Chapter two - Positively Evil
For years, Ivarron's home has been known to be located past the market square. No soul was ever in sight apart from a few single thatch roof houses. A dull complexion that our village truly is.
I sigh, gazing at the busted door, its wooden exterior—much like every place here—molds at the sides. A rotting flesh smell rises through my nose when I finally enter alongside Illias. He shivers next to me as we glance around at slanted shelves with jars containing teeth, hairs, and talons, another decaying sight at what once those things might have belonged to.
Ivarron used to be a trapper, selling creatures off to the city long before I was born. It wasn't until he caught me trapping a goblin by the woods at the age of thirteen that he used me instead. Young and foolish, I made a deal with him for the money I'd receive after my mother's death a year on from my father's. It was the only way to help Idris when neither Iker nor Illias could find work.
"Fairy blood?"
I turn to Illias as he grabs a vial of iridescent red from the shelves. "Don't touch anything," I hiss at him, and he immediately drops it, raising his arms apologetically as I manage to catch it between my fingers.
I release a breath, shooting him a stern look as the wax candle flickers above us, the only source of light after Ivarron refused to install windows. I go to place the vial back when heavily padded footsteps approach from afar.
"Nara," a grating voice says but one that is easily recognized as Ivarron's.
I glance to my side, abruptly putting the vial away into my sheath pocket, and now face Ivarron. His fine long mousy brown hair is pushed back, showing off one green single working eye and the other a pale glass.
Grinning his crooked teeth, he says, "What a lovely surprise." He picks off the dust from his navy threaded jacket. "Did you capture the Rumen?"
"No," I state firmly. "Trapping was bad this morning."
He narrows his single eye and hums. "It's a good thing I like you, Nara," he says, moving one of the rings that adorn his withered hands around. "Because that means you cost me a huge sale today. Rumens are quite popular in the city."
"Then perhaps you can catch one yourself next time." I show no indifference. "I hear they're attracted to money-hungry beings."
Illias coughs, hiding a laugh when I look at him then at Ivarron's anything but amused face. He takes a few slow steps until I'm towering over him. Even with his small stature, he poses no fear or cowardness. "Don't forget your place with me, girl." He grinds his teeth. "You may be my best trapper, but I still hold more power over you." His glass eye moves to Illias. "And we both know where your weaknesses lie..."
My brothers.
The leather of my glove cracks as I slowly close my fist. Illias moves into a protective barrier, but I place my other arm against his chest. I look up at him with a shake of the head, letting him know there's no need to intervene. No matter the nurturing and loving side of Illias, he also couldn't bear any of us getting threatened.
Ivarron breathes a laugh, eyeing Illias with unimportance. "I expect you to trap something good tomorrow morning if you want your week's salary," he says. A grim smile shows up as he looks at me again. "I hear a water pixie from the north side of Undarion has made its way through."
Oh, how I wish to stab you.
"You'll get whatever there is to catch first thing at sunrise." I smile tightly instead and grab Illias by the arm, not uttering another word as I turn us around. Ivarron's harsh laugh echoes his house before I'm storming out of the doors and back to breathing actual fresh air.
"I hate him... I hate him," Illias says. I couldn't agree more, but I also can't deny Ivarron trained me well from a young age and provided me enough knowledge for any critter. "Damn you, Nara, for getting yourself involved with someone dangerous."
I huff, not saying a word, and rush him down the streets. Ivarron's connections to city dealers are what had me still working for him. Idris once tried to get me out of it. Still, his roughing Ivarron up didn't help the situation when some of his men found Iker outside the tavern one day and left him barely breathing as a warning.
"Nara, are you listening to me?"
"I am, but what can I do about it now—" I pause when I spot a tall figure from afar, wearing a grey shawl that I immediately recognize. "Shit, Idris," I mutter, looking up at Illias, placing the edge of his hand against his forehead and squinting from the sun.
"What does Idris—oh," he says casually before realizing what is happening and makes a face, widening his eyes. "Oh... oh, he looks pissed."
