The sun was burning hot and high in the sky; the scolding rays peeking between the leaves of the tallest trees of the forest, which extended as far as the human eye could reach. The silence was all that could be heard for miles, besides the faintest whisper of the wind and the seldom sound of a lone animal. Besides that, nothing else could be heard. Not even the footsteps of a young girl who tiptoed between the trunks, her feet making no sound as she avoided crunchy leaves and branches, carefully assessing every step before hopping between rocks and prominent roots, silent as a mouse.
Loose strands of hair sticking to the sweat of her forehead, pink mouth half open as she breathed in and out, steady, big brown eyes analyzing her surroundings like every other predator did. The rough fabrics of her skirt tied around her waist so her bare feet wouldn't trip on them. Her otherwise pale skin was burnt and pink in high places as a result of her long exposure to the harsh sunlight, and there were scratches and dirt patching her legs and arms, but although she looked like she'd been through hell and back, she carried determination in her eyes and perfect focus as she pulled her arrow back against the string with unshakable strength and anchored it to the corner of her mouth.
The girl breathed in and out so silently that the movement could only be noticed if one looked at her rising chest, eyes locked in the innocent venison that sniffed the ground at the distance. The wind blew against her hot forehead, and she thanked the Gods that carried the breeze in her favor. It took her a single heartbeat to lock her aim before she let go of the arrow. Its flight cut through the air like a sharp knife for a split second before it cut its way through the tender flesh of the venison's heart. The creature didn't even give a cry of help before it fell to its death on the floor.
There was a crunch of leaves behind her and she let out the breath she'd been holding, blinking the dryness of her eyes away as she lowered her sore arm and shook it gently to get the blood rushing back into her statuesque fingers. "Not a second too early, brother." She whispered without turning around, the sweet voice of a young girl replaced with hoarseness of a throat dried out from thirst. "You could have ruined dinner." She went to strap the bow to her back and walk towards her kill with confidence, every step was taken with the unnerving familiarity of a daily routine.
The man behind her was a little taller than her, and a good two or three years older, and shared most of her features, a defined jawline, light and ruffled brown hair —though hers was much longer than his, so instead of being curled graciously against her head, like his own did, falling past her elbows in unkept waves caused by the humidity in the air. Their eyes were different from each other's, as well; while his own were a dim shade of green, that of a leaf succumbing to the stark cold winter weather and slowly turning from green to brown, hers were dark brown, nearly pitch black like the depths of an unexplored cavern. His own robes, unlike hers, were pristine white and scarlet red, making him stand out in the middle of the wilderness like he didn't belong there. Her dirtied brown clothes tied with worn out leather straps and patched with broken pieces of finer fabrics. "It's getting late, Verónika. You should come back."
The look on her eyes was harsh as she bent over and retrieved the arrow from the venison's still warm body, but he missed it. The girl took a length of rope from around her waist and began tying the animal's limbs together. "You know I can't come back without the food." She bit out, knotting the animal's legs a bit more strongly than necessary, as something was heard cracking. "You know it very well."
"Verónika…" He trailed off, attempting to catch her attention. The girl waited for him to continue for a moment before she turned around and saw his extended hand, offering her a brown canteen made of the same leather that made her belt. "Drink up."
She nodded almost inadvertently and whispered: "Thank you." Silently, she gulped to her heart's content under her brother's scrutiny, who worked on finishing her task as she rested.
In the distance, the sky tinted with blues turned pink and violet as the sun began to set, slowly but surely. The man stared at his sister's figure with awe. He always believed she was the strongest amongst the four of them, despite the fact that she was the youngest. Close to her seventeenth birthday already, she didn't smile nearly as often as the other girls around her age did. In fact, even if he attempted to remember the last time he'd seen her smile, he couldn't, no matter how hard he tried. The closest thing to Verónika's smile he'd seen was about two years back, in their sister Eirene's face as she kissed him farewell and waved from a distance.
