Homecoming

January 21st, Imperial Year 880
Thame Estate

"Shh, be quiet!"

Anya and I snuck through the tall grass, trying to keep ourselves as hidden as possible. The manor overlooked a sizable town, but it was far enough away to where I didn't concern myself with it.

The old manor where I grew up. It felt like a lifetime ago, but also just yesterday at the same time. I put my sights on the front door. Last time I saw it, I was visiting home for the summer. That was over a year ago now. Time...flies.

A dog started barking as we approached the house. Celer. It had been so long since I'd seen him. Celer started cautiously approaching us with a growl.

"Hey, Celer! Celer!" I shouted, trying to still be as quiet as possible. "Celer, it's me!"

Celer perked his ears up, and looked at Anya.

"Is that your dog?"

Was my dog. Now you are, Anya.

Ok no, that's horrible.

"Celer, boy!" After a small moment of deliberation, Celer ran towards me, wagging his tail and panting. I gave Celer an embrace, as I usually did, while rubbing his neck. "Who's a good boy? You are, Celer! You're a good boy!" For a moment, a warm feeling of happiness bubbled up inside of me, as I continued to pat Celer.

"Hey, Jason?" Anya asked somewhat impatiently, though seemingly with tinge of jealousy in her voice. "We should get going. I mean..." Anya stared at me as I began to play with Celer's face, making weird expressions with his mouth flaps. "Well, I suppose we can stay for longer..."

She knelt down, and gave Celer a pat as well. Celer wagged his tail harder. Anya did too.

I chuckled.

"Alright, yeah, maybe we should."

Fighting every instinct in my body to keep rubbing Celer against my body, I let him go. He raced to the front door, likely expecting me to enter inside with him, but upon noticing us sneaking to the back of the house, Celer followed.

"We sure this is fine?"

"Yeah, probably. Back here!" I quickly bolted to the back of the house, and climbed up the bricks, heading towards my room. It's an old trick Hannah had found out, and along with her, Phoebe and I had climbed up this wall many times in my childhood. Apparently the brick wall was sturdy enough to support an adult too. Go figure.

I opened the window, and stumbled into my old room.

"Jason?" Anya climbed into the room alongside me, awing at the fancy furniture. "Wow, a noble's room! God, it's dusty..."

I had expected the room to have been vacated. After all, every time I had returned from the academy for the summer, the room had always been changed somehow. My younger brother Luca (and sometimes Hannah) would borrow things, break things, or even return things they didn't want.

"It's...the same."

"Huh?"

"Same as I left it the last time I left."

Did no one want anything to do with the room anymore? Maybe everything in here was tainted now. Maybe no one wanted to even so much as look into the room of the first son, the king killer, the black mark on the house, the worst monster since the fall of Caliros Baseli.

Or maybe they believed that I could come home someday and wanted to keep everything the same. Even if the chances were near zero. Even if the chances were actually zero. Even if I was dead.

"Jason? Jason!" Anya walked over to me, her face full of concern once more. "Jason, you're crying.."

"I...am not." I turned away from her, trying not to let any emotion show. "I...I'm not."

I spent the next few minutes in silence, trying to dig through my closet, which I sometimes had used as an impromptu armory. Crud, where was my stuff? I spent so much time looking that I didn't even realize the door was opening.

Anya was the first to notice as the door burst open.

"Hands up, thieves!"

"Wait, wait-" Anya cried.

I bumped my head on the closet, almost knocking it over as I tried to confront the voice. I successfully managed to keep it from falling over, though at the cost of my own position. I fell backwards.

"Gah!"

"Jason?"

The room went silent. Anya, who had grabbed a coat hanger to try and defend ourselves, now walked backwards.

"Hannah."

"No..." Hanna walked up to me, her eyes wide.

Anything but this.

"Hannah, I-"

"This can't be..." Hannah knelt down in front of me, grabbing my hand. Her eyes stared into my soul, penetrating right into my skull.

I'd almost have preferred mother or father screaming at me to get out. Hannah's eyes grew moist as she felt up my arm.

"Hannah..."

"You're not a ghost. You really are-"

As I staggered up, Hannah burst into tears, burying her face into my chest.

"I'll uh, give you two some room." Anya said, clearly uncomfortable with the situation herself as Hannah continued to sob into my chest. She knelt down and started patting Celer, who had wandered into the room.

"I thought you died Jason! I thought you were dead, I didn't think I'd ever get to see you again..."

"Right, right." I pushed Hannah away from me, and of course, immediately regretted it as I saw her face.

"What...what are you doing back here?"

"Trying to get my stuff. You know." I frowned. "My gear."

"Oh, oh right." Hannah wiped a few tears away. "Right!" Hannah opened a small chest I had neglected to look into, pulling out my old breastplate and a pair of boots. "We uh, got rid of the chainmail underarmor. They had to be recycled."

"That's fine, I have a new one anyway." I looked around my old room once more. So many memories...

"Here." Hannah gave me my armor. I took it.

"Thanks. I...noticed the room looks the same the last time we left."

"Yeah, well, we decided it would be best to keep the room the same."

"I wonder why."

"...me too."