Indeed, that is true. Idris's usual scowl does not falter once as he excuses himself from a few villagers and makes his way towards us. His shoulder-length chestnut hair sways with each impending solid stride. It's the color all three of my brother's share compared to my golden honey locks—courtesy of my father's genes.
"Do you think we have time to run?" I grimace, noting Idris getting evidently nearer.
"No," Illias says. "But maybe if we pretend to be doing something—and he's standing in front of us, ah, hello brother, fine day—"
"Both of you home," Idris grits his teeth, trading glances between Illias and me. His voice low and hard, like always. "Now."
Facing Idris or a Rumen? I'd choose the Rumen again.
By the time we arrive at our secluded cottage on the other side of the village, it's already past midday. The light breeze—despite Emberwell normally never cold even through the winter months—flick strands of my hair around as I near the grey stone walls and steel powder trapped within it to ward off any possibility of a dragon. They say it's a weakness for them; however, it's hard to obtain unless you come from the city. Luckily working for Ivarron had its perks when I'd steal from him, much like the fairy blood vial in my sheath pocket.
I burst through the wooden door, trudging inside. Light encases me from the open windows, something Ivarron should consider investing in. My eyes then trace the flower-decorated carvings I have done on each corner of our rickety home. My knife tools rest on the floor to one side, which Idris had gifted me on my birthday a few months back.
"There you guys are," Iker says, jolting up from the wooden chair by the fireplace. I frown, noticing he's cradling a pure white-colored rabbit in one of his arms as he waltzes over.
I would ask how, what, when, and why, but I was too afraid of what the answer might be. I turn, following his movements as he stands to Idris's side and Illias to the other.
Taking the opportunity over the three in front of me, I look at them—at their features. How mine and Illias soft upturned noses differ from Iker's slightly crooked one where Ivarron's men had beaten him. Regardless they all shared that same defining jaw covered in a thin layer of stubble and what everyone knew us for... the Ambrose's hands. Strong, rough, full of creativity even with Illias's two fingers on one and my jagged scar.
"Threatening to kill Kye?" Idris's rage-filled voice drags me back to the current problem. "Really?"
I keep my face neutral. It's not as if I was going to act upon it... for now.
"You know what it's like having someone else who works with you run up and say that you need to keep your sister in check?"
It seems Kye truly has a death wish.
"If I may." Illias treads to my side carefully, pointing a finger in the air. "She had a rough morning trying to capture a Rumen—"
I silently plead for him not to go on, but it was already too late as Idris looks at me with narrowing eyes.
"What?" He raises his voice. The golden tan of his skin like all of us four have pales at the mention. "Do you have any idea how dangerous those are? There's no cure if they bite you, Nara."
"You know I hunt down creatures. Why are you so worked up on this?"
"Because you are hurt," he points out and glances down at my thigh, which I fail to cover with my cloak. "And because they are lethal predators."
I know they are. Rumens were mainly found in our territory, where the heat was ever prominent and nested around Volcanos up north. Some say they evolved from snakes, but the latter is unknown. "I can't just stop," I whisper, looking downcast.
"Then I'll deal with the consequences of Ivarron if I have to, but you're not working for him anymore." That makes my head shoot up with furrowing brows because Idris had attempted that in the past, and it didn't end well. Not for any of us. "When Mother fell ill, she entrusted me to look after you, but how can I when you're out there putting yourself in danger—"
"Mother may have entrusted you," I say, moving in closer and strengthening my words. "But you do not get to decide what is best for me and what is not."
Idris scoffs, shaking his head like he's always done with me. My fist clenches, sick and tired of him acting this way. For eight years, he's had to look after us, carrying the burden of both our parents' deaths, when neither was his fault. But not once did he stop to think that we didn't need him to decide everything when I was very well capable of doing it on my own.
"Nara, I think—"
"No," I cut Illias off but keep my gaze fixed on Idris. "Time and time, you have disagreed with me on everything. When I told you I wanted to become a Venator, you shut me down, yet I know for a fact Father would have been proud if it meant I was carrying out what he once was." My nostrils flare. "I'm twenty-one, Idris. Not a child, not a foolish girl, and not a damn weak human being you—think—that—I am."
