Autumn was always a hopping time of year for the family bakery. Aurick found himself spending more and more days with his mother Mya as the winter solstice approached. After the harvest city dwellers tended to flock towards the countryside in droves to see what changes the weather had brought on and with all that excitement came an urge to buy, buy, buy. They wanted a little piece of that peace to take home with them, or in the case of those that couldn’t leave Valmon, a nugget of something they couldn’t obtain anywhere else. With ties to the family farm Mya had been able to crack wonderful apple pies, cakes and breads as well as a plethora of squash dishes to suit the fancy of any passing soul. The family baked day in and day out to help fulfil the needs of Valmon, but it was what they made at home that Aurick loved the most.

In the din of the evening Aurick could watch his mothers’ playfully tease one another as they baked. It was up to them to operate the harder parts of making pumpkin cookies, but the decoration was all up to the kids. Even now as a near adult he loved to slather as much sweet cream icing on the top of his cookies as he could before cramming them into his mouth. Of course as the eldest he was fully capable of baking them himself, but where was the fun in that? He much preferred cutting out fancy little shapes and making cookie people with his sister, Astra.

This year the twins had helped mix the batter which left globs of poorly whipped cinnamon among other goodies to be later discovered. Calix was in charge of making the icing, under Mya’s supervision of course, and unsurprisingly it was far too sweet. When Aurick had taken his first bite his natural instinct was to cross his eyes and scrunch his entire face until the shock fell away. Lavinia and Devyn were supposed to be making warm tea for the family, but after breaking the teapot they’d been relegated to decorating duty with the eldest siblings.

Astra and Aurick’s designs were almost professional in visual design. They clearly had a practiced hand, being the children of a baker after all, but the other two were still young and theirs turned out sloppy. Not that Aurick cared. When Lavinia’s lower lip started to wobble he just smiled and took up her cookie for a big bite. “I don’t know what you’re crying about,” He mumbled, bits of cookie slipping out the corner of his mouth. “It still tastes good!”

Those were the kinds of things they gave out to neighbors and friends. It wasn’t the clinically pressed goods that were sold at the bakery, but rather the imperfect treats created in a family home. Mya could make just about anything taste good, but these had far more heart in them than just her own works alone. These were what Aurick loved the most. He looked forward to every harvest season simply because he knew they would get to have them, and maybe, with any luck, he could also nab some pumpkin tea.

“Stop eating all the icing!” Calix leaned forward and twapped Aurick’s greedy fingers with a mixing spoon. When he pouted at his younger brother the boy’s sharp eyes squinted. “If you keep eating it we won’t have enough for the cookies.”

“We could just make more,” Aurick whined. “Just a little bit won’t hurt-”

“MOMMA! AURICK’S EATING THE ICING AGAIN.”

“Aurick!” Petra snapped her head around, “Stop it!”

While Calix had the good graces not to laugh at his misfortune the same couldn’t be said of Astra. She very openly snickered and when Aurick turned to glare at her she suddenly had better things to do. Of course he didn’t even notice the icing clinging to her own fingers…

“If Lavinia keeps shoving them in her face we won’t have to worry about putting icing on the cookies.”

Offended, the child tried to scoff, but that was almost entirely impossible with a mouthful of pastries. She ended up coughing and with an audible sigh Petra moved forward to rub her back passing a very tired look to her eldest. It was like this every year; there was teasing, some sort of ‘tragedy’, tattling, baking, and just a general feel of warmth. Aurick wouldn’t trade it for the world.

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