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They duck into an abandoned cart, hold their breaths, and wait. The mage hunters run right past. "Whoa!" Milo exclaims, panting. "That was close!"
"Too close." Zack decides, slumping down next to what smells like months old hay. "Did you have to set that guy's cloak on fire, Melissa?"
"He was asking for it." Melissa decides. Milo nods. "You know that reminds me of that time- the time with the buffalo, remember? When the mage hunters captured us."
"Why were there buffalo?" Zack asks, screwing up his face.
"My dad is a nature mage! That means that he can turn into animals. He tried turning into a buffalo to confuse the mage hunters, but then he got caught in a buffalo stampede and fixing that took like half a day. And then we got captured anyway." Milo seems very relaxed about it.
"You got captured?" His eyes widen in worry.
"We've captured loads of times." Melissa flaps an unconcerned hand. "Oh, but remember Milo, this was the first time me and you got captured."
"Oh, we were terrified that time." Milo remembers.
———
Milo yelps. He tries to make a shield, but then he feels a horrible, burning sensation on his wrists. And then his arms are grabbed, and squeezed, and he is thrown to the ground. He squirms and kicks, fighting as hard as he can, but he is small and young and they are big. A foot is planted on his back. “I got a little mage spawn!” The mage hunter cackles.
“I got one too!” A different mage hunter yells. Milo turns his head to see Melissa on the ground, struggling fiercely. “Oh stop moving, you vicious little brat.” He kicks her, and she cries out.
“Hey, don’t hurt her!” Milo yells, squirming more. He needs to protect her, he’s supposed to protect her! But he can’t get away, and the burning sensation on his wrists hurts, and someone kicks him. And again. And again.
“Hey!”
Milo hears his mom’s voice. She sounds furious, and yet he relaxes a little. Because his mom is here, and she’ll protect them, and nothing bad is going to happen now she is here. “Mommy!”
“Shut up, ungodly scum.” He is kicked again. He yelps, squirming helplessly while the mage turns back to address his mom. “Kneel down and put your hands on your head, mage, or your spawn gets it.” Milo feels something poke into the back of his neck, something sharp.
“Stop!” His mom sounds… worried? “Fine, fine!” And then she kneels down and puts her hands on her head, glowering at the hunters. Milo winces when they grab her arms and stuff her wrists into iron manacles, not being gentle at all.
“Mommy!” He yells.
Her face softens a little. “It’ll be ok, Milo, Melissa! It’ll be ok, I promise!”
“Aww, how sweet.” One of the hunters holding him jostles him. “Do you trust your mommy, little mage? You shouldn’t. She’s wicked and cruel and evil, just like you are. She just wants to hurt people, and teach you to hurt people with her. But you’re both going to die, and you’re not going go hurt anyone again.” The blow makes Milo yelp, and both his mom and Melissa yell at the hunter. Milo answers back anyway.
“No! Mommy’s the best mom in the world, and- and you’re wicked and cruel and evil!” He tries to drive his elbow back. “Leave us alone! I just wanna go home!”
He is easily held still, by too many hands that are too rough. “Well you won’t. You are never going home again, brat, you’re going to the pyre and you’re going to burn like the gods want you to.” He is yanked to his feet. “Get the big one in the cart, and we’ll keep using the spawn as bait. I’m sure that there are more of these creatures around.”
Milo and Melissa are yanked to their feet and dragged away, kicking and squirming. Milo hears his mom, sounding frightened and angry at once, but still comforting. “Kids, it’ll be ok, I promise it’ll be ok. Just don’t panic and look after each other.”
They can recite that phrase off by heart. They have known to look after each other as long as they can remember, a rule burned into their heads. One of the many rules that they learned long before their parents started on letters and numbers.
So Milo turns his head and manages a nervous smile at Melissa. “It’ll be ok.” He offers. “Promise.”
“Yeah, it’ll be alright.” Her frightened eyes start to shine with her usual fiery determination. “Our parents are definitely stronger than these nasties.”
“And cleverer.”
“And powerfuler.”
“And-“ Milo is cut off by the hunter throwing him against the tree. The tree falls, and the hunter kicks him. “Hey! Stop it!” He tries to scramble up and run, but there are still so many hands on him. Grabbing and pulling and pushing and shoving, squeezing him tightly and holding him against the rocky ground.
“Wicked, ungodly little brat.” One hunter kicks him again. Milo can’t help but whimper. He is used to getting hurt, but these hunters are hurting him because they want to. Because they don’t like him. “I would say that your parents should’ve taught you more manners, but I can’t expect that when they’re as unnatural and dangerous as you are.”
