One Winter’s Day
(Told from Myne’s perspective. Originally posted on Miya Kazuki’s Narou page.)
Dad didn’t have work today, so he and Tuuli had gone to gather parues. I would have only been dead weight, so I was staying at the gate to help Otto with his math work, as per usual.
Noon passed. Parue gathering ended when the sun reached its highest point, so a bunch of people came trudging back from the forest. The guards were always busy making sure nobody suspicious attempted to sneak in among the returning crowd, which meant Otto had to go out to help. I continued scratching away at my stone slate in the meantime, and soon enough, Dad poked his head into the room.
“Time to go, Myne.”
“Where’s Tuuli?”
“She went ahead with Ralph and Lutz. We gotta hurry.”
Dad picked me up, placed me on his shoulders, then carried me out of the room and away from the gate. He still refused to let me walk when he was in a rush; I was so slow that my fate was to be carried whenever busy adults had somewhere to be. He strode so quickly that we soon caught up to Tuuli and the others.
“Hi Tuuli. How many did you get this time?” I asked.
“Three! All thanks to Dad coming with me!” she replied. The basket sitting atop the sleigh she was pulling did indeed contain three parues.
“And you, Lutz? Ralph?”
“We got seven. We almost got eight, but we just weren’t quick enough.”
We continued our journey home, talking all the while. Eventually we left the main road and entered an alleyway. There were several people arguing up ahead.
“Bleh. Had to be on my day off...” Dad grumbled as he put me down. “I gotta check this out. Tuuli, go ahead in case I need to go back and tell the gate. Myne, stay here. Sorry, Lutz, but could you stick with her?”
“I can, but...” Lutz trailed off and turned to his brothers. Zasha, the oldest, responded with a nod.
“Sure. Why not?” he said. “We’re not gonna stay with ya though.”
“Thanks,” Dad said to Zasha. He unwound his scarf and then wrapped it around Lutz and me. “Don’t leave his side no matter what, alright, Myne?”
“Couldn’t even if I wanted to,” I replied, patting a hand against the scarf practically binding me to Lutz.
Dad rushed over to the rowdy people, showing remarkable agility for someone wading through snow, and demanded to know what they were doing.
“Right,” Ralph said. “We’re off.”
No sooner had Ralph and the others gone than everything went really quiet. I stared aimlessly in the direction Dad had gone, hoping he would return soon, and it was then that I noticed Lutz was doing the same.
“Sorry, Lutz. It must suck having to wait in the cold with me like this.”
“Nah. The sun’s out today. I’m more worried about you catching a cold,” he replied, glancing down at the scarf as he started shuffling over a little. A smile crept onto my face as I realized he was moving to shield me from the wind.
“I’m fine, really. Dad’s scarf is super warm. You’re warming up too, right?”
“Maybe.”
We exchanged a smile. Dad reappeared again a brief moment later, having managed to settle the issue with his mediation skills.
“Sorry about that,” he said. “Let’s get home. We’re having parue cakes tonight.”
Author’s Note: This is a short story I thought up after seeing the illustration Suzuka-sama drew for New Year’s Day in 2016.
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