The rest happened in what felt like seconds.
Three humans barging into our home. Charging me like bulls.
I tucked tail and ran. Bolting back into the bedroom my brothers were hiding in. Tried to slam the door behind me and a soldier bashed it back open.
We struggled there, shoving the door with all our strength. Another soldier crashed into it and Damian leapt to help me push it back.
Both of us screaming at Mickey to climb out the window. He was too slow, too flustered, and he knew there was nowhere to go anyway.
I punched through the gap left in the doorway. Hit one soldier in his eye and he reeled back. Then the third one rammed it again. I crashed into the wall and Damian slumped at the foot of the bed.
"ELI!" Damian yelled. They grabbed him by the feet, dragging him like fresh game. His nails sank into the floorboard until they almost peeled off.
Mickey stopped to see what had happened and I screamed at him once more. He was almost through when another one wrenched him back. He kicked, scratched, punched, bit. Nothing pierced that 'armour' of theirs. Snot and tears pouring down his face.
The next one grabbed me. I wrestled for dear life. Headbutted him. He snarled and pounded his knee to my plexus. We both went down and he was on top of me. I twisted like tornadoes. Shouting to the heavens.
"Goddamn moss-heads. Someone help me with this one!" he demanded.
A fourth soldier paced through the front door. One for each arm. I still struggled. I knew I could not escape, I just wanted to hurt them.
They dragged me outside. First, the sunlight burned me. Then the carnage ripped all the fight from my body.
The golden-green grass I used to wake up to-- now stained in crimson. Houses torn to smithereens. The planks blackened and the hay a black powder. The wives who used to sing lay in bloody piles. The husbands who used to banter face-planted in the mud right next to them. And all the children of the village, tied by rope at the limbs. Fixed to the blackbirds like clotheslines.
I used to wake up this. To them. Each working, each in high spirits, and I used to despise it. Despise it because it never changed. I knew there must be more to life and the world. Now I was proven right. And I wished I had never seen it.
It seems I always chase what I can't have. Change when life is still. Stillness when life changes. My endless slog became my fondest memory.
All the corpses before me, but where was Mom? In that pile of corpses over there? Probably. But what if she'd fled? That meant she'd left us, and I didn't know what to feel.
My brothers and I were dragged before the human leader. Forced on our knees.
"Three more brats for you. The Princess found them." one human grumbled.
The leader turned our way, examining each of us. It begged the question. What the hell did he want with us in the first place?
"Very good, Dora. You're learning." his eyes fixed behind us. I turned around.
Pandora crept toward us, to him. Stopping in front of us. Arms folded, gaze locked to the blood-stained grass.
"Y-yes."
"Your family, your country. They'll be very proud." the leader said. Slithering an arm around her shoulder yet again.
"Yes. Thank you." she muttered. She didn't look up from the floor.
"Right." he sighed. "Tie them with the other slaves."
'...What?'
A slave.. I knew what that was. Lives turned to labour. What would they have us do? No. Why in the hell did it matter? The whips would crack and souls would shatter all the same. My blood rose like the sun. Scorching like the sun.
"You f*cking bastard..."
Every head turned to me. Pandora finally looked from the floor. The leader glared down at me like a dog had pissed on his leg.
"I'll kill you! I'll fucking kill you! You fucking wait!" I bellowed.
A soldier backhanded me so hard I nearly lost a tooth. The leader grinned. My threat amused him.
"I've heard it all before, bush-rat. Take them away."
They grabbed my brothers and they screamed. Mickey stretched a hand out to me and I was pinned to the floor before I could reach. My brothers as slaves. My baby blood brothers. I became possessed. Fighting for an inch. Watching them be hauled away.
"This one, anyway. How old does he look?" the human at my back remarked. Ignoring my struggle.
"I'd wager fourteen, fifteen?" another replied.
"...We only take thirteen down, don't we?"
"Yeah, good point. But what difference is one or two year--"
"All the difference." The leader interjected. "He's too old. Kill him."
Now I was dead. No time to think, no room. I kept fighting. Mickey and Damian screaming for me as they were tied to the blackbirds.
They hoisted me up. A soldier traipsed in front of me, a blade singing from his belt.
At least it would end. At least I would have to see no more. Unless I ended up in hell. Perhaps I would. Perhaps I deserved it.
"No." Pandora said. "I wish to kill him myself." She drew that spotless knife again.
'God. When will it end?'
"Really? Why?"
"...He dared to resist. He almost wounded me. The Princess of Stratoshire. I will dispose of him myself. On my honour."
The other humans howled with laughter.
"Please, milady. There is no need to soil your--"
"No." the leader said. "Let her do it. This is why I brought her here. She must learn of war."
"With me, now!" she grabbed me by the hair. Pulling me from the ground. Away from the rest.
"Do you see the way she looked at him? Does she mean to bed him first?" a human asked behind me. The rest chuckled as Pandora lead me from earshot.
The sun was setting. Bathing the bloodstained ruins in an orange hue. All fell quiet except the birds and I wished the day to end. They say when you are killed in a nightmare you wake up. I could only hope it was true.
Pandora pointed her knife to my neck once more. I didn't even look at her.
"You held me and told me you were sorry. Were you stalling for time?" I asked. Glancing at the blade.
"I wish I could be so heartless. I wish I did not feel for your people. It would be better for mine."
"Forgive me if I don't care how you 'feel'."
Pandora fidgeted. Something she wanted to say. But she was hesitating.
"I've lured you here so you can escape."
My eyes finally met hers.
"What?"
"You can run into the forest, down there."
She pointed down the ditch we were once forbidden from playing around as a child. It led to the forest Damian feared monsters would come from.
"Please." Pandora pleaded. "It is the least I can do."
I thought on it. I'd be leaving my brothers as slaves. But how does dying serve them either? I'd be trusting this human girl. This 'Princess.' What reason did she have to lie? No. She was serious and this was the only chance I had.
"What do you say?" she asked.
"...Alright. I'll go. Tell me when."
And so we waited. Orange and yellow streaking across the horizon. A knife held to my neck with no intention of cutting me. Only one more question burned on my lips.
"Why only me? Why not help them?"
She hesitated again.
"You are the only one I believe has a chance. And I owe you the most. I will forever."
"...Your knife is spotless, your arrows missed on purpose, and you didn't use your powers. Why would you owe me?"
"Because you have shown me the truth." she replied.
Knew what she meant. I had no more questions.
"…Thank you, Pandora."
"You are welcome, Eli. Unless I heard wrong?"
"You didn't. It's Elias Sune."
She gave a faint smile. Uneasy and honest.
"Then it's time, Elias Sune. Run!"
My feet pounded the grass. I bounded down the ditch, swerving into the forest.
I heard the commotion of humans behind me. Then stomping steps. They were chasing.
I ran like mad. But to what? What life awaited me now? The nightmare had ended and I was left stranded. Consumed by it. I ran to the past. Where my family lay.
For there could be no future for a Gimen.