The changing seasons had caught Rin by surprise. It felt like the spring that they saw when they first arrived had already disappeared as a looming winter seemed determined to take over. Her favourite trees were already a variety of bright colours and limply lost their leaves, leaving behind skeletons to brace for the incoming cold. Being proactive about the change and fearing for her plants, much like a mother would her children she had straw bundles up under the plants to keep the soil warm and hope the frostbite won't kill off a good portion of those. Knowing as well the higher amount of colds and infections going around from Leon's advice she had taken the next days quite leisurely. She has never seen the snow before as her home was an endless Spring. Sighing over the memories Rin tore herself away from the window and looked over at Leon as he carved a small figurine on a junk piece of wood. Ever since the exchange of labour for medicine Rin had been forced to turn their second cottage in an area for the townspeople and locals to stay while they helped around the lot. At first it was an unusual uncomfortableness as Leon and her had to share a room together but they did sleep in separate beds. So far no issues had cropped for her, as she was sitting looking out the window a chill breeze passed through the wind caused Rin to have a slight shiver. A pair of arms reached over and pulled the window shut.
"Stay away from the window you'll catch a cold." Leon said with a frown. Although Rin could tell it was at this point quite normal between them, In fact if anything it was quite a brotherly action to do. But for Rin the space in her chest ached with a bitter sweet feeling.
"It's alright, I know my body best" Rin said reassuringly. Despite it not being winter yet the fireplace was already roaring to combat the cold. In actuality Rin could warm herself with other means but she has released not to long after that it wasn't practical.
"You may study medicine but a doctor you are not" Leon said to drive the point home. Rin pouted at him, her cheeks puffed in anger.
"Then I guess I must be a quack when it comes to helping these people." Rin said with a huff. Turning her head she ignored Leon. Not letting it get to him, Leon chuckled and went back to sit down and continue whittling, the shavings at his feet were already piling up. Rin was curious, ever since she found one of his carvings and was drawn in by it she asked him what it was. At the time Leon just smiled and said, "If you like it, you can have it". Now more curious about the process itself Rin watched on.
"How can you tell what you want it to look like?" Rin asked. The knife strokes had a deliberate purpose to them as he would suddenly change the angle of the cut and occasionally stop to inspect the carving as it went on.
"Hard to say, you kinda go with the grain of the wood and eventually there's an amazing thing waiting for you at the end" Leon said casually. Being one of the few times where he wouldn't be staring at Rin Leon was intensely discerning what would be inside, she enjoyed seeing that focused look on his face. It was much like when he shot his bow, his focus could only be on what he was doing at the time.
Leon paused for a moment and reached for anothebrsmall sharp blade and a small chunk of wood, pushing it into Rin's hand.
"You try" Leon said simply as he went back to whittling. Rin looked at the wood and the knife, and attempted to shave the bark off the wood. A few minutes, sweat was already beading on her forehead as it shined and flickered with the waving flames of the fireplace. Struggling, Rin gritted her teeth as she successfully slices a piece of with great difficulty. Leon had long stopped to enjoy watching Rin's efforts, a smile on his face that irked Rin.
"You're cutting too much in one go. You need to cut it off finely" Leon said trying to instruct Rin as she tried to cut another chucnk out of her wood piece. Frustrated rin pouted and dropped the knife on the ground.
"Too hard" Rin said angrily staring at the wood. Leon had enjoyed this scene too much and so turned away to hide his smile. Seeing an opportunity, Rin started to whisper to the small piece of wood. The wood shifted and creaked rapidly under as ripples could be seen under the flesh of the wood. Morphing into a small bird Rin had seen earlier the realism was staggering.
Leon looked back over but frowned as he immediately saw the bird sculpture, as he would admit it was amazing to look at it made him angry. Rin proudly smiled and presented the piece to Leon.
"Look,look. I can do this even without the knife" Rin said. Leon had come over and picked the bird to inspect it. The details were so fine that he could count the feathers on the piece. Instead of being happy he gave Rin a quick back handed slap on the head.
"What did you do that for?!" Rin said, surprised at Leon's response. Clutching her head getting by Leon was much like getting hit by a tree as the blow was still stinging in Rin's head.
"You've missed the entire point of it. Talent is not as easy as skill or effort. You may be able to use your tricks to do this but one day when you actually require the skill you will down a hole that you can never get out of. It's a dangerous path to tread" Leon said in a warning tone. The pain was already fading as Rin clutched her head. Although Rin knew Leon was just trying to teach her, this method was just too abusive.
"But I can't make it nice like yours." Rin said as she tried to hold back the tears that were welling up at the corner of her eyes. However just as the two were coming to a head there was a furious knocking on the door if the cottage. Leon showed the confusion on his face as he swung it open. One of the helpers was out of breath as she clutched the doorframe.
"Miss...something happened at the orphanage" the helper exclaimed between breaths. For a moment the pair I the cottage froze at the words. Hurriedly the two of them pushed out the door leaving the helper behind. Rin rushed to grab her bag of medicines from the the other cottage while Leon hitched the horse up on its cart. Rin jumped in the back and they set off at a fast pace. Rin could feel a stone heavily pushing down on to her heart as she was left wondering what happened. Not too much later the pair spotted the orphanage. A small bellow of smoke froze Rin's heart as it burnt an ugly dark grey.