It was inevitable, really, that the two would find each other. After all, they were practically brothers. Or something like that. It was absurdly complicated, and the untruths surrounding the circumstances of Frjokorn's birth made it even more so.

"Let's just say that we're brothers," Midas suggested after they'd spent a considerable amount of time trying to untangle their relationship. Midas particularly liked the idea of being brothers because Frjokorn was older, which meant he thought he ought to be in charge of both of them.

"Except I'm more like your uncle," Frjokorn pointed out, clearly happy to open the topic to discussion once more. He figured, he lived with Midas's mother's mother, sort of like her son, which he said made him sort of like Midas's uncle.

"Except your mother adopted my mother, so we're not really related at all." Midas preferred a relationship where one of them was not inherently an authority figure based on a title which was, frankly questionable.

Frjokorn got a smug look, having spotted what he saw as an obvious flaw in Midas's logic that he simply couldn't wait to exploit: "Except we have the same mother, stupid."

Midas had his doubts about that, and so did Frjokorn, for that matter, but that was the official story and the argument suited Midas's purposes. "Yeah, so if we have the same mother, obviously we're brothers. Duh."

Frjokorn frowned, but Midas smiled winningly and returned to his original point, victorious. "So let's be brothers."

It was hard to resist Midas's smile, and Frjo genuinely liked his "brother," regardless of their actual relation, so he did not return a third time to the argument. Besides, he had his own thoughts on what they could do now that they were brothers, and sharing those was more important than fighting.

"In some prides, they have a rank kind of between reaver and captain called a 'ka-nikt' that count themselves brothers, even though they're not related at all because they serve the same leader and believe the same things," he informed his brother from another mother (unless they had the same mother, like some people said).

To his surprise, Midas wrinkled his nose. "Serve? You mean like thralls?"

"Ugh, no. You're so dumb. I told you they're like reavers. Reavers follow a captain because they think he's good at what he does, and ka-nikts follow their lords for the same reason." He tried to explain further.

"But how are they like captains then?" Midas asked. He wasn't really familiar with the word "lord" except with the word "storm" or "war" attached to it, as in the Stormlords or a warlord, but he guessed a lord was someone who was in charge.

"Well, they take orders, but they're also able to boss other fighters around. You're making this way too complicated."

Midas stuck his tongue out at Frjokorn. In his opinion, he wasn't making things too complicated. Frjokorn just wasn't thinking them through very well, or maybe he wasn't explaining them very well. Either way, it wasn't Midas's fault.

Frjokorn took a swipe at his brother's tongue, but it was gone before his claws got anywhere near the taunting pink tip. He was used to his siblings being stupid like this, but he'd sort of hoped that his pretend (unless he was really his brother) brother wouldn't be like that. Obviously it was too much to hope for.

"Okay. Okay. Listen." He paused to put his thoughts in order. "It's sort of like how captains listen to the warlord and reavers listen to captains. Ka-nikts are like captains."

Midas nodded. That made sense. "But why didn't you just say that to begin with?"

"Because...ugh. Because in these prides the lords, who are like the warlord here, they all listen to someone called a 'king.'"

The younger cub put on his best skeptical face. The idea of a bunch of warlords doing what someone else told them to do was ridiculous to him. Not that he knew the current warlord well at all, but his grandfather had been a warlord, and he didn't think Njal was the sort of lion to obey anyone.

"Okay, fine. But what's that got to do with anything?" he asked, trying to look terribly bored by the subject. Hanging out with older cubs, it was important never to seem too impressed or awe-struck with the stuff they knew, even when it was kind of more-than-mildly interesting, like this stuff about ka-nikts and kings. Which was why he would never ask how Frjokorn knew these things.

"Well, okay. So ka-nikts consider everyone of their rank a brother, and when they all believe and fight for the same thing they make an Order." He could see that he was losing Midas again. "If a ka-nikt belongs to an Order, he doesn't have to serve a lord or a king, he just does what the Order believes in. So if we were in an Order, the two of us, maybe our creed - Orders have creeds that kind of say what the Order believes in and does and stuff - our creed would say that we always try to make ourselves braver and protect our family and our pride."

It was a little difficult for Midas to keep up with all these new terms, but he was trying. "If we were ka-nikts in an Order, we wouldn't have to take orders from anyone else. We just do what seems right to us, based on those things you said. Right?"

Frjokorn nodded encouragingly.

"But we're not ka-nikts. There aren't any ka-nikts in the Stormborn. And if there were, they'd probably still have to do what the warlord says."

"Dummy!" Frjokorn couldn't help it. He bopped his brother across the ears. "That's what makes this so great. We're brothers, only maybe not real brothers, just like ka-nikts. And since there are no ka-nikts in the Stormborn, and no kings, we'd have to belong to an Order, only it'd be just the two of us, and we could make up our own rules and our own creed. It'd be great!"

Midas wasn't quite convinced, but he liked Frjokorn's point about there being no kings to listen to, and making up their own rules. There was one sticking point that prevented him from being all in though: "What about our other brothers? Since they're our real brothers, wouldn't they be part of the Order, too?"

Frjokorn considered for the briefest of moments before deciding, "Nah. They'd have to be ka-nikts first, to join the Order, and in order to be a ka-nikt you have to do, um, special stuff. And even if you are a ka-nikt, an order doesn't have to take you if they don't want you or you aren't the right kind of person."

Midas continued frowning indecisively as he worked through the problem of how to exclude their actual siblings from joining them in the Order. Brotherhood was fine, but the rest of this stuff... Before he committed to ka-nikthood or an Order, he wanted to make sure he wasn't getting into something he didn't want to be in. It sounded pretty permanent.

"We could make them do a test, and if they fail, they can't be in," he suggested.

"Yes! That's a great idea. And make them swear to follow our creed, too."

"What is our creed?"

"I already said it. We promise to always do the bravest thing and protect our family and our pride. Weren't you listening?"

In truth, Midas hadn't been. Not to that part. He'd been pretty caught up in the rest of the explanations about Orders and kings, and even if he hadn't been, he probably would have taken what Frjokorn said as an example rather than an actual proposal.

"Oh, right. That sounds good," he agreed hastily.

"Now, the most important thing is what we're going to call our Order."

"Wait. Does this mean we're brothers and ka-nikts?"

"Yes," Frjokorn said impatiently. "Now, like I was saying, the most important thing is what we're going to call our Order. It has to be something really cool, so everyone wants to be in it."

Again, Midas interrupted, pointing out, "But we don't want to have everyone in it."

"Duh!" Frjokorn replied. "But we want everyone to want to be in it. So it needs a cool name. I was thinking, Order of the Awesome Lightning. Or maybe, Order of Storm and Sea. No, no, no! Order of the Iron-Blooded Stormborn Brothers. That sounds really cool."

Midas was frowning again, this time looking down, as if he didn't want his brother to catch him at it. It didn't work. Frjokorn looked at him and huffed in exasperation. "What? I don't hear you coming up with anything."

Without looking up, Midas said, "Order of the Golden Paw."

That was perfect. For a moment Frjokorn didn't even say anything. He just sat there and enjoyed the sound of it. Then he said, "Yeah. That works, too. Let's go with that. I'm tired of arguing about it, and I have to get home for dinner."

Midas smiled agreeably. "Okay. Tomorrow, let's meet to finish working out Order business."

"Sure. If I'm not busy." He began walking away, his walk as cool as he could possibly make it. He was a ka-nikt of the Order of the Golden Paw, after all, and he had a reputation to uphold.

"Don't die in bed, brother," Midas called after him, awarding himself a victory point on his private tally.

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