archenland / year 1012

prompt: "crunchy"

word count: 1,976

xXx

Cor sighed.

His twin brother's giggles echoed through the open forest clearing, stinging like the lash of a rawhide whip against his skin, and he bit his lip in frustration as he retraced his steps to the beginning of the trail Corin had marked out for their training session that morning.

A sea of dry leaves crunched under his feet, patches of blue sky shining bright overhead beyond waving treetops of brilliant yellow and orange.

"You sound like a moose lumbering around like that," laughed Corin, the younger Prince's golden hair already slipping out of the tight knot meant to hold it up and out of the way, loose wisps fluttering around his grinning face. "You'll scare off every prey animal in a five mile radius, at this rate!"

"I don't even know what a moose is," muttered Cor.

"Big deer? Antlers?" Corin held his hands up with his wrists against his temples, as if it were the concept of antlers that Cor was struggling with. "Huge noisy oafs?"

"Just shut up and tell me how to do it again."

Corin dropped his arms and turned so that Cor could see his full silhouette, positioning his brown leather boots just like he had a thousand times before. "One foot directly in front of the other. Touch the ground with your toe first, not your whole foot. And aim for the patches without leaves."

"The whole place is leaves," grumbled Cor, but he placed one foot carefully in front of the other, eyeing his path across the mess of roots and pesky underbrush, an impossible fifteen yards from the tree meant to be his destination, trying to envision himself as a hunter like the ones carved around the wooden pillars in Anvard's great hall.

As if on cue, a twig snapped under his boot, loud and sharp from beneath a deceptively flat leaf.

He straightened and turned. "I give up. I can't do it."

Corin grabbed his arm before he could storm off, yanking him back with a shuffle of leaves underfoot. "Hey! Don't be such a stick in the mud, you'll figure it out quick enough, just like every other little nipper playing battles in the woods when they were five."

"Well, I didn't grow up in the woods," snapped Cor, "and we didn't have any stupid leaves at the river mouth. I can be quiet on rocks."

"Everyone can be quiet on rocks."

Cor yanked his arm free and trampled loudly through the hateful dry undergrowth, aiming for the path back up the hill to the castle.

Corin jogged after him.

"I'm not in the mood."

But Corin snatched his wrist anyway, ducking around in front of him to block his path. "What's wrong with you today? It's not that hard, you'd get the hang of it in no time if you'd only try. Lion, I never knew I had such a boring brother! Honestly, sometimes I'm embarrassed we're related."

Cor ripped his arm free again and shoved Corin out of the way with far more force than necessary, but the younger boy only grabbed him from behind and pinned his arms to his sides.

And whatever fragile restraint had been desperately holding his nerves together finally snapped.

Cor kicked backward and twisted sharply to throw Corin off balance, sending them both tumbling into a heap to the forest floor and freeing himself with the force of the impact, heaving Corin bodily off of him and pinning him to the ground with both arms, the full force of his weight digging into his twin's young shoulders.

That wiry strength with which he'd once hauled full boats ashore and threw heavy bundled nets over his shoulder burst to life inside him with a vengeance, no longer holding back half-heartedly the way he always did for fear of overstepping.

"I said I'm not in the mood," he snapped, anger flashing like lightning across the sky blue of his eyes.

Corin had to cough to get his voice back, yellow hair slipping from its knot into the carpet of dead leaves. "Well, that's more like it."

Cor's heart pounded, half from the exertion and half from the slowly registering surprise at his own actions, the deafening silence of the forest around them flooding his ears for several moments before he rolled his eyes and pushed himself back up to his feet.

He'd stormed another few paces before Corin called "Are you seriously giving up? You know Father will be disappointed, he wanted you to join the next hunt."

Cor's stomach plummeted like an icy stone.

He pulled up short, rooted to the spot as leaves crunched behind him and his brother picked himself up, footsteps following once again.

But this time he didn't move, didn't pull back when Corin grabbed his shoulder, rounded him, and looked into his face.

Only then did the younger boy's demeanor shift. "Hey, are you okay? You're white as the dead."

Cor could only blink and stare for several moments, words escaping him as a churning mass of something between panic and guilt surged into his throat. He swallowed hard, but the lump remained, heart pounding painfully against his ribcage. "Will Father really be disappointed?"

Corin furrowed his brow, as if the question couldn't possibly have anything to do with his own. "Yeah, probably. Why? What do you think he's gonna do?"

Cor shook his head distantly, blinking as if to clear his vision. "Nothing. Nothing, that's not—" He swallowed again, the heat of a flush rising up his neck as his wits returned enough to let the embarrassment creep in. "It's nothing, nevermind." He pulled away from Corin's hand. "Maybe he should find a better hunting partner, anyway. Literally anyone else would be better than me."

"What are you talking about?"

