AN/: Once again, thank you so much for reading this far and sorry for the wait! I hope you enjoy regardless.

Tino's mouth quivered as he turned to face the voice that had confronted him. Oh man, had they screwed up this early? Sneaking into someone's garden and taking their flowers that they probably sold – for shame! Carefully, he snuck a look at the man.

That wasn't what he had been expecting. The man had a joking expression on his face, his smile easygoing. He'd just been teasing, that was it. Tino breathed a sigh of relief and waved at the man, whose blue eyes glimmered in response. Coupled with the breeze that the place was getting and the field of flowers, the scene looked almost picturesque.

The man pushed back a mass of slightly-curled blond hair and waved his hand at the brothers, laughing lightly as he did so, "Ah, are you two lost? Or new? Regular villagers wouldn't even dream about leaving the confines of their walled town," he chuckled again, sizing both of them up. It was a little unnerving, so Tino found it a good plan to get rid of this guy (who talked really funny) as soon as he could.

"Y-yes, we're new! I'm Tino and this is my older brother, Audun. We're sorry for trespassing, did we... uhm, do anything wrong?" he asked, trying not to ask too many questions. This man was annoying to talk to as is - didn't want to hear his stupid voice any more than he had to.

An odd look settled across the man's face, which was pretty weird because it previously been very pleasant. Tino flinched back – it looked pretty malicious to him, but who was he to give his opinion on some guy he'd just met? "Oui? That's very nice," he said.

Yet his expression didn't seem to back that up at all.

"And non, non, nothing wrong, just that this is my garden and you shouldn't be snooping around here." He made it a point to look at his nails, which were pretty well taken care of. Tino had never seen nails so long and nice, but he wasn't jealous - such things tended to be troublesome when it came to work.

Upset that he couldn't keep any of the flowers around him, Tino avoided pouting but decided to ask this man a few more questions. He seemed kind of shifty, not like the people from the village. Tino righted his hat, making sure that it was tilted just so, and stood up to his full height.

…Which was admittedly not very tall. Poor guy.

"All right then, we'll be leaving now. But we'll probably see you around, right? Do you live in the village?" Tino asked, already knowing the answer to the question. His face was a carefully practiced curious look, his eyebrows up, his mouth slightly bent downwards in confusion. If you were prying, you couldn't exactly look like you were suspicious or anything. Appearances made all the difference in the answers that you received.

The man's eyes narrowed as if he suspected that Tino wasn't fond of him, but the look disappeared quickly. Apparently, he knew that appearances were important as well.

"Ah, non, I do not. I live in the market town - over there - see?" He pointed a finger over yonder, making Tino follow it. If he focused, he was able to see little cabins, only slightly visible from the weak light of the candles that burned inside of them. Looking closer, he thought that he could see a sail as well – the market was a port town, or so it seemed.

Tino, slowly realizing that the guy was just some one from another town (and not a creeper or murderer or anything), relaxed. "Oh, okay. Me and Audun were planning to go there anyway, uhm, tomorrow, actually," a smile punctuated Tino's sentence. "We'll see you then, okay?" Tino waved at the man (who awkwardly waved back), and took Audun's arm.

The sun was setting as they made their way up the hill, making Tino a little nervous. They weren't supposed to be out this late! What if they got stuck in a ditch and died? Or got eaten by wild animals? Or tripped on a root and sprained an ankle? Or stubbed their toes? Possibilities whirled inside Tino's head, but his paranoia party ended with a nudge from Audun.

"We're at the top, Tino. Look at the sky…."

Tino blinked dumbly, but, after a few long moments, complied to his brother's whims. He offered a glance up at the sky, but then gasped and started to stare.

It was so beautiful. Not even on their hill had they gotten a view of the night sky like this. Stars danced above them - framing the moon in a spellbinding manner. Tino's jaw dropped and he gaped openly, noting briefly that his brother (imagine! His brother - gasping at stars) was doing the same.

Desperate to share, Tino called from on top of the hill, "Hey! Flower guy!"

The sound echoed throughout the valley, making some birds flee from their nests. The rest of the world stirred, but the man from before was nowhere in sight. Puzzled, Tino chewed a lip and stood on his tiptoes.

How did someone disappear from a valley like that? The entire flower "garden" was bowl-like in structure – hills surrounded it on all sides. In order to leave, you'd need to climb a hill, which would take quite some time... And he hadn't even moved, from what Tino could recall...

Where was he?

After a few moments of staring blankly into space and hoping that the man would appear out of thin air, Audun sighed and pulled at Tino's tattered shirt.

"Why would you even want to show him? He was a creep."

