Long Lost Brothers
(Nick's point of view) I had the strange feeling that my brother was watching me. I'm not quite sure why, but it feels as though that that worthless excuse for a brother is somehow watching over me. I shook off the feeling. Maybe I really am starting to miss our fights. "Well, now to summon some minion to help me avoid that fox." I muttered to myself. I waved my hand over the ground, and purple runes began to write themselves into a circle, finishing the spell. I waited as the sound of moving dirt got louder over time and a paw burst from the circle and crawled its way out. The paw belonged to a panther child no older than eleven whose fur patterns were strange. He also had no shirt on, as is typical for some Low Citizens, and his pants were bloody from the wounds in his stomach. Three of them. Made by a blade that only a High Citizen could carry. Cleanest cut I've ever seen, really. He was holding a teddy bear in his left arm that was also covered in blood. I also took note that he wasn't decayed at all and had tear stains on his fur. Someone had cried over him, that much was obvious. The panther looked around before seeing me. "You called, Master?" he asked. As innocent of a voice it was, all mercy behind it was gone. I kept a straight face as I assumed command over the corpse. "I need you to find me a safe path away from that fox-" I pointed in the fox's direction and turned to see him not two feet from me and snarling. He had seen me summon the creature, and he was not happy. "Scratch that, get me away from him!" I bolted off into the brush as the trees exploded into fire.(Gary's point of view) I escaped just in time with a backpack of supplies. I heard the door of my sleeping quarters break down as soon as I closed the window from outside. I wasted no time in moving on to avoid getting caught. Pinnacle, I noticed, was having a party while watching the new entertainment. I saw the wolf and pyromancer together for a brief second. The wolf ran away while being followed by one of his reanimations. The wolf looked familiar, but I couldn't quite place his face due to the camera malfunctioning from the heat. A torrent of fire had materialized around the fox and burst outwards into the jungle. With power like that, I wondered if it was even a competition as to who would win. I stayed in the shadows until I reached the Low City, Nethermost. The citizens scoffed at my Pinnacle attire, but I ignored it. I needed to rest and formulate a plan to rescue those anthros. I tested my persuasion skills at a store, tricking them into giving me free clothes. I decided on a pair of black cargo pants and a black hooded jacket. The jacket wasn't necessary, but I procured one anyway. I was reaching the age where
I cared about covering my chest, but I tried my best to hang on to the sense of freedom that goes with not wearing a shirt. It's very common among young male anthros, and I wanted to believe I was young for as long as possible. I'm not sure why, and I've the strangest feeling that my little brother has something to do with it.(Nick's point of view) You know, surely that fire should still be chasing me. I didn't question it. Any fire that isn't chasing me is a fire I can admire. You see, necromancers, for some reason, have an irrational fear of fire and heat. It burns bodies, corpses, and ghouls, all of which are extremely flammable, so a necromancer should naturally not like it. I had my minion lead the way as we traveled through the brush. His only instruction was to find water. We traveled for a little bit, and I made a point of not conversing with the ghoul. He eventually told me to wait while he stumbled into the brush, and I heard a voice on the other side say, "Wallace?" I continued to wait as I heard a voice of someone older than me talking to my minion. My patience grew thin and I emerged from the brush to see four other anthros gawking at the demon in panther's clothing. The only problem I saw was the one talking to Wallace's corpse was an older panther that looked exactly like him otherwise. I mentally kicked myself. "Wallace," my minion's vessel's previous owner, was this anthro's brother. I tried to seem indifferent as I picked twigs and leaves out of my fur. The older panther eventually saw me and the purple runes on my fur. I forgot that they showed when I animated a corpse for a prolonged period of time. His expression turned from confusion to shock as he realized what I was to anger at what I did to his brother. The last thing I remember before slamming into a tree was him lunging at me.(Gary's point of view) I had little trouble persuading an innkeeper in letting me stay a free night at his inn. The question I had was whether he'd remember I never paid in the morning. I spent a good bit of the rest of the day sitting at a window and contemplating my new power while watching an argument break out on the one screen set up in the Copper Plaza, a very run down part of the Copper Street Market where a fountain that doubled as a screen projector rested in the middle. It was really the only reason it was ever visited. I saw a female anthro whom had a worried expression as she watched the screen, and it amplified when she saw Regir. That was one of the few anthros in the arena whose names I remembered. "I should memorize those names. It would be handy to know what to call them." I muttered to myself. I went over the list of the five I actually saw and learned the names of. The wolf's name I didn't know, but I knew the fox I saw earlier was Feir,
