Arthur and Mikhail

Mikhail nodded and headed the other way, looking for some firewood.

About fifteen minutes later Arthur had the two voles gutted, skinned, sliced, and de-boned. They were ready for roasting over a fire.

Mikhail had collected enough firewood to make a small fire and was tending to it, looking a bit spaced out.

Arthur came over with the edible part of the vole carcass, and pulled out a pair of extendable rods, placing the meat just inside the flames. Carefully he reached into the heart of the fire, and moved the coals so they'd burn hotter. He was unfazed by the flames, immune to their heat.

Mikhail quickly snapped out of it and glanced at Arthur, smiling a bit at him.

"I warn you, I don't do fancy food… I do edible.." said Arthur smugly, a grin touching his face.

Mikhail chuckled. "Neither do I, I only do fancy when someone's coming over."

Arthur laughed, "Figures," he said, reaching into the flames to turn the meat as it cooked.

"Soo…." Mikhail mumbled awkwardly after a few seconds, looking at the fire.

Arthur sighed, not sure what to say now as he studied Mikhail's features.

Mikhail blankly stared at the fire, daydreaming again. He only daydreams when he's bored or he was in an awkward conversation, etc.

Arthur smiled, the boy across from him was cute.

Mikhail kept staring at the fire blankly, wondering why Arthur didn't want to go back into town.

"What'cha thinking about?" asked Arthur.

Mikhail quickly snapped out of it again. "Oh-nothing."

"I don't think it was nothing…" said Arthur teasingly.

"Well, it's not anything important." Mikhail replied.

"I still wanna know what it was" prompted Arthur.

"I was just wondering why you didn't want to go back into town," Mikhail mumbled.

"Laziness… or the fact that I was raised in the middle of nowhere" said Arthur.

Mikhail chuckled. "You grew up all by yourself?"

"No.." said Arthur, "I was raised by my parents, alongside my younger twin siblings…"

"Oh, okay then." Mikhail replied.

"At least that's how it was until the attack."

"What attack?" Mikhail asked gently, not wanting Arthur to feel uncomfortable.

The attack that killed mg dad, caused mom to vanish, and separated me from my twins." Said Arthur, he didn't mind Mikhail asking, he'd mostly accepted the event.

Mikhail nodded along, feeling a bit bad for Arthur. "I know everyone says this but I'm sorry for your loss."

Arthur sighed, "It wasn't that… that broke me…" he said, "Life was actually pretty good for me after that. I knew my siblings, wherever they had ended up, were safe. And I had been adopted into a mountain village. Almost everyone treated me as their own."

"Oh, that's good!" Mikhail replied.

"Yeah…. Until I was stupid enough to try and find my siblings…"