Age Five

"Apollo!" Nahyuta hammers on the bathroom door. "Apollo, come on, let's go play!"

"No! Can't come out yet! Sorry!"

Nahyuta huffs. "What are you doing in there anyway?" He crosses his arms. "…You are doing something you shouldn't do, aren't you?"

"N-No, I'm not!" Suddenly, his brother sounds panicked and very much like he's been found out.

Nahyuta yanks the door open. Apollo is frozen in place, standing on a little stool in front of the mirror, a familiar bottle in his hands.

Nahyuta gasps. "You've used Dhurke's hair stuff, haven't you!" He pulls the bottle out of Apollo's hands. "That's not nice, Apollo!"

"But Dhurke said the stuff is for annoying hair! And my hair is annoying!" Apollo pouts.

"You should have asked first! It's very bad to just use people's stuff without asking first!"

"You use stuff all the time without asking!"

"That's different! I may do that because I am older than you! And by the way, now you look like you have horns on your head!" Nahyuta points to the two strands of hair that usually fall into his eyes and are now slicked with the stuff, standing up straight into the air.

"No, I don't!"

"Yes, you do, you look like a demon! That must the punishment from the Holy Mother!"

Apollo's bottom lip starts to tremble. "It's not! You're so mean!" He pushes past him and dashes away into their shared bedroom.

"…H-Hey, wait!" Nahyuta follows him quickly. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, ono'ro mit-sa." He hugs him. "I should not have said that."

Apollo sniffles and returns the hug. "'s alright. …What did you wanna go play?"

Nahyuta pulls back, his eyes shining with excitement. "That's what I wanted to tell you. Dhurke has gone fishing, and he's allowed us to go outside today, too!"

Apollo's eyes grow big. "WOW! We can go OUTSIDE?!"

"Apollo! Dhurke told you, no chords of steel inside the house!"

"Nasai mian'ha," Apollo says half-heartedly. "But we haven't been outside for ages. Are the bad guys gone then?"

A few weeks ago, there have apparently been some regime guys around, and since then, Dhurke has forbidden them to play outside. "At least until I'm sure that it's safe again, boys," he has said, "because what if the bad guys catch you? It would be very lonely for me, if my two rascals weren't around to cause trouble anymore, wouldn't it? I would probably bore myself to death. Hah-ha ha ha ha ha!"

"Well, Dhurke said it should be safe, so we can go play 'Run from the Regime!' again!"

Apollo cheers happily, grabs Nahyuta's hand and they race outside, heading for the big meadow near the river which is their favourite place for playing.

"I'm gonna be the Defiant Dragons first!" Apollo declares proudly.

Nahyuta frowns. "I don't want to be the regime! You be the regime first!"

"No! You were being mean to me, so I have a right to be the Defiant Dragons first!"

"…Fine. But after that, we swap!"

Apollo beams. "Deal! C'mon, let's start."

As usual, Nahyuta covers his eyes and starts to count to thirty – they always do that in order to give the other a head start. Apollo runs away as fast as his feet can carry him, stopping near the forest, frantically searching for a direction to run into that the regime will not figure out so easily. Maybe into the forest? …No, he's already gone in there last time. Back to the house? He could hide in the little shed that Dhurke has built next to their house, where they keep their firewood and Dhurke's hunting things in. But that would be against the rules of the game, wouldn't it? Apollo presses his finger against his forehead, thinking. Does 'no going inside' include the shed or only the house? After all, the shed is not really a house, is it? So it's not 'going inside' if he hides in there. He is just about to start running towards it when he suddenly remembers the second rule of the game: 'no hiding'.

"…twenty-eight… twenty-nine…thirty! I am the bad queen, and I'm going to get you!"

Apollo jumps in shock. He has stood there for so long, thinking about where to go, that he has completely wasted the head start the regime has given him! Now, he's going to be caught for sure! "NO, YOU'RE NOOOT!" he answers, frantically searching for somewhere to go. He can hear the regime come closer.

"Where aaare you, Defiant Dragons? I'm going to caaatch you!"

"NEVER! LONG LIVE THE REVOLUTION!" Apollo makes a dash for the river, his eyes fixing on the rocks that separate the riverbank from the rushing water. Dhurke has forbidden Nahyuta and him to play too close to the river. "It's too dangerous for you boys," he had said. "The river has very strong currents and if you were to fall in, you would never make it back to the shore."

