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It was just us. It has been for a long time. My brother is all I need. And I am all he needs. No one else can be relied upon.
So, where the hell is he! I clench my fists in frustration. After a second, I grudgingly loosen them again. No point in getting angry. He only went out for a while. He’ll be back when he feels like it. As he always has.
I lay sprawled on my back on the soft grass of a lovely meadow, still somewhat wet from the recent rain. My black hair lays loose, spread around my face. My eyes are casually watching the clouds drifting in the now clear morning sky above my head, in no way suggesting that a storm had raged on the previous night. On the edge of my field of vision, I can see the tips of my curved antennae, gently waving in the wind.
“Alisha, you won’t believe what I found!”
I start at the sudden sound of a voice ringing in my head, disturbing me from my thoughts. My brother is hovering just a few feet before me, the six magnificent web-like wings of his partial sura form reflecting all the colors of the rainbow. A mix of relief and frustration floods my chest. I jump to my feet.
“Azad! Where in the world were you? I looked for you everywhere!”
I stretch my four wings, colorful like those of a butterfly, in a vain attempt to look authoritative.
My brother laughs, his compound eyes glistening. I can see a miniature of my furious face in each of the many compartments of his eyes.
“Dearest sister, you worry too much.”
“Or maybe I worry just the right amount,” I utter reproachfully, crossing my arms over my chest.
I quickly collect myself and scan the surrounding area. What kind of a mess did he get himself into this time? I just hope he wasn’t followed. Why do I have to be the responsible one?
He remains silent throughout the whole process, a satisfied grin never leaving his face.
No matter where I look, I see only hills lush with grass and the blue of the sky. When I am finally convinced nothing is out of place, I placably ask, “Now what is it that I won’t believe?”
Azad’s contented smile widens. “Follow me!”
With that, he turns his back to me and flies off into the distance. When his wings spread, from below it looks as if there was a giant web floating in the sky. While I admire him, his silhouette quickly gets smaller and smaller. I pull myself back from my thoughts.
“Hey! Wait for me!”
I also lift myself into the air, flapping my large butterfly-like wings, tiny scales falling all around, and rush to catch up with him. I can feel the wind pushing against my skin and ruffling my long wavy hair and antennae. The sky is clear, and the sun is shining warmly. A welcome change after the thunderstorm raging overnight.
I am quickly catching up to my brother. Pride fills my chest. I am no worse than him.
“Bet you can’t race me!” My brother calls out just as I am about to overtake him.
“But I don’t want to race you!”
“Says the loser!” replies my brother, as he speeds ahead.
Tch, like a little kid. I mumble and increase my speed as well.
Next to no time passes and I recognize that we’re nearing a vast lake. The mass of blue-green water seems still, the sight of it deceivingly calming, considering all that may lurk beneath.
My brother stops in his tracks and smiles expectantly.
At first, I am confused. “What the? We came all this way and all you wanted to show me was a lake?”
“No, look.” My brother sighs and points to the rocky shore at the edge of the water.
When I notice what he’s referring to, my eyes widen, my heart starts thumping with anticipation, and my mouth begins to salivate.
On the shore there lay a large inferior sura sprawled on the ground, its fins and eel-like tail clearly unfit for land. It must have gotten washed up from the lake by the storm of the previous day. As of now, it hasn’t noticed us yet. It shows no sign of movement.
“See, told you so," Azad smirks, apparently very full of himself. “Let’s go check it out.”
I enthusiastically nod and start shifting to my sura form. My antennae elongate, my body transforms, resembling that of a butterfly, the rows of sharp teeth in my mouth are revealed.
Next to me, my brother follows suit. His compound eyes now seem to take up most of his face, his furry antennae resemble a curtain, his web-like wings widen, almost blinding me with the colors they reflect. I catch myself admiring him with a loving gaze. I quickly regain my composure before he notices and gets the chance to make fun of me.
We both land, each on one side of the sura, our six feet tapping the ground. We fold our wings, we won’t need them here.
The unsuspecting sura must have heard the rustle of our wings. Its head jerks upward, deep green eyes turning my way.
This startles me for a second, but I quickly get a hold of myself. I take a step towards the sura. “Well, well, what do we have here?”
The sura’s eyes widen with fear. It bares its teeth at me. “What do you want? Leave me alone!”
My brother slowly starts to approach it. “Now, now, wouldn’t it be a shame to let the good fortune of finding ourselves a nice snack just go to waste?”
The sura jerks its head in his direction. Upon seeing him, it starts to frantically bash around itself with its fins and tail, apparently trying to move its weighty body towards the water.