Wiping off the trail of water that ran down her chin, Verónika became conscious of her brother's prologued staring. "Something wrong?", she didn't miss the familiar look on his face, either, not when she knew it all too well. Eyeing the bag that strung across his chest and down to the side of his body, she noticed something peeking from its pocket. A piece of pricy parchment with a certain lettering that brought bitter memories back to the surface. "Is that from her?" Verónika asked, throwing the now-empty canteen back into his lap and standing up, lazily beginning to drag the dead weight of the animal behind her.
He tried to hide the letter from her eyes, but she'd already seen it. "You must understand…" he tried to reason.
She walked faster. "Understand what? That my own blood refuses to acknowledge my existence?" She laughed sardonically. "I got the message, crystal clear. Do me a favor and send that whore my best wishes. Or don't, for what I care."
Verónika kept rambling and cursing her sister and the Gods that gave her the burden to share blood with, as she so kindly put it, such a wicked harpy, before her brother stopped her, grabbing her wrist. "Verónika… She's coming home."
It was one of the most beautiful nights in a long time. The sky was clear as the shallow part of the river, every group of stars was shining almost as brightly as the torches that surrounded the majestic structure in the middle of their land. There was an astonishing bonfire in the middle of everything, flames dancing to the symphony that the musicians played with such talent, replacing the usual dead silence of the night along with heartfelt laughter and cheerful conversations, most of which revolved around a certain girl who came back home.
The girl celebrated was, in fact, sitting in a log by the fire, warming her fingers as she laughed at one of her brother's stories. She'd missed him dearly, and when she saw his face for the first time in many moons, she knew that writing letters back and forth could never compare with holding him close. She, too, missed seeing the way his green eyes lit up as he laughed, and the way he said her name with such veneration. Eirene's warmed hand found the beloved bump on her stomach and smiled to herself. She wanted her child to know that loving smile, and the power that her coven provided her. Despite what some thought of her, she was no monster. How could a monster create something as pure and beautiful as a human life?
Monsters took life away from others, she knew that better than most.
Eirene's eyes darkened as she examined the small crowd that gathered outside. Beside her, her brother tensed as he saw the change in her usually innocent-looking features. "Are you alright?"
Her face suddenly snapped back and her eyes gleamed. "In perfect health, brother. I was just curious as to where our beloved sister might be." She continued to rub her protuberant baby bump and examine the crowd, even eyeing past the tree-line. "I'd love to share the good news myself if she doesn't already know."
Her brother gulped nervously. As much as he missed Eirene, the confrontation between his sisters was something he'd been avoiding. After two years of being apart and a childhood of animosity, he'd seen Verónika grow cold and resentful, despite his best efforts to give her all the love she deserved. And the spark of malice he suddenly saw on Eirene's eye confirmed that she wasn't seeking to make amends either. "Verónika excused herself from the festivities, but I believe our brother Valerius is around with Julia and the kids. Little Fabius is almost as tall as his mother by now, I'm sure they want to see you."
Eirene's hand found her brother's shoulder tenderly. He nervously smiled at his sister. "I intend my child to be born in a loving family and strong community," she looked around and sighed. "and Verónika will have to accept that. I will find her and we will discuss our differences." She stood up with slight difficulty and kissed her brother's cheek. "Tonight, one way or another, we will be a family again. Tell Augusts not to look for me, I need to do this on my own."
In a tent, far enough from the bonfire and the loud, chattering crowd, Verónika stood before a table full of concoctions and bloodied wooden vases. She bit her chapped lip in concentration as she ran her fingers through the recipe. It was harder than usual for her to concentrate, given the festivities happening not far from her place of isolation. Sure enough, her brother tried to convince her to attend, to make things right with her sister, or at least welcome her back into their home and then leave. But Verónika knew better. That place wasn't a home. It never was, at least not for someone like her.
For people like her siblings, it was the perfect place to be, yet she was an outsider, a mistake. Valerius knew it, Eirene knew it. There was only one brother who seemed hellbent on keeping her by his side. He was the only thing anchoring her to the coven that hated her cursed blood.
Silently, Verónika watched the green paste bubble and turn into a thin liquid before she looked into the small mirror before her, following the line of open flesh that extended from her forehead down to her chin. Her eyes watered as her flesh bled and burned, but managed to suppress a scream as the wound closed itself, leaving nothing unblemished skