Yet another day dawned in beautiful Matori, his favorite home. Though he loved Jauhar too. He supposed he would always be one of those people with a foot in two worlds. He thought there was a word for that, but he could not recall it now. He shook his head. He tried not to worry much about such things. Life was too serious, and he took it so thus he had to make room only for the things that really mattered. What mattered this month was gift giving.

He made to step outside he thought he might go for a nice, refreshing swim before his little brother woke up. Alias was a night Hawk, especially compared to him, it seemed to match their skin tones. The thought made his mouth twist up into a smile. His brother had become such a positive force in his life that he started to pester his parents about another sibling, perhaps a little sister even, though he wouldn't sniff at another brother either.

He opened the door to find a package addressed to him. The writing didn't look like anyone he knew, so justifiably, he was a little bit confused. He flipped the package over, examining it from the other side, but no clues lingered there either. How interesting, he to the best of his knowledge, had no enemies, so it would only be a positive show of affection, but from whom? He perched on the sofa in the living room and slowly, so slowly, opened the package, one piece of wrapping paper at a time.

At times like this, he could be very patient. It was a strange sense of Zen that he very much wanted to explore more. Eventually, the contents of the package was revealed, but this just led him to more questions. It was a doll, actually two dolls, one that looked like him, and another doll of a Water Tribe girl. How odd. Perhaps he had an admirer. Well, that was awkward. He was too young to have any sort of interest in girls. Maybe they had a young crush? Must be a young crush. How adorably creepy.

He also had absolutely zero idea from where these dolls had come. He examined the ones he did not look like him. Presumably, this was what his secret admirer looked like. Of course, the doll resembled any number of the girls that lived in the surrounding towns. He rolled his eyes, but it was a loss at what to do with the dolls; Burn them? Hide them? Keep them?

He had little interest in the person that made them besides a general curiosity, but it would seem almost cruel to be mean to the dolls themselves. After all, he reasoned they couldn't have imagined being gifted to a salty, old hybrid like himself. He smirked, cut the other dolls hair to shoulder length, and smirked again. Now it was him and Ustasis his best friend, and that was much less creepy. He set the pair of dolls in the bed and gazed fondly at them.
"You two behave. I'm going to the bookstore. "He shook his finger at them playfully and moved away from the house carrying a sack. After all, he never did anything halfway, and one never knew if the bustling bookstore had gotten an order of good material in, in which case he would definitely need the bag.

For the longest time he hadn't enjoyed reading. And then dad had brought back a book that had changed everything. Apparently, he had traded it with another fisherman. He had lashed their vessels together for a proper visit, and a flurry of trades had gone on, one of which was the book. Kellye had handed it over to him with a look and Thoraka had given it a go. Well, that go had turned into a nearly all night stint, and he had finished nearly half the book. The next day, he was pretty much useless until they let him take time to read the second half. Thus had begun his reading career, not he had only needed the right book, which, of course, was what his mother had said right from the beginning. As much as he really didn't want to admit it, she had been right about that. He had been sucked in.

Once he was in the bookstore, surrounded by paper and ink and adventure, he quite forgot about the dolls and the mystery of who had gifted them. It was an afterthought. He never did feel the orange pair of eyes on him, huh? He found three delicious books at the store, and after he handed over the coin for them, he made a slow and graceful ritual of putting them in the bag he had brought with him there. See, it was a good thing that he had brought it. After all, though he would go through significant discomfort bringing books home, it was simpler just to take a bag. Best yet, they had just told him about a sale that would happen soon. He would have to bring the two bags for that. Oh how exciting they were. Just putting up the flyers he got home, kicked off his shoes, went to his room and smiled at the two dolls still sitting there, then moved them over just a bit so he could sit on the bed. He lit a little candle and lifted the first leather bound beauty off of the pile for to be read. He never did find out who had given him the dolls. He assumed that they grew out of their crush, whoever they were. He kept the dolls though, they made for good company. Eventually, they were put in a trunk and storage where they remain, though he does hope eventually he will have an heir that he could then give the dolls too. He knew he was years and years off from anything so grown up. He shook his head, girls could be foolish and at times, smart, he's supposed like with boys too, it sort of varied by individual.
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