Chapter 13: First Hunting Session
"This is my gift," I said, echoing her earlier words as I secured the clasp. The bracelet fit perfectly, as if it had been made specifically for her delicate wrist.
Lisa stared down at the jewelry, her free hand coming up to trace the patterns with one finger. When she looked back up at me, there was something new in her expression—surprise, certainly, but also a deeper emotion that I couldn’t quite tell.
Without breaking eye contact, I lifted her soft hand slowly to my lips, pressing the gentlest of kisses against her knuckles. The gesture felt both natural and momentous.
"One of many to come," I murmured against her skin, my breath creating the smallest shiver across her fingers.
Lisa’s lips parted in what might have been surprise or something deeper, her blue eyes searching mine questionningly. For a moment, the busy marketplace around us seemed to fade into nothing more than distant noise. But then, as if suddenly remembering where we were, she slowly averted her gaze, a delicate flush creeping up her neck.
"Harold?"
The sharp call of my name cut through our private moment. Lisa immediately pulled her hand from mine, taking a small step back as we both turned toward the familiar voice.
My sister Rosaluna stood several paces away, her face was set in an expression of barely contained irritation, her pink eyes flashing with something that went far beyond simple annoyance. Beside her, Rumia who looked equally upset, though her distress seemed to stem more from concern than anger.
But it was Rosaluna who took attention, her gaze fixed on Lisa with the kind of intensity usually reserved for enemies on a battlefield.
"Again sticking around my brother, Lisa? Don’t you have anything else to do with your time?" She said.
This wasn’t the first time I’d witnessed this particular friction between the two young women, and I suspected it wouldn’t be the last. Rosaluna had always harbored a complicated relationship with Lisa—one that seemed to grow more strained as the years passed.
It wasn’t that Lisa had done anything wrong. If anything, she’d been nothing but kind to my family whenever our paths crossed. But Lisa was older, fourteen to Rosaluna’s twelve, and had grown up being told she was special, unique among our village’s youth. Despite Rosaluna possessed powerful Fire Magic, she was still feeling slightly inferior to Lisa.