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The sky was gorgeous. There wasn’t a cloud to be seen, but instead the sky was sprinkled with shimmering stars. It was the perfect night for a fire, and that’s what the travelers were up to. Partitio and Agnea had started a campfire after a few failed attempts, but nothing distinguished their high spirits.
They all sat around the fire making small talk. At one point Agnea turned beside her and addressed Castti.
“Castti? I’m just curious, how old are you?”
Castti turned to her, confused by the sudden question. She raised a questioning eyebrow that appeared offended to Agnea. The dancer quickly shook her hands.
“I-I-I’m not insultin’ ya or anythin’!” Her cheeks grew hot, earning chuckles from Hikari and Partitio. “Seriously! I just thought since we’ve all been together for quite some time now, we know each other pretty well. But I still know none of your ages.”
Castti leaned back on her hands and smiled. “That’s very true, Agnea. Well to answer your question, I’m 29 years old.”
Agnea’s eyebrows shot up. “29?! You look so much younger!”
Castti chuckled and moved a few stray hairs from her face. “You’re too kind.”
While the other two laughed, Ochette cocked her head and stopped munching on her jerky. Beastling years were different from human years, so she tried doing the math in your head. But she didn’t know the correct calculation.
“Ma, you said you were 29? That’s pretty young compared to beastling years.”
“Oh? How old am I in beastling years?” Castti asked. Ochette pouted while trying to calculate Castti’s age in her head. It didn’t work out, and she ended up groaning and throwing her jerky.
“Graaah! Mathematics is not my strong suit!”
Temenos startled when he noticed a jerky flying at him. He yelped and caught it, getting the juices all over his sleeves.
“Wonderful,” he muttered under his breath while holding the jerky at arms length.
“O-oops,” Ochette said. Partitio burst into laughter at the utter look of disdain on the cleric’s face. I guess eastern folk don’t like to get dirty, he thought. Ochette pounced up and bit into the jerky that Temenos held out. She then ran back to her spot beside Partitio, tail wagging.
“How old are you in beastling years, Ochette?” Osvald asked. He was in the process of transferring beastling years to human years.
“Me? I’m 120. But the humans in the human village say I’m 20.” She sighed dramatically. “I can’t tell if it's a fact or if they’re calling me a baby.”
“So, beastling years are 6 times as much as human years,” Osvald concluded.
“That must mean I’m 147,” Castti laughed.
“So young,” Throné commented.
“147?! You look so much younger!” Ochette marveled. Agnea laughed, as she thought the same thing. She turned to Hikari next.
“What about you, Hikari?”
“21 years old,” he stated simply. Everyone marveled at him. He certainly looked his age, but he had a heavy duty on his shoulders of being King of Ku. He’d fought countless battles and led an ambush on a kingdom to end warfare all at the age of 21. His friends respected him deeply.
“You’ve experienced a lot in a short span of time. Not to mention you rule a whole kingdom,” Throné voiced aloud. Hikari smiled.
“It all depends on the way you were raised. I’ve grown quite used to war, but being king will put a stop to it so others won’t have to grow up the same way I did. A child shouldn’t have to grow used to blood and violence.”
Throné smiled, though the smile never reached her eyes. From her seat on a log, she rested her elbows on her knees and rested her chin on her hand. “You’ve got that right.”
They shared an understanding gaze. Everyone knew of Throné’s past of being a Blacksnake. She’d been forced to kill at a young age, and had done so ever since.
“How about you, Throné? How old are you?”
Throné stopped for a moment. “I’m still trying to figure that out,” she laughed. Everyone stared at her so she explained. “We never had birthdays, and neither Mother nor Father ever told me my age.”
“...”
“If I had to guess…” Throné started, counting numbers on her fingers. There was a moment of silence as she tried to add up years, using certain events that occurred within about a year of each other. Osvald and Temenos counted her fingers past 20.
“I’d say 23,” she said finally. Hikari was clearly awed by this. Like himself, Throné had experienced a lot of things that a “normal” person shouldn’t have to grow up with.
Partitio leaned forward with a smile. “That means we’re about the same age! Ain’t that pretty cool.” He grinned at his friend. “I’m just a year older than ya’.” They shared a smile from across the fire. She stared into the fire but her senses told her something was off. She looked to Temenos, whose eyes quickly flitted away from hers. He pretended to be busy with his book. Weird, she thought.
“And you’re the head of an industry that’s changing the world,” Castti commented, shaking her head in amazement. “You all are truly incredible.”
Everybody chuckled. It was Castti’s nature to raise people’s spirits and find the good in them. And she truly was impressed with the people she’d been sharing adventures and journeys with for quite some time. The thought sparked her next question.
“And how old is our future superstar over here?”
Agnea’s cheeks turned pink and she waved her hand towards Castti. “Castti, please. I still have a long way to go.” Castti nodded her head.
“I’m 18.”
“18?!” Ochette exclaimed. Agnea jumped and turned to her, confused. The beastling was staring at her, lips parted, as if trying to calculate something in her mind. Agnea gave her a questioning look.
“Well, erm,” Ochette muttered. She raised her eyebrows and gave Agnea a certain look. Agnea cocked her head, not understanding. The comprehension sunk in shortly after Ochette’s eyes wandered over the dancer’s figure. Her face took on a darker shade of red.
