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1
Summer in The Pod was always the best of time of the year, for many reasons to two hybrid siblings living under the ocean. It was the one time of the year where they could have fun, they moved to warmer waters and one of them got to go closer to the surface than ever allowed before.
Neither had names, The Pod hadn’t decided they were good enough for any yet, but they knew what to call each other. The older one called her brother Brother and the younger one called his sister Sister. Their mother called them Sun and Moon respectively, and they called her their mother in return.
Living with The Pod was always hard. They liked everything to be perfect, for everything to fit in the box and for everyone to pray every morning. Brother and Sister were different; they did not fit in the box. Brothers’ skin burned when he was born and Sisters was the farthest from a merling you could get, her gills hid under her orange fur. While their mother loved them like she would have any other child, the rest of The Pod had different opinions.
Migrating was harder, for Sister couldn’t swim as fast as everyone else and Brother clung to her as if his life depended on it. But in the end, it's worth it. The warm waters, the way no one cared during those times and the new vastness of the world was always worth it.
“Sister! Sister! I have something to show you!” chirps the younger one, tugging on her blouse which made her feel wrong. “I found it near the surface and-”
Sister laughs. “But you aren’t allowed near the surface, are you?”
“Yeaaah buttttt,” Brother starts off. “I couldn’t help myself! You gotta come see it with me!”
Sister nods. “Okay, no less than five minutes, yeah?”
Brother nods, taking her hand and swimming upwards. She follows, kicking her legs. Brother slows down every few seconds--having the advantage of webs feet and a tail meant for swimming made him faster-- if only so his sister could catch up.
“Woah-” Sister gasps.
There, on the surface, was a large shape. A shadow of wood and wool and humans. She grins. “What do you say about going to say hi?”
Brother nods enthusiastically, and then its Sisters turn to do the dragging.
2
Sister laughs, pushing her little brother who tumbles into a roll. Bubbles trip out from under him as he flaps his arms to steady himself; his eyes are crinkled up in a smile as well.
They freeze as the sound of swimming comes.
Who was it?
Was it their mother or a shark, had one of them accidentally cut themself on a sharp rock? Was it Miss Jolene? (They didn’t like Miss Jolene.) What if it was one of the schoolboys? They liked to shove Brothers’ face into the sand and slash at Sister and accidentally cut her with their claws?
They turn slowly.
As it turns out, the first guess was right.
Their mother is swimming forward slowly with a smile on her lips and red seaweed like hair flowing out from her head. Her waterproof shirt she got from a trade with a reef pod last cycle tucked into the matching waterproof pants she got from the same merling. Her gills twitch and she wipes her hair behind her shoulder, revealing the forest scales on her cheeks.
“Mother!” Brother exclaims with a large, toothy grin. He rushes forward and hugs her around the waist.
“Brother! Give her some space?” Sister says, following suite but in a much slower manner. Despite her light scolding, her cheeks are dimpling.
Sally laughs, running a hand through her son's hair. “I brought some fish?” She unhooks her bag from her waist, holding it out.
Brother gasps, grinning and sticking his head into the bag. Sally jumps back and Sister rushes forward to hook her arms under his armpits. She drags him away.
“You’re gonna infect the fish with your icky boy smell!”
Brother sticks his tongue out at her and blows a raspberry, bubbles floating up to the surface from it. Sister narrows her eyes and glowers.
Sally ties up the bag, signaling for them to follow her.
“Race you!” Brother yells and shoots forward.
Sister follows him immediately. “Oh, you’re on!”
3
“And then, the little boy and girl looked up to the stars where the fish were going. The fish made it look so easy, like the two could float up into the sky and become stars with them.”
Wilbur closes the book, sliding it back into the small bookshelf of the caravan. “I think that's enough for tonight.”
“But-” the fox child starts, her voice purposely high pitched.
“No buts.”
“We gotta finish it though!” the ender child insists and purses his lips.
Wilbur closes his eyes shut, squeezing them. “Not falling for those eye’s today.”
The fox child groans, crossing her arms and lashing her tail. “And there's only one chapter left.”
Wilbur sighs. “You guys need to go to sleep though… orrr… or Tommy won’t play with you guys.”
The ender child gasps, and the fox child gives an indigent squawk. They turn to each other, holding their hands up to each other's ears and whispering.
“He wouldn't!”
“He would! He would stop playing with us if da- Wilbur told him to!”
“Guess we gotta go to sleep then.”
“Yeah. Guess we do.”
Both yelp as Wilbur scoops them up into his arms.
+1
“Fun-” he chokes up. “Fundy I’m scared.”
The fox kid presses his back to his brothers, holding a sword far too big for them. The hats of their uniforms fall over their eyes and they don’t have the stance of an experienced fighter. The room is dark, someone who they saw as family leaving behind only a pair of sunglasses in light of his betrayal on the ground. Their father is pressed up against their uncle's back, and the friend who always played with them when they asked is off on his own.
Fundy doesn’t answer. He’s too focused on the danger--the threat. His eyes flick back and forth between the enemies approaching.
Its tense and the seconds are passing too low--the seconds aren't passing by like minutes or hours, they aren’t passing by at all. He can't breathe.
He shakes his head.
He has to be strong! For his father! For L’manberg-- For Tommy-- for Tubbo and--
“Fundy I’m scared.”
His brother.
So, he sucks it up.
“I- I know ‘boo. I… I’m scared too.” He looks at the person approaching-- who was it? Fundy doesn’t know. But he looks weaker than anyone is L’manberg... “But we’re gonna kick ass!”
His brother laughs despite the incoming danger.
“Y-you said a bad word!”
Fundy doesn’t get to answer.
He grits his teeth, and he tries to hold his ground against the person far older than. He can’t.
He’s knocked to the ground quickly; his elbows hurt from the fall. His eyes flick over to where his brother is struggling. Everyone else was either celebrating their victory or gone from losing a life. None of Fundy's side remained--except for him and his brother.
Funny how the youngest lasted the longest.
His opponent raises their weapon.
But maybe not for long.
HIs brother cries out.
Fundy rolls over before his opponent can think, tripping them and getting him. His claws scramble against Blackstone and he trips and pushes himself back up again. The masked man fighting his brother goes for the kill--
“Teleport! Ranboo teleport!” He yells without meaning too.
(He’ll end up regretting telling his brother to run. Running just ended in his fate being worse than it already was, as it turned out.)
Fundy feels pain as he collapses to the ground again, an arrow piercing his stomach.
The last thing he sees before he blacks out is dissipating purple in the air.
(Kids weren’t meant to fight in wars after all. They were meant to be reading bedtime stories and being tucked in by their mother.
Then again, when has the world ever cared for children?)