Forestal Sky

~~~🧑‍🔧~~~

"We were… we are five siblings," Rei began. "Kaede, Mei, Yūta, Haruto, and I was the eldest."

The boy’s face softened instantly. Everything was still far too recent to share, but Leonoris, after revealing she was half-demon and showing her vulnerability, had given him the strength he needed to speak.

"My father died in the war, and my mother soon followed when she found out. We were left penniless, on the streets. We had nothing. We slept under bridges, stole leftovers, ran from the rain. At ten years old, I had to steal food to feed them all, even my baby brother who was just a year old. I tried to make them laugh with anything. I told them I would invent a machine to catch clouds and squeeze them into bowls, so we’d have hot water and forget about the cold. And when I was lucky, I’d find a scrap of metal I could improvise with."

Leonoris smiled with her eyes, full of compassion.

"One rainy day, Gorō found us. I tried using a retractable claw I had made with my own hands to steal a bottle of milk from his workshop door. But somehow he was there. I ran until I couldn't see him anymore. But when I reached the bridge where we lived he appeared out of nowhere. I wanted to fight him to make him leave us alone. But all it took were three words.

‘Come with me.’ The memory filled Rei’s chest and eyes with warmth.

"Gorō was a ‘smith of special works.’ An inventor, you could say. And there was something in that claw, that damned claw, that caught his attention. He didn’t ask questions. He brought us into his workshop, gave us rice and soup, and ordered us to bathe. Then he said: ‘If you’re going to stay, you’ll have to work. But first, you’ll eat and sleep.’"

"That… Gorō," Leonoris said, almost reverently.

"He was my father," Rei nodded. "Not by blood, but in every other way. He taught me how to measure, to listen to metal, not to waste nails, to protect my hands." He looked at his own, calloused, with pride. "Sometimes he’d get angry and smack my knuckles with the brush handle whenever I tried to take shortcuts. But when I told him I wanted to make a launcher that would send me flying through the air… he laughed, called me crazy, and the very next day he brought me the best steel he could find." Rei’s smile reflected sadness, but also warmth. "Things weren’t easy. He had lost his wife, and even though life was getting better for him, suddenly he had five more mouths to feed. When there was nothing to eat, he pretended to fall asleep and left his bowl to the side so I could steal it. He never admitted it, but I know he could’ve caught me if he had wanted."

The laugh that escaped him was the kind of laugh that tries to keep tears away. Leonoris listened with the devotion of a disciple.

"I gave my siblings my word that I would take care of them," he went on. "That we would never sleep under a bridge again. God, how I wanted to keep that promise. But that night…"

Leonoris took his hand without realizing it. Rei didn’t pull away.

"Do you think…" he continued. "Do you think Gorō is being watched over by Solaria?"

Leonoris was startled, blinking for a moment.

"Why do you say that? Did he…"

Rei nodded, and Leonoris’s heart skipped.

"He was shot," Rei said, pulling the flintlock pistol from his holster. "That same night, and with this very gun. I want to believe that someone like him never truly ceases to exist."

Leonoris looked at him with a compassion that wasn’t pity, but warmth. Then, a flicker of doubt crossed her brow.

"He was shot… before you?" she asked, more to herself than to him. Her gaze dropped to the ground.

"Why do you ask?"

"No, nothing. I’m sorry." She shook her head. "I’m so sorry. I can’t imagine all you’ve been through since that night."

Rei, as always, escaped with humor.

"Don’t worry. It’s not like you killed me with a balance falling on my head," he joked.

Leonoris flinched with horror, until she caught the tone and gave him a light punch on the arm.

"Don’t joke about that!"

"If I didn’t joke, I probably would’ve broken by now," Rei said, his smile a bridge.

She exhaled, surrendering to that way of surviving. Then she blushed faintly, as if remembering something else.

"Maybe…" she admitted. "Maybe, ever since you said Gorō adopted you, I’ve felt… more empathy for you. I had found someone else who felt the same way."

"I understand," Rei said. "And thank you for supporting me. But I want you to know that I support you." He looked straight at her. "I don’t care if you’re Kounarian, demon, or whatever. What matters is who you are. And so far, you’ve been the best companion I could ask for in this world."

Leonoris opened her mouth, then closed it. She couldn’t answer right away. A new brightness, more timid than sad, rose in her eyes. Rei, as if silence weighed too heavily, added:

"Besides, those horns are pretty and match your hair," he said with suicidal candor. "They even make you more beautiful than you already were."

The forest grew very still. Rei took an eternity to process his own words.

"What did I just say to her?"

When his mind finally caught up with his body, he turned away, horrified by his own honesty.

Leonoris was a tomato. A tomato with wide green eyes, barely able to stop herself from fainting.

"Idiot!" she burst out, giving him a tiny punch on the shoulder that couldn’t have hurt even a leaf. "Don’t say something like that right now!"

"Sorry, I’m sorry!" Rei held his head in his hands, regretful and amused all at once.

They looked at each other and laughed, melting into an intimate laughter. Without realizing it, their hands ended up entwined, squeezing a silent 'don’t leave'.

Silence followed, both with much to process in their hearts.

"Thank you," Leonoris said, with a simplicity that almost hurt.

Rei nodded once more. The sky above the treetops had grown darker, but seemed to want to give them more time alone.

"No one outside the castle must know," Leonoris said, not afraid, only clear. "At least… not yet."

"I know," Rei said. "It’s your story. You decide how and when it’s told."

She looked at him with unadorned gratitude. Then, she leaned her forehead against his shoulder affectionately, letting her horn brush him. Rei mirrored the gesture, happy. He felt that it symbolized he had earned her trust.

"I know you’ll defeat the pirates. Your heart is too big to lose against them."

Rei barely managed a chuckle.

"We’ll defeat them," he murmured, gazing through the branches. "The pirates, and bad luck too."

"Bad luck follows me," she replied, half-joking, half-serious.

"Then let it follow me too," Rei said. "And let it grow bored, because I won’t let it hurt us anymore."

Leonoris laughed softly against his shoulder, a tiny laugh that nonetheless rang like a bell. They stayed like that for a while longer, listening to the water, the forest, an owl testing its call.

Rei couldn’t help but feel something had changed after that conversation. "She no longer seems only my magic teacher, nor the Princess of Solaria. She is my companion in this world. And even…"

He shook his head quickly. He couldn’t think of that yet, not while pirates loomed. Something in the sky caught his attention, and Leonoris felt the movement.

"Ah, the first star is out," she said, comfortable at his side.

Rei nodded once more, absorbed.

"What a beautiful star. Just like you, Leonoris," he would have said, though he didn’t want to cause another stir. Without knowing why, he thought of Gorō, and found comfort in feeling that this star meant, from his father, what he had wanted to tell Leonoris:

"Here I am, and here I will remain.'