now you get to eatin' what I gave you or I'm gonna pop your butt!"
That was what had transpired when Kor had attempted to strong arm the older brother by refusing to eat until Aphid agreed to eat at least an equal share.
When food was scarce, Aphid did not entertain any leave way on that subject…not at all.
Kor hadn't the slightest idea how the skinny guy kept his energy up during scarcity, but he supposed he wasn't going to make him expend any more of it by getting riled up. Besides, he didn't want to find out if the threat was serious or just Aphid's way of strong arming his strong arm. Kor didn't want to figure that out at all.
He didn't know now if Aphid had finally gotten too hungry or if this was some sort of birthday gift, but he was just happy to see his big brother eat something more than scraps.
When they finished chowing down, Aphid asked of the presents again.
"So, polka dots," he said, "Want to open your presents now or later?"
Kor seemed to suddenly become a little shy of this subject.
"I…," he bashfully folded a bit into his chair, "I don't know…I wasn't expecting any of this…especially since…"
His bashful blush began to turn into a tearful fluster.
"How about," Aphid interjected, "We just open one for now then?"
Kor's lips were tightly sealed, as he was likely biting back a cry, but he nodded to Aphid's question.
As Aphid stood up and went to a cupboard to retrieve this gift, Kor moved to sit on the edge of their bed and await him.
He saw Aphid reach high on a top shelf of the cupboard, which would explain why short little Kor hadn't seen the stash, at least not while they had been in the cabin.
Kor hadn't a reason to fish around in their supply bag when they were traveling, as Aphid always pulled out anything they needed, so he hadn't even accidentally stumbled upon things then.
The big brother now returned and sat down next to the little brother with a rectangular something wrapped and tied in a cloth
"Now I'm sorry," Aphid said, "that I didn't have much of anything pretty to wrap any of the presents in, but at least it'll be easy to unwrap..."
He pulled lightly at the tie that also served as the makeshift bow.
"So long that I didn't tie the knots too tight, heh."
He began to hold it out for Kor to take before he suddenly seemed to remember something else.
"Oh! One sec!" Aphid gasped, "I didn't give your first-first present yet!"
He sat the rectangular gift to his other side as he turned back and gave Kor a big hug.
"Happy Birthday, baby brother," the big brother said and put a kiss on the boy's forehead and then on the double dots of his cheekbone "I love you."
Kor chuckled.
"Thank you," he replied and actually put a bit a cheekiness in it, "but I get that all the time…"
"Oh? You don't want them?" Aphid teased in return and began pinching at Kor's face, "Well then I guess I need to take them kisses back then, huh?"
"Ey! No!" Kor laughed, "Don't! They're mine now! You gave them to me!"
"Oh, but you said there's too many!"
"That's not what I said! Quit pinching me! I like 'em!"
"Heheh," Aphid chuckled and relented on the cheek pinching, "Alright, you can have those. I've got lots more saved up…so here, here. Open this thing then."
He handed over that rectangular gift.
"This is the one I found here," he explained, "And it's something we can both do."
Kor accepted the gift and untied the knot.
The cloth slipped down to reveal a wood carved box that read "Mud or Mudcrabs?".
Inside would be the named board game, and one he was familiar with.
"I know this game!" Kor exclaimed with excitement.
"You do?"
"Yeah! We had this game at home! Papa and I played it a lot! And we played it with Stieg and his dad and sometimes Old Arbjornar would come over and play too! We also had 'Skeever Trap' and 'Don't Wake the Draugr!' and…"
The boy's smile started to drop…
Those memories of gone times…
But when Kor glanced at Aphid, whose own expression was turning down—The older boy was wondering if his gift was only a sore reminder—the little boy pepped up and wrapped a hug around his big brother.
"Thank you, Aphid!" Kor said, "It's one of my favorite games. I love it!"
He felt Aphid's gentle arms rest around him after only a slight moment. Aphid was probably taking a moment to decipher if Kor's excitement was genuine.
"You wanna play it for a bit?" the older brother asked.
"Yeah!"
And they did. All the way into the early afternoon. Kor had a blast teaching Aphid, as the older brother admitted he'd never played it before, and the older brother was delighted in it, even if he lost nearly every go.
The two brothers hadn't had quite a laugh like this together, in…well…almost ever.
"Oh, my goodness!" Aphid said when he realized the time, "Are you hungry, baby brother? It's passed lunchtime!"
"I woke up and had breakfast late, remember?" Kor replied but then patted his stomach, "…I think I played up an appetite though…"
Aphid scurried about and served them up some of the perpetual stew that stayed cooking under the lean-to; stew that he had added the rest of the fox meat to and had previous bits of deer and rabbit, along with all the veggies that grew wild around the cabin—the gourds and leeks and cabbages.