Before Tino could comment on how chatty Audun was acting, the boy was already heading down the hill - back towards their new home. Tino sighed in resignation and followed, trying not to tumble as he did so. If he could just avoid getting hurt on the hill, then they might be able to get home safely.

As Tino thought this, a wave of panic washed over him. Oh man! They could see the stars right now, who knew how late it was? A monster could jump out at any second and eat them alive, or worse! It would slowly torture them, growing stronger as the life slowly ebbed from their being! Laughing all the while and remarking on what a piece of work man was! Or worse - it could start reciting its own poetry and tie them to a tree so they'd have to listen! The horror!

Audun was the first to make it back on the path, and looked on in contempt as Tino struggled over the roots and rocks, on the lookout for any kidnapping monsters (and for miscellaneous items that could be used to plug his ears).

When the two were comfortably back on the path and en route to the village, they walked in a sort of compatible silence - Tino occasionally shuffling his feet behind him as he did so. Every so often, they would hear a howl or twitter from a strange beast - but neither wanted to think about it too much.

Eventually, Tino spied the gate looming in the distance - daring the forest to come and take it by storm. Apparently, the forest took it up on that dare a lot, not that Tino had ever seen it himself, but whatever. Part of him wanted to, but at the same time, he valued his skin. From what he could piece together, when the forest struck, it struck hard.

The pair was almost at the gate – so close! Tino couldn't wait to curl up and sleep (he vaguely pondered about his sleeping arrangements, and then let it pass). Almost there, almost there...

Just when they were about to flee to the gate, a terrifying howl resonated across the forest, sending chills up both of their spines. Audun, thinking quickly, grasped for his sword, fumbled for a moment, but soon had it pointing at the forest - daring it to come closer.

Tino, on the other hand, had no weapon - so he picked up a twig from the ground and held it in front of him menacingly, hoping that it would scare whatever was lurking in the trees. Both brothers kept their eyes peeled, searching the woods for any sign of movement. If they made a run for it, the creature(s) may catch sight of them and chase them and kill them but first feed them to its babies while they were still alive - something that didn't sound very appealing.

They stood in a frozen silence for a few slow moments, but didn't have to wait long. From behind one of the bushes, Tino saw movement - nothing much, but enough to arose suspicion (oh, and there was a humongous tail jutting out from the side, but he wasn't looking at it very closely). Tino nudged his brother, who turned his attention to it and pushed Tino to the other side, muttering "make sure there's nothing over there" as he did so.

The younger brother complied and pointed his twig at the other side of the path, emitting light growl sounds as he did so. Maybe that would scare them off.

Maybe.

...Probably not.

The two stood, quivering slightly, as the animal snuffed around in the bushes, jumping noticeably when a head suddenly reared itself from out of the foliage. It crept forward ever so slightly, pushing its snout through the leaves.

Its face was probably the ugliest thing either of them had ever seen.

Definitely canine, the creature showed its teeth at the two of them, in a mock smile, if you will. The fangs themselves were strikingly grotesque, something that could be clearly seen despite the dearth of light.

Tino clung on to his brother, wielding his stick menacingly. He wouldn't admit that he was scared, no way….

Audun was staring that animal down pretty good, though – the boy swung his sword and let it catch the light, showing the creature what it was messing with.

This seemed to strike the wolf-thing as incredibly funny. It bared its teeth some more, revealing the plaque that was caked on them, and let out a hyena-esque noise, ringing peals of quasilaughter throughout the forest. Audun held steady, the glare still on his face, the sword still gripped tightly in his hand...

It made a movement forward, a paw gingerly placed out of the bush. Audun, alarmed, struck out quickly - missing spectacularly. The creature found this hysterical and cackled once again, rolling over a bit in its place.

As it was distracted, Audun swiped at it, hitting its back leg with a satisfying thump.

With a howl of pain, the animal sprinted back into the forest as fast as its injured leg would take it.

The brothers waited for a few minutes, and then Audun sheathed his sword and continued on his way without another word.

Tino, confused by the episode in its entirety, bounded over to his brother while saying, "So, why do you think it ran like that? Is that seriously what everyone's afraid of? A little cowardly wolf... type... thing?"

Audun scoffed at his brother and pulled at his cowlick. "Well, there has to be more, hasn't there? Besides that, these people don't seem to have weapons or materials to make them with. All they have is a wall, and once that's broken through, what defenses do they have?" The boy stopped when they got to the gate and looked at Tino pointedly, obviously signaling for him to call up.

Sighing, Tino cupped his hands around his mouth, "HELLOOOO! WE'RE BACK! PLEASE LET US IN!"

There was a stall as there always seemed to be, and then the gates shuddered open, almost whacking Tino's hat off as it did so. The two scuttled in and braced themselves for the bang of the door, greeted Ludwig, and ran off to Cousin Roderich's house.

