“Amel! Call you brother, time to eat!” the call of a mom on a seemingly normal day. The boy she calls for, one of the two human legendary figures which made history thousands of years ago.
“I’m almost done! Let me just finish!” the young, three years boy who could read, write, talk and even manipulate energy tried to argue. A boundless potential lying deep inside where none could have ever expected.
“I told you to stop doing that to your toys! You know it freaks out your father!” the mom complained. “Now hurry, bring Femel before your father comes back!”. She was crying for him from the yard, putting up some freshly cleaned clothes, the sun hitting the stone city in which they lived.
“They’re not toys… they’re friends,” he argued to himself, then placed his ‘toys’ down. Once so, they started to move of their own accord, doing awkward movements, as if trying to learn how to walk and how to move their few or many limbs, depending on what Amel thought to add in the spur of a moment. “And why must I bring him? I was scooting around just fine when I was a year of age,” he further protested on his own, not caring if his mom heard him.
His smaller brother, barely an infant, was climbing all over the place inside their tall stone house. If there was only a stair going up and down, Femel would crawl onto it until he would fall asleep. He wasn’t as bright as his brother, but had so much energy, his mom could barely handle him. Amel found him in crawling up the chimney, a wonder how his limbs could support that fat and plump body of his.
“C’mon little brother, mom wants us to eat,” Amel put his hands on Femel’s sides, he didn’t like that and was holding tight onto some brick that pierced from within. Amel faced greater resistance than expected, but with a small tickle, his little brother let go and fell together in the ash below. “Now we’re both covered in ash,” he complained to his brother, who was smudging the ash all over his face, curious of the black substance. “Stop that, mom will yell at me for it. Ahh, if only you could understand me,” his complaints were in vain, Femel was then smearing his face in ash.
Once Amel grabbed his little brother’s hand, and helped guide him outside, where their mom worked tirelessly to put up the table, chairs, food and plates, the bright sky blinded Amel for a moment. He liked to spend his time inside the house, play with his creations and bring them to life. His mom and father didn’t understand how he could do it, nor why he was so smart, but they were happy to know he will grow up to be a smart and creative individual. In their family of farmers, there could be no greater honour than having a possible ‘wizard’ in the making, and without any prior lectures or training either. Amel could already understand the expectations his parents were setting on him, but he was still a child at heart and preferred to play with his contraptions, rather than thinking of the future and what may hold.
“Okay, supper is ready,” the mother announced. Her light, brown hair blowing in the wind. Her body looked as young as it did prior to giving birth to these two brothers, and her eyes were a gentle dark brown. “Come, come little Femi, come to momma,” she played with her hands, calling the little boy to her arms. The boy was enchanted by her calls, as if the greatest joy was presented to him and couldn’t contain himself, crawling with speed to his mom, ‘too much speed’ his mom thought. And he did, as he came to a sudden halt, a tumble and hit his head on the table’s leg. “Oh no, poor baby, why do you have to rush like that?” she grabbed Femel in her arms, hugged him and kissed his head, but the infant didn’t even seem to realize what happened, as he played with his mom’s nose and cheeks.
“He’s fine mom, I saw him falling from the tall window on the floor and didn’t even blink,” this revelation made the mother worry, both for Femel’s precious head and Amel’s lack of concern for what happened. But Amel simply stood at the table, struggled to get up in the adult chair, the table too tall for him to hold his hands properly. “Can we eat, or should we wait for papa?” his words sometimes reflected his frail years, yet his mom could feel that an adult was ready to emerge from below the skin of this kid. Looking at Femel, besides the unusuals energy and lack of crying, she was glad that he was acting a bit more like a kid his age should. Amel, at the age of one, already was half speaking, his emerging teeth being the only impediment for him to conjure complex sentences. While by the age of two, Amel showed skill in the energy manipulation, or magic how the common folk were calling it.
“Well, we should wait for your father of course,” she placed herself at the table, placing Femel in a smaller chair with a small table of his own and a small ball. He was throwing the food around and trying to push whatever he could grab between his fingers in his mouth.
“Then why is he allowed to eat?” Amel’s inner child showed once again, although he knew that Femel didn’t even possess the concept of patience. “He’s making a mess too, like he did by climbing up the chimney and making both of us a mess,” this revelation further upsetting the mother.
“Why didn’t you tell me he was climbing up the chimney?” her frown made Amel agitated, but he calmed himself down, a skill which he shouldn’t have until of a later age.
