Hero of Nira

Of Lions and Butterflies

   “What were you thinking? Are you crazy?”

   Shri lowered his pitchfork and turned. Standing in the doorway, barely visible in the early-morning sun, Kora was standing with her hands on her hips. While she did have an annoying motherly tone at times, she was still Shri’s closest friend.

   “What are you on about?” Shri asked, turning back to scoop more hay into a stable.

   “That!” Kora said, pointing at the lion-claw necklace Shri was wearing. “You went after a forest lion? BY YOURSELF?”

   Shri shrugged, trying not to grin. “No problem,” he said casually. “Only took—what—a couple hours? Kid stuff.”

   “But… you could’ve been killed…”

   Shri put his hand over his mouth, as if he only just realized this. “Killed? By a lion? Oh why didn’t someone tell me!”

   Kora looked like she wanted to say something else, but just folded her arms and watched Shri work.

   “If you’re up for it,” Shri said, “Nené on the end there needs a brushing.” He pointed to a chestnut-colored horse that was watching Kora lazily. “She prefers when you do it.”

   Kora took a brush from the wall and began lightly stroking the horse’s neck. Nené blinked slowly before lowering her head to munch on some hay. Shri turned back to his work.

   After a few moments of silence, Kora lowered the brush. “You could have taken me along,” she said quietly.

   “What?”

   “I could’ve helped you.”

   Shri was unnerved by the quaver in her voice. “And do… what?”

   “I don’t know—something!”

   He leaned the pitchfork against the wall and moved next to Kora, who’s eyes were begin to well up.

   “Look,” he said gently. “If you were there, I’d just be worrying about you, and then someone really might get hurt. It’s just one of those things that’s easier to do myself.”

   “I just worry about you, that’s all. I mean, you go off to fight that monster and don’t even tell anyone… One of these days… who knows…”

   She rested her head on Shri’s shoulder. Suddenly, she stood bolt upright and darted to the door.

   “If you get killed next time,” she shouted back at him, “I’ll… I’ll never forgive you!”

   She disappeared into the morning air.

   Shri turned to Nené. “Now what was that all about?” he said.

   Nené, of course, said nothing.

***

   Slowly, Shri poked his head over the boulder, doing his best to keep low to the ground. He groped around the carpet of dead leaves and seized a stone the size of a walnut. He leaned back, took aim, and…

   “Gotcha!” Jia cried. A small pair of hands clamped tightly over Shri’s eyes.

   “Hey!” Shri yelped. “Don’t…!”

   He yanked one of her hands off in time to see the rabbit speeding back into the forest. He sighed and dropped the stone.

   “Just so you know,” he said, “this is why I never take you hunting.”

   Jia hopped back with her hands on her hips. “You’re not hunting! You’re helping me!”

   Shri smiled and stood, brushing leaves off his coat. “I should get you a dog, so you’d have someone else to do your grunt work.” He stooped and retrieved the meager pile of firewood he had dropped next to the boulder.

   “I don’t want a dog,” Jia said. She stuck her nose up pompously, but continued to smile. “Get me… get me a pet butterfly!”

   “Butterflies don’t make good pets.”

   “How do you know? It could be the greatest pet ever when I train it…”

   Shri grinned as Jia absently wandered over to a patch of small blue flowers. He took advantage of the silence and gathered up a better supply of wood.

   “Brother, who’s Lynk?”

   “What?”

   Jia ambled back over, trying to weave some grass blades together with the blue flowers. “Do you know who Lynk is?”

   Shri shrugged. “Isn’t he a prince? Why?”

   “He’s in my dreams a lot. Do I know him?”

   “I don’t think so. If he is a prince, he’d be in the Emperor’s city. I don’t think he would come all the way out here. Not exactly a royal vacation spot, is it?”

   Jia nodded, still attempting to tie the flowers’ stems together. Making a final knot, she set the whole jumble of blue and green on top of her red hair.

   “How does it look?” she asked.

   Shri let out a laugh, but quickly stifled it. “Why, you look just like a princess!” He gave her shoulder a nudge. “Maybe Prince Lynk is coming to ask you to marry him, your Highness!”

   “Brother!” She darted behind him, leapt onto his back, and fastened her hands over his eyes again.

   “Jia! Hey… no!” Shri staggered under her sudden weight and chunks of firewood rained down onto his feet.

   “Gotcha!”

***

   Shri bowed at the door again to the receding horseman’s back.

   “Thank you, sir!” he called. “Come again!”

   He stepped back into the house, placing a few coins in a small leather pouch. He passed through another door into the stables, where Jek was filing down a horse’s hoof.

   “I heard Mr. Tross leave,” Jek said without looking up. “He did pay this time, right?”

   “Yeah,” Shri said, shaking the pouch slightly.

   Jek glanced up at the noise. “That sounds like more than usual. He didn’t overpay this time, did he?”

   “No, that’s from something else.” Shri placed the pouch on a shelf and grabbed a pitchfork. “I sold the lion’s teeth to Jeir’s grandfather. Apparently he’s convinced he can make a cure for spider-bites with them.”

   Jek chuckled at this. “That old coot is an odd one.” He set down the rasp and the horse snorted gratefully before grabbing another mouthful of hay.

   “Listen, Shri,” Jek said awkwardly. “About yesterday, I might have overreacted again. These days I can’t do as much as I used to, and Jia’s still to little to tend the horses. I do need your help more often.”

   “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to make it hard…”

   “Oh I know. You’re still young, and you should be having some kind of fun. Part of growing up though is knowing where you’re needed most.”

   Shri nodded slowly, then snapped his fingers. “Hey, I have an idea! Kray’s been complaining because he can’t work at home. Maybe I can ask him to work for me. I could even pay him myself.”

   Jek shifted on his stool. “Kray… he’s the butcher’s son, right? He’s kind of… loud, isn’t he?”

   “I’m sure he’ll quiet down after some work. He just has a lot of pent-up energy, that’s all. At least he’ll have no problem keeping up.”

   “That’s true,” Jek said thoughtfully. “Well… I can’t think of a good excuse right now, so it’s fine. But you’ll be training him!” he added quickly. “I haven’t time to watch after your friends while I have my own work to do. Understood?”

   Shri grinned and saluted. “Yessir! Don’t you worry, I’ll train Kray myself, no problem. Thank you!”

   Jek grunted in response, but the corners of his mouth twisted up slightly as he returned to the horse’s hoof with his rasp.

   For the next few hours, though he worked in silence, Shri was laughing on the inside. He was surprised he had actually compromised with his father, and amazed he hadn’t thought of it sooner.