Fast forward seventeen years...
"Mum! Mum!"
Due to his mother's lack of notice, the boy continued to repeat the word 'Mum' like a mantra.
"Yes, honey, what is it?" Arin's mother finally answered, regaining her composure after a period of overthinking.
"When I'm eighteen years old, will you finally tell me about my father as you promised?,"Arin questioned, his eyes twinkling with expectation.
"Of course, sweetheart," replied Arin's mother in a soft voice that was filled with love and affection.
"Sweet, I guess another year remains till I'm eighteen. Anyway, Mom, I'm going out to play with Riley," uttered Arin, being all smiley as his blue sweater vest and collared shirt caught the sunlight, and he skedaddled like lightning towards the byre to play with his best bud Riley, the calf of Marry the cow.
The mater's fizzog became ashen after Arin left, as she sensed that the time for the awaited dinkum oil was well nigh and could envision the heralded bode in her psyche.
"I wish you were here father," pondered Erina albeit her mind was in a brown study about the matter of truth and a frown had formed across her face as she kept on brooding over what to do when the time comes.
Among all things, Erina was especially grateful that her son Arin turned out to be a perfectly normal boy with an alluring symmetrical visage, a medium build, and bewitching Caribbean blue-colored eyes with matching hair color as vividly blue as the elusive Xerces blue butterfly's wings. Moreover, it was a compelling color one could never forget after seeing it once.
She was also equally thankful to God again for Arin's respect, love, and cosset for her as a mother, which was a quotidian occurrence, but she never liked to brag about it to anyone and felt super proud of having raised him as her son in an overly coddling manner throughout the entire time.
Espying Arin setting foot in the byre, Riley came sprinting towards him like an overgrown puppy and pressed his chunky body against Arin's.
Getting toppled by Riley's body, Arin sat on the ground, grabbed Riley's chin, and started giving him pats, even though he was being licked on the face by Riley.
"You're an old, big, chunky boy now; you know that, don't you? Riley, and yet you came gambolling like a kid, aflame with excitement, after seeing me. I wish I could ask why," said Arin as he did a boop on Riley's snout and fondled his head while Riley, the goodest boy to ever good, was snuggling with him and licking his garments.
Afterward, Arin stood up and stared at the vast, serene blue sky, where he saw clouds of all shapes and sizes floating freely with nothing holding them back above the endless campoo landscape.
Riley was standing right beside Arin, mooing.
"Son, come home," a voice reverberated in the air, which was familiar and soothing to his ears, and he left the shippon at once to heed the call of the voice.
Arin hied down the path to his home and asked,"What is it, mom?"
"Where were you?," asked Arin's mother with a stern look.
"I was playing with Riley, I told you didn't I?," questioned Arin.
"Yes, you did, but I heard otherwise, such as that you broke the entrance gate of Mr. Derek's pigsty and made a cut and run for it instead of repenting for your boo-boo," Arin's mother rounded on him.
"I'm sorry, mom, but I can avow that it was not my fault since Mr. Derek's gate had already been broken just before I arrived at the scene, and he thought I was the one responsible, so I scarpered."
"I always taught you one thing, which is, 'Thou shalt not be afeared if thou art not guilty'. Did you forget it, mister?" questioned Arin's mother with a quelling look.
"No, I didn't, mother," Arin said, downcast and unable to meet his mother's eye, his conscience gnawing at him for chickening out like that.
"Then go face the truth head-on like a man by desisting from fear and telling Mr. Derek that you're not culpable for what happened."
"Okay, I'll go now," said the young soul with a determined voice, and he sped his way towards Mr. Derek's house.
Mr. Derek is a placid, contented man who is noted for his flashy, matey grin and avuncular charm whenever he speaks or interacts with anyone. He's also well-known for his mellow personality and has a penchant for always being immaculately dressed.
Arin thanked his lucky stars since it was Mr. Derek, the benign beefcake, who complained against him.
When Arin got within spitting distance of Mr. Derek's house, it was audible to him that Mr. Derek was conversing with someone, which got his attention. He then went to the garden abutting Mr. Derek's house and found him chinwagging with a girl of his age who was none other than Maria, the daughter of the new chief.
Arin hated to butt in, but he manned up and stood in front of them to clear the misunderstanding.
After seeing Arin, they broke off their colloquy at once.
"Oh! Arin, you came. I was about to go to your house and apologize for complaining about you, and I'm truly sorry if your mother berated you because of me," said Mr. Derek with a broad smile on his plumpy visage.
"Good thing I came here to talk with you regarding that matter, Mr. Derek," Arin said, smiling, to make Mr. Derek feel at ease and guilt-free.
