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The bracken folded gently into the soup of mud and ribbon-like fern fronds under teenage Connie Kiramman's boots, last nights rain having made it pliable enough to emerge from the mire once her weight was gone rather than snapping. The final target was certainly proving elusive. So much so that she was starting to suspect that the course designers had in fact forgotten to reset it for her run.
She glanced down at her watch, rubbing the flecks of mud obscuring the numbers away. She still had ten minutes before she slipped into second place. Twelve before bronze. The flutter of nerves in her stomach was an engine, not a brake. Her frown was tempered with upturned lips. She reminded herself to scan the full three hundred and sixty degrees around herself. 'Slowly' her mother Caitlyn's voice coached. She examined the whole environment as the family matriarch and Sherrif had taught her to do in her years of practice.
Striding on, she emerged from the thicket, the shore of the lake directly in front of her. It glittered sporadically as the sun peaked through the clouds with the coquettish spirit of spring. It would certainly have caught the eye of her artistic littlest sister, Vanessa and her own on any other day. In this moment it was rather interfering with visibility.
Connie darted around, warm indigo ponytail almost slapping her around the face. Then she heard it. An incongruous metallic click issued from the shelter of a willow tree that grew on a lake island barely bigger than its root base. Spinning around she caught sight of the telltale red and white among the deep green and brown. Clean lines standing out starkly against the waves and curves of the landscape around them. There it was! The last target.
She staggered backwards. If she had realised it was there one foot closer she would have had this point docked. 'Bit much, isn't it?' She reflected. So many confounding elements what with the water and the tendrils of leaves swaying in front of it. Still she had it in sight now. Raising her rifle with a roll of her broad shoulders she took aim at the point from which the colours radiated. Trigger pulled, the whistle of monogrammed bullet whipping like a released greyhound from her weapon.
With a satisfying 'thunk' the target fell forward. The flutter of provisional triumph bubbled in her stomach. By her watch, gold was hers.
All care abandoned, she made her way back through the path she had taken to the competition ground's lodge. She couldn't wait to see her family's faces.
///
"Has she done it yet?" Matilda asked Vi for the umpteenth time, looking through the trees in front of the lodge through the spyglass Caitlyn had brought for herself but had lost access to almost straight away.
"You'll know the second we do Tills, relax." Vi ruffled hair identical to her own "Just gotta wait for-oh..."
Geraldenna, a stocky black furred Yordle woman, approached with a clipboard half the size of herself, blue eyes twinkling. She looked up to Cait "just recieved the radio signal, Sherrif. Like mother like daughter it seems!"
"She's won?" Cait clarified.
"With several minutes to spare. Most impressive! I'll let the engraver know." The judge turned on her heel and made her way back to the table, weaving her way through other families. Cait noticed with satisfaction that not all of them were dressed in the classic Piltovian style. The gregarious Geraldenna was in the process of informing a Zaunite lad he had placed either second or third. His father and a girl who could only be his sister threw arms around him in an affectionate headlock, causing his rifle to clatter to the floorboards and a yelp of half hearted protest.
Cait turned back to her own family, her heart light. Smiles blossomed across the face of every assembled Kiramman. Matilda gave a whoop. Her father turned to Vanessa with a warm "I had a feeling she would". Her wife gathered her in a glad hug, shooting a beaming look at her face and a peck at her cheek before craining her neck around the broad porch supports, powder blue eyes open wide as her smile.
Connie burst from the thicket, rifle swinging wildly from it's leather strap. "Did I make it?" She hollared brightly as she took the steps in a deerlike leap.
"Nah. Last place. Tough luck kiddo." Vi attempted to joke, the effect ruined completely by the roundness of her cheeks.
"Oh ha ha Ma, very funny!" Connie rolled her eyes, slotting into Vi's waiting bear hug with a squeeze.
"Gold, Connie!" Cait told her over Vi's shoulder "Well done! This is such a challenging course too. The variation in terrain alone is enough to-"
"COOOON! YOU WON!" Tills bulldozed through the beginning of their mother's no doubt detailed analysis, attaching herself to Connie's middle like an enthusiastic barnacle, wobbling both her sister and Ma on their feet and covering her dress with transferred dirt in the process. Nessa swiped her ever present camera off the nearest table, heading over to her sisters at a considerably more sedate pace "Congrats Connie."
"Thanks, Ness Bess. You gonna get my picture?"
With a small smile, Vanessa tapped the lens protector on the front of the compact contraption "of course!"
The next few minutes were a blur of satisfied hugs and happy chatter about the letter that would be dispatched to Aunt Pow at the earliest opportunity and the possible placement for the trophy nestled in the crook of Connie's arm. "Next to Cait's surely?" Smiled Caleb with an arched eyebrow. Connie's best friend had been near deafened by Matilda's enthusiastic announcement that Connie had comfortably won the competition as soon as he arrived.
"I'd like that. What you think, Mum?" Connie folded an arm around her.
