Chapter Text
With tall towers gleaming stone grey in the sunlight stands a castle by the sea, powerful in the waves crashing against the cliff sides, powerful in the treasury full of pearls and glimmering clamshells, powerful in how the ruler raised his family to stand tall and proud. It intimidated ships wavering on the sea and yet reciprocated each passenger’s warm hospitality.
Raised to stand proud as it were, they were also raised to own hearts of gold, gentle and inviting connections around them. In this way, the princess Muse had become friends with princess Selene of the neighboring country, trading letters near weekly and awaiting every response, gleefully tearing each one open before treasuring the handwritten contents.. Each time Muse was able to travel to Elysia, the two would embrace and talk about every trouble and treasure that blessed their lives.
When Muse became pregnant, the first people she wanted to inform were her husband and Selene. Coincidentally, mere months after Selene realized her own conception, and the two shared the same idea. Why shouldn’t they continue these good relations between their children?
Beneficial trade routes would continue, and a wonderful friendship is sure to blossom. This way, especially, Muse and Selene could see each other more frequently as well. No matter the gender of their first-born, they would meet each other as soon as they could speak and walk. Muse and Selene both awaited this day with excitement bubbling within.
Sorey remembers that one morning, he was awakened by his mother with exciting news: “You’ll be meeting a new friend today. Make sure to wash your hair.” There were barely any clouds in the sky to interrupt their day.
In front of the fountain outside their castle, Sorey and Selene awaited the arrival of the neighboring kingdom’s ambassadors, his small feet teetering back and forth.
A carriage pulled by two horses soon pulled forward, adorned in accents of royal blue and dark oak. The side door opened slowly, revealing a lady around the same age as Sorey’s mother. He didn’t quite remember what she was wearing, however, since he more vividly remembered the small boy she helped out of the carriage. He grabbed a hold of his mother’s hand before hopping down.
His eyes were the same as his mother’s- a brilliant violet that immediately caught Sorey’s eye.
“Sorey, why don’t you go say hello?” Selene offers softly. The glance and smile the two queens shared made it apparent that they were already acquainted. Sorey nods, taking small steps with the other boy until they were closer together. The violet-eyed boy kept his gaze downwards, shoes together and hands fidgeting until Sorey extended his hand.
“Hi! I’m Sorey. Nice to meet you!” Sorey smiles wide, exposing some missing teeth. The other boy hesitantly looks up to meet his gaze, pausing in his efforts to make a hole in the grass. His collared shirt was nice and white, pleated slightly and held together with a velvety blue ribbon. His shorts looked nice too, Sorey thought. Sorey’s seemed to get muddy so easily.
The boy manages a small smile before shaking Sorey’s hand. “My name is Mikleo.”
Muse smiles warmly, patting the brown hair of her son’s head affectionately. “Mikleo really likes to read,” she explains, “why don’t you show Sorey your favorite book?” Mikleo’s eyes light up, and he nods before dashing to the carriage servant, awaiting his luggage so he can find his book.
This causes Selene and Muse to giggle to themselves, and Sorey peeks his head around Muse’s dress to watch Mikleo grab his satchel - the only thing he could reasonably carry at his spry young age of seven.
“I think they’ll get along fine,” Selene muses as Sorey guides Mikleo to the castle entrance. Muse nods, giving Selene a quick hug before following them inside.
“There’s some seats over here!” One could make out Sorey’s voice as they traveled further.
“What do you mean, you don’t know what pirates are?” Mikleo scolds, a book opened in his small hands.
“I don’t, so tell me!” Sorey whines, abandoning his own book in favor of Mikleo’s, which was labeled Captain Hook. Mikleo sets the book ribbon between the pages, setting the book down to rise to his feet.
“Well, you’ve got a lot to learn, then.”
Mikleo leads Sorey outside onto the lawn, where their fort is still set up from yesterday’s adventure. He takes a wooden ring about the size of his own torso and carries it to the top, climbing a small ladder before proudly standing at five feet above Sorey. “You see, they live on big pirate ships, and the one steering is called the Captain.”
Sorey nods, eyes glimmering with excitement.
Mikleo continues, chest puffed, “And he gets to wear this special hat. Oh! And all of his guys fight with swords and stuff.” Mikleo finally understood something that Sorey did not, so explaining it like he was the expert filled him with delight.
Sorey begins climbing the ladder, fumbling with carrying his wooden swords. They normally sparred with them when they pretended to be knights, but pirates? Any new setting meant an adventure, even if the pieces were all technically the same.
“Pirates go looking with their ship for treasure, like gold!”
“And diamonds?”
“Yeah! And rubies and emeralds!” Mikleo answers proudly.
“Rubies?” Sorey quirks an eyebrow, but Mikleo disregards the inquisitive tone.
“They want treasure even if they have to steal it, so people is usually scared of them.” He turns the pretend wheel to his right, giggling to himself, “Careful, Sorey! There’s bad winds ahead!”