That stew had pretty much been their every meal since settling into the cabin, except when Kor would catch them some fish out of the creek--He was quite a good little fisherman--but they were certainly not going to make a complaint of these bounties they've been presented with when having so very little shortly before.
And Aphid was certainly turning everything into quite a bounty today. After they finished their lunch, he decided to get those squirrels he threatened earlier, foraged up some more eggs, and gathered up a basket of walnuts. Kor had helped him with the walnut harvest and cracked open the amount Aphid needed for that cake, while the older brother whipped up that simple sponge cake batter.
Soon the sweet smell of dessert filled that home and Kor found himself eager for dinner already. The sooner the supper, the sooner he could have that dessert.
The other presents of his nearly slipped his mind as he had told Aphid after lunch that he'd wait to open the rest, since they had needed to get busy with the foraging and Aphid needed the time to hunt and dress those squirrels for the birthday dinner he promised.
Now dinner, dessert, and presents were all eagerly on his mind.
This was being quite a good day.
He hadn't even thought it was his birthday when he awoke, and that sorrowful feeling he had felt when he realized, well, it wasn't sorrowful anymore.
Bittersweet, of course, but Aphid was making this day…something truly special.
Papa couldn't be here, but Kor had such a good big brother to help warm the cold of that absence.
And by dinnertime, that older boy was serving up another nice warm meal of flour fried squirrel and sautéed veggies and a side of more stew, which Kor enjoyed greatly.
Especially since Aphid partook in a good serving of everything himself too.
Definitely had to be as a birthday gift for Kor, but Kor was again just happy to see him eat.
And that cake.
That berry juice infused sponge cake, with berry bits and walnuts added in and on top…
Maybe it was because Kor hadn't had a sweet treat in a long, long while…
But it tasted like the best sweet treat in the world right now.
And then came the opening of the rest of his presents. The big brother fetched them from their hiding place in the cupboard and the two boys sat at the table to open them.
Aphid really had been working hard unseen.
Their clothes that had gotten too battered and torn in the wilderness, he remade into new clothes fit for Kor, and he had done such a tailored job, it was nearly indistinguishable from an actual new wardrobe.
The scrap cloths he turned into a stuffed ragdoll bear.
He admitted he wasn't sure how Kor would react to something so youthful for a nine year old boy, but Kor had lit up at the snuggly creature and immediately named it Bluebeary the Younger, after the old teddy he had had at home—and for its color, which was majority blue.
Aphid had also fashioned some less snuggly toys, such as whittled warrior and creature figures out of chunks of wood he found along the way. Kor had been greatly wondering why Aphid's fingers and knuckles had been so scraped and bruised. The older brother only told him he got a little over zealous with laundry, as he had been scrubbing their laundry with and on rocks in the river they traveled near and the creek outside this home.
Though Kor didn't see how that would have made the wounds appear fresh so long--thankfully Aphid avoided infecting them.
But Kor adored the toys upon seeing them and immediately played out an action packed battle, and Aphid was pretty darn good at imagining what the voice of villainous skeever sounded like—he nearly had Kor's hero by hysteric distraction alone.
And the last gift was a "book" that Aphid had written and twined together himself out of the parchment supplies Fjora had packed for them "for whatever" reason they may have had need of it.
Aphid had found that whatever reason to be this birthday gift. The completed story of a tale he had been engrossing all the children's attention with most nights at the orphange.
It was a story he had grown up with in his mountain village in Trollheim, an odyssey of a troll hunter named Gorge-gut.
The troubles and woes of the orphanage always seemed to step aside when that adventurer came through, and Kor was excited to see it all on paper.
"You wrote it all?!" Kor exclaimed in wonder.
"Mmhm," Aphid affirmed with a hum.
"And you made all…all of these? All of this?!"
"Mmhm."
"Aphid, you--! You did—you made—when did you sleep?!—How did--you…"
Kor suddenly jumped from his chair and ran around the table to latch a tight hug around Aphid.
"T-Thank you, A-Aph-id," the boy started crying, "Thank y-you…so much…for all of—all of this."
"You're welcome, baby brother," Aphid returned that hug, "I wish I could have done even mor—"
Kor's squeeze and his next line cut Aphid off.
"I love you, Bubba," he said in that sweet little voice of his.
That affectionate name could take the air out of Aphid even if Kor wasn't literally squeezing him.
Kor had called him that twice before already, but both those times were during such horrendously terrible moments--when Grelod viciously switched the boy while Aphid so awfully regretted holding him down and the night they fled the orphanage and hunkered in Fjora's home.
Kor had been so terribly, horribly, tremendously scared and hearing him call out to Aphid as he did absolutely shattered the big brother's heart.