"I like it very much." Cait planted a proud kiss into her hair, drawing back sharply with a tiny 'ow'.
"You ok?" Connie's brow creased.
Cait carefully reached in to her eldest daughter's hair and extracted a twig from it's depths "Bramble." She explained "Rather an occupational hazard."
"Come on then!" Tobias rose from his chair again "let's all have a picture!"
Nessa stood in front of the family, unscrewing the lens protector with the practiced ease of a true hobbyist.
"Here, Ness, I'll take it." Caleb smiled down at her. "Might be a bit more wobbly than yours but I'll do my best to make it wall worthy. "
"It's ok. Uncle Ekko changed it so you only need one hand, see?" The girl explained, showing him the stabiliser clipped to the base.
"Clever!" Caleb nodded approvingly, taking the camera in his good hand.
"He is." Agreed the youngest Kiramman solemnly.
"Come on then!" Vi beckoned Vanessa over "No Con, you need to be in the middle. Hold it up, that's it!"
"Alright three...two...one!" Caleb called, pressing the button indicated to him. A couple of clicks later and the moment was committed to the roll of film winding in the camera's innards and to the latest volume of the family album.
"Thankyou Caleb. Shall I get one of you with Connie?" Cait asked. Photos taken for posterity and for postage, Vi, Connie and Matilda lead the charge to the throughly decent buffet spread laid on by the Twin Cities Competitive Shooting Committee. Tobias and Caleb followed suit, chatting aimably. Cait glanced back towards the youngest of their merry party. Nessa was frowning in deep concentration, powder blue eyes fixed on the lens protector she was attaching back onto her pride and joy, lip between her teeth.
"You coming for food, little love?" Cait asked, a tiny crease of her own forming between her neat eyebrows.
Nessa seemed to start out of her trance, clearing her throat "Coming Mum!" Strap eventually adjusted to her satisfaction, Vanessa caught up to her mother's waiting hand, then the rest of the family.
///
"Oh dammit!"
Vanessa swung down the short practice rifle, glaring at the abysmal spread of pellet holes peppering the targets fixed to one of the garden walls, tucked discreetly round the back of the mansion. Both her sisters and Mum managed to keep theirs comfortably within the targets. Most of her shots seemed to hit the stretches of painted brick in between. "Come on, please! Just one!" She muttered, raising the rifle again.
Again the pellets went wide.
A breeze whistled through the trees. The trilling song of birds adding to the usually serene atmosphere of the garden. Ordinarily, Nessa adored it. Birds were one of her favourite things to recreate in pencil and capture with her camera and, considering they were so far within the city a pleasing variety visited their trees here. In this moment, though, she felt they were mocking her. As much to say 'we know we don't have to worry about being hunted by you! Look at you!'
The wall in front of her blurred behind a film of frustration. Swinging the strap over her shoulder, she threw the practice weapon down into the grass with a sound somewhere between a cry and a rumbling grunt. She thumped her way back along the path, flushed face fixed on the ground, a thunderhead of rumination.
She didn't even register the presence of a tall figure walking swiftly in the other direction. She found herself practicality headbutting her mother.
"Nessa careful there! Was that you at the wall? You know we don't practice by ourse-" the rest of the sentence ground to a halt as soon as she looked at her properly "Nessa? What's wrong?"
"I...just...I can't do it." She said, voice tight. One look at her mother's growing look of concern, framed by loose hair, was all it took. The well in her eyes, so like her other parent's, spilled over and she wrapped her slim arms around her waist.
"What is it? What do you mean, darling?" Her mother dropped to a crouch in front of her, brushing an escaped strand of deep blue brown behind her ear.
"I...can't shoot...I can't fight
...I cant do...just..." Nessa bit her lip "I don’t feel like I..." she stopped like an engine seizing on a cold day.
"It's ok, Little Love. Tell me. You can always tell me. You know that. Take your time, I'm listening." Her mother's gentle tone teased out Nessa's tangle of feelings like a fine comb through matted hair.
"I'm just worried that...not being able to do these things like the rest of you...not doing competitions or anything...I...am I a proper Kiramman?" Her voice wobbled.
Her mother's mouth parted, both sharp blue and clouded eyes darting around her youngest daughter's face "Oh darling! Oh my sweet girl of course you are! Has anyone said anything, have *we* said or done anything, that has made you feel this way? Please be honest with me."
Nessa shook her head emphatically "No! Just something I was thinking. I didn't wanna say because yesterday was supposed to be Connie's day but...I just felt like..." She took a deep breath "I wanna do something to make you all proud too. And I'm worried that I...Connie's perfect, Tills is...Tills and I'm just..." To Nessa's horror she couldn't help a few hiccuping sobs rising up her throat. "I'm sorry."
"Hush love. Shhh. You're ok..." Nessa suddenly found herself being held. Her mother's soothing voice, her soft hand spiralling soothingly across her shoulder blades, melted something in her. For a moment they just stayed there, the breeze wrapping around them. Eventually her Mum pulled away, hands on Nessa's biceps, her face radiating sincerity.
