10 River (1/2)

A slouched figure was walking on the road from the school to the chief's house, not looking at where he was going. It was a short walk, being most of the public structures in the village were located at the hilltop, as well as the chief's house.

As you expected, the pig got out of the pen again and saw the boy. However, noticing that he was not exuding the usual aura, the pig stopped beside the boy and nudged it's nose at his leg.

”I'm sorry. I'm not in the mood to play.” After leading the pig back to the pen and locking the gate, he continued walking to the house.

When he was at the door, he heard voices inside so his mother was talking to someone and won't be able to comfort him.

”Nnn... Ahh...”

”Just... -ast... I got... early... Mmnn..”

”Ok... *giggle* ...-icklish...”

He wasn't able to hear most of the conversation but there were rustling sounds inside, followed by his mother, kind of, arguing with someone.

When the door slowly opened, the light from outside illuminated the two figures intertwined near the doorway. Noticing that there was an additional person in the room, they jumped apart looking a little disheveled. Well, Mahina's clothes were slightly skewed with her hair tie undone but Bobo was still presentable.

”Ling!”

Looking at the his father first, then his mother, Ling frowned then stretched his arms and ran with his short legs to hug his mother. He was only able to hug one of her legs, reaching as far as the middle of her thigh. He then looked up, face scrunched up with slightly wet eyes, ”Mother, the others played a prank on me again.”

Mahina patted her son's back to comfort him as they listened to his complaints while turning to smile apologetically at her sighing husband. It was a good thing Ling did not enter at a later time, though it was not considered good by the chief.

Resigning to his fate today, Bobo crouched down to talk to his son, ”Then why don't we go to the river now to play. There was a pool the other hunters found that was not affected by the strong current. Your sisters haven't gone there yet.”

Upon hearing the last sentence, Ling became excited that he extended his arms to his father, wanting to be carried as it will take longer even if he ran using his short legs.

”Let's go!”