"What do you think? You're the one telling me how awful I am at everything!" Heat surged into his face with a rush of humiliation and frustration. "I'm supposed to be the Crown Prince but I can't memorize our history, I don't understand politics, apparently I can't even walk without scaring away half the forest life. Everyone treats me like I'm so important, but how am I any different from when I lived with Arsheesh? I don't feel any different, and I don't see why a stupid title should change anything! I wish everyone would just— just stop caring."

This time it was Corin's turn to stare.

Instantly, Cor wished he could bite back every word, but he'd already messed that up, too, his voice hanging raw in the air long after he'd clamped his mouth shut.

"You… you think we only care about you because you're a Prince?"

"No," said Cor quickly, shaking his head as a sickening pang of guilt settled into his gut at his brother's expression. "Of course not, I only meant— well, you know, I meant—"

Corin's wide eyes of bewildered, innocent confusion made his feeble excuses trail off into silent stammering.

"I… I am grateful," he managed at last, "and I really do want to please you all, I just—"

"Cor, you don't have to be grateful, nobody gave you anything, this is where you belong! You really could be a fisherman's boy for all it matters. I've met my share of princes and I didn't care a lick about any of them. I've only got one brother."

Cor's head swam, breathless, disoriented. "But… I'm not the one you wanted, am I?"

"Where in the world do you get off saying that?"

"You said it," he muttered, crossing his arms shrinkingly over his stomach. "I'm boring, remember? And you're embarrassed we're—"

"Oh." The color drained from Corin's face. "I didn't mean that, honest I didn't, it was just a stupid joke."

Cor looked down and shrugged. "No one would blame you if it wasn't."

"I would." He grabbed Cor by both shoulders. "Hey, look at me." He waited until Cor dragged his eyes back up to meet his before continuing. "You've only been here a year, you don't get to beat yourself up just because you're still learning. I won't let you. Nobody beats up my brother except me."

Cor scoffed weakly. "You're one for inspirational speeches."

"I'm serious. Look, I'm sorry, okay?" And a genuine expression of guilt had settled into his eyes, churning and foreign, as if it were a stranger there and didn't know exactly what to do with itself, pale eyebrows twitching, yellow hair strewn with leaves fluttering into his face.

It almost made Cor smile, to see the younger boy struggling under the weight of the new emotion, and at last he sighed with a faintly suppressed smirk. "I didn't know you could do that."

"What?"

"Apologize."

For a second his newfound humility almost slipped away in lieu of the challenge that bubbled up and threatened to instigate another predictable argument, but the boy drew a breath and composed himself again. "I may be a boor and an ass, but I'm still a Prince."

Cor snorted. "At least you're not a moose, whatever those are."

Again, that foreign little flash of shy guilt crossed his brother's face, and he scratched the top of his head, dislodging an orange leaf from its perch. "I… I won't tease again, if you really don't want me to."

"Oh, don't start babying me, whatever you do, that's worse than anything!"

"Alright." Corin let out a breath of relief.

They both knew he would never have been able to keep up an offer like that, no matter how earnestly he meant it.

For a moment they looked at each other, identical wisps of golden hair fluttering in the breeze as leaves rustled overhead and skittered around their feet.

Cor sighed. "I just… I just don't want to disappoint you, you know? Especially not Father. I know how much it means to him, to have both of his sons back, and sometimes I just don't feel like I can…"

Corin shook his head, loose waves bouncing violently into his face. "Don't. Believe me, there's no point worrying about that. Honestly, I don't think Father is even capable of being cross with you." He pursed his lips, blue eyes glittering in the matching brilliant daylight. "And… I really was just teasing about the noise—at least, you're not so bad as all that. Sure, you're a beginner, but you're not terrible. You pick things up fast."

Cor watched him hesitantly. "I'm… really not that bad?"

Corin breathed in, then suppressed a little smirk, glancing down to the leafy ground as if in an attempt to hide it. "Okay, your approach is a little… crunchy… but you'll figure it out, don't worry."

Cor rolled his eyes. "Thanks."

"I… don't suppose you'd like to try the route again?"

The older boy sighed, beset by the almost puppy-like inquiry in his brother's eyes. "Fine, but only a little longer, and then we find something else to do, alright?"

Corin grinned and grabbed his hand. "We'll show Father what a good hunter you are, just you wait!"

Cor suppressed a grin of his own. "And at what point of this training do I actually get to shoot things?"

"Ey, that's the spirit! We could get in some target practice later, if you like."

Cor shrugged agreeably, and Corin pulled his hand free to slap him on the back.

"You know, whoever said you were boring was a real idiot."

Cor scoffed and looked at his twin, even his best attempt at a dry expression failing to hide a fond yet exasperated smile. "He is."

This earned him a punch to the arm, and he laughed.

"But he's not that bad, really."

Corin glanced at him and smiled, the kind of smile that split his face and almost seemed to cast a light of its own, irresistibly contagious. "You're not so bad yourself."