𝐖𝐀𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐆𝐀𝐌𝐄, ᵗᵛᵈᵘ

three.

ACT ONE, CHAPTER THREE
THE BEST AND THE WORST

warning: allusion to the aftermath of sa, not clear but will be expanded on in later chapters

Finn had another dream, one of the ones he had sometimes that felt like it meant something. A mockingbird flew down and landed on the snout of a wolf, then the bird growled and the wolf opened his jaws and began to sing. The two animals were one, though they hadn't been at first. He wondered, when he woke up panting, which animal was in control?

Finn was seven and Elijah was three when Mother told them there was going to be a new baby. Finn insisted it was going to be a boy. What he didn't say was his dream, and how he thought his mother was the bird and that her werewolf chieftain friend was the wolf. He continued to wonder which their son would be. But Aunt Dahlia had taught him the value of silence, and he wore it well. Elijah had grown quieter too, as he liked to mimic his older brother in most things.

Niklaus was a pretty baby. He wasn't handsome, like they had said about Elijah. He grew blond curls like Freya though his eyes weren't so big and they were blue instead of green. It hurt to look at Niklaus sometimes when he smiled the same way his sister used to. Niklaus was almost Freya's mirror image. Their Father grew more lively as an effect of Niklaus' similarities, and he even began to take an interest in his elder sons. Elijah was happy for any attention, but Finn couldn't remember what to do with fatherly affection. He smiled, closed-lipped, and thanked Mikael for his gifts and for playing games with them.

With Father paying attention again, things went back to the way it should have been. Esther strapped her newborn to her chest and kept him close for the first year of his life and Mikael began teaching his eight year old son to wield a sword. Progression was slow, but as with all things, Finn took to learning with an unparalleled determination. Elijah, as a small child would be required to stay by his mother's side until he was of an age to learn to fight, though he was eager to start.

Finn found himself with too many hours in a day. No longer did Elijah cling to heels and weep when he was out of sight, instead he ran to poke and giggle at the new baby. Elijah had been distressed to learn that he too had been that small, but settled down when his elder brother admitted that everyone had been a babe once. Still, Finn woke early most days and would try to put himself back to sleep with less success every time. When Mother and Father woke, Finn would pretend to stir at the noise then wake his brothers as instructed. Chores would take three hours, then Father would return from his duties to provide an hour of combat training that Elijah, under Finn's expert guidance, would scale a tree to watch in secret. He could spend his remaining time practising his forms or spells but eventually, when his brother no longer wished to be entertained, he would find himself bored and alone.

Finn did not like to be alone, but there was some degree of comfort in it.

He still climbed trees on occasion, but had not scaled a cliffside since their departure from home. No, not home. Norway. There were no cliffsides to climb here, but he would not have touched them if there were. He could not risk falling again. Rather than climbing to great heights, their home had caves and caverns to explore beneath the earth. There was a network of tunnels, and Finn had tasked himself to memorise the whole system. Mother and Father would not permit him to explore the caves during the full moon (when there was nowhere else to go). But there were too many hours in the day and it was not hard to find time.

Niklaus was only two years old when the next baby came along. Finn had thought the new baby would have orange hair — like the fox he had dreamed of the night before — but this new baby was born with eyes so dark they looked black and a full head of dark hair. Father named him Magni, after himself, but everyone called him Kol for his colouring.

Finn tried to be good when Kol was due. He did the washing at the river all on his own, he swept their home and did all the stirring so his Mother didn't have to worry. His Father went hunting more often, so they would have more to save and more to sell and be as well prepared for the new babe's arrival as possible. But as grateful as his parents were for his efforts, Finn did not feel better. He would leave to do the washing thrice a week, and one day every week he would arrive home late and aching, eyes bloodshot and blood under his fingernails. Finn would never mention it. He would try not to think about it. Secrets were important, Aunt Dahlia taught him so.

One day, when he usually came home late, he came home early. Little Finn shook like a leaf and his Mother sent him straight to bed. "It's cold," he excused himself, under the blazing summer sun. "Sleep will do me a world of good." So the boy was sent to bed unable to find sleep.

Esther's eldest son had always been an early riser, but now Finn was the last to go to bed and the first to wake in the morning. She would wake in the morning to her firstborn son washed, dressed, and stoking a fire. Talking to him remained impossible, Finn had only ever talked to Freya and she was just as impossible to reach. Instead, Esther would kiss her son on the forehead, brush his hair from his face and sneak him an extra serving.

Finn always looked too thin.

999 words.

happy new year, everyone.
baby Finn is having a straight up terrible time, and it's not gonna get much better. srry bby.
I will try to include warnings for any potentially upsetting content.