"I fooouund you, insurgents!" The regime has almost reached him, running towards him so fast. It will catch him! In a fit of desperation, Apollo quickly climbs onto one of the rocks. He knows his brother doesn't like the river, and the rocks are directly above it, so he will never follow him there, and that means the regime won't either. "YOU'LL NEVER GET ME!" he declares.

Nahyuta stops dead in his tracks. "H-Hey! That's against the rules!"

"It's not! I'm not inside, and I'm not hiding either!"

"But we're not allowed to go there! Ata'oji told us not to go too close to the river, it's dangerous!"

"It's not! I'm just standing on a rock!"

"But it's slippery! Look at all the moss that's growing on it, it's probably still soaked from last night's rain!"

Apollo looks down and sees that Nahyuta is right. It does look slippery.

"You see? Come down there, ono'ro mit-sa, before you fall off!"

"No! You only want to catch me!"

"If you don't come down this instant, I'll go tell Dhurke!"

Apollo chews on his lip, weighing his options. If he climbs down, Nahyuta will catch him. But if he doesn't climb down, Ata'oji will be cross with him when Nahyuta tells him Apollo has gone so close to the river…

Huffing, he reluctantly starts to climb down again, but he has barely moved an inch, when his foot slips on a patch of the moss, and he stumbles. Nahyuta rushes forward, one hand reached out in an attempt to steady him, but it's too late – Apollo has already lost his balance, and he's falling, and he's screaming, and then he's in water, faintly hearing his brother's voice calling his name and calling for Dhurke, before the rapids pull him in and away from the shore. The only thing he can hear now is the water, it's so loud and strong and terrifying, and he reaches out to grab onto something, anything, but he can only see the water. Suddenly, somebody grabs his hand, and he turns his head to the side and sees Nahyuta – he must have jumped after him, he's going to protect him from the bad water; after all, he, unlike Apollo, already knows how to swim – but the water is too strong and tears Apollo's hand out of his brother's grip, sweeping him away from him. From there, it's only screams and his head being pulled underwater and him reaching out for Nahyuta again and again, until their father's strong arm wraps around him and he carries both his brother and him to safety.

"Now, now, Apollo, it's alright." They are all back inside now, Dhurke has lit the fireplace and is now wrapping blankets around the boys, who, even though they've already changed into dry clothes, are still shivering with cold. "You're safe now."

"B-But it's all my fault, Dhurke!" Apollo's eyes are still brimming with tears. "I slipped off that rock a-and…"

"Oh son, slipping off a rock could happen to anyone. Don't beat yourself up over it. Just remember to not get too close to the riverside again, alright? Good. Now, are you hungry, boys? I haven't caught any fish yet, so sashimi is out, but how about I make us some sandwiches?"

The boys nod eagerly. Dhurke smiles, ruffles Nahyuta's hair and disappears into the kitchen.

For a few minutes, the only sounds that can be heard is the crackling of the fire and the clatter of dishes from the kitchen.

"…'Yuta?"

"Yes?"

"…Why did you jump in after me?"

Nahyuta glances at him in the way he always does when Apollo has asked a really stupid question to which the answer should be obvious. "To get you out, why else?"

"But why? You're scared of the river."

"Because the current was pulling you away and it was dangerous and it's my duty as big brother to protect you."

"But you were pulled away, too."

His brother frowns. "I… didn't think of that beforehand. I just wanted to get you out."

Apollo looks at him with large eyes, then throws his arms around him. "You're silly, ono'ro ke-un."

Nahyuta huffs, but hugs him back.

"Love you, 'Yuta."

"Love you too, ono'ro mit-sa."

"Alright, boys, food's ready! Better come before Ata'oji eats it all by himself!"

They look at each other with horrified expressions, then dash into the kitchen where Dhurke has set out a tray laden with sandwiches and a plate for each one of them.

"By the way, what happened to your hair, son?" Dhurke points to Apollo's two strands, that are somehow still sticking up after all of that.

"N-Nothing!"

"He used your hair stuff this morning," Nahyuta says with a smug smile, promptly getting a shove into his side by an angry Apollo. "Traitor!"

Dhurke laughs. "It's alright, son, you can use it. But this is an interesting way to do your hair. You look like you have horns on your head! Hah-ha ha ha ha ha!"

Translations:

ono'ro mit-sa – little brother

Nasai mian'ha. – I'm sorry.

Ata'oji – Dad

ono'ro ke-un – big brother