He hears a cry as Melissa is thrown to the ground beside him. He manages to turn his head to see a very sharp looking sword, held very close to her. “Mages! Surrender, right now, or this one gets it.” He pokes the sword into her chest. She whimpers, paling as she stares up at the cold eyed hunter.
“No!” Milo squirms more and more. “Stop it, let her go!”
“Your beloved ‘parents’ could save her, but they won’t. Because mages aren’t capable of love, not even for their own flesh and blood.” He presses the sword a little harder. Melissa squeaks. “Or is it blood? Maybe it’s some kind of fucked up poison running through your bodies. When I was your age my friends in the playground told me that mages bleed pure black, and it burns through human skin.” He laughs playfully, with a cruel edge. “Maybe we should find out.”
“Milo…” Melissa is slack with terror, her eyes wide.
“Don’t! No, do it to me instead!” Milo struggles fiercely, but with all the hands on him he can hardly move. “We’re both mages!”
“Milo, no!”
“Oh, shut up.” The hunter presses the sword in more, which silences both of them. “Well, your parents clearly aren’t coming. Guess they’re not so good after all.” His eyes narrow as he looks down at the pair of them, helpless on the ground, mute with terror. “Now, who first…?”
Milo squeezes his eyes shut, trying and failing to reach for Melissa’s hand. And then he hears a crash, and a bang, and a wallop. And then a lot of yelling, and… and squawking?
He opens his eyes to see a huge bird, larger than a horse, swooping and pecking and lunging for the hunters. “Dad!” He exclaims, scrambling to his feet.
His dad shifts into a tiger and attacks the hunters. Milo helps Melissa. “C’mon, we should go to the safe place!” He says, remembering their parents’ instructions. So they run together, hands clasped tightly, both so shaky that they can hardly stand upright.
They have just reached the door when Sara arrives, in the form of a tiny bird. She turns back into a human and immediately leans against the wall, her face flushed, feathers in her hair. “Gods… are you two alright?” Even as she pants and gasps for air, she grasps their shoulders to check them over. “Did those bastards hurt you?”
“Yeah.” Milo clings to his sister. She hugs both of them, crouching on the floor and holding them tightly in her arms. “Sara, they got mom, they-“
“I know. Dad and Richard went to go save you guys and mom, they told me to get home in case you two ran here.”
“I was scared.” Milo admits.
“Me too.” Melissa offers him her hand. He takes it.
“I was scared the first time I got captured. And the second time. And every time after that.” Sara says. “Mom and dad and Richard get scared too, you know.”
“Really?” Milo is sceptical.
“But they’re so brave.” Melissa points out. “They’re always so brave.”
“Being brave doesn’t mean not getting scared. They do get scared, they just push through it and hide it.” Sara tussles Melissa’s hair, then Milo’s. “But you’re just babies, so you don’t have to do that. Not yet.” She holds them close, her voice unusually grave.
But Milo and Melissa don’t notice that. “Saraaa!” Milo complains.
“We’re not babies, we’re big!” Melissa adds.
“No, you’re just little babies, you’re so small.” Sara hugs them tightly. They squirm and fight her, giggling the whole time. She laughs too.
When their parents come back, they just scoop all three them into hugs and hold them tightly.
———
“… and then dad accidentally turned into a buffalo again.” Milo finishes.
Zack stares. “That… was that supposed to be a fun story?”
Melissa shrugs. “Was it not?”
“You were just kids and they beat you up! They were gonna kill you, right there and then! You nearly died!” Zack finds himself getting upset.
“We nearly die a lot.” Milo points out.
“I know, and it’s not fair!” Zack exclaims. “You were just kids!”
Milo sighs, his expression going a little more serious. “I know. It’s not fair.” He admits, resting his head against Melissa’s shoulder. “It was really scary. I guess a lot of stuff from when we were kids was really scary.”
Melissa nods. “Having to get up and run in the middle of the night, being chased by hunters or angry mobs. Or hiding from hunters. Or being captured.” She lists. “We were scared a lot.”
“Especially because of your mom.”
“She was burned when we were babies, I don’t remember anything about her.” Melissa tells Zack, whose eyes are wider than dinner plates. “But I’ve known since I was little that she was killed, and that it might happen to me, or someone else I love. We’ve always known that.”
Zack lunges across to hug them. They hug him back, the atmosphere unusually serious. Unusually quiet.