Chapter Text
At 14, Keyleth’s world centered around nothing but animals, plants, and her dad. She was obsessed with nature—even more so with sketching it all. Her thoughts, when asked about it, were always the same. “Nature is the real artist. I just like to appreciate it!”
Her dad, though, seemed to want her to eventually find interest in a more practical hobby. Like entrepreneurship, he had said once. But he didn’t mind indulging in her, and she would certainly take advantage of it. Which is why most of her summer break each year was spent on her back porch, filling up page after page of the wildlife that she adored.
And this was exactly where she was found one cool-ish evening in mid June. “Hey, bud, why don’t you go give these cookies to our new neighbors?” Korrin asks, gently taking the sketch pad out of Keyleth’s hands and replacing it with a tray of what seemed (and smelled) like chocolate chip cookies.
She stares at the tray for a second before glancing up at her father, who chuckles before patting her on the shoulder. “Only one, okay?” She smiles before snatching one and shoving it into her mouth.
-
Keyleth wasn’t even aware they were getting new neighbors. It felt random, and definitely worth mentioning—especially in a small rural town near the mountains like Zephrah—but, then again, maybe she just hadn’t been paying attention when it was brought up.
She ruminates over this for a second before her thoughts switch back to the butterfly she’d been drawing, walking on autopilot to the house that was two doors down from hers. Even if her father hadn’t given directions, it was pretty obvious with all the boxes and moving van in front of it.
The closer she got, the clearer she could hear yelling coming from inside the house. Whoever it was sounded incredibly mad. Her dad never yelled—and the other few important people in her life didn’t either—so hearing someone hold so much anger in their voice made her feel slightly nervous.
She also noticed two people sitting on the doorstep who looked to be around her age, if not a year or two older, with dark brown hair and slightly sun-kissed skin. They seemed to be discussing something, probably something regarding the yelling based off of their postures and facial expressions. They stopped entirely when they noticed her walking toward them.
One of them, the girl, stands up. “Who are you?”
Keyleth falters for a moment. She sounds anxious and guarded, like Keyleth might somehow harm her or, from the looks of it, her twin brother. She tries smiling to ease the tension.
“I’m sorry if this is a bad time.. I can, uh, come back later? If you want?”
The boy stands up then, placing a hand on the girl’s shoulder, seemingly to calm her. “No, it’s fine. Are you one of our neighbors?” She nods, lifting up the tray of cookies slightly.
“I brought these. To welcome you to our neighborhood. There’s not a lot of people who live here, so I..” Keyleth pauses. Technically, she didn’t even know they were arriving, but they didn’t need to know that. “Well, my dad and I, wanted to welcome you!”
The boy takes the tray of cookies from her hands gently. “They smell amazing. Thank you..?” He lifted an eyebrow.
“Oh! I’m sorry! My name is Keyleth.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Keyleth,” both say at the same time. The girl says it quieter, though, so maybe she was the more timid one of the two.
“I’m Vax’ildan, or Vax, and this is my twin sister, Vex’ahlia,” he pauses. “You can call her Vex.”
Keyleth watches as Vex shoots her brother a glare that could make flowers wilt, but he doesn’t seem to care. “Well, thank you again for the food. We’ll enjoy it,” Vax adds with a small smile.
“I hope you guys get settled in nicely,” Keyleth offers. They both snort, which makes her giggle softly. “I also hope I’ll see you two around. You guys seem pretty fun!”
Keyleth hears one more snort as she turns to walk away, but doesn’t bother to look back to see which twin did it. She wasn’t lying when she said she hoped she’d see them around, really.. but she knew, realistically, she’d probably end up forgetting to talk to them again.