Small Brothers

An island in the middle of what appears to be nowhere, surrounded by nothing but water. There are many things within it that people can call beautiful. A static sky with clouds that pass by. Beaches with sand that warm your every step. Rocky plains that lead into the ocean. Forests full of life and green to be seen. All of these are naturally occurring sights to behold, and yet there is one of them that stumps all. It's of course, treasure.

When people amass huge fortunes it's common for them to be followed and hunted for said fortune. It might be easy to think that you can hide it all in a bank, but when riches pollute the mind, people will do anything to make sure they keep it more than just safe and secret. Scattered across the land you can find areas where the rich hide their riches and the fortunate hide their fortunes. However, those areas are not easy to reach, and are seldom unguarded. As time goes on those who fail to completely use their reserves and die leave behind what people know as treasure. It's all up for grabs; it belongs to whoever finds and keeps it.

Despite this, there is a certain kind of treasure that does not belong to any human. No one has found it and no one owns it. To own this treasure is to bring demise to oneself and to everyone else. The land and the people would be cursed as they did when they possessed this treasure. For the good of humanity, it lies sleeping in the unknown.

"Victor! Vincent! Get over here!" A man called out. The boys climbed out of their tree-house rooms when their father yelled their names. They knew they hadn't done anything wrong but still felt as though it was the case.

"He's gonna chew us out for something I just know it," said Vincent.

"Just relax, we didn't do anything bad," Victor replied before briefly pausing and looking at his brother, "right?"

"Ha, yeah, totes."

"Vincent I... no, forget about it. Do you think he got Ma's letter?"

"Maybe so, I'd be fine with anything as long as it's not a scolding."

Sometime ago the woods were relatively undisturbed. The only time people were in was to go somewhere without being trailed. Bandits would often sulk around in hopes of catching dimwitted merchants that thought they could avoid being robbed in the main routes by taking detours. Needless to say they were often assaulted. The forest also served as a way to hide all sorts of valuables. Without many people passing by it would be easy to hide things in the hollow of a tree or buried deep beneath the ground. In this case, the greatest valuable was right in the middle of a clearing. A big tree served as the perfect spot for the new home of Kurt and Hilda, whose adventures would eventually set roots around such imposing tree. The base of operations as they called it, started out as a small hut between two trees. Eventually they expanded by chopping down and cleaning the area for the arrival of their children.

"Listen here you two, I wanna let you know something but try to stay calm okay?" Kurt had caught the attention of the boys. It wasn't often that he had to speak in such a serious manner.

"Well now we can't stay calm, congratulations," Victor replied to his father's statement. He was then nudged by his younger brother. Now wasn't the time to be cheeky.

"Like I was saying, just keep cool alright? So, yesterday we got Hilda's letter as usual. However, today we didn't get it. I quintuple checked the mailbox and there wasn't a sign of a letter anywhere."

"There's no way it can get lost right? Mom makes sure the letters get here one way or another," said Vincent, his voice portraying a hint of worry.

"And how DOES Ma get those letters to us?" Victor added.

"Hilda has a special connection with someone. That person brings the letters. It's all sneaky."

"Wait, didn't you say it was a mailbox?"

"We can't have a permanent mailbox, otherwise shady folks would find out our location or steal the mail. It's a mailbox in the sense that mail gets boxed to us."

The duo looked at each other, their faces cringing at the attempt of humor. Even Kurt knew the quip fell flat.

"That's uh, not very, y'know, funny? Or cool? Where's the joke? It doesn't even make sense," Vincent questioned his father's secret.

"It isn't funny that's the point. There is no joke and it doesn't make sense it- look it's a figure of speech," Kurt tried explaining.

"Well it's not cool or a figure of speech, you lied to us!"

"No! I didn't lie I just... told a not truth?"

"Yeah that's called a lie."

"And this 'special connection' didn't show up today?" Victor chimed in, placing emphasis on the so called special connection.

"Weirdly enough yeah. I went back to the meeting place every hour just in case they were late but they never showed up."

"We're just gonna ignore the mailbox thing?" Vincent asked.

"It's not a lie, Vincent. They carry the mailbox with them and leave it there for an hour before taking it back." Kurt's explanation seemed to make more sense now.

Victor crossed his arms and looked at the ground, "Well that can't be right, they've been handing the letters and, uh, mailbox on time for years. What's the matter now?"

"That's what I'd like to know but... nothing I can do. For now let's just see if they show up tomorrow." The sun set along with the gloomy atmosphere that the family carried. Bedtime came and the mood of the siblings was quite down.

"Mom is strong. She's strong so she's gotta be fine. It's only a day, maybe she went to sleep and forgot to send the letter," Vincent pondered out loud for his brother to hear.

"That's something you'd do not her," Victor pouted.

"Maybe I take after her that way," he said with a smirk, but it was quickly replaced with a frown. "I miss her. It's just a letter but I miss her."

"She'll come back soon, I'm sure. Let's just..." The older brother trailed off as if thinking what they should do.

"Wait?" Vincent rested his head on his hand.

"Guess so," said Victor.

"Yeah, we'll wait. We can wait, right? All we gotta do is stay here and wish for the best." And wish for the best they did. Tired yet anxious to know about their mother, the two went to their beds. "Nighty night Vic."

"Goodnight Vinny," he said before waiting. He waited for sleep. So did Vincent. They both waited for sleep. They also waited for her.