Donald & Mac

3rd person POV

Donald and Mac were truly different, to the point that some, such as the town Elder, did NOT want them to associate with one another. According to the Elder, Donald was a capricious, conniving, butt kissing, snot nosed little brat; who knew how to talk his was out of anything because he wouldn't stop talking. He was the most troubling child the Elder ever had to deal with and Mac was the easiest child the elder ever had to raise. Since Mac came along right after Donald the elder was especially worried that Donald would corrupt Mac. 

Generally the children are assigned to a craft young so they can pick it up when they learn the easiest, gradually having more work to do as they get older. So long as they complete the work assigned to them the could spend the day how they wished. The jobs varied but the most common was farm work. 

Donald despised the other jobs besides farm work. He wasn't good enough with his hands to sew or patient enough to weave. Everything was hard for him to do and he liked seeing the plants grow and how they would be used.  Donald was always silver tongued, and so he would play the sympathy card to get out of doing work. He did actually need help with farm work since he wasn't especially strong bodied. He had learned early that the older kids would help him when needed and he used that to stay as a farmer. 

The arrangement he had with the older children only lasted so long as they worked with him. When they aged out and left the Elder discovered that Donald wasn't suited to be a farmer. He tried to reassign him, but Donald was not going to have it. Donald won in the end but the Elder wanted him to build up strength so he was assigned monotonous work that would build his strength. 

It was then that Donald noticed the younger boy that was housed with him. He came up with several ideas to convince the Elder to reassign him and every one of them would only be possible if that boy didn't tattle on him, even better if they were on good enough terms for the boy to help him. So Donald approached Mac and chatted with him. Mac was not a talker he would look at Donald and give brief one to 5 word reply to most things.

Donald was surprised to find Mac doing the same strength based load carrying work as him. Donald would meet Mac first thing in the morning as the picked up their load to catch him before Mac could head straight to work and talk to him as they did their work.  Mac would take twice the load Donald would and walk the max speed Donald could barely keep up with as if it was a breeze for Mac. Donald was astounded to find Mac, a pudgy small child, carry so much that he looked twice his size and even walk as quick as he did without a sweat. After a week Donald felt like he was drained and Mac still only gave a plain face and short replies. Donald stopped for a break plopped to the ground. Mac stopped too and looked back at Donald walking up to Donald. They said nothing but Donald came to a decision.

The next day Donald had decided he'd had enough so he took his time to get ready instead of rushing to catch up to Mac. When he finally gets there he finds Mac is still there and that today Mac's load is even larger and his load is half its previous size. Donald launches questions at Mac still getting short replies but finding out several things. Mac has always woken up early to take a part of Donald's load. Mac waited every morning for Donald to get there. Mac was excited to have someone join him in his tasks. 

As the day progressed and Donald learned more about Mac he came to the conclusion that Mac was naïve in an angelically nice way. Mac seemed to Donald; to have no negative thoughts, and it made him feel guilty for trying to get close to him for his own personal agenda. Donald decided to treat him sincerely from that point on. 

The next few months passed and Donald and Mac had gotten closer. In those months Donald had several ideas that he told Mac thinking just to think about things. He would talk of quicker paths wishing for shade and water just off the top of his head and Mac took them all seriously he would use the imagination Donald shared and just do them. Mac found Donald to be so smart with all his ideas and Donald found Mac to be inspiring. 

Donald had thoughts flitter through his head all the time, but he had never tried to put them to use or test them. When Mac tested them for him he saw his ideas come to life and when they didn't work he'd think about why and Mac would try again till it worked out. At the end of these months the Elder sighed in defeat and relief that Donald would stay his strength but at least seemed less mischievous and thankfully not having corrupted Mac. They were assigned a plot of land to look over with the planting season starting.

They looked after the land together Mac doing the heavy lifting and Donald providing ideas that Mac used to make the plants grow to their full potential. Despite their fields doing the best Donald felt like he wasn't much use as Mac did so much of the actual work. 

When Donald discovered herbs, he wanted to know more and Mac joined him on his journey. He was glad that he was the one who could do things. Surrounding himself in discovering more about herbs time passed quickly. At one point he got to be so good that the Elder decided that was his work instead of the field he and Mac took care of. Donald worried about Mac having to do it all by himself but Mac came everyday to eat lunch with him and later Mac would finish by lunch.

Mac then found a passion like Donald's for plants and he somehow managed to always be doing it. Donald wasn't even sure if carving was supposed to be done while walking but Mac always managed. Mac never kept anything he made giving most of it to Donald but quite a bit to just anyone who wanted it.  Mac, distracted by the carving, gave even shorter answers to Donald when they talked but Donald felt comforted by Mac always wanting to be next to him and show him his projects first. 

Mac soon looked like he was the same age if not older than Donald; all the physical work making him a very buff boy. Donald found he was looking up to at Mac and the way he look at Mac had started to change. He no longer saw him as a naïve little boy he was a manly boy. Donald had always been one to talk had heard and discovered all about boys falling in love and realized he felt that way for Mac. 

Not long after Donald discovered his feelings Mac had stopped spending his evenings with Donald, only ever saying he was going to be busy. When Donald was ready to age out he had nowhere to go and was both relived and disappointed. It meant besides Mac he had no one else since he talked to everyone but only Mac came to him. He had wanted to stay with Mac, though getting away would have been a chance to live without being dependent on Mac. 

Time continued to pass and there were more children in the house but Mac was as busy as ever. Donald confronted the Elder about Mac but discovered Mac wasn't working on the field in the evening and realized he had no idea what Mac was doing. He began looking at the things in a different light. He wondered if Mac liked him at all. Mac didn't share his projects with Donald anymore, they only talked when Mac was helping him carry all his things through the forest in the morning. He worried that it could just be pity. He felt choked up, as he wanted to ask but was afraid of the answer. He never did say anything to Mac.

It was a few more years till it was time for Mac to leave and Donald had long prepared his feelings for when Mac would tell him.  Mac was still there and Donald found hope again despite trying not to get his hopes up. The Elder began to question Donald if he was saying something to Mac that made him stay. The Elder didn't think to harshly about this since Mac had only asked for a few days but wanted to know what Mac would need time for. He assumed it had something to do with Donald since Mac really only did a few things and farming or carving a trinket shouldn't prevent Mac from moving out, plus Mac talked to Donald so he thought Donald would at least know. Unfortunately the Elder always spoke in a gruff tone, especially to his troublemaker Donald. 

When both Donald and the Elder didn't know they first began to fight thinking the other wasn't saying everything or unjustly blaming them. They then resolved the misunderstanding and grew closer discussing the possibilities of what it could be, even asking others in town. While they gossiped one day Mac caught them and pulled Donald away.