Bound by Blood

War, Strife, Power, Hunger, Rage, Revenge, Bloodlust…

Negative forces that push the world to near destruction.

Love, Friendship, Peace, Happiness, Hope, Faith, Will…

Positive forces of good that keep the world from near destruction.

A delicate balance without which the world would not progress. Both forces needed to keep the world growing… and neither one in excess to keep the world from truly coming to an end.

A single being, clad in unblemished white, designed to maintain this balance and…

...

Arthur was adrift in the realm of dreams, nightmares and whatever it was that comprised a mix between the two. Diligently listening to the deep wizened voice whisper stories into his mind.

Stories that he had now come to brush off as mere dreams and nothing more.

When they wouldn't stop coming to him, he chose to simply go with the flow… Can't suffer during the day and suffer through the night as well, right?

Unfortunately, no one got to decide when they could take a break from the unpredictability of life... not even Arthur himself.

This morning, he suddenly woke up to the cataclysmic shaking that his older brother considered 'peaceful nudges.'

When in fact, it was him grabbing Arthur's sleeping form and giving it a vigorous and endless catastrophic shake.

"Okay, I'm up. I'm up," the white-haired boy yelled out desperately hoping that the world would stop spinning.

At some point during all this, Arthur was almost convinced that an earthquake was shaking the castle from its foundation, trying to claim his life.

Unfortunately for him, the shaking did not stop. It only did when he felt the soft warm embrace of his bed vanish from under him.

Arthur's blue sapphire eyes shot open, fear written all over his face as he struggled to grab a hold of something.

His brother perhaps…

Too bad the cause of the 'artificial earthquake' was already standing several metres away from him, watching him fall unceremoniously onto the crimson carpet ending with his rump pointing upwards in a heap.

"You're not one to sleep this late," Arthur's brother mentioned.

"I know…" Arthur rolled onto his back and sat up, rubbing his tired eyes with exhaustion. He instinctively pushed his long unkempt overgrown hair out of his face so he could rub his eyes some more.

"You're a mess… and here I was thinking you could get to call yourself my cousin this year," the older boy chuckled, "Get yourself ready. I don't have all day to wait for your sorry rump."

"Okay, brother," Arthur groaned, still not meeting his brother's eyes.

Arthur kept his eyes on the ground and his mind wandering. It was enough that he'd been woken up this way.

He didn't have to know what kind of face his brother was giving him right now.

"Let me hear you go over our agreement. Just to make sure you didn't hit your head too hard," his tone had suddenly dropped to deadly serious.

"Outside of the castle, we aren't brothers. We aren't even related. We've never met… and we don't know each other," Arthur recited humourlessly, feeling his gut turn at the words he was asked to say out loud.

"Perfect."

"What was that about you allowing me to be your cousin this year?" Arthur finally lifted his head to meet his brother's fiery red eyes.

His cold sapphires stared into his brother's bright embers. They couldn't look any more different. The difference between the two brothers was night and day and yet they were related by blood.

Arthur's brother had bright orange hair that was the colour of a brilliant flame. To add a touch of style, he had his hair slicked back with a lock of hair dangling beside his right eye in a stylish fashion that exposed his flaming eyes.

With his unblemished skin and epic facial proportions, he was considered extremely attractive. This was often reflected in the girls that kept trying to get his attention.

In contrast to his perfect brother, Arthur had a wild white mop of long hair that he'd allowed to grow unrestrained over the course of the long holiday. It was a mess that was far too late to fix.

His eyes were deep blue and his face wasn't as angular as his brother's. While his brother had well-defined facial features and a clear jawline, Arthur had smooth facial features. The two of them were separated by a period close to a year but their appearances made the gap seem much greater.

"Have you seen your face, Arthur?"

"Mother always said it looked a lot like yours, Gray," Arthur smirked.

"Haha… If only she could see you now. Maybe there was a time that we looked alike. More than fifty years ago maybe… but right now, brother… We look nothing alike."

Gray shook his head in disappointment, "Just find a way to look at least presentable before going for breakfast. You don't have all the time in the world. You must make it to the Sorting on time if you want to make it to Barthlorn.

That place doesn't tolerate tardies.

And we cannot risk drawing attention to ourselves. You should know… Of course, you know that. Later," with that said, Gray took one last look at the room before leaving the room.

He hadn't commented on his Arthur's appearance but he did imply that it wasn't a good one. Arthur stood up from his spot on the floor and walked into the shower to wash off.

'He still watches his words when he's talking to me. Even when they sound like they should be filled with malice, I can imagine worse ways he could have phrased his sentences,' Arthur sighed, 'Who am I kidding? It doesn't really matter.'

When he was done washing off and drying, he wore a set of simple clothes he'd procured a few days ago from a shop in the human settlement, Alcove.

Staring at himself in the mirror, Arthur scrunched his eyebrows. A feeling of deep self-loathing tore at his heart. His hair had grown to his shoulders in no particular order.

Without any treatment, the hair grew straight and covered his eyes as well. When he stared at himself in the mirror, he saw a husk of a royal phoenix staring right back at him. "Who knew being royalty could suck so much?"

Just then, there was a buzzing sound by his bedside table. The white-haired boy walked up to the buzzing device and read the name on the flashing screen:

Darius

A genuine smile graced his previously sombre countenance as he happily picked up the device and brought it to his ear, "A good morning to you, Magic Darius!"