“O-Ochette!” Agnea exclaimed, touching her hot cheeks. She couldn’t help but laugh a bit. “You sound just like Palla!” They heard Castti and Throné laughing softly, while the guys looked utterly confused. The girls decided to keep it to themselves.
“Take the compliment, Aggie!” Ochette laughed.
“I-If you say so,” Agnea sighed. She turned to Osvald quickly before anybody could comment about her further.
“What about you, Osvald?”
Osvald pushed his glasses up. The fire reflected off of them, hiding his eyes. He didn’t see the point in knowing somebody’s age. People tended to judge one another based on a simple measurement of years. Then again, these people didn’t seem like the type to judge. He shrugged to himself, feeling sorry for doubting them too quickly.
“38 and counting.” Everyone nodded. They guessed as much. “I believe I’m 8 years older than you, Temenos.”
Temenos looked up from his book and smiled. “Your observations are correct, Professor.” He went back to looking at his book, but noticed that nobody had commented on his age the way they did everybody else. Curious, he looked over his book and realized everybody was staring. Mouths agape.
“Have I said something wrong?” He asked hesitantly. He wondered why everybody was surprised by this. He assumed his attitude and knowledge exceeded that of a 30 year old.
“Hold on… you’re not my age?” Partitio asked in shock.
“...? No, I’m not,” Temenos replied. So that’s it. He looks young for his age. The cleric decided to take that as a compliment.
“Here I thought I was older than you,” Castti said. She leaned back on a log, contemplating life itself.
“Do I really look that much younger?” Temenos asked, taken aback by the way everybody was acting. He heard laughing from across the fire, and realized Throné and Ochette were stealing whispers. Throné caught his eye and smirked.
“I’m sorry, Detective, but you have a serious case of baby face.”
Both Agnea and Partitio snorted and burst out laughing. Hikari raised his eyebrows in amusement at her remark.
Temenos felt his ears go red but tried to remain cool. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means you look like a baby, Temmy!” Ochette snorted and swatted Throné’s leg. Temenos cleared his throat and looked down at his book.
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“Trust me, you’ll be thankful once you hit 40,” Osvald chimed. Everybody agreed and laughed. Temenos smiled and agreed as well, though he wasn’t feeling all too superior at the moment. Friends could build you up just as quickly as they could tear you down.
-
“Osvald, mind if I ask you a question?” Temenos asked. They were the only two still awake. The fire had been reduced to embers, and instead they lit a lantern. They were sitting against a tree reading books.
“Go ahead,” Osvald replied.
“What was the age gap between you and your wife?”
Osvald looked up and turned to Temenos. He was looking over the horizon as if contemplating something. Clearing his throat, the scholar thought for a moment.
“Rita was 26 when she passed. I was 33.”
Temenos eyed Osvald with hidden relief.
“So, that’s a 7 year age gap if I’m not mistaken.”
Osvald nodded. He watched Temenos carefully. He seemed a little more at ease than he was just a minute ago. If he asked Osvald a question about age gaps, he must have been going over age gaps in his mind. The scholar mulled this over in his mind. If Temenos seemed hesitant and a bit down in the dumps before asking the question, but relaxed after he heard the answer…. Hm. The answer was a 7 year age difference. The big age gaps in the group involving Temenos were him and Osvald, which was 8 years. Next was him and Partitio, which would be 6. Then him and Throné, which would be….
Oh.
Osvald smirked at this new knowledge about Temenos. He was starting to think Agnea and Partitio were right about that strange duo. Closing his book, Osvald stood up and brushed the dirt from his pants.
“If that’s all, I think I’ll turn in for the night.” He headed towards his sleeping mat, but turned while still being out of earshot of the others. “There’s nothing wrong with a 7 year age gap, if that’s what you wanted to know,” He said. Then he turned and disappeared into the shadows.
Temenos sat, staring into the night. What was Osvald getting at?
“Typical scholar manners,” he told himself. Yup, definitely.
-
After a few more minutes alone in the night, Temenos decided to head back to camp. He scooped up his book that he had put down a while back and rose to his feet. He could see the fire-lit sky in the near distance.
When he approached the circle of his sleeping comrades, his eyes wandered over their still figures until they landed on a particular nest of black hair. He developed a small smile and cocked his head. She looks so cute and innocent when she’s asleep. Nothing like her brash and dismissive personality when she's conscious.
He mulled over his thoughts one more time before going to sleep. All this time knowing Throné and he had never bothered to ask for her age. She seemed much more mature for her age.
23…
That’s a 7 year age gap. He wasn’t judgemental of couples with large age gaps, but he himself had always been more open to couples the smaller the age gap was. It made sense. Being with somebody your age means it's more likely you’ve shared similar life experiences, and have the same range of knowledge and maturity.
But despite their age difference, he and Throné were much alike in a sense. They understood each other’s jokes, worries, and even their threats made to enemies. Temenos had always been an independent man, but lately he had felt different. Usually he’d feel hesitant to share so much of himself with a person, but with Throné…
“Do I… ?” he asked himself quietly. He stared down at her sleeping figure. With the way he had just been thinking, he couldn’t deny it.
Temenos looked up at the stars. The sky was clearer than glass, and the specks of light littered it. He saw two stars that shined brighter than any of their neighbors, right above his head.
Okay… I’m getting ahead of myself. Right?