“Lalli!” Onni yelled, his voice ringing through the hallway. “Lalli, come out – I know you’re in there!”
Lalli groaned under his breath as he turned towards the wall, wedging himself deeper under the bed.
Ever since Onni turned 17, he was always trying to ‘help’ as much as he could, which usually meant dragging Lalli along every place he and Tuuri went. That was two years ago, and his cousin had somehow gotten even more overbearing after obtaining his promotion at Keuruu military base. Now Onni had Lalli tightly under his wing, with no plans to let him out anytime soon.
The door to Lalli’s sleeping quarters opened firmly and in marched Onni, his anger tinged with disappointment at Lalli’s predictable rebellion. “Why, you little weirdo – what are you doing under there!? Well, it doesn’t matter. The junior scouts want you to be at the commencement today. I expect to see you there”, Onni commanded, summoning as much authority as he could in his 19 year old voice. But it felt pointless, like talking to oneself in a seemingly empty room. “I don’t understand why you aren’t enthusiastic about this!”
Slowly, Onni kneeled onto the floor, sighing, and Lalli prepared to defend himself from being yanked out under the bed.
“I know what you’re going through is hard. But we have a chance now. Don’t you remember where we were before they took us in? We could be dead now. Or worse! You should be glad that we’re safe behind these walls. Grandma would want to see us safe. Grandma-”
“Mrrh!” came the voice from under the bed.
Onni stood back up, thinking hard on what to say next. But no matter how hard he tried to speak, he couldn’t get past the knot that had suddenly been tied across his chest. “Don’t sleep in too late”, he finally said.
And then Onni was gone. Lalli listened closely for a couple moments, feeling his cousin’s footsteps fading into silence.
Why did Onni always care so much about these things? If only Onni had been with Grandma more, then he would know what magic was really like. Lalli missed the days in the woods away from the nosy townspeople, when he could ignore everything and just focus on the forest around him. Just him, grandma, and the sky above, where Lalli could listen to the spirits weaving through the trees. They were faint, almost like the wind, but Ensi told him that one day he could to see them as they truly are. Then, once he had become powerful enough, he could guide the lost or malevolent spirits to rest.
These days the spirits only served to optimize his military reports: a hint of danger there, safety here, anything to help fill out paperwork faster. The military didn’t seem to appreciate his skill. They were always telling him how to do his job, with all this writing and scheduled wake up times, and why did they even give him sheets to fill out when he couldn’t even see them in the dark?
Guiding the lost spirits to rest. Above all, Lalli missed his family, the gatherings, the bakery that used to give out fresh bread every morning, or at least as often as it could. And now? Being a mage felt so difficult, with all the scouting duties he had to fulfill pitted against a river of memories. Onni had promised to help him with his magic training, which would work out, hopefully. Meanwhile, he would keep going. He would continue working for Keuruu, night by night by night. He would eventually get better at scouting and at magic. Then somehow…
And with that last thought, Lalli crawled out from underneath the bed.
