"Hey, little brother, are you sure it's fine?"
"What is?"
I looked at the young man, now my family. His back was broad enough to carry the whole village. To adopt a girl who lost everything, to turn the girl everyone gave up on into a beautiful flower who never stopped smiling. To teach a fool like me the words he decided to build his entire new life on: Family is all.
"Nothing... I was getting ahead of myself."
I wanted to ask if it was okay not to fight Emet. I still believed that with him and all that we had learned, we might have a chance to kill a divine beast. But he wouldn't like it. He had just found happiness and wasn't willing to part with it.
I understood him better than most. He was burning to fight, just like myself. He loved to fight. No one who is good at it can possibly hate it. It was just that he had found something, or someone, he loved even more.
The others led the animals up front and were talking lightly. We made excellent time. Zephyr wanted to keep his word to Lylly. Ahh, new love was adorable. It made me remember Demelza, how she followed me around before I asked for her hand that winter.
The road was untouched and seldom traveled.
Merchants were the only ones who dared, but they only did so with dozens of mercenaries. All the mountains belonged to Emet. It wasn't necessarily dangerous, more like sacred.
My grandfather used to tell stories about fights that, for a child's ear, sounded glorious. What he didn't say was what the sound of bones being crunched was like. The cries of agony that followed. The smell of blood stayed in your nostrils for weeks. Or all the nightmares that followed.
The reason I kept going back was simple. All those who gave their lives... it had to be for something. No one ever said it out loud because it sounded crazy—hell, even thinking it was. But all of us went up that mountain with the same glorious purpose as the previous generation: to kill Emet.
"You're more silent than usual, brother," Zephyr looked behind with genuine concern. "What's wrong? Talk to me."
As always, I relied on him to pull me away from useless thoughts. What my Demelza had said to me after waking up still rang in my ear after he knocked me flat with a single well-placed kick: 'I won't let my foolish brother kill himself.' I knew right then: we are a family, and family is all.
"Just thinking about future glories and throwing you a great big wedding when the snow comes," I walked beside him and patted his back. "I warn you, Zephyr. You are cold as balls... hahaha!"
"Fool. I'm looking forward to it."
"Hahaha...!"
Let's deliver this lot to the ancient pen and leave. Let's celebrate tonight with our families and start our futures tomorrow.
It took us five hours to reach the clearing. There it was: the pen. Our ancestors built it for the animals. Legend says it was all built by the women whose husbands died in one disastrous sacrifice. It was quiet... too quiet. No birds or even the sounds of insects.
"Whoa... you were right, Alex. This place is creepy. With the animal pen right in the middle," Zephyr pointed at the near-perfect wooden circle.
"I told you. Did I ever tell you that lege—"
"Yes, yes. It was built by women who lived up here in the mountains for months. Let's go and place them and go home, please."
I laughed, watching him anxiously want to get home as quickly as possible. He was right. I watched young Lucian help him gather the animals inside. I looked behind me and saw the houses in the distance. Our land was surely beautiful... but also cursed.
"It's damn quiet, isn't it, Jartok?" I turned to my right. It was Norman, whose wife is Lylly's friend.
"Sure is... I remember it being more... alive." I kept having this bad feeling. The silence was unnatural.
"I sure wish to see Zephyr land a kick on that bloody monster, huh?" He patted my back, and I could barely remember the frail guy who was one of the first to join Zephyr's training.
I laughed. I wanted to see that, too.
CLOMP, CLOMP, CLOMP.
Just then, I heard loud thumps, and I knew what it was from some of my bad memories. I had no time.
Emet broke through some trees and landed near the other side of the pen.
"RUN!" Someone shouted, and chaos ensued. I figured we had some time. Emet would be busy with the animals.
I turned to run, but I heard screaming. One of ours got caught by him—it was Rick... and just like that, he was gone, long dead before his lower body touched the ground. Emet went straight for him. The animals were in a frenzy, yet he ignored them.
I allowed a second to appreciate his size and strength.
Muscular, his legs were as big as me standing. The biggest lion-type divine beast ever recorded. His speed was perhaps his only weak point. His purple mane was now drenched with blood. Before I knew it, he finished his meal and headed towards me. I drew my sword and lowered my center to gain better balance.
He never attacked me...
TAP, TAP, TAP, TAP.
Zephyr was running towards Emet with his blade not even drawn. Emet took notice and ran at him head-on.
What is he doing!? "BROTHER! GET OUT OF THE WAY!"
He didn't hear me, or maybe he just didn't want to. In the orange hue of the setting sun, he disappeared like a lie just before the collision.
I blinked, and Emet stopped, confused. But then I saw a familiar blue-haired man on Emet's top, standing. He reached down... I could see his fingertip touch Emet's back, and then both Emet and him were nowhere to be found.
They were gone. The silence returned, and the nine still-alive men walked forward.
"ZEPHYR! WHERE ARE YOU!?" I whipped my head around wildly, but all I saw were frightened comrades doing the same thing.
By Ehlite... where are you?
"Alexander! WHERE ARE THEY!?" I ignored Lucian's panicked screams and scanned and rescanned the surroundings.
No... no. What? I ran around in circles. Others were screaming. The animals were running around crazy. In the 200-foot clearing, there were only nine alive members, and one only had a pair of legs left.
A minute or more passed, and I began to believe he just died with Emet and turned into... nothing.
{Whistle.}
Just then, an unnatural sound of falling... I looked around but saw nothing.
"ABOVE US!"
I looked up so fast that I hurt my neck. I saw something big falling fast. I ran with the rest and only heard the sounds of bones shattering, a sickening thud, something hitting the ground very hard.
CRASH!!!
I ran up to see... it was Emet. He was... broken, terribly, terribly broken, its corpse emitting steam. The amount of purple blood was everywhere, and the sight... it was stomach-turning.
The smell was... delicious, however. It was all too overwhelming. Emet was dead... but where is Zephyr?
I checked the sky for him... maybe...
"ALEXANDER! IT'S HIM!"
I ran towards Lucian, who was standing a bit far off, and found my little brother under a tree, lying flattened and unmoving. We ran up to him and turned him around. Is he dead? Is he?
He was breathing steadily... he was hot to the touch, yet some of his clothes were cold as ice. What the hell happened? I was so relieved that I didn't notice how everyone left Emet's body and gathered around us.
I felt someone tapping my shoulders.
"Blessed... by Ehlite." It was Lucian, who then took a knee next to him. The others soon followed him.
"Blessed..."
"Ehlite..."
"Blessed by Ehlite."
"Chosen by God."
"Bles..."
"Son of Ehli..."
"Son of God..."
They all knelt near my little brother and me. I looked at his face...
Zephyr? Who exactly are you?