The sun shone softly through the leaves of the oak trees where Merlyn and his friend Taliesin lay. The grass, still slightly damp with morning dew wet the backs of their tunics. Neither boy seemed to care, however, and the sound of the birds calling spring mating calls echoed in the trees above their heads. Merlyn turned to glance at his friend, whose eyes had gone unfocused, listening to the birdsong. He chuckled, nudging the blonde, who blinked and sat up, looking down at him.

"Now why'd you have to go and do that? Their song wasn't done yet," the apprentice bard protested. Merlyn rolled his eyes. "Birds' songs don't have a beginning or an end, they just sing," he said flippantly. Taliesin scowled. "You don't know that. You never actually listen," he said, tone strident. The birds tittered softer now, hearing the commotion the two made. Merlyn sighed, rolling over onto his stomach and pulling at the tufts of grass. It was a long moment before he said anything, and the two sat in the silence.

He began to feel a little self conscious about swallowing the conversation, and he slid his gaze over at Taliesin. The blonde boy's frizzy curls framed a suntanned, freckled face, falling halfway over his ears. Everything about him was golden, like a sheaf of wheat on a hot summer day. Even when he was sullen, or irritated with Merlyn like he was now, he somehow radiated light from his cornflower blue eyes. Merlyn chewed on his lip. He'd have to leave his friend soon. Would Taliesin take the light with him? Merlyn was nothing like him-- where the other boy looked like summer, Merlyn thought his own looks seemed more like the shadows of forest undergrowth than wheat.

Black wavy hair teased at the idea of chin length, shrouding green eyes in darkness. He tugged at a lock of hair in frustration, and pulled a length of leather cord from the bag on the belt at his waist. After tying his hair up into a short tail, he stuck out his bottom lip and pouted. "What is it?" Taliesin asked. He always knew when something was bothering Merlyn. The two had spent too long growing up together for either of them to pull the wool over the other's eyes. He sighed, digging his fingers into the soft earth under the grass.

"I don't want to go away," he said quietly. Taliesin scooted closer to him, prodding his arm with a finger. "It isn't forever, idiot," he said, bright eyes filled with humor. Merlyn watched an earthworm wriggle through the dirt next to him, unable to put the ache in his chest into words. "Somehow, nine years feels like forever," he said. Taliesin sighed. "Oh Merlyn, it isn't like you aren't going to be able to visit the village," he said. Merlyn shook his head so hard a few strands of hair escaped the tail and wafted around his ears, tickling his cheeks. "I know, I know, but the training isn't easy. Initiation makes people different," he said simply.

Taliesin's young face grew serious. The bard's apprentice knew a little about that. He'd been found by his foster father Elfin in a salmon catch, sewn into a leather sack. Although he didn't show it often, the boy had been born gifted with prophecy, as well as other talents. No one knew about Taliesin's true origins, but Merlyn knew his friend was just not letting anyone find out. Somehow, even as a baby, the boy had known. As quickly as a cloud slips in front of the sun, the expression passed and Taliesin grinned.

"Oh cheer up. Are you going to spend you last day before training whining like baby?" he teased, scrambling to his feet. His brown tunic was covered in grass stains and bits of dirt, and there was grass stuck in his hair, but Merlyn wanted to remember his friend like that forever. Happy. Free. "Race you to the top of that maple tree just thirty feet hence," the golden-haired boy cried, pointing out beyond the little clearing. Merlyn's smile returned as he scuffed his boots on the grass, standing to join Taliesin.

"Ready or not?" he asked, showing his teeth. Taliesin balled his fists and waggled his eyebrows ridiculously. Then he took off, sprinting in the direction of the maple tree, laughing back at Merlyn. A split second later, Merlyn was on his heels. He'd grown up in the forest, Taliesin had not. His mother had wanted him raised among the trees, since his father, the resident druid at court, visited so infrequently. His friend's foster clan were fishermen who owned land, the farming of which the boy had participated in just as equally as the fishing. And it showed. His boots pounded into the undergrowth, smearing into the lush dirt of decaying leaves. Taliesin hopped over a root that Merlyn had already spotted, aiming for the tree. But the other boy hadn't prepared for the loose stones right on the other side and slipped, catching himself but slowing his run.

Merlyn whooped and tapped him on the shoulder as he sped by, scrambling up the trunk and grabbing the first limb like he'd been born to climb trees. In a way, he had. The sounds of Taliesin's boots scraping the bark below him spurred him on and he reached up to grab the next branch. Breath wheezing through his lungs he felt on the burst of excitement. His blood was pumping through his veins. The leaves. The wood, alive beneath his hands. The forest itself wrapping herself around them. His head thrumming with victory, he climbed higher. Just as he was about to perch, his gangly limbs folding so he looked like some sort of strange bird, Taliesin's hands wrapped around the branch next to him, hauling himself up beside the dark haired boy.

"Yes!" Taliesin shouted, face alight. Merlyn growled at him playfully. "I guess this is a tie then, huh?" he said, resigned. Taliesin nodded enthusiastically."Yep! Since you didn't settle down you hadn't properly gotten there yet," he replied. Merlyn rolled his eyes at his friend. "That makes no sense," he said. Taliesin smirked, swinging down to a branch lower and settling himself in the vee shape it made with the trunk as if riding a horse."Does it have to?" he asked, quirking an eyebrow. Merlyn scowled, but it was no use. Logic didn't really work on Taliesin. Another part of what made him so fun to be around.