Part one of two
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By the third week of winter proper, in the twins fourteenth year, the snow had piled knee high, melted, froze and snowed a bit more, leaving a nice thick crust on top, perfect for animals and light weight children to run across.
Octavian had developed the sniffles the second week in however and Rolf had been dosing him with elderberry syrup and as much herbal tea as he could hold. Having her twin stuck in bed had irritated Fricka to no end but she bore it well enough and was barely seen by anyone, least of all Octavian, which had hurt his feelings to have been abandoned by his sister in his time of illness.
At the end of the third week, Rolf's doctoring had paid off and Octavian was declared well enough to start being active again, so long as he didn't overdo it by going out and getting cold and wet. After being given one last dose of syrup, Octavian wandered out into the main hall and stood for a few minutes until Luhith and Seba came by, fresh out of the training room.
"How are you feeling today?" Luhith stopped and looked down at him questioningly while Seba went on past into the dining room.
"Rolf said I'm all better...just feel weak." he shrugged, looking at the floor. It was difficult admitting to weakness to the men that he looked up to and admired so much. "Have you seen Fricka anywhere?"
Luhith shrugged one shoulder, "Might check the basements....no ones seen her but we've felt her wandering around."
Octavian sighed and nodded, "Okay...thanks."
He stood there for a moment longer after Luhith had left, staring at the narrow door that led to the lower levels before stepping forward and pulling the door open. A wave of cool, moist air washed over him, dank and musty smelling and he sighed before taking the first step. The stairs were narrow and wound down around the core of Kasbaarg, branching off at short halls or rooms. The third level down housed the rarely used dungeons and beyond that....the lava floe and crystal springs that led out into the cavern.
At the first hall he turned off and pushed the door open, looking down the short hall with two rooms on each side. He couldn't feel her there; in fact she seemed to be completely absent from his senses and his stomach flopped into his shoes with worry.
Fricka?
'Unless you're clean and bug free, don't talk to me.'
Octavian pushed his lips out in a pout and scowled at the wall,
Rolf said I'm all better...I just have to get my strength built back up.
"Really?!"
She came out of nowhere and he grunted loudly as his back met the stone floor and the air was pushed out of his lungs when his twin crashed into his chest. He wheezed and wrapped his arms around her back as she nipped and huffed and nosed him over before sitting up, bright eyed and content.
"You're really all better? We can do things now?"
"Rolf said I had to take it easy for a while but yeah, we can do stuff again."
Dark eyes met light and he smiled quietly. So she has missed me. It was a nice feeling, to be missed. His mother had babied him through his cold but at fourteen, it was a bit much to be babied by your mother and his biggest fear was to be thought of as a momma's boy by the men. But, to be babied by your twin was a whole other story and their bed had been painfully empty without her.
"Hans said that the river and waterfall have frozen solid and I wanna go see it. Remember Da told us about those shoes with blades on them, so you can slide across the ice? We should make some." She gave a bounce to punctuate her enthusiasm and he groaned softly and pushed her off.
"Don't do that, my stomach still hurts from coughing..." He sat up and scooted against the wall, "Why don't we learn to make the skates and then we can go to the river."
Learning to make the skates would take a long enough time that he could be strong enough to go to the river without getting sick again but he saw the expression on her face and knew it would be a fight. She inhaled slowly, puffing up before letting the breath out sharply and narrowing her eyes.
"But what if it thaws by then? We need to see it now before it thaws and then we can work on the...." she paused to remember the new word, "...skates. And if it's still frozen, then we can use them."
"It's not going to get any warmer between now and spring thaw....I think we'll have lots of time."
Her eye twitched and he braced automatically, then tilted his head questioningly when she didn't assault him.
"Your blood is still tainted and you smell funny." she sniffed in explanation as she got up and brushed her skirt off before offering her hand to him.
Octavian looked at it for a moment before grabbing it, noting how warm and slender her hand was compared to his own hand; cool and starting to grow broader already. She pulled him up and cocked her jaw to the side before releasing his hand,
"Fine. We'll do the skates first..." she conceded with a grumble, "Da or Lufta?"
"Da, unless he's busy, then Lufta."
