Alon shivered in the cold winter, tucked underneath debris just to avoid the snowy breeze of the night. With a shaky breath, he muttered, "Where...the hell is Calamite?!" he continues to watch the place ahead of him, cold and windy.
The castle they were abandoned in just collapsed a few days ago, just right after their birthday. So now Alon and Calamite have to deal with snow and wolves, and most importantly, the snow. In the midst of it all, Alon and Calamite are barely surviving, and didn't think ahead when the castle crumbled.
Alon rubs his hands for heat when he hears a rustle from the side, a distinct crunch. He whips his head to the sound, "Calamite? Is that y-you?" he stuttered out, slowly peering out from the debris but Alon only sees a huge feet and while glaring at it, it reminded him of a bedtime story, "...what huge feet you have, Calamite..." his head turns upwards only to see a stranger's face who is carrying a weird sack of potatoes in his arms, "....wha-what an...ugly face you have Calamite..." he adds, holding in a snicker, but then the sack of potatoes whips its body facing towards Alon.
"Really?! You still warm enough to mock me?!" Calamite calls out, "Can't you see I'm being kidnapped? Help me!" only for him to see Alon dash away with the ragged blanket on his shoulders. Calamite could hear the strike of lightning in the background as his jaw tightened to a frown, and nails digging inside the stranger's arms, "Why that little!—" before he could finish the sentence, he was able to snap from his emotion and retract his hands from the man. He looks up worried thinking the man might have gotten mad at him but only sees that the stranger paid no heed.
The stranger hums, his gaze turning down to the boy in his arms as he says, "...Your brother is quite a coward--ngh!" the man yelps from the sharp pain he felt behind his head and an immediate rush of dizziness spurred in him as his knees buckles, releasing Calamite from his arms.
When Calamite landed back on the snow, he feels the familiar spots of cold that melts away on his skin and as he adjusts himself, he saw the man's head bleeding from a rock thrown at him. His heart pounded thinking someone might jump out from the bushes and blame him for murder and by the edge of his vision, just right above the trees, he saw Alon waving on a tree branch way high up.
And Calamite, on the verge of crying and ripping out his own hair, shouts, "What are you doing?! Are you trying to get us into prison???"
Alon deadpans, "Wei! I'm saving you! What do you think I'm doing?" he said, reaching more rocks in his little leaf basket, "So run! Run, Calamite!!"
Calamite's eyes fills with dread, his eyes catching a glint of gold from the pocket of the guard, "Uhhh, usually, only guards of the royal have gold tokens, right?" he asked as he takes the small gold plate out.
Alon paused, his head tilting, "That...I'm not sure, we've never seen the royal guards."
Calamite points to the man, "He's a guard," his finger then moves toward himself, "I think he's here to bring us back to the castle."
The guard moved slightly, startling the two brothers. The guard's hand softly rubs the back of his head, "Ughh...what the...?" he grimaced, his hand felt unusually wet so he retracta his hand from his head and observes the bloodstained hand.
"Sorry!" Alon shouted from behind, earning the attention of the guard ahead of him.
Said guard looked behind him, saw the child by the tree, perching on its branch.
Alon hesitated, "Are you okay?!" he shouts to the guard, only to be answered with the guard falling back to the snow. Alon widens his eyes and turns to Calamite, "Is he okay?!" he asked again.
Calamite checks for a pulse, his fingers felt the fast thump on the neck of the guard, "Uhhh, he's still alive at least." Calamite checks his own pulse, it wasn't in sync with the guard so Calamite looks back to Alon, "Is it normal that we don't have the same pulse?"
"What are you talking about?! I'm no doctor!"
"What are we going to do??? This is a guard! There might be more of them!" Calamite reasoned, "Do we just hide??" he suggested.
"That's—" A loud growl paused Alon in his sentence, the twins follow the sound and sees the wolves moving slowly towards Calamite and the guard.
Alon's heart drops, "Oh, no."
Wolves. The twins have been safe last time since there were traps and a huge shelter before but now they were out in the open with the guard dying, it was a perfect opportunity to hunt a vulnerable prey.
"He's not dead." Calamite started, "But we might." he added.
Alon shakes his hands with a racing heart, "Then come up here! I'll help you up!" he called.
"That's impossible. Once I run, they'll run!" Calamite's feet stuck deep in the snow, a gnawing dread consuming Calamite as he watches the wolves ahead of him. He tried to think of something but all he has now is an empty head— his shoulders slumps, "It's fine, we can just restart." he forces his calm.
"One...two...but then we'll only six lives left!!"
"But now we know that there's a guard that can fight them off, we'll just have to wait for him in the next run." Calamite reasoned, his legs tensing deep inside the snow, "It's okay," he balled up his fists, slowly turning his head to Alon and weakly smiles, "at least with this, we'd be even."
"Calamite!"
As if it was a signal, the wolves launches themselves in unison and takes out a bite on Calamite's neck, he widens his eyes as he heard a sickening crunch as the wolves tears his flesh and pops out a vein.
Calamite whimpers while instinctively pulling himself away from the wolves but his hands are too weak to break away. Meanwhile, Alon crouches down on the branch above, his lips twitching on a frown and eyes filling with despair as he watches his brother torn apart.
Alon covered his mouth when he saw his brother still alive even after being bitten from his torso and wrist, the wolves swallowing on the flesh of his brother, and its claws blinding Calamite. One eyeball was hanging out.
It was nauseating, Alon felt like vomiting right then and there, he could hear the harsh breath of Calamite's and sees the slow thumping of his chest, Calamite was dying on that snow.
And before he knew it, the twins blinked open and saw themselves in a once cradle, basking in the golden light.
This was the time where they started their "second" lives, born from royalty only to be dumped right after. They didn't even get a name from their supposed father who was right in front of them, all the man did was turn his back and left, never missing the word "Murderers" under the man's breath.
This time, however, is their "fourth" time of living. On the second and the third round, the twins had died during the winter by getting squashed of the collapsing castle and then there's the wolves, respectively.
And just like from the second and third rounds of lives, the twins named themselves based on their usernames of their first life back on Earth, Alon and Calamite from "talontasabangin" and "XxTheVoidKingxX". They have been surviving through sheer luck after the age of five when their maids left them on their own.
Now, on their tenth birthday of Alon and Calamite, the two stands right outside the abandoned palace, waiting for it to collapse.
"Man...this sucks..." Alon commented, turning to the right, "Well, at least we prepared a more stable shed for us to stay in now."
Calamite smiled from ear to ear, "And made a BEAutiful blanket." he bragged as he wiggles his shoulders showing the pristine, wooly, blanket on his shoulder.
Alon deadpans, his eyes squinting at his brother's wiggling eyebrows, "I know you've got a cheating skill system...I just can't prove it...YET."
"Pfft. If I had one, we would've been living comfortably on the previous rounds."
The ground starts to shake, Alon and Calamite wobbles as the intense grinding and cracking from the collapsing castle takes their attention away from each other.
The two steps back a little more as dusts start to appear in the surrounding of the castle and a final thunderous, overwhelming, roar of shattering concrete as it fell.
"Damn." Alon commented, "It still look so scary even after a third time of watching it..."
Calamite made a single side step that lets him dodge a stray wooden beam in an inch away from his ear. His heart pounced when he feels the sharp air when it passed through, "...Almost forgot about that part." and right next him is a pale Alon in shock.
In the next following days, they wait for the guard to appear.