Its vain struggle seems almost ridiculous. Here, outside of its natural element, this sura stands no chance.
I let out a laugh and circle around the sura, getting closer and closer. I can see Azad doing the same on the other side. I am now a single step away from it.
“Don’t get any closer! If you hurt me, my mother will make you pay!” The sura blurts out desperately. Its eyes are erratically going back and forth between me and my brother.
Such useless pleading. This sura clearly doesn’t understand the ways of the world yet. Someone ought to educate it.
Just like that, I bite off its right fin. The sura tries to snap at me with its fangs, an expression of pain and horror on its face, but I jump back before it gets the chance to reach me. I swallow the fin in one gulp, enjoying the sensation.
Mmm, tasty. I lick the sura’s blue blood off my lips.
A blue-green transcendental starts forming in the sura’s mouth, but my brother attacks before it has the chance to use the skill. He grasps the sura’s lower ribcage in his jaws and pushes upward, turning the sura around, on its back.
The sura screams. “Aah! Please! No!”
I get closer again, sinking my teeth into its belly. The sura struggles and tries to hit us with its tail and remaining fin. I step on the fin, which is now on my side.
Azad pins its head to the ground with one of his front feet. Then he also bites in. The cries of the sura get louder.
We shall take our sweet time with this. After all, prey tastes best while alive.
I lay on my back on the soft grass of the same lovely meadow I had been resting on this morning. Yet somehow everything feels brighter now. The grass is tickling the skin on my arms and legs, by now it has gotten dried out by the sun, which is embracing everything in its warmth. Its light is so bright that I must close my eyes when looking up, else I would be blinded. I can feel the soft wind gently playing with my antennae.
I think back to our feast. We had left a carcass stripped of all flesh lying on the shore of the lake. The bones of the sura shone a bright white, reflecting the sharp afternoon sunlight.
I feel a satisfying warmth in my stomach. I smile at my brother, who is lying next to me. “Sorry for doubting you. This was well worth the trip.”
“I know.” I don’t even need to turn my head to look at him to know that he has a prideful grin on his face.
I moan. “Seriously, that’s all you say?”
“Yup. Why expand on it. I was right, and we both know it.”
Uh, that is not worthy of an answer.
Still, I am happy. I get to be with my beloved brother. He is all I need. And I am all he needs. That’s how it has been since forever. And that’s how it’s supposed to be.
“Say, sister,” my brother interrupts my thoughts. “If you had to leave me behind in order to survive… would you do it?”
“What?” The sudden question catches me by surprise. “Of course not! You’re my brother. I would never leave you.”
“Really?” he turns his face towards me. At first, I see a wide grin on his face, then his features get stiff, his expression more serious. He turns his head away. “You should, though.”
“What do you mean? Would you leave me behind?”
He flinches as if surprised by the question. “Of course not.”
“Then why...?”
“That’s different.”
I wait for him to elaborate. After a moment of silence, he looks at me with a careless smile on his face. “Don’t worry. There’s no way it’s ever going to come to that.”
Thump!
A loud sound echoes through the meadow. I instantly jump to my feet. My brother, however, does not.
A tall woman with purplish fins on her face and forearms is pinning Azad to the ground with her foot.
“What the! Let go of my brother!” I prepare a beam-like transcendental in my hand, ready to strike at any moment.
“I think not.” The woman bares her teeth and presses down Azad with more force.
I shoot my transcendental in her direction. She dodges effortlessly. This, however, gives my brother the time to slip out of her grasp. He immediately shifts to his sura form and attempts to lift himself into the sky with his magnificent web-like wings.
“Oh, you aren’t getting away so easily.” She grabs Azad by one of his insect-like feet and slams him into the ground. Then, her slender arm transforms into a blade and she shoves it through his stomach. He lets out a scream, colored with surprise as much as with pain. My heart skips a beat but I remind myself I must not freeze.
“I don’t even need my sura form to kill you,” she says as she pulls out her arm, twisting it a bit in the process, bringing out involuntary moans of pain. Azad’s face twists horribly.
By then I have already taken my sura form as well. I must act quickly. From what I’ve seen, it would be wise to fight from a distance. Instead of running closer, I prepare another transcendental in my mouth.
“No, Alisha! Get away!” Azad yells at me, suppressing his screams.
Wham!
Sudden pain. It feels as if I got hit by an iron fist. Splinters of ice lay all around me. The sura must have hit me with a transcendental. I clench my teeth and ignore the pain, slowly gathering myself from the ground.
Before I can do so, I feel another surge of pain on my back. Completely befuddled, I look at my severed left wing laying on the ground, its beautiful colors covered with purple blood, spilling freely from my wound. What is worse? The pulsing pain of where the wing once was or the sight of the wing on the ground? I blink to hold back the tears forming in my eyes, desperate to keep my composure.