Everyone was asleep, and Eirik was back. Eduard hadn't stayed, apparently, and the seagull was gone.

Tino took off his own hat and Audun's, set them on the side, and curled into bed - asleep in an instant.

"Hey, you two are going to market today, right? Get up then, sleepy heads!"

Tino and Audun groaned, blinking their eyes open. Oh, look, Eirik was right in their faces. That was a nice wake up call. Absolute pleasure.

Audun was able to sit up straight away, but not Tino. The younger of the two whimpered and pulled himself up, only to reveal a faceful of hives and blotchiness to his brother and step-brother person.

Audun sighed. "I should've known better. You always get like this when you're around flowers, now don't you?" The older brother sighed and pushed him back down. "You can't go out today, you know."

Eirik, on the other hand, didn't seem to be worried about Tino in the least. "It looks like he's got some allergy problems." A shrug followed this statement, and he called over to the side. "Ma! Tino's got allergies, can you help him out?"

There was some shuffling from outside, then Elizaveta opened the door (which actually moved rather nicely). Her apron was covered in dirt – presumably, she'd been working in her garden. The woman glanced over at Tino, whose red face stood out like a sore thumb. She smiled and walked over to him, though before she said anything, she turned to Audun. "Oh, you two wanted to go to market today, right? You go alone, I'll give you money. Eirik'll lead you there - won't you Eirik?"

She didn't pause much, but Eirik was able to give a slight nod.

"Good! Don't be back too late, don't want you missing dinner."

Eirik was ready to bounce out of there, but Audun had other plans. He turned to his brother (who was getting fussed over by Elizaveta at the moment). With a hesitant (and rare) smile, Audun touched his shoulder, "Do you want anything? Erm, other than clothing, I mean."

Tino smiled at Audun as well. Stifling a sneeze, Tino tried to get his request out quickly. "Just ah, ah... a lily of the valley, tha-that's all I want," he said as fast as he could, ignoring the 'tsk tsk,' he received from Elizaveta. Sure, asking for more flowers would probably be the death of him, but hey, those were his absolute favourites. He didn't get to see them too often, either, for whatever reason – at least not any more.

Audun's expression told Tino that he'd been expecting that. Without another word, the elder brother hurried out of the house, Eirik struggling to keep up with him.

The two boys walked towards the gate of the village in a forced, uncomfortable silence, both making a point not to regard the other in any way at all. To say that they thoroughly disliked each other would be a gross understatement. Audun, lacking the skills to apologize (unlike his brother), resolved to ignore him. He had nothing to feel bad about - Eirik had been a brat, that was all. Scolding him had been necessary.

They were already walking on the dirt path out of the village, the long walk looming in front of them like an oncoming typhoon. Eirik was trying to sneakily kick sand onto Audun's shoe; Audun was trying to ignore him. It wasn't worth it, fighting with him. Family feuds were deplorable, and acting like a child to your cousin's son wasn't called for.

At least, that's what the level-headed Audun was able to rationalize.

They kept walking – the only acknowledgment of the other occurred when Eirik pointed down a road that turned right and went down it himself.

After another hour of walking, the two found themselves facing a placid ocean and the cute town set up beside it. Waves lapped casually at the shore, sailboats floated past them idly, and people bustled to and fro, little market stalls set up along the main path of the town. Houses sat further back, but they seemed to be closed off – stalls sat directly on the road right before it led to the houses, creating a sort of rough barricade.

Beyond the houses and the barricades, a castle of sorts stood - an imposing figure glaring down at the marketplace below.

People manned stalls, all looking cheerful and hungry for customers. Pokey buyers touched every bit of fabric at the rug seller's stall, gourmets (was that Feliciano?) weighed each fruit, and alcoholics examined the dates on wine. All the while, sheep bleated, cows mooed, and wolves howled.

Wait, wolves?

Audun looked up in alarm, and noted several wolves kept in pens behind several stalls and houses. Some snapped at him as he walked by, others sniffed at his fingers. Playing with his cowlick nervously, Audun nudged Eirik.

"What are these things doing here? They could kill people!"

"They're just pets, calm down. Jeez."

Audun blinked. Of course! This is why the town was terrorized – the wolves got out of their pens at night and attacked. The village people were so stupid. They knew about the market and the wolves and the attacks, yet were ready to just write them off as harmless pets? Was he the only one thinking rationally?

Before he could argue, he caught sight of some very well-made clothing set up at a stall, completely damage-free and soft looking. The older brother trotted up to the stall and gave a stiff nod to the shopkeeper, who mock-saluted him.

