Summer Vacation
Here it is! My submission for @sinswap! I had about a dozen different ideas, but I ultimately had to settle on some silliness with the Three Misfits. Please enjoy! I cannot wait to see who I am paired with, and what that person comes up with for this story. This was incredibly fun, so thank you to the organizers!
It was the first day of summer vacation, and Gilthunder was already bored.
At the end of July, the boys and girls in the academy were given six weeks of rest and relaxation. Six glorious weeks of swimming, games, exploring, fun. Six wonderful weeks of sleeping in late and staying up later, chasing fireflies and ladybugs, playing ball in the street, climbing trees, jumping in the river. Six amazing weeks without constant adult supervision, without history and geography, without essays and training and maths.
But things were a bit different now. He was eight, and eight-year-olds did not catch frogs or use play swords or chase one another in tag. Eight-year-olds would be enrolling in the early Holy Knight training in the fall, and Gilthunder felt as though he needed to be prepared for it. So when his cousin Griamore showed up to ask him to go fishing, Gilthunder refused. “We need to be serious, Griamore,” he scolded his cousin. “Childhood is now behind us.”
“It is?” asked Griamore with a frown. “Damn.”
“Don’t be vulgar,” Gil chided him. “We’re not allowed to say bad words.”
The two ended up lounging a bit on the terrace outside the castle kitchens, watching birds fly by and pick at the scraps tossed out by the cook. “This is boring,” Gilthunder sighed, deciding that adulthood was not for him after all.
“Can we go fishing now?” Griamore asked, but Gilthunder shook his head. “Let’s go patrol,” he said, standing. “Maybe we can find that kid again, the one who gave us trouble before.”
“Yeah!” the other boy shouted, so off they went, hurrying through the castle at breakneck speed. At last they cleared the open gates and entered the city proper, weaving their way expertly down the narrow cobblestone streets. It was a hot day, but luckily not humid, and the sellers lined every inch of Liones with their carts, the shops with windows and doors open, the taverns readying their signs with the day’s luncheon options. People milled about, going about their business, and now with the start of summer break, children moved in packs or carted younger siblings around, playing and running and sniffing around the candy shops.
Gilthunder raised his chin a bit, trying to exude an air of authority. He was the son of the Grand Master, which practically made him second-in-command. His eyes darted over the children who ran around them, smiling appreciatively at their games. He looked fondly over a group of boys, around six or seven, picking sticks for a game of Steal the Broom. Ah, to be so carefree.
“Where do we look?” Griamore asked, and Gilthunder paused for a moment. “His dad is a blacksmith on the east side, right? So let’s head there.”
Together they struck towards the eastern end of the city, keeping their eyes sharp for the boy they had encountered less than two weeks ago. He had been scrawny and dirty with a mouth much too big for his looks. Gil had caught him stealing a bicycle, but he wasn’t stealing it he was borrowing it, as the boy had shouted back at him. As the son of the Great Holy Knight, Gil knew it was his duty to apprehend the kid; but that had proven harder than it looked.
