Hansika was going to maim him. Lautaro looked at the broken weapon rack with pure dismay. The teen had been looking over bows when he accidentally stumbled and knocked right into the display where his sister had kept some of her prized weapons, the array of colorful and engraved wood with some metal accessories lined up perfectly for her. Well, at least it was normally aligned like that but now there were bows scattered all about their family’s training room, one of the few houses that were large enough to offer such space for them to practice archery during bad weather and the like. His father being the right hand man of the head ranger had allowed them that luxury along with his mother’s role as a kinfa tamer requiring the additional space for their family where they had a flock of kinfa constantly flying in and out of the large shelter built into the giant tree next to their own home. Like some of the rangers’ homes it was connected by rope and wooden bridges hanging between the ancient trees that surrounded the clearing, his family preferring the higher ground to work with the kinfa while other families stayed below in the hidden clearing that made up the rangers’ village with even a smaller area full of tame roati and capramel grazing near the stream that cut through the upper forest. Lautaro honestly contemplated that hanging bridge right now, debating on if he should run across to seek help from his mother or maybe knock the weapon rack from the bridge to hide it from his sister as some sort of strange mishap that even he couldn’t explain. But he was far too honest for that so he instead stared at the weapon rack a bit more before shaking his head and forcing a small smile. “We can fix this.” He told himself as he straightened up the bows, checking to make certain none of them had been damaged from the incident. There were only a few beaded accessories that she liked to keep on the bows that were somewhat askew, one having broken and spilled beads everywhere, but it was definitely not as bad as he had initially feared. But how did he even begin? Could he manage to fix the weapon rack himself or should he just buy a replacement one for when Hansika returned from an escort mission? “Shoot. Why did I even bother coming here?” He should have just avoided this area and gone to the main training grounds with the other apprentices, but Lautaro wasn’t completely comfortable considering his meager progress while the others were doing just fine with their weapon training. Though the embarrassment and shame probably would have been the better choice instead of the guilt he felt now when he stared at the mess he had made of the weapon rack.

“LauLau?” The familiar soft voices started the boy and he glanced back to see a pair of sandy haired twins, their bright blue gazes soft as they looked at their older brother. “You okay?” Haizea looked around while Nasima bit her bottom lip, the pair noticing the mess behind Lautaro.

“I’m alright. Did I wake you up from a nap with the noise? I’m sorry.” Lautaro’s cheeks darkened with shame as he realized that they had already noticed the mess behind him. “I might have stumbled into Hansika’s weapons by mistake. I don’t think it’s too bad though, just a crack in the wood.” And a whole side that had snapped free from the impact. It was still a miracle that he hadn’t destroyed any of the bows, and Lautaro was truly thankful for that.

“No worries. We weren’t sleepy anyways.” Nasima managed as she looked at her sister then back towards Lautaro. “I think there’s some spare weapon racks in storage and Papa mentioned an artisan festival in the nearby village starting tomorrow. Hansika might want a better one anyways, could get it engraved with feathers or something that she likes.” She offered with a small smile as Haizea started picking up beads around them.

“I can make new accessories. I like to craft so it’s not a problem.” Haizea added quietly, the girl continuing to pick up beads as she spoke. “As long as you’re okay, then we can help out with this.”

Lautaro’s gaze burned with tears as he smiled at his younger sisters, the teen going back to working on organizing everything. “You two truly are a blessing. I totally forgot about the extra racks, so I’ll work on setting these up while you make new accessories.” It was hard not to cry or hug his sisters in the moment, but Lautaro tried his best to focus on the task at hand. “We’ll have this fixed up in no time and Hansika will love something custom made. This was getting too crowded anyways with all her new bows.”

“Mmhmm.” Both girls beamed at their brother encouragingly, the trio getting to work to fix up things the best that they could.

[845]