Fricka gave a short nod and grabbed him, vanishing to the training room and sat on the bench since Alek was engaged in mock combat. Swords clanged and hissed against each other as Alek and Lufta sparred and Octavian leaned forward, biting his lip as he watched, studied each move, analyzed and got wrapped up in the moment. Alek was teaching him, slowly, letting him decide what weapons he felt comfortable with, letting him grow into a role and into himself without forcing. They had time.
The match came to a end when Alek and Lufta ended up tumbled on the floor, boxing each other before giving a laugh and sitting up. Grown men they may have been, but childhood friends with hearts like boys didn't change overnight.
As soon as Lufta stood, Fricka pounced on Alek and he laughed, "There's my girl. Oof...And my boy." He hugged them close and kissed their heads before leaning back on a arm and raising an eyebrow, sensing the question on the air.
"We want to make skates for ice." Fricka stated.
"Will you show us how?" Octavian chimed in.
Lufta laughed from the bench as he unwrapped his hands, "Sounds fun. You must be feeling better, Tavian?"
Octavian glanced over his shoulder and nodded, "Mhm."
"Skates hm?" Alek ruffled his hair as he looked at the eager faces, then smiled, "Alright."
Fricka gave a cheer and bounced up while Octavian smiled quietly and together they caught Alek's hands and pulled him up, then, once he was up, he scooped them both into his arms and slung them over each shoulder with a laugh.
"You're asking me to rely a lot on my memory though."
He vanished with them as he said it and put them down in the workshop before either had a chance to protest about being carried and moved about gathering paper and ink pens and ink pot before sitting at the work bench, the twins gathering around him.
"Oh Da, your memory is fine." Fricka smiled, leaning her chin on his shoulder, "So what do we do first?"
Octavian pulled up a second stool to sit on and placed himself near Alek's elbow; it wasn't manly to be leaning on his Father the way Fricka was, even if deep inside he wanted to. "We have to make a design, right? And then we'll have to use our boot forms to make a shoe but...I don't know how to go about attaching a blade..."
Alek sat back and nodded, "A bit different than the ones I grew up with but that could work. Ours were simply carved bone fastened to a leather shoe and you would push yourself across the ice with poles or sticks. I suppose using a metal blade, heavier than a sword blade, could lend speed."
They sat around and planned and discussed until dinner time, at which point a general drawing and idea had been written down before they had to put it aside for the night. The rest of the week was dedicated to making the shoes and learning how to hammer out a hardy blade, which they attached to a piece of wood which was joined with the leather shoes. Octavian was back to his usual self, Fricka was overjoyed and everyone was happy.
The following week found the twins floundering through the snow; even though the crust was hard enough to walk on, there was always pockets that broke through and buried a person up to their thighs. So, by the time they reached the river, both were fairly damp, at least to the second layer and they paused to perch on a large, warm rock.
The day was clear and the sun turned the snow into fields of diamonds. Not a bird's wing of wind stirred the puffy heaps of snow that rested on bent branches of the cedars or fir trees and tiny winter birds flitted here and there, breaking the silence with their song. It was a peaceful and easy silence and the air was filled with cool smells; the rich, dark scent of the damp trees and moss and the crisp, breath-taking smell of the snow.
Fricka smiled at Octavian, blowing clouds of frozen breath at him before bending to slip boots off and pull the new skates on. He smiled back, dark eyes quiet and reserved before doing the same and together, holding each others shoulder for balance, they moved onto the wide span of ice.
They wobbled for a moment, before slowly inching forward with jerky movements, both were afraid of falling or losing control. Octavian was sure it would be Fricka to take them down but it ended up being himself to do so when his blade hit a uneven patch of ice and they both tumbled down with a yelp.
"Are you okay?" Octavian asked, after sitting up with a groan and checking himself over, only to be belted back onto the ice by a frozen hand.
"You did that on purpose."
"Why would I throw myself down on purpose?"
She hissed at him and slowly got back upright before inching away from him, not paying attention to the fact that he was pulling himself to the bank and shaping a hard snowball. A moment later, it clipped her ear and she snarled as she tumbled down again and caught herself on hands and knees while Octavian rolled onto his back and laughed, only to be smothered in a snow bank a second later.
He vanished and tackled her out onto the ice and the tumbled and slid along, snarling and laughing at the same time. Over the space of an hour, they had finally figured out their skates and done some skating, as well as tumbling and playing.
Neither of them took notice of their surroundings.