"It was not your fault, Arin. Maria here came to tell me about who broke the gate, and it turns out it was done by a wild boar trying to display its mightiness while it was being hunted down to be culled for meat upon the chief's order. Since her story bears a solid resemblance to the truth, I sincerely ask for forgiveness for complaining about you," Mr. Derek responded in a voice wracked with guilt.
"I see, it's really okay. I already knew that it wasn't my fault. So, can I take my leave now since the misunderstanding is all cleared up?" asked Arin, looking relieved.
"No, wait! I've got something to give you as an apology for the misunderstanding I caused, due to which your mother might have upbraided you."
"Oh! You don't have to, Mr. Derek," said Arin with a reassuring smile.
"Trust me! You won't be disappointed after getting the item I have to offer," exclaimed Mr. Derek sounding indefatigable to give the item to Arin for good.
"Okay then, I guess I'll take whatever you have got in store for me, Mr. Derek," said Arin, seeing Mr. Derek hammering away to give the item to him.
"Go inside the house and wait for me there. I'll be back in a while."
Arin then entered Mr. Derek's house and was rubbernecking the items he had inside the house without touching any of them.
After waiting for an inordinate amount of time, Arin lost his patience and went out of the house to find out what was taking Mr. Derek so long. Upon checking, Arin found him nattering away with Maria about inane topics.
"Sorry to break in, Mr. Derek, but I need to go," said Arin in order to remind Mr. Derek about the item he was about to give him but forgot to do so.
"Oops! Sorry, my bad! I forgot that you were waiting," said Mr. Derek, and he hurriedly went inside his house, bidding farewell to Maria.
Within a brief span, Mr. Derek came out of the house, rushing with a mucky piece of paper in his hands.
Mr. Derek then handed out the paper to Arin, and seeing the grubby piece of paper, Arin was dubious about what to do with it.
"This is a treasure map I got from my father ten years ago, just before the day he passed away, which ensured that it remained a secret how he got it in the first place. Now that I'm long in the tooth, I'm giving it to you, a stripling, to explore and unravel its mystery."
Arin thanked Mr. Derek and left albeit he was not moved to tears by getting a crummy piece of paper.
"Did you clear up your name?" asked Arin's mother, Erina, looking keenly at him.
"Yes, I did, and it turns out the gate was broken by a wild boar; thus, as an apology for complaining, Mr. Derek gave me this treasure map."
Seeing the treasure map, Arin's mother was also not fazed at all, as she thought Mr. Derek was simply trying to make Arin feel happy by giving him a faux piece of paper labelled as a treasure map for his grownup misjudgment.
"Wow! That's terrific. Way to go! Now be a good boy and eat your lunch after washing your hands, or else the treasure is all mine."
"Thanks, I will, mom, and you can have some of the treasure if you want."
"Thanks, my sweet boy!" said Arin's mother, Erina, with an endearing grin.
While Arin was savoring each bite of his meal by munching down the food, his mother sat beside him and started petting his shoulder.
"Do you need sommthing from mme, mom?" inquired Arin while chewing food in his mouth.
"No, I'm just pampering my dear boy, that's all," replied Arin's mother as she began to squeeze his soft cheeks playfully.
"I see," said Arin after swallowing the food he was chewing.
A few minutes later, she stopped squeezing his cheeks and stepped outside the house to fetch the dry apparel that had been hung on the ropes.
After Arin finished eating his meal, he saw that his mother was still busy performing domestic duties. So, without disturbing her, he took the map in his hands, wiped the dust off it, and began to pore over it thoroughly. His eyes were brimming with the prospect of discovering something invaluable as a treasure.
Arin's eyes grew wide with perplexity when he realized that the location the map was pointing out was inside the grassy hill forest, where people were verboten to go by the chief.
Arin was a free-spirited soul, so instead of giving up, he devised a maneuver to go search the hill forest in the hope of unearthing something priceless.
Arin chose his eighteenth birthday to carry out the shenanigans because he was as certain as eggs are eggs that, by chance, if he gets caught doing this, his mother would forgive him easily as his birthday is a special day for him and she definitely wouldn't want to ruin it for him.
Arin had a cheeky grin on his fizzog the entire time he was thinking this. Arin's mother observed the contours of a smile on his visage and questioned if he was planning anything nefarious, to which he immediately replied that he wasn't.
"I'll take your word because I reared you with the utmost care and instilled politeness in you from a young age, so even if you seem dubious, I believe you are telling the truth," Arin's mother spoke up out of trust.
"So may I go back to Riley's place and play with him till the sun sets?" Arin asked his mother while he looked at her with big puppy eyes.
"No, you have to do something first, and then once you've finished the errand I'm going to give you, you can go play with Riley till the sun goes down," Arin's mother replied.
"Okay, Mom, I get it. Just don't give me anything difficult to do," Arin answered.