Hearing it now reeled Aphid's mind back to those events for a moment, nearly calling forth tears of heartbreak from the older boy, but realizing it was said now with such an endearment and warmth…well, it still invoked tears. Happy ones.
He held Kor tightly to him, not wanting to startle him with his own tears.
"I love you too, baby bub," Aphid replied in return and his voice must have been shaky enough to alert Kor, as he felt the kid try to move back to look up at him, but Aphid snuggled tighter and tucked the boy under his chin.
"So…," Aphid sniffled, "How's nine feel?"
"…I don't know," Kor muffled into Aphid's chest, "…It doesn't feel bad though…maybe less air…"
Aphid laughed as he quickly wiped the tears from his own eyes and released the kid from his constriction.
"How did you feel," Kor continued responding to Aphid's question, "when you were nine?"
Kor's eyes though, suddenly went wide and he paled. He had suddenly remembered that's how old Aphid was when he lost his Mama and sister. He remembered the brother telling him that. And he was possibly mistaking the residual tear streaks on Aphid's face as because of his slip up.
"I-I'm sorry—"
Aphid waved off that apology with a smile and a couple of pats on Kor's arm.
"Tall," the big brother chuckled, "I hit a spurt right at the end of eight, and I had already always been tall for my age, heheh."
"I'm not," Kor chuckled back as he emphasized his size by plopping on the edge of the bed and swinging his feet off the side, "I don't think I've had a spurt."
Aphid softly chuckled again.
That was true to his perspective. The little boy had only maybe grown one eighth of an inch since arriving at that orphanage, or perhaps it was just the boy's hair that had grown.
Meanwhile Aphid, since Kor's arrival to the orphanage, had grown quite a few inches from his already adult-like height and his voice matured more and more every few weeks.
"Well," Aphid replied to the spurt deprived boy, "My dad was taller than everybody in our village. And Mama was a little taller than average herself…"
He then pointed upwards.
"So I guess I ain't gonna stop until I hit that ceiling."
Kor giggled. "You're gonna be a giant!"
"Oh come on now," Aphid teased, "I ain't that ugly, am I?"
"Nooo! That's not what I said!" Kor laughed again.
He then made a squeezing, flexing gesture with his arms.
"I hope I get Papa's muscles," he happily spoke of his father, "He was big and wide and strong like a bear!"
Aphid smiled.
"Didn't you tell me one time that he once threw a freshly felled tree? A big one?" he asked.
"Yeah!" Kor excited recalled, "Fronjer and Hjon felled a tree too close to our house, after Papa had already told them not to touch it. But he said they were…or…ornament teenagers?--"
"Ornery?"
"Yeah, that. Ornery teenagers with something to prove?...Well, they sawed it down late one evening and the top nearly landed on the side porch that Stieg and me usually played under before night fall. Papa was so mad. He was hardly ever mad, but he was MAD then. When he realized what happened, he dragged them out by the back of their shirts and YELLED at them, and then he lifted up that tree and threw it on their lumber cart and CRUSHED it!"
"Wow!" Aphid remarked, "He was quite cross, huh! Sounds like your Papa went easy on them careless boys, though."
"I don't know," Kor shrugged, "Papa felt pretty bad about it later, but their Papa didn't. He never let them work his lumbermill after that, at least not before the--"
Kor went abruptly silent. His expression turning sorrowful for a little moment before he quickly redirected himself to a different conversation.
"Want to know what my Papa threw on my last birthday?" he happily asked.
Aphid obliged him, as the boy genuinely seemed happy to recall this.
"A…party?"
"No! Me!" Kor bounced on his seat and pointed at himself, "Into the lake!"
"Into the—Into the lake?!"
"Yeah! It was so funny!"
"It wasn't cold?"
"Not to us! He jumped in too, and caught this big fish in his arms as soon as he did! He didn't even mean to! It swam right into him! Oh, and then!"
Kor recounted happily the fun they had that day and even continued to share more happy memories throughout the rest of the evening, as they had another serving of dessert and played with the board game and whittled toys to wind down for bed.
The little brother requested a read from the book Aphid made as he snuggled in closely to him—Bluebeary in the cuddle as well-- and contently listened to the older brother spin the tale off the personally handwritten parchment.
Kor did seem truly, happily content with this day.
The first birthday without his home…his Papa.
But it was his first birthday with his big brother, and Aphid was very proud he was able to make it a content one.
The big brother honestly didn't expect it to go so well, but he was not at all let down by the peacefully snoozing little boy snuggled under his arm.
He closed the book and Kor stirred a bit.
"G'night, Aphid…," he sleepily said, "Thank you…for everything…"
"Good night, baby brother," Aphid replied, "I love you."
He maneuvered the zonked out kid into a more comfortable position and gave him a peck on the forehead.
"Happy Birthday, Kor."