"Hey there! Interested in some quality clothes?" He called to Audun, his long sleeves covering his hands. He looked pretty comical for someone trying to sell clothing - was all of his clothing supposed to be oversized? He looked pretty foreign... hardly anyone he'd ever seen had such dark hair - and his facial structure was simply odd as well. Deciding not to give it too much thought, Audun nodded at the man.

"Yes, do you have any suggestions?" He asked, peering at the different outfits appraisingly.

The man shook his head. "Actually, I don't. Just look around, find something you like and buy buy buy!" He clapped his covered hands together, his cowlick bouncing. It seemed to be grinning, but cowlicks can't smile, right?

Audun shuddered, but resolved to search through his wares, finding clothing that looked too old-fashioned even for his tastes. And others, well, call him a critic, but they looked far too flashy. What was with those 'exotic' types and their gaudy clothes?

This guy certainly had a wide range of clothing, though. The prices reflected that as well – everything was ridiculously expensive. That is, excluding the clothes that looked normal and actually wearable. Those were reasonably priced and well within Audun's budget.

He picked out some simple outfits that he assumed would fit Tino, and picked out even simpler ones for himself. Then, he paid the man, ignoring his complaints about picking the "cheap-o" clothes.

Audun was just about ready to go, but then he remembered that Tino wanted some flower that he'd probably have a reaction to. Sighing, he scanned the stalls and found the blond man from the day before, selling a variety of wine and flowers.

The man noticed Audun and gave a smile, beckoning him over. "Ah, Audun, pleasure to see you again! Would you like to buy some wine? It's foreign~" He waved a bottle in Audun's face, who was sorely unimpressed. He pushed aside the bottle and shook his head, instead motioning towards the flowers.

"I want a lily of the valley."

The seller blanched and set the bottle down, muttering something about Vikings and their ale. He then crossed his legs and gave Audun an intent look. "Ah, we do not sell them. So sad, isn't it, mon cher?"

Audun set his brow and glared at the man. "But you're running a flower shop. You have to sell them."

Chuckling now, the man played with the wine bottles on the table. "But we don't. Anyway, if you think you're sneaky, I'm pretty sure the king has some in his garden, but you didn't hear it from me." With that, he reclined on his chair. He was looking pretty comfortable, but then a ruckus sounded from a few stalls down the way.

"Alfred, those are mine! Give them back!"

"Haha, make me, ya' loser!"

"Pa-PAAAA!"

The flower seller twitched, then sighed and pushed himself up. "Please, excuse me. I'll be back in a minute if you want to buy any other flowers," he gave a business-like smile, then huffed over in the direction of the two voices.

Pah, like hell he wanted any other flower. Deciding to pretend that he was sneaky, Audun slipped off into the crowd and made his way towards the end of the path, diverting off of it to avoid the barricade.

He crept through the creepily silent town, jumping whenever a fenced-in wolf barked at him, but within a few minutes grew used to the place. It was charming, almost, and looked old-fashioned. There were some sod houses, like his old house, but there were some wooden ones too, like Cousin Roderich's. A few hardy stone ones stood proudly, but there weren't really too many. Audun counted about eight, but he could've missed a few. One had gorgeous flowers surrounding it, but on closer inspection, none of them were lily of the valley.

Sighing, Audun found that he had to make his way to the very back.

What he saw was simply breathtaking.

A giant fence made of nothing like he'd ever seen before surrounded the castle, closing it off to intruders. The fence had gaps in it, however – it was like bars of some material had been shaped into rods and placed next to each other and on top of each other, forming a grand wall outside of it. Through these gaps he could make out the castle courtyard. A beautiful garden was visible, and, on top of that, a plethora of fruit trees. Audun never knew that such things could grow, let alone in a cold place like this.

As he searched, he saw what he was looking for. A single bush stood out from the rest, no other plant standing by it. On that one bush, a little stem protruded, yielding the only bit of lily of the valley in the entire garden.

Well, Tino deserved the best, didn't he? Audun tried the gate, which didn't budge, so he began to hop in place, doing a mini warm-up.

The fence loomed over him, daring him to try and overcome it.

Audun took it up on that dare. Briefly, he warmed his hands with his breath. Once he felt ready, he curled his fingers around the bars and began to climb.

AN/:

Whew, thanks for reading through to the end of yet another exposition chapter. I promise, things'll start picking up really soon – we're almost out of the whole exposition.

If you caught on to what this is based on, kudos. I'm trying not to make it obvious as of now, but I'm afraid that I might have already. x_x

Thank you to my reviewers – I was really busy but checked the site, and I had two new reviewers that wanted me to update. I feel like I'm letting you guys down if I don't write now. xD;;

Expect slightly more regular updates from now on, and please point out any errors you spot as usual.

-Sweet