Rynu was sitting on the chair in the living room, his head leaning in his hands as he tried to calm down from what had happened the day before. He was home, and he was safe- he had to keep telling himself that. Novi was in the kitchen making lunch for them, and Conintor was out in Synara to discuss something with someone. He wouldn't tell Rynu who or what he was doing.
He looked up as the door slammed open, Pheona rushing inside and looking around. She spotted him in the chair and ran over to him, Marina close behind.
"Oh Gods- Are you alright, Rynu? I came as soon as I heard what happened- Conintor said you were hurt." Pheona asked, looking him over quickly.
"If you need any healing I've learned a bit." Marina added, looking just as panicked.
"I'm fine now." Rynu said, not really wanting to have the girls panic. "I wasn't really hurt. Just…" Rynu glanced down at his shoulder where the tattoo was. Pheona looked over at his arm and gasped, gripping his shoulder and raising the sleeve to get a better look at the marking.
"What happened, Rynu? Who did this to you?" Pheona asked softly, looking up at Rynu in concern.
"I didn't know they would be so bad. I just wanted to be like you guys, and learn magic too." He said, looking miserably to the floor. "I've really messed up."
Pheona and Marina shared a worried glance and looked back to Rynu. "It'll be okay- you got away from them, right? They can't find you here."
Rynu looked up at the girls, laughing sarcastically. "I wouldn't be so sure about that. That guy was nuts- I don't want him finding either of you." He rested his eyes on Marina, then looked away. He especially didn't want Demetre to find the girls.
"Don't worry about us- I'm more concerned about you. What did he do that scared you so much?" Marina said, having never seen Rynu so frightened. Usually he was tougher- never afraid of anything. Now he was shaking, his green eyes haunted.
"He… took me to a room, and there was a woman there… I tried to help her, I really did." Rynu's voice hitched as he tried not to let his emotions overtake him again. "He knocked me out, and when I woke up I had this tattoo."
Pheona reached up and hugged Rynu tightly as he started shaking again. "I'm sorry, Rynu. Are you going to be okay?"
"I think so. I'm not sure." Rynu said, glancing down at the tattoo. It wasn't moving, though he had seen Carlile's slithering against his skin. Maybe his was just a regular tattoo, and nothing special…
"Well we'll be here if you need us. Just try to relax, and lay low for a while. We'll go get some kiwi juice, okay?" Pheona stood, straightening out her red and golden robes.
"Thanks, cuz." Rynu said, smiling up at her meekly. Pheona knew what he liked- she was trying to cheer him up. He sunk back against the chair as they walked back out of the cabin, wondering what he was going to do while he 'laid low' here.
"Clean the stables?" Rynu wrinkled his nose in disgust. Conintor laughed at the face and nodded.
"Needs to be done, and I'd like the help if you're willing to give it. I could give you some gold for it if you want." Conintor looked over at the elks in the stable, who looked excited at the thought of having their stalls cleaned.
"I guess so." Rynu said uneasily, looking over at the elks. "Will they bite me?"
"Only if you make them angry." Conintor chuckled. "If you don't want to that's fine, I just thought it would be good to give you something to do instead of just sitting around all day."
Rynu nodded, letting out a long sigh. The last few months had been a series of boring days- always sitting around and having nothing to do, afraid of going out and being seen by Carlile.
He picked up the pitchfork leaning against the outside of the stable and started cleaning, Conintor smiling behind him.
"Thanks, bud. After you're done I can go get you something if you'd like." Conintor said, smiling and walking back inside.
Rynu lifted the pitchfork with a grunt of effort, throwing the contents over his shoulder and huffed from the effort. This was a lot harder than it looked…
"My my, look at you." Pheona said behind Rynu as he easily hefted the pitchfork, making him turn around to see her. He wiped the sweat from his forehead, smirking at her amused expression.
"What?" He asked, looking back at the half cleaned stables behind him.
"This past year has been good to you, cousin." Pheona looked at him with a wry smile. "Look at your arms- jeez, no wonder you can lift that thing so easily."
Rynu looked down at his muscular arms and shrugged. "I do it every day."
"Yes, you do… speaking of which, have you forgotten what day it is?" Pheona chuckled.
"Uh…" Rynu thought for a minute. "What day is it? Is something going on?"
"It's your birthday, stupid!" Pheona laughed. Rynu looked at her in surprise and counted on his fingers for a minute before putting a hand up to his forehead in dismay. She was right- he had totally forgotten his birthday.
"Happy 16th birthday, Rynu." Pheona said, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a pair of fingerless leather gloves. He looked at them curiously, slipping them on his hands- they fit perfectly.
"I see you practicing with that dagger of yours sometimes, and it slips out of your hands. These will help you grip better." She smiled happily.
Rynu looked down at the gloves and smiled at his cousin happily. "Thanks, Phe- I love them."
Pheona smiled, glad that Rynu liked them. "Marina is stopping buy later on today. I would clean up a bit before she gets here." Pheona chuckled.
Rynu looked down at himself and wrinkled his nose in disgust at the dirt and manure covering his pants and shirt. "Yeah, probably a good idea."
Rynu was putting on a new shirt when he heard Pheona giggle in amusement from the kitchen. He finished dressing and walked out, wondering what she was so amused about. She looked up at him as he walked in and pointed to the frame of a door, which had markings of lines at certain points on it, a 'P' or an 'R' next to the lines.
"Look, you're almost as tall as Conintor." Pheona pointed up to the 'C' at the top line. Rynu smiled warmly at the frame, memories of Conintor measuring them every birthday coming through his mind.
"Alright, stand straight- I'm going to measure you this time. Conintor is out with Novilo for a while." Phoena pointed to the frame, a small piece of charcoal in her hand.
"I don't know if you can reach that tall." Rynu laughed in amusement, looking at the same marks in the same spot for the last several years for her.
"Oh shut up." Pheona pouted as he moved over toward the frame, standing in front of it. Pheona stood on her tip toes to reach above his head but could only reach up to his forehead.
"Dammit." She muttered, storming away into the other room as Rynu tried not to laugh. She came back in with a chair, setting it down and climbing onto it, making the mark before quickly climbing back down again.
"Don't make that face- it's not funny." Pheona said defensively.
"I'm not making a face." Rynu said, still trying not to laugh at Pheona's flush of embarrassment. "You're short- it's not a big deal. Some guys like short girls."
Pheona sighed in dismay. "I suppose. It's just annoying because I can't reach anything."
Rynu smiled over to her, looking up as a knock came from the door. "Is that Marina?"
"Must be." Pheona said, opening the door to let her in. Marina ran over to Rynu, looking up at him with a smile and handed a green wrapped package to him.
"Happy birthday, Rynu." She smiled.
Rynu opened it and looked down into the small box, taking out a small leather bound book. He looked down at it, smiling in amusement.
"I had a heck of a time trying to figure out the right earth book to get you- finally I just wound up asking one of the magi in The Keep. He said this was a good one to learn some spells from." Marina said, hoping he'd like it.
Rynu looked up at her, smiling warmly. "I love it- hopefully I can learn some things from it."
Marina smiled happily, Pheona hiding a smile behind her hand.
Obviously Marina didn't know that Rynu couldn't read.