8 Goodbye, My Dear, Dear Brother

"The rewards will be the bow passed down from our ancestor, Sova, and... something that you'll recognize when you see it."

At that moment, Erobus knew that this was the time. His time has come to leave this forsaken island.

"I'll join the hunt.", Erobus confirmed his participation with his father, and as he left the room, his brother's confirmation came soon after.

'Now... what would I need?', Erobus mused to himself as he entered his room.

'Nothing much. Most of the ancestors' items are with my brother, and the only things that I could imagine needing would be a bow and some arrows, and possibly a medical pack of some sort.'

Erobus made up his mind about the items that he'd need, and went around his room to find them.

'If only I could remember where I put them...'

His horrible memory did no good for him to find the items, but eventually, he found them all, stashed away in a box.

"Erobus, Venator, come meet me in the living room in 5 minutes."

Erobus grunted out a non-verbal agreement, and he went to lay down on his bed, pondering what he should do during the hunt.

'I'll let Venator kill the snake, then I'll finish his heavily injured self off, then grab his notebook and an eye from the snake, before leaving for the treasure in our basement.'

Erobus made an outline of the plan that he had in mind, and before he knew it, 5 minutes were over, and he went to the living room.

On his way there, Erobus met his older brother, Venator.

Erobus struck up conversation with his brother, "Brother... this may very well be the last time I see you."

'Alive, that is.'

His brother replied, "I know. Are you afraid?"

'No. You'll be doing most of the work.'

"I am. Sometimes I just want to run away like Quintus and Dacetha."

'Those bastards probably already have left the island by now.'

Venator paused at Erobus' words, before reassuring him. "Do not fret. If anyone dies first, it would most likely be Father, then I, and finally, you will be last."

'I won't die at all. I have faith that you'll be able to kill it, because after all, you are my dear brother.'

Regardless, he gave a weak smile, "That's not very reassuring, brother."

Venator returned the smile, and even Erobus felt a little bit of guilt for betraying him.

"I know, but that's the best I can give you."

They entered the living room together.

Their father, Lerintha, took a deep breath.

"Are you ready?"

Venator nodded confidently, while Erobus timidly nodded.

"Then, let the hunt begin."

...

Venator and Erobus gave each other a strong hug before parting ways. The whisper was as light as the wind, but Erobus still heard it. "Good luck, Erobus."

Erobus didn't reply to his brother's words.

They parted from their hug, and headed into the forest in their own ways.

Erobus then finally replied, "Farewell."

His words scattered in the wind, as he entered the deep forest, alone for the first time in his life.

At least, this one.

Erobus walked around the forest and tried walk away as far from his father and Venator as possible.

The reason for this is because, he knew that his father was going to die first.

After all, Erobus crushed the cans of bait and spread it all over his father's bag before they left, and he knew that Venator would set up baits and traps to kill the snake, and he wouldn't like to be caught in the crossfire between either one of them.

"Oh, there he is."

Erobus mumbled out loud as he heard the distant explosion of dirt and rubble, followed by screaming.

"That's one down. One more to go. I wonder, where is bro- Oh. there he is."

Erobus found his brother's location shortly after their father's death.

It wasn't very hard to find as it was essentially broadcasted by the snake tunneling towards his brother.

'I probably should start heading over soon...'

Erobus decided to wait a little bit before heading over to his brother.

...

After the wait was done, Erobus started heading over to his brother's location.

'Damn. They really did a number on the surroundings.'

The forest was torn apart, as if a tornado has hit it, and there was a clear path of broken trees, left with human indents.

His brother wasn't very hard to find, as the snake's body was over 50m long, and his brother should be somewhere nearby.

When he found the snake's body, he looked for its head, and as expected, his brother was on the other end.

"Brother!", Erobus called out to him.

"Erobus...?"

"It's me!"

Erobus smiled from happiness, not because he found his brother before he died. It was because he saw the diary intact next to his brother.

Erobus then knelt down next to his brother and pulled out a medical pack, before taking the scalpel and calmly stabbing his brother in the chest.

Just like that. Erobus felt little remorse for his actions, and whatever remorse he felt was quickly washed away as he laid his hands on the diary.

"Erobus...?"

Erobus didn't care about what Venator said. He was too focused on reading the diary.

"Why....?"

Erobus then finally turned towards his brother.

"I'm sorry. I actually quite enjoyed my time with you."

Then just like that, his attention was back on the diary.

He turned to the last pages of the diary, and started reading.

'To unlock the door leading to the basement, one must slay the great beast and capture its eye and stinger, located on its tail, then you shall insert the two items into their respective locks.'

"Oh, brother brother... if only you had the patience to read through the entire book...", Erobus glanced and smiled coldly at his brother, before he stood up and prepared to leave.

"Well, this is farewell."

Erobus paused, before saying, "Goodbye, my dear, dear brother."

Erobus' long, white hair flew along with the wind as he left for his house.

...

'This is it.'

Erobus was in front of the basement door, and found the locks that required the snake's body parts.

He calmly took the eye and stinger out from his pouch, and inserted them into their respective locks, and twisted the stinger.

The door unlocked with a click, and Venator pushed open the door to the basement.

The basement was surprisingly well kept, even after all this time, and he saw it.

His ancestor's bow.

Well, not exactly that.

His ancestor's bow was currently in the form of a gauntlet, and it required blood from the snake, along with its eye and stinger, all of which that Erobus had with him.

Erobus walked back calmly to the door and extracted the eye and stinger, before taking a vial of blood out from his pouch.

He crushed the stinger and eye into powder, and let it dissolve within the vial of blood.

Then, he poured it onto the gauntlet.

The gauntlet quickly turned into an ethereal looking bow, which kept fading in and out of existence, until Erobus did something to it.

Erobus cut himself with a hunting knife and let his blood drip onto the bow, solidifying its existence and bonding it to him.

The bow flew to him as he beckoned for it, and he took a closer look at it.

The bow has wisps of white and blue flame emanating off of it, although neither of which harmed Erobus himself.

Then, he willed it to create arrows. Arrows that had the burning property, as Erobus saw when he fired one at the wall.

Erobus smiled in satisfaction as he willed the bow back into gauntlet form, and headed back outside.

On his way, he glanced at the second reward, a locket from his mother, but it was quickly dismissed by him.

Erobus headed to their family's dock, noticing that two boats were missing, which he quickly connected to Quintus and Dacetha.

He got onto the boat and grabbed the oars, before rowing away, taking one last glance at one of the three boats left.

"Goodbye, my dear, dear brother."

A droplet of water trickled down his eye.