The entire day was spent teaching Sorey the ways of the pirates so that the next day they could wake up early and don their makeshift pirate hats together. At first, they fought over who would be the captain and who was deemed the subordinate, but Sorey decided they should switch every day.
The first day, Mikleo wore his captain hat proudly (misshapen though it was) and ordered Sorey around. The next morning, though, Sorey would get his revenge and send Mikleo to sleep in the belly of the ship, which was technically just the section underneath the top level of their wooden playground structure.
By candlelight before bed, each boy would plot out the next day, drawing makeshift maps for treasure hunting and practicing sword fighting with their bedposts. Occasionally, the maid would have to enter to make sure they were actually going to bed because she would hear the clunking of the wooden sword against the bed late into the night. With the crudely drawn maps came the subordinate’s new task of cartographer, which each boy found more entertaining than other tasks. One brunette would design a map, and the next day, he would assign it to his pirate assistant so they could discover the treasure together- it became a challenge to try and stump the assistant and keep them from finding the imaginary jewels.
“Off the deck with you! Walk the plank!” Mikleo cries one cloudy day.
“But Mikleo! What did I do wrong?”
“You ate half of my sandwich! Jump into the ocean!” Mikleo nudges Sorey’s back with the sword.
“Mikleo-” Sorey whines, protesting against his demise to the violent seas or worse- to the Kraken.
“Oh, fine…” Mikleo gives up before Sorey can even reach the edge of the deck; he can never punish Sorey when he begins to whine. He adjusts his pirate hat before Sorey wraps his arms around him, embracing him in a grateful hug.
“I should send you to the prickleboars instead,” Mikleo pouts.
“But we’re in the middle of the ocean!” Sorey retorts, releasing Mikleo to take hold of the map for today, changing the subject. “We should be about five days away from this island, captain!”
They spend their theoretical five days arguing about the passage of time and sharpening their swords until high noon, the sun beating down onto their hats.
“I see land!”
“No, you dummy! It’s ‘Land ho!’” Mikleo replies, cheeks puffed out. Sorey climbs down the ladder, map in hand as he springs towards the forest. Mikleo sighs before climbing down after him, following him in the curly route he decided to walk as directed by the treasure map.
They come to the edge of the forest where the trees lean down their branches to greet them, and Sorey nearly jumps from his enthusiasm, “It’s right ‘ere!” The younger squats down onto the balls of his feet, the older soon sitting down to join him.
Sorey seems to be watching some ants before he exclaims and startles Mikleo, “Look, Mikleo!” He holds out his hand for the other brunette to see. Perched on his stubby finger was a Tiger Swallowtail, its fuzzy yellow wings opening and closing softly. Mikleo’s eyes widen, and he holds his breath, afraid to scare the butterfly off. Both of their eyes gleamed in awe until the butterfly grew tired of Sorey’s finger and fluttered away.
There really was a treasure awaiting them, after all.
Other treasures awaited them that summer. When it was raining, they would sit together in the royal library in front of the fireplace and read; however, after it rained was another adventure they anticipated. After the rain comes the mud, and with the mud came the frogs and toads that explore the newly dampened landscape. Like the toads, the two boys would also open the front doors and walk towards the forest to watch the creatures that came out from the storm. Just a few tree lengths into the edge of the forest lay a creek, flowing gently but wider than usual after the rainfall. Stepping carefully as not to slip into the creek, they creep closer to find their intended targets.
“Sorey, do you see any?” and Sorey would shake his head. They would squat there at the edge of the creek near the mushrooms, eyes peeled to watch for movement. Every couple seconds, Mikleo would look up to catch a glimpse of Sorey, who was inspecting the ground intensely. His bangs would cover some of his green eyes from this angle, Mikleo noticed.
“Ah! There’s one!” A dash of movement in bursts, a brown color nearly matching the soil beneath itself- Mikleo dashes his hands out to cup the creature, and it nearly hops out of his grasp.
“Cool! I wanna see!” Sorey exclaims, turning to look into Mikleo’s hands. He brings a finger to its back, feeling the bumpiness of the small baby toad. “It’s slimy…” he explains with a hint of disgust. Mikleo merely giggles, watching the toad’s tiny abdomen expand and contract before releasing it back to the mud.
“My turn! I found a red one!” Sorey says happily, grasping at the fleeing toad. “No! Come back!” Mikleo chuckles again, watching Sorey’s attempts at capturing the escapee. “Ah, he’s too far now. Anyway, look, Mikleo!” Sorey digs a bit into the mud with his fingers, pulling out what he had his eyes on. “Look how big this worm is!”
“Ew, Sorey!” Mikleo drew back a bit, eyes squinting. “He’s all wiggly!”
“That’s gotta be, like, ten centimeters!”
“Sorey!” Mikleo whines, getting onto his feet and stepping back. Sorey only giggles, following his friend with the squirming discovery between his fingers. Whether it was a beetle, butterfly, toad or worm, they shared every fascinating discovery with one another.