which reminded me of something. In my bag, I pulled out a pencil and notepad and noted what I successfully used my persuasion on.Convinced general to let Feir live.Haggled some clothes into being free.Talked my way into a free night at an inn.Also, panther is Friz, husky is Ghastillo, older bear is Timler. So much happened today. It made my head hurt. I took a bottle of some alcoholic beverage I snuck from the facility out of my bag, opened it and drank it. As averse as I was to alcohol at first, it calmed me when the day overwhelmed me. I finished about half the bottle before I felt better, but I was still swimming in new information. I sighed. "I really must stop relying on this." I was beginning to relax while watching the argument on the screen escalate until the necromancer was slammed into a tree. I suddenly had a earsplitting headache. What was going on? I had a flashback of my brother yelling at me the night before he left. The memory hurt. As insufferable as he was, I miss him. I hope he's okay.(Nick's point of view) "I hate you!" I screamed at my brother, Gary. "You never listen to me! You only ever do what Mom and Dad ask!" "It's because I agree with them." Gary said calmly, "I just don't want you to get in trouble." He tried to get close to me, but I backed off. "You shouldn't worry about me. I'm not the one without a gift." I watched as he was physically taken aback. My brother was the superstitious type and believed in the eldest son being the most powerful, yet I was the one with the powers of healing. I had gotten a lecture from my parents and him for using the dark arts to revive a patient who had died in my care. He hadn't come back as himself and attacked the nearest nurse. A quick knife to his brain later and I was in jail for defiling the clerical arts. What was I supposed to do in that situation? I'm eleven, and the answer was staring me in the face. I took it. I walked away from Gary and into my room, slamming the door behind me. Knowing my family, they would let me "cool down" before coming in. When they did, I wouldn't be there. I snapped out of the flashback. Hardly a second passed between then and now, and I was still pinned to the tree. "How could you do this to my brother?!" The panther yelled. I was infuriated from the flashback and was able to find the strength to throw him to the ground and pin him. "Shut up!" I commanded, my fake ego showing through. "You were probably the one who killed him!" "No, I wasn't!" The panther screamed, rolling over to pin me down. I struggled in his grip, but couldn't get free. "I've never loved anyone more in my life!" "You can't possibly have never hit him out of
frustration. It's inevitable between brothers!" I spat. "I spoiled him rotten! The last thing I would do is hurt him! I've never seen him mad at me, and it's not something I would've been able to live with." His voice was faltering. My minion got involved at this point. "Get off my master!" He yelled, grabbing at the panther's left arm. In a reflex of rage, the panther's arm froze over with spines made from the solidified atmosphere and slammed into the younger panther's skull, killing him. The older panther's rage melted into shock as he realized what he'd done. He ignored me as he rushed to his brother's side. "No. No no no, this can't be happening to me!" He yelled as he picked up Wallace's corpse. "Wallace, my God. Wallace, I'm sorry!" "Friz," the husky said, getting the panther's attention, "he never came back. It was a demon wearing your brother's corpse as clothing." The panther dropped the corpse and turned to me, newly enraged. His eyes glowed as his rage poured into the next three words he said. "I'll kill you!" He screeched as loud as he could. A bow materialized in his hands and he pointed it at me. He pulled back the string with his left hand, ready to kill me, before the husky intervened. "Friz, no!" he yelled, pushing the bow out of the way. The energy blasted a tree nearby, flash-freezing the bark, and I was suddenly very glad I wasn't shot by it. The husky forced the panther, whom I guess was Friz, to look him in the eye. "We need him alive." he said. So that's it? I'm only alive because they need me for something? Unbelievable! "I'm sorry..." Friz muttered to the husky, his voice cracking. Tears appeared in his eyes, and he looked towards the ground with his eyes closed, sobbing. "I can't function like this anymore. It was hard enough to bury him the first time. I can't bring myself to do it again." He was obviously referring to the now worthless corpse he cried over. I suddenly smelled the fox. He reeked of burned foliage and sulfur. "Uh, guys?" I said, voice shaking. "You know that thing you said about needing me alive? Think you could make sure that fox doesn't kill me?" Friz sniffed the air, and his eyes widened. He swore and dove after me, pushing me out of the way as a bolt of fire flew threw the foliage and struck the spot that I just was in.