An Unprecedented Betrayal

My brother looks at me, and then he grabs my hand and drags me away from the ashes of his once beautiful home. His actions appear to be rash, and I can't figure out why he is so sudden to escape.

I hear a loud ground-shaking explosion, and I feel my brother start to pull a little harder. The ground trembles fiercely and it is nearly impossible to keep a steady pace. I try to look back to see what is causing the explosive vibrations, but my brother is dragging me too fast, and hard that it is difficult to focus on what is pursuing us.

Suddenly I trip on an overgrown tree root, and I am swiftly ripped from my brother's grasp. I slam hard into the ground and all my breath is torn from my lungs, ankle sprained, I am unable to get back up. The thundering sound starts to rattle my bones and paralyzes me. My brother freezes momentarily looking back at me with sympathy and then he turns and runs off.

I lie on the ground petrified, and the trembling gets furiously stronger and then it vanishes. The sudden resolution leaves me in shocked bliss. Then I see a girl walk up to me from behind a tree.

"Aki? How did you get here?" I ask shocked, I mean she acted so strangely when I saw her the first time, and now here she is again, but this time she seems oddly sinister and confident.

"I got here the same way as you," She said matter-of-factly. "Also please don't call me 'Aki', that was only a codename I gave myself, although it warms my heart to know you took time to remember it." She walks up till she is a couple of feet in front of me and she reaches out her hand to help me up.

"Why are you here? And why are you suddenly calm all of a sudden?" I ask her reaching to accept her hand, "Last I checked you were having some sort of mental breakdown or whatever."

"Last time you saw me, I killed you, hence the reason why I was having a 'mental breakdown'," She says, and she grabs my hand and pulls me to my feet, "I was sent by Raiyesa Akumu to guard you and to test the loyalty of your brother. I feel like we need to track him down, he will probably cause trouble around here if he gets to a town."

We start trekking through the forest, following the ragged footprints my brother left behind him. We follow the tracks left behind for several minutes before we run into a dead end. The trail ends at the base of a massive and mossy oak tree that towers high into the sky. Suddenly I hear a rustle and someone ambushes us. They are targeting Aki. Within moments I have my sword drawn and without stopping to think twice I parry the man's strike and swiftly run my sword through their chest.

That is when I see their face, it was my brother. His expression is one of shock and betrayal. I am unable to comprehend what I just did. I stabbed my brother.

"S-sister..." he slowly whispers in a slurred and drawn-out voice, "Why d-did you... do... this—" His voice is very strained, "I o-only... wanted t-to... protect you..." His eyes slowly start to glaze over, I can still feel some life in him. but his body grows colder by the moment.

"Brother I am sorry, please don't leave me!" I cry in despair, I can't process what I just did. My brother gives my hand a gentle squeeze and then he goes limp. I instantly start crying, I have only met my brother recently, and now he is gone. It is my fault, I killed him, and I didn't even learn his name. I cry into my brother's deathly cold shoulder for several long moments, until Aki gingerly touches my shoulder and gestures me to get up.

"Kieraieda let's give him a proper burial, and then let's get going, I know it is hard for you to accept, but everyone dies at some point, and your brother had a long life of 316 years," She says this in an oddly soothing voice, that cuts the air in a venomous way while at the same time relaxing my unease, "It wasn't your fault he died, you saved me, I don't like to speak ill of the dead, but it was his fault for ambushing us unexpectedly." She helps me stand up on my own two feet and we lie my brother's corpse gently on the forest floor.

We spend the next few hours digging a hole to bury my brother's remains in and when we finish we turn to collect his body. When I head to retrieve it, my discovery is both shocking and frightening. His body is gone as if he just got up and walked away. I look back to see Aki looking at me in utter shock.

"Where did he go?" She asks me, "I thought we lied him down right over there." She looks at me as if I know the answer, too shocked from the occurring events to speak, I just shrug my shoulders and shake my head slowly. "We better get going fast, we have a deadline to meet, Raiyesa needs to discuss some important details with you." and she grabs my hand, already forgetting the fact that my brother's corpse vanished without a trace, and she drags me deeper into the dark unknown depths of the overgrown and dismal forest.