"Listen to me, Vanessa. You are every inch of you a Kiramman, you understand? You make us all proud every day just by being our Little Love. If you want help with practising I or Mama or even Connie would always be happy to spend time with you but-" she took a breath "we know you enjoy different things and that is and has always been fine. More than fine. We love that about you." She swallowed "never forget that as long as you live". Again her mother enfolded her. Held her. The words slowly made thier way into Nessa's small frame, trying to nest there. Her mother pulled back, struck with a sudden idea, rising and taking Nessa's hand with an encouraging gentle smile "come on, I think I have something to show you. Let's find your Mama and look together."
Sealing the grip, Nessa followed one of her parents back into the warmth of the house, curiosity replacing the insecurities that had dogged her this weekend.
//
Nessa looked between both her parents over the top of the open box with a look of awe "you kept...all of this?". The wooden chest, inlaid with gold, the shining curves like curtains across the meandering lines of the dark wood grain was stuffed full of papers and cards of all sizes.
"Of course we did!" Vi told her, an arm draped over her youngest daughters shoulders, a mirror image of her wife "We wouldn't get rid of these treasures, are you kidding? And have you been in Connie's room lately? You know the only art she has up is yours? And she tells her friends how talented you are all the time. I think she actually said 'If thats what she can do now she's gonna have her own gallery the size of the mansion one day'"
"Really?" Nessa's eyes shone as she looked at thier dear faces, not with tears now but with wonder.
"And she's not the only one. You remember Mel Merdada visited my office when she was here? She asked who had made the beautiful owl on my desk and was absolutely astonished that it was a child. You see, Vanessa Kiramman? You have gifts. Gifts we all adore and value."
"Yeah" Vi nodded, picking up a handful of sketches, greetings cards and notes from the box "we're proud of *you*, kiddo. What's in here..." she ruffled Nessa's scalp, rasing a giggle "and what's in here" she clasped her daughter's small hand in hers, pressing a caring curled fist against Nessa's chest.
"And Little Love...if you ever feel this way again...if you are ever upset about anything you don't have to hide it. I want you to talk to me or Mama or even Grandpa."
"I didn’t wanna bother you..." Nessa shifted on the rug.
"We're your family, Ness! That's our job!" Vi's eyebrows arched almost to her hairline before she instinctively drew Vanessa closer, resting her forehead against her youngest daughter's scalp "You'll never be a bother, ok?"
Nessa nodded against her chest, feeling the warmth of the love of her mothers deep within her. "Ok"
Suddenly, a voice darted down the corridor. "Hey Ness! Nessa, where are you? Need your-oh so that's where you all are!" Connie, apparently having completed her search, stopped almost comically abruptly outside her parent's bedroom door, skidding a couple of steps backwards. She took in the sight of her Mum and Ma, Nessa huddled between them. She scanned their faces with a look somewhere between curiosity and concern "ok what's going on here? You all good Ness Bess?"
"Yes, darling, we were just having a little chat about something, weren't we?" Cait gave Nessa a tiny nudge.
"Yeah. It's all good Con. What were you looking for me for?" Nessa rose out of her parent's embrace.
"Just wanted to develop some pictures and I made a complete mess of them last time. Just wondered if you could talk me through it again."
Nessa's face lit up "oh yeah I've got some to do too. Just gotta make sure we don’t keep opening the door." She took Connie's hand, propelling her towards the stairs, bound for the dedicated darkroom in the basement.
Vi and Cait turned gazes two tones of blue in the direction of the doorway two of their children had just exited. Operating on muscle memory, their bodies knitted together like threads in a tapestry. Vi's arm draped over Cait's, the tattoo adorning it's length a pattern as familiar to Cait as these rooms she had grown up in. With a sigh that only the contentment of resolution can bring, she leaned against Vi's arm.
"Poor dear Nessa. Can you believe it Vi? She asked me if she was a proper Kiramman!" She shook her head. "I just hate that she felt...like she was on the outside. Even for a moment. I never want any of them to feel that way..." the familiar crease bisected Cait's brow.
Touching a thumb to her chin in a gentle graze, Vi turned to face her wife "She's gonna be fine, Cait. She's ok. Thanks to you. Promise." Vi pressed a small kiss into her hair.
Cait nodded sharply, ever determined "More than fine. We'll make sure of it."
"Just shower her with love." Vi murmured in agreement.
"Show her what we see." Cait agreed emphatically, glancing down into the box of treasures. A wedding present they had filled with gifts from their youngest child. Together, with the care they had shown her heart today, they packed it up. They would always watch for clouds casting shadows over all of thier children but knew that the one that had visited Nessa today had dissipated, scattered by their embrace. Her chatter with Connie about the family darkroom over a late lunch that sunny afternoon became testament to that and both Cait and Vi's hearts grew light again to see it.