Silence.
Utter deafening silence as I stay staring right into Idris's eyes, swirls of blue and green in his iris brighten against the shaft of light. They're the same color as mine and the same as what our mother had.
I wouldn't have minded not backing down. Defying Idris was a habit of mine, but of course, Iker intervenes with a whistle and smiles, slapping one hand onto Idris's shoulder. "She laid one on you, brother."
"Shut it, Iker," Illias says. "You disappeared all of last night at the tavern and didn't come back until the early hours of dawn."
"And with good reasoning," Iker says, covering the rabbit's ear. "I heard Idris cooked a dreadful venison."
We all look at him, not knowing whether to tell him how a rabbit was no elk. Idris is the first to sigh deeply, deciding to ignore Iker as he says to me, "Get that wound bandaged up before it gets infected." And shoulders past me.
Iker blows a breath in shock. Short curls fall over his forehead before I glance at Illias, who smiles uncomfortably in a bid to make me feel better. I barely lift the side of my lips at the reality of how we've had far too many of these disputes against Idris.
Later on, in the evening, after a tense meal where no one spoke except when fighting over the last piece of bread, I wind up in the bathroom. I take off my russet corset along with the moon carving and sheath strap, leaving me in a loose white shirt as I set it all on top of the chipped sink.
I exhale deeply, glancing into the mirror and running my fingers along the sides of my body. Although Iker and Illias found it impossible to find a stable job, I was grateful Idris, and I could provide sufficient funds for food. Some days I still had to hunt for there to be a meal on our plates, and others, it was unnecessary. Still, regardless of whether we were starving or not, my natural figure never lost its curves. Something I thank my mother for.
My hands slowly come down to my thighs until I wince and look down at the injury from that Rumen. I had put herbs and bandaged it up after Idris told me to, and of course, Illias offered to help, but my stubborn side, as well as how grumpy I felt towards Idris, made me storm off.
"Hey, trapper?" Four obnoxious knocks, and the nickname tells me it's Iker on the other side. "Can you cover for me if Idris asks where I am?"
I roll my eyes, knowing he's going out to try and trick people into giving him money by the tavern.
His knocks continue, with loud whispers of my name over and over again, but I don't respond as I twirl waves of golden hair and weave it into a half-up half-down plait.
I quickly grab my moon and turn. The brass mortice knob cools against my skin as I pull open the door and see Iker's hand midair while his gaze focuses on how I tap my foot on the floor impatiently. "You shouldn't go out," I say, looking over his shoulder at the rabbit nibbling on its paws. "You have a new pet to look after, wouldn't want me leaving the door open, so he escapes now, would you? Or worse, you eating dinner tomorrow and realizing what it is."
He blinks, narrowing his eyes with faint amusement. "Oh, you are positively evil."
"We share the same blood, so you and me both, Iker." I pat his shoulder with a smile and walk off, heading outside and into the front gardens that lead up to heaps of woods and greenery.
I stop and take in the unusual hues of purple enhancing the night sky and rest onto the thick layers of grass. I bring my knees up to my chest and wrap my arms around as I lift the carving between my thumb and index finger, studying it under the light of the stars.
Sighing wistfully, I remember how a few years back, my mother took me to a neighboring village. I was carrying my own carving of the sun before I bumped into someone, where it fell out of my hands, and in a rushed exchange, I ended up with the moon of that young person. My mother told me how it was a sign... a form of luck. People of Zerathion believed the continent—our universe was created millennials ago with the power of the sun and the moon named Solaris and Crello. That the sun always seeks its moon, and when they joined, a power surged from them unimaginable.
My brothers don't think it to be true, but I do. I wanted to believe there was something.
Minute's pass as I flip the crescent and run my thumb over the letter R engraved on the oak surface. My curiosity seems to grow before someone calls out to me. I look past my shoulder, seeing Illias's figure through the window, waving me to come back inside.
I shake my head humorously at how concerned he gets, and I dust the dirt off my fingers while rising. When I glance at my carving once more, I breathe a sigh, wondering if one day I'll ever get my sun returned as I start making my way back to my brothers.