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Arlen Kallem has recently come into possession of a boat. Well, actually he's recently come into possession of a few things, given his mother just died. But most relevantly, he has a boat. And a friend, with whom he can boat. These facts are relevant.
Harin has no objections to boating; he's still in shock, as far as Arlen can tell, which is pretty unreasonable, considering it's been like a week since his dad died, and the guy was a complete asshole. But it does make him conveniently portable and boat-able. Arlen is the skipper and Harin is the something. They are the perfect team.
Even the most perfect team can make dumb mistakes, though. Like drifting farther out to sea than intended. Or not noticing a hurricane brewing. Or being swept across the ocean until they smash onto the far shore. That sort of thing.
Ari, sprawled on the beach, has a pillow; the pillow is a large chunk of rock protruding from the sand. It's such a lovely pillow. Very comfortable. He's going to sleep now. Harin has similar opinions on the subject.
"Should I bring my Adventure Kit? S'got, like, flint and knives and hardtack and stuff."
"Yeah, definitely. Nior, figure out what to bring on a cave-exploring expedition and then go find it."
"Remember to bring my knives too, Harin. And your stick, you're better with the stick anyway. Oh, and-"
"Ar, all of those things are in the kit. We put it together a week ago. You remember this."
"I don't want you forgetting my knives if something needs stabbed, is all. I'm taking precautions."
"I don't think anything in the caves will require stabbing. But you never know with caves."
"What if there's a bear? Harin beats it with the stick, I stab it in the kidneys, we skin it and make a coat. Bang, new coat."
"We'll see if we can get another bear for you, then. If it's a decently big one we could get two coats in your size, one for Nior!"
Arlen waves a hand. "Maybe we can get Lady Kyres to help. I'm not the ideas man."
"I was learning to hunt and we killed a deer and she taught me how to skin it. And she had some other animals brought to the estate so I could learn the principle. It was fun!"
Miraen sighs. "Sorry. I wasn't - I'm not as good at Nior as he is at me."
He pauses. "She was. I don't want you to get the wrong idea. But I don't... I don't like it. And that was a nice thing we did. It was fun."
"I said the exact same thing Nior would've, but I didn't say it right. And I don't know quite how to explain what I meant. Just - I'm glad you got to do nice things that you liked."