“I didn’t think of it as much importance,” Amel pushed the meat on his plate with his finger, “he does, after all, even climb in the small tree,” he was talking of a small fruit tree at the back of the house. The thought of Femel climbing that terrified the mother, but when she was about to further argue with Amel, she reminded herself that he’s only a child, and he might yet not understand how dangerous that is for someone of Femel’s age, or his age. Maybe he did understand, and just chose to not act upon it, which would be a bit more worrisome.
Before she could finish her thoughts though, the father showed up. A day filled to the brim on working the few fields which the capital city of Amouldes, named the same, had. His job was well paid due to the region having few tillable grounds, good for farming, and providing less expensive foods to the market by being a local producer. But he still had to work most of the day for it and sell his crop at a smaller price than that of import, so that he could stay ahead of the market. He couldn’t complain though, living inside the city with his family and having a nice, large house, is something most farmers wouldn’t even dream in other kingdoms.
He was a tall, muscular man. Dark brown hair and darker eyes, the common colours of the common folk. Neither of his sons inherited this, Amel had very light brown eyes and almost blonde hair. Femel on the other hand, looked like the spitting image of his mom, except for the hair which had slight nuances of black. The fooler men would think that she might’ve cheated him with some other man, but he was confident his wife loved him and there would be few men to match him, in what concerns the common folk.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
He stepped through the small wooden fence leading to the yard from just outside the stone streets, joining his family in the backyard, seeing them as lively as ever, a happy sight for a tired man. “I’m home,” he simply announced. Their mom had a sparkle in her eyes whenever he came back, while he always had that genuine, large and deep smile. Amel tempered himself, trying not to look too excited for seeing his father, while Femel had no constraints about it and reached with his small hands for him. He first hugged his wife, gave her a lovely kiss, even covered by sweat, she didn’t care. Then, he took the smaller boy up on his shoulder, Femel really liked it, but their mother told their father to stop that, as he was already troublesome for trying to climb everywhere. Then, he took Amel on his other shoulder, although he gave his father a turned head, his father knew him better, and once he was on his shoulder, Amel’s joy revealed as he started giggling and laughing.
They were happy, a beautiful family that did nothing wrong to deserve anything wrong. Living fairly and working hard, high hopes and dreams could be seen being pieced together if enough time was given. But that’s not how their legend is born, no, it’s born from sorrow, pain, struggle and despair. That seemingly normal day, where the family was ready to enjoy themselves, live like the precious thing they were, was interrupted all of a sudden.
The skies darkened in a blink, something unnatural, never seen before. Amel, when looking at it, thanks to his affinity for energy manipulation, could sense the ill intent behind those clouds. Before he could call for his mom or dad, the rain started. Black like the sky, it covered the whole city, and beyond, the whole kingdom. They hurried inside, their clothes weren’t drenched, rather, whatever the black rain was, it washed down from them and gathered in smaller or larger pools. By this point, everyone was aware of the unnatural phenomenon occurring before them, but didn’t know what to do. Their father told the mother to head below the house, where they could be safe from tornadoes and the like. This was a stone house, but they still took precautions even this deep into the mountains, for you never know when an avalanche that could sweep your house could come by.
However, in this disastrous day, no man-made structure was fit to defend humans from what was about to unfold. As the rain stopped, the sky remained just as dark, as if they didn’t yet emptied their contents. Then, from the formed pools, figures started taking shape from the liquid. The father witnessed as one of the small pools which formed inside their house from the drops that came off from their clothes, started to take the shape of a tall, elongated figure, sharp claws and thick limbs forming. The amount of liquid which was in the pool, didn’t match the figure’s shape and density. Their father didn’t have time to react, watching from below a wooden trapdoor, their mom witnessed as in a blink, their father was sliced in half by the black figure, then again and again, until there were only bits and pieces left on the ground.
Femel was moving around hectic, feeling the unease in the air, while Amel was trying to calm him down, also being terrified by the sounds outside, not understanding what was happening. Their mom returned from the ladder which led back up to the house and hugged them. Prayed to the Creator that, whatever evil was after them, to be gone. Her prayers weren’t answered, Amel was first to notice, the hollow, dark eyes of the figure which emerged from the pool, looking through the crease between the floor and door. He was scared, wanted to run, his mom unaware, while Femel was looking at the being in fascination.