"It's a simple job; just go to the flower fields near the hill forest and pluck a lot of Rilonis flowers of the violet color, not red," Arin's mother responded with a smiling face.
"Alright, no big deal, but how will I identify the Rilonis flowers among all the other flowers?"
"The Rilonis flowers have uniquely long stigmas, and I have previously taught you what a stigma of a flower looks like or how to identify one, so search for the red-colored long stigma ones to pluck."
Arin heard his mother's advice loud and clear and left at once without wasting a second, grabbing a basket and a pair of gardening gloves before heading towards the flower fields near the hill forest.
When Arin arrived at the flower fields near the hill forest, he quickly proceeded to collect violet-colored Rilonis flowers with the goal of filling half of the basket as soon as possible.
A while later, Arin looked beside him and noticed that Lilia was close by, busy gathering red Rilonis flowers in a basket. He didn't say anything and simply continued to pluck the violet-colored Rilonis flowers for his mother, minding his own business to go play with Riley later on.
Upon finishing the task of gathering enough violet-colored Rilonis flowers, Arin scuttled off towards his home to give his mother the flowers he had collected and asked her why she hadn't instructed him to bring the red Rilonis flowers, as there appeared to be an ample amount of them in the flower field.
"The red ones are poisonous by nature, but after being maintained for a few years, the poison intensifies and becomes deadly enough to kill a wild boar in less than an hour," Arin's mother explained simply.
Arin nodded and thought, "Okay, I get it now. Those crimson Rilonis flowers might have been grabbed by Lilia in order to use them as a weapon, supposedly darts, during the next boar hunt."
"Why do you ask? Did you by chance pluck the red ones accidentally?" asked Arin's mother, who began checking the basket to see if any of the red ones had been mistakenly picked along with the violet ones.
"No, mom, I was just curious, that's all," replied Arin, and he went outside happily to play with his buddy Riley the cow.
One year passed by...
Arin had just turned eighteen, and he had been waiting for this opportunity to question his mother about the identity of his father, but after receiving the map, he completely forgot about it since he was consumed with zeal to discover the map's mystery.
Everyone present at Arin's eighteenth birthday party whooped with gusto. Feeling grateful, Arin thanked everyone and waited patiently for the opportunity to leave for the forest on the grassy hill and explore it with the map in search of hidden riches.
Later, after cheering, everyone present encouraged Arin's mom to give a happy birthday speech, and she agreed to do so due to so many requests from the guests.
"Today we all assemble on this day to celebrate the eighteenth birthday of the apple of my eye. I'm delighted that all of you have come, and I aim to make this day as memorable as possible. Despite the hardships I faced, I think I made it possible with flying colours in terms of helping him grow up to be a proper gentleman," the speech concluded.
"The birthday speech of his mother hit hard and moved him to tears, which he wasn't expecting to betide, so he felt horrendous because he was about to visit the forbidden forest on the grassy hill, knowing that he would hurt his mother by his actions, but only if he got caught," thought Arin in his mind.
All the people in attendance again wished him a jubilant birthday and expressed their best wishes for his well-being. Arin was overjoyed that so many people came to his birthday celebration and felt grateful to God, but his goal remained the same: to find the treasure by following the map and not getting caught by his mother.
Arin received numerous gifts from various people. Some of them didn't try to hold back and came out as overtly largesse, but he was anticipating and looking forward to the gift from his mother the most. When the time came to receive the gift from his mother, Arin's heart throbbed feverishly. His mother directed him to close his eyes, move his hand forward with an open grasp, and after a short while, she handed him a bijou containing a single medium-sized stone that he discovered after opening his eyes.
"What will I do with it, mom?" Arin inquired, his face addled as he received something he was not expecting to get.
"It's a present I should have given you a long time ago, but I'll tell you later why I have given you this bijou after so many years. For now, enjoy the precious moment, my darling little birthday boy."
With a smile on his face, Arin replied, "OK, mom."
People who had come to celebrate Arin's birthday left one by one as time passed by, and it was almost afternoon.
Arin's mother started washing the dishes after everyone left and was getting ready to cook dinner.
As planned, Arin lied to his mother about going outside to play with Riley and was preparing to set out for the forest on the grassy hill.
Before Arin was about to go outdoors, his mother advised him, "Don't be late. Come back before evening."
"No need to worry. I'll be back before evening, mom, I promise!" assured Arin as he stepped outside to take his leave.
Arin wasted no time and swiftly zoomed away for the forest on the grassy hill, clutching the map in his hands in search of discovering something unbeknownst to him.
No sooner had Arin reached his destination unobtrusively and plunged into the forest on the grassy hill with a daring leap, avoiding any potential witnesses, he heard a yowl-like sound emanating from the greenwood, yet it didn't deter his adventurous spirit from venturing further inside.