“You crazy lady! Why are you doing this?” Azad lunges at the woman, despite his own terrible wounds.
“Why? Why indeed.” An insane expression crosses her face. With a speed on the edge of what I can perceive, she moves sideways to avoid my brother’s teeth and casually slashes off his front foot, reducing his six insect legs to five.
“Aaah," Azad screams, yet he doesn't budge or relent and attempts to attack her again.
Instinctual fear is increasingly taking hold of me, gripping my heart with cold talons. I try to crawl away, only to get pinned to the ground by an icicle piercing through my remaining wing.
Ouch! Just what is her problem? I cannot suppress the brief thought. The grass all around us is now smeared with purple. It distantly reminds me of a similar scene from earlier that day, except the blood was blue, was it not? But that can’t possibly have anything to do with...
“You took him from me!” The sura yells contemptibly, as she casually cuts off another of my brother’s feet, her precision almost surprising considering her riled up composure.
What? Confusion crosses my features at first, but cold sweat starts to run over me as I slowly grasp the implications of what she is saying.
“My baby! My sweet baby!” With each exclamation, she takes another of my brother’s legs, her expression getting more crazy with each slash. Azad is barely capable of screaming by now, his voice raspy and broken.
So that’s what this is all about? I feel completely shocked, a shock that I feel the need to externalize for what I heard seemed to clash with what I had been taught. Not minding that I would draw her attention, I shout out: “Why? Why would that matter? We did nothing wrong! That loser was weak, that's just how it works."
“Nothing wrong?” I feel her gaze piercing right through me, her crazed expression suddenly replaced with one as cold as ice. Her eyes are a deep green, just like those of her child. “Oh honey, you’ve never had a child of your own, have you?”
What does that have to do with anything? I hesitantly shake my head.
She takes a step in my direction. Azad makes a vain effort to block her way, pulling himself closer with his two remaining legs. Relief that he is still conscious crosses my mind for only so long, until she stops for a second and rips off another one of his legs. He holds back his scream.
She continues, as if losing herself in thought for a bit: “You have no idea what it’s like to have that tiny existence rely on you. To have it look up at you with trust.”
The anger in her eyes becomes more and more apparent. She stands but a few steps away from me, arm raised. “To promise yourself never to let any harm befall it, yet fail.”
I am too confused to react. What is she trying to say? Is she insane?
Then I hear my brother speak, his pleading voice reduced to a rasp: "Not my sister. I beg you. Please, not my sister." Tears fall from the corners of his compound eyes.
The sura looks at him with a smirk. “You are in no position to plead with me. Don’t you think it’s too late for that? I will tear you both limb from limb for what you have done to my baby!”
Panic is clouding my mind. I have managed to mostly regenerate my lost wing. If I can free myself… I sharply jerk my right wing to rid it of the icicle. The pain of the tearing wing almost paralyzes me. I grit my teeth and attempt to regenerate the hole in it. Perhaps I can do it while my brother is keeping her occupied. Once I can fly, I might stand a chance.
The sura seems amused by my struggle. She takes another step in my direction, only to get stopped by Azad who makes a last effort to stall her. He flaps his wings to get between us and blocks her way. His outstretched wings resemble an impassable web from where I am lying.
She hesitates. “Such devotion.”
Then she looks at me, somewhat thoughtful. “You know what? This can still be amusing. Run, if you can.”
Is she serious? I hesitate, lifting my gaze towards her. She looks somewhat distorted through the semi-transparent wings that separate us.
“What are you waiting for? Go, before I change my mind.”
Should I fight to save my brother? Or should I make a run for it? I am completely torn. The fear that grips my heart is nearly too much to bear but so is my love for my brother.
I look around what was once a lush meadow. It is completely covered with blood. Five of my brother’s legs lay scattered around the field, weak and broken. The wing that was laying on the ground is gone now that I've regenerated it, but the place where it laid is still marked by a puddle of purple.
My brother is all I need. And I am all he needs. That’s how it’s always been. And that’s how it’s supposed to… I look at his face. He forcefully forms somewhat of a smile despite his facial muscles being tightened with pain.
I think back to his words earlier. I should, I should…
I have made my choice. I turn my back to the scene and lift off of the ground.
I should flee!
I desperately flap my wings, trying to gain as much distance as possible. But no matter how far I get, Azad’s screams continue to ring in my head, never fading.
Why did I run? Did my brother mean so little to me? Why? Why did this happen? I did nothing wrong! I did nothing wrong!