Then, as it splashed onto the cold, underground, stone floor, their mom noticed as well. Once again, the figure formed itself from the pool of dark liquid which it formed when moving. Too large and odd to make sense. Their mom tried to stop it, launched herself at it, but it was all for nothing, whatever the creature was, it sliced their mom just before Amel’s eyes. Femel was too young to understand what just occurred, was it not for Amel, he would’ve never got to the following day or the following after that and grow to understand.
Amel, witnessing his mother’s murder, and the being readying itself to kill the both of them, hugged his brother and let loose of all the energy his small body contained. In a flash, the whole underground room was surging with his energy, between the cracks of the stone, dirt below the stone and beyond. The creature trying to steal their lives, didn’t seem to understand itself what was going on, the fact that Amel brought to life the whole room. In an unnatural way, the walls started to move in fluid motions and, like waves, crashed onto each other, carefully avoiding Amel and Femel. It was as if they had a will of their own, and their will was to protect the two brothers. The being was quickly covered in the stone and dirt, through which it attempted to dig its way out, but was unable to, getting covered time and time again by stone and dirt whenever it dig itself a bit upwards.
In a few minutes, silence befell the surroundings. Amel hugged his brother tightly to his chest, whispering “The two of us, together we are strong. The two of us, together we are strong,” and kept repeating those words to Femel. “The two of us, brothers,” he changed his words, looking at his clueless brother, fear still not striking this infant.
“Brothers,” Femel uttered his first word. His large, wide eyes, barely grown teeth and ash and dirt covered face, looked at his brother’s sad, desperate, yet happy crying face.
“Brothers… we are brothers,” and so the day would go by. Nested deep inside a ball of stone and dirt which protected them from the outside, Amel found himself wishing to never be taken out. The seconds turned to minutes, minutes to hours, and the following day came by. Femel was sleeping inside Amel’s arms, while Amel was crawled into a ball, held tight but comfortably in the confines of this, unwilling, creation of his. He was hungry, and knew that Femel would cry in hunger soon enough too. He thought about his mom, that she should have breakfast ready by then.
With a gesture of his hand, the stone and dirt that protected them, gave way for him and his brother. They restructured around to allow Amel to climb back up, aiding Femel from below to get through the wooden trapdoor. Once back into their house, Amel saw the entrails and butchered corpse of their father, but his mind blanked the image out, making the room out to be the same as it was before the monster killed him. He looked at Femel, grabbed his hand and said “C’mon brother, mom is waiting,” Femel crawling around, drenching his hands and legs into the blood and guts of his father.
Once outside, Amel breathed the morning air in, except, it didn’t smell like morning, but blood. It was a strong, pungent smell, which he tried to ignore inside of his house, outside though, it was everywhere, and Amel didn’t know how to blank it out of his mind. If he tried to breathe through his mouth, the smell would still make its way up to his nose. Looking around, he could see the smoke coming out of a bunch of houses.
He turned around, he wanted to lock himself inside the house and never look outside again. But then the eviscerated body of his father would impose the reality back upon his mind. Wherever he looked and tried to his mind from it, there was again, the smell of death, the visions of blood and smell of gore. He didn’t have a choice, his mind couldn’t blank it out, it was all there for him to see, for this child to witness.
He grabbed his hair, pulled at it, “It hurts,” it wasn’t a nightmare. He looked at his brother, Femel was crawling to where his food was served yesterday, eating from his half empty bowl. Amel didn’t know what to do, how to react to all this, so he cried. Like a child does, he just stood there and cried. After a while though, that sharp, quick-witted mind of his, geared into action once more. He didn’t have time to cry about what has been and what should he do, he had to find a way out of this, so started to analyse his options. It was a terrifying look on a child’s face, one who didn’t have the time to grief or cry for his parents. No, rather, he ignored that portion of his mind, where his parents were present and taking care of him. He started to think as if he was always alone.
After thinking on what his next steps should be, he grabbed his brother from the little table of his, bowl carried with him to ensure that he wouldn’t cry on his way out, and took their leave from their once beloved home. “That monster, we must kill it brother,” Amel told his brother, Femel didn’t understand his brother’s words, just following around the one who was holding his hand, like he always did. “If we kill that monster, we might have our home back,” his thoughts once again reflected the child inside of him, while a certain determination was palpable inside them. “And we will do it together, alone, because that’s how the monster left us, brother. Alone.”.