#youngin's

Boar Brothers

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In hindsight, it was a childish mistake. Three brothers, playing in a field and rough housing. Of course, Tommy was always picked on the most, but he was absolutely the favorite. Wil and Techno always wanted to spend time with their baby brother, and even as he got older they would still smother him in attention.

He never should have did it. It didn’t look right, he knew something was wrong, but he was curious.

Wilbur traced the ancient rune on ruined stone, caramel eyes shimmering in wonder. “What is this?” He heard his two brothers stop playing and wander over, one of which, Techno, yanked his hand away and looked at the stone tentatively. “Maybe we shouldn’t…” Tommy however, flopped in front of it and put both hands on it like the child he was.

Techno tensed and reached out to pull the boy away, but before he could a strange green glow sifted out of the runes and engulfed the boy.

“Tommy!” His brothers shouted, reaching out to grab him but instead his little body was yanked into the sky, the trees casting their silhouette over his form.

“Wilbur! Help, Wilby!! Techno!” The sound of his baby brother, crying out to him in hopes to be saved, as he was carried away by an angry god filled his ears with agony.

“Wil.”

Wilbur’s head snapped up, letting out a surprised breath that turned into a relieved sigh when he met eyes with his older brother. “Jesus, Techno. You scared me…” Wilbur turned his head back to his desk, where there were child-like drawings laying on its surface.

“I was…just looking at Tommy’s drawings. The ones he gave me.”

Techno looked over his brother’s shoulder, features softening slightly. Most of them consisted of their small family, but these were mostly Wilbur and Tommy together. His eyes lingered on the one of a stick figure with brown scribbles for hair, and two orange dots for eyes; and holding their hand was a much smaller figure, gold scribbles for hair and blue dots for eyes.

Wilbur was always Tommy’s favorite. Techno found himself chuckling. “I can remember these pretty clearly; he gave you this one for your birthday, didn’t he?” He pointed at the one he’d been looking at. “Along with a nice, fat mud cake.”

Wilbur let out a sad, soft chuckle. “Yeah. Pretty sure I puked cuz he insisted I have a bite.” His lip trembled a bit, and Techno’s shoulders lowered slightly. “His birthday is coming up soon. He’ll be 10. Double digits…”

“Yeah…That he is.” Techno mumbled, thinking for a moment before gently moving the pictures to one side of the desk so he could sit on it, legs crossed.

“Tommy would let you have it if he saw you like this over him.” Techno hoped his emotional constipation wasn’t getting in the way of comforting his brother here, but at least he was trying. He lifts a hand to gently rub his brother’s tense shoulder and his brother’s ears drooped, tail tapping on the floor. “Tommy’s strong, Wil. When we find him, he’ll gripe about how long we took to find him, just like when we played hide and seek and he always somehow won.” Aka, they both let him win for a moment of silence.

Wil lifted his head, eyes watered and threatening to spill over. “It’s been so long, Tech.” As cliché as it sounded, he could remember it like it happened just yesterday. He wished it had just been yesterday, but instead…It’d been two long years. “If we found him, would he remember us?”

Techno frowned, looking to the floor with a thoughtful, constipated expression, before grabbing his brother’s arm and yanking him up. “Up.” Techno reprimanded himself mentally for coming off a bit more harsh, but still made the other follow him.

“You didn’t answer my question…” Wilbur trailed off, rubbing his arm where he was pulled and followed after to the garden. He imagined the little mop of blonde running between the rows, picking tomatoes and eating grapes off the vine. Phil would always cut the melons free to enjoy in the summer, and help them carve pumpkins in the fall.

“We’re going to garden, and I want you to think about anything else but the worst that could happen.” Techno grabbed the gloves and shears, tapping a hoof on the steps next to Wilbur so to catch his attention. “It would make Tommy sad to see you like this. Come on, let’s get some stuff cut and preserved.”

Wilbur sighed and took the gloves, pulling them on quickly so he could take the shears. “Alright…” His voice was still low and weighted, but he didn’t try to bring up the worst again.

The silence as they worked on snipping ripe fruit and vegetables free was tense, so while Techno was carefully placing grapes and plums in his basket, he cleared his throat. “You know, Tommy used to sing to these plants. His favorite was Hallelujah, right?” Techno moved to snip some small bell peppers from their stems, glancing at Wilbur.