(Gary's point of view) I spat out the liquid in my mouth as a searing pain in my side jerked my attention to the screen. The wolf was just pushed out of the way of a ball of fire. Where have I seen that wolf before, and where is this pain coming from? An image of my brother then flashed in my mind, and I recognized it. It was the happiest memory I had of Nick. We were fishing out of the city. We had both been able to sneak
around the security measures of the Pinnacle military, and used this to our advantage. He had caught a rather large bass in the lake we used to look at from our apartment. It was when he was eight years old, and his clerical powers weren't a factor. I was so proud of him. Why did life have to get so complicated? The next thing I knew I was crying. I dropped the beverage to the floor and put my head in my hands, truly emotionally broken...(Nick's point of view) An image flashed before my eyes as I was tackled. It was of my brother from three years ago at our spot on the lake. I had completely forgotten the times we had. The image was from him congratulating me on my catch. I remember the afternoon being spent sneaking back to our apartment to have fish for dinner with our parents. This mere flash brought back memories and feelings I was sure I'd forgotten, and it left me broken. When I hit the ground, I decided at that exact moment to renounce my necromancy. I was done. I didn't want to hurt anyone anymore, because I remembered what it was like to feel loved. Instead of trying to get away from the fox, I curled up into a ball against a nearby tree and began shivering with sorrow. I missed my brother.(Gary's point of view) I heard an explosion and looked up to see the wolf crying against a tree behind a fight breaking out between Friz and Feir. I heard Friz say, "I guess the High Citizens are going to get what they want after all," and the fighting began. It started with Friz throwing a bolt of some kind of cold aura at Feir, freezing the fox's fur. This was likely to get his attention, and it worked. Feir roared, a very abnormal thing for a fox, and fire materialized in the air and poured towards the panther at amazing speeds. Friz's reaction time was on point, however, and a floating shield of ice materialized in front of him to shield him from the onslaught. It was evident that Friz was being defensive and didn't really want to fight, but Feir was fully intent on killing. Friz was looking the fox in the eyes, probably trying to contemplate what to do, when the information dawned on him. It quickly also dawned on me, and I realized why Feir was able to use so much energy. He was a berserker. I thought they were only a myth. Sentient beings able to channel rage and energy with such ferocity as to amplify their abilities without tiring them out. The only problem was that pyromancy required an immense amount of energy at the levels he was using it. Friz went for the physical route. He rushed at the fox, diving into him and pinning him to the ground. "Dude, wake up!" he said. Feir continued to snarl and gnash at the panther, trying to tear him apart. "You're in a trance, dude!" Friz then closed his eyes and began to concentrate at this point. Ice was crawling its way up Feir's fur from where
Friz's hands touched and worked their way to the Fox's heart. They didn't seem malevolent, but were aimed at cooling the fox's body temperature. Thankfully, it worked. The fox snapped out of his shamanic trance and looked around confused. He saw the charred foliage and a very scared wolf and went from confused to frightened. He wriggled out of Friz's grip and began stammering, "I'm so sorry, I'm a monster. This is all my fault isn't it? I know it is. I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." He got up, prepare to run, but Friz caught his arm. "Hold on, fox. It seems like you run from your problems a lot. Why? Stay. We aren't mad at you." Friz said. Feir looked at the other anthros and saw nothing but worry and, on Ghastillo's face, fear. He took a few deep breaths and, with a shaky voice, agreed. "I guess I'll stay. What you say seems to be true, and I've never seen anyone who can stop me in the middle of my rage." Feir said...