Death Brings Life
Cheerful cries of cubs at play echoed throughout the unknown lands, their noises of delight seeming to echo on for miles. Though the three emitting the loud happy cried where none other than the offspring of the Scourge’s leader, Aeros. Adrik, the first born and most motivated of the three he was somewhat of a bully with an inflated ego he couldn’t seem to deflate. Hella, a snobby princess type of sorts who has the same manipulative mind as her mother and tries to get others to do her work for her. And finally the runt of the litter, Grimoire, or Grim for short. He is much different from his siblings, he feels sympathetic for other living beings and tries all he can to avoid conflict even going as far as ditching his training sessions only to be torn apart by his father later.
As the three bounded around Adrik puffed out his chest as they walked, “I promise I saw it out here, everyone says you have to have a keen eye to be able to spot one but I definitely saw it-”
“Kinda like how you saw that caffer last time?” Hella mused snickering, “All we found was caffer shit remember?”
“Yeah, yeah… Whatever not my fault you two didn’t get to see it…” Grumbling to himself Adrik turned his direction toward his brother Grim who was silently following, “You excited to see it or is it just gonna scare you like everything else?” Snorting he chuckled as he made fun of his brother.
Grim remained quiet for a moment before replying, “We aren’t planning on hurting it are we?” his words were barely more than a whisper as he spoke but made both siblings laugh.
“Yeah so what if we do? Not like you’re gonna stop us? Just means we get to see it up close!” Adrik proclaimed as he quickened his pace and horror shot through Grim’s eyes.
As Grim followed fearful of the animal’s life he couldn’t manage to keep up with his siblings, his shorter legs refusing to carry him any faster though as they neared the location Adrik was talking about the three slowed to a stop. Adrik’s eyes scanned the area in search of the invisible flying creature but all seemed quite and there was nothing to give away its position.
“Wow, look at these rocks… Very exciting.” Hella snorted obviously annoyed, “You wasted my time for nothing, thanks.” The sarcasm laced her voice as she grumbled.
“Shut the hell up Hella alright I promise I saw it here before ok!” Though the words escaped his mouth a loud snapping noise shot through the air and before Grim could react Adrik drew the water from his pouch and shot it at the noise.
A blood curdling cry escaped the beak like mouth of the creature that had been struck and it fell to the ground with a thud. Terrified Grim ran toward the dying animal. ‘How could Adrik be so cruel? Please let it still be alive.’ Those were the only thoughts that ran through Grim’s head as he skidded to a stop beside the clearly deceased creature. Quickly and without thinking he tried to mend the blood coming from its wound in an effort to save it, though it was too late and both Hella and Adrik looked at one another with irritated looks.
“Come on Grim just leave it, it’s already dead ok?” Adrik snorted as his brother cried silently, his body pressed against the freshly killed wraith that now laid lifeless.
“Why did you have to kill it Adrik! It wasn’t doing anything wrong! It was just a kid like us!” Grim cried out, the small creatures body evidence of its youth.
“Oh great here we go again… Can you go two seconds without crying over something?” Hella retorted annoyed.
Grim allowed a quiet wail of defeat out as he sobbed over the carcass. Shaking their heads both his siblings continued to ridicule him but he couldn’t seem to hear them anymore. Something within him blocked out their voices as he stared at the body in front of him something was silently urging him to take its blood. The voice continued to urge him over and over again as his siblings turned the creature over and examined it top to bottom before trotting away now bored of their fresh kill. Silently while neither was watching Grim allowed himself to take a small bit of the creature’s blood, still unsure as to why he felt the nagging voice telling him to do it. Though the moment he took the blood he felt… a connection. Without another word Grim backed away from the dead wraith, a new found connection to it leading him to confusion though rather than prod the feeling he turned and chased after his siblings, leaving his feelings to learn of another day.