I strapped the breastplate onto my chest, and the boots and greaves onto my shins. I'd likely be exhausted by the time I got back, but I had heard that the crew was ordering a big meal for today.

A shame. Normally, I'm the loudest one at a banquet. I don't know if I can be that wild today though. Not after this.

"Is that it?" I asked, as Hannah perked up. "Pretty sure there's way more than this."

"Oh, right." She dug into the chest, throwing aside her axe. The axe was a lightweight design, of a polearm style construction. A mean looking topspike gleamed menacingly, and the rear hammer, while not the largest, still bore its fair share of menace. The axehead itself, or the 'meat cleaver' as I liked to call it, well, I knew that hypothetically, could hack a horse's head off if swung hard enough.

It looked far more beat up than when I had last seen it.

"My sword!"

"Yep!" Hannah pulled a sword out of the box, and tossed it to me. It gleamed in the sunlight that shined in from the windows. 

My weapon. 

I removed it from it's scabbard and admired the smooth edges. This sword was worth an entire year's commission for a standard mercenary. My blade, the one I had trained on since childhood. I had designed it myself, alongside some technical input from my father and the town forgemaster. A gift for my tenth birthday.

The hilt felt comfortable in my hands, the same way it had when I had first received it. My hands were much bigger now than then, but it still fit snugly into my palm.

"And these too. Uh, they're probably getting used, but still." Hannah handed me a pair of javelins. "Oh, and your old helmet." Hannah tossed me the sallet, a design I had chosen for myself. "We uh, kinda need the bow. So I don't know if I can give that to you."

"That's fine. I never really got the hang of horseback archery anyway."

And given that horseback archery is heavily associated with the Castillo region and the Baseli family, it would really raise too many questions. I sheathed my blade and tucked it into my belt before grabbing the helmet and spears.

"Father wanted to sell your armor and weapons, or even have them melted down for metal but...I didn't let him."

"Thank you."

"Just what a little sister should do for her brother, right?" Hannah gave me a warm smile, which I couldn't help but smile back at.

"Since when were you so mature?"

"I am very mature and furthermore, a model lady, thank you very much."

"Yes, a model lady. You sure are swinging that axe around like an animal by the way."

"You shouldn't insult a girl with an axe, Jason."

Anya snorted at our banter.

"So...what's your story?" Hannah asked Anya.

"Ah, I'm just a wandering Wildfolk mercenary. Name's Anya. Uh, my lady."

"Nice to meet you, Anya."

"Thank you, my lady."

"Hey, uh...Hannah, I probably should get going now. You know-"

"Oh shoot." Hannah said. "Mother arrives home in..." She thought to herself. "In some time. I don't know when. But you should get going before she sees you." Hannah looked dejected. "But...good luck, Jason."

"Thank you." For some reason, I felt the need to climb out the window, rather than out the front door like a civilized person, but I dangled my feet out the window regardless. "Speaking of, how is the rest of the family?"

"Father's away at war with his knights. We've thrown our support behind Princess Calli-"

"That...technically makes us enemies." I looked to Anya. "What say we defect?" I asked in a joking manner. I chuckled.

"-and mother is...well, on the homestead with me. I lead levies against bandits and monsters sometimes!" Hannah beamed proudly.

"Well done! That's why I'm here too, technically. What about Luca? How's he doing?"

Come to think of it, it had been a whole year since I'd seen my younger brother. The youngest Thame. He would be 14 now.

"He's away with father. But I don't think anywhere dangerous. He's just a squire."

I breathed a sigh of relief. When I was younger, I had always longed for battle, and to fight like a hero. But for some reason, the thought of my own family members doing the same always terrified me, even long before the war.

Deep down, I've always known.

"That's good." I began to slide off of the balcony, and made my way onto the ledge. Anya followed suit. "Bye, Hannah. Thank you so much for being my sister." I turned my head one last time. "Stay safe. Love you."

"I love you too."

"I...I'll be going as well." Anya turned away, facing the windowsill as I began to squeeze myself out of the window.

"Oh...Anya?" Hannah called, as Anya turned her head to her.

"What is it, my lady?"

"...thanks for taking care of my brother." Hannah laughed, her eyes still red. "He's a bit of an idiot and a reckless dreamer who acts drunk without having a single drop of alcohol, but he's not a bad person, okay?" Hannah sniffled once more, being far worse than me at hiding her sorrow. "Please."

"Of course! Leave him to me!" Anya gave Hannah her classic Anya grin, as sanguine and cheery as she always looked. Hannah laughed.

"You know, I feel like you two really are similar people." I said as I dropped out of the window. As I landed in the grass, I immediately regretted jumping out partially armored, rather than climbing down like I had always done. "Arg, my knees..."

My pelvis and ankles too...

Anya leapt down from the windowsill as well, gracefully landing on her feet. Evidently gravity does not affect beastkin as much as it affects regular humans.

"So...is that it?"

I gave the manor I had grown up in one last look. Last time I had left this manor, I believed that I was heading back for my final semester at Cartethene Academy, and would be back. Now...

"That's it. We're probably never coming back here."

Goodbye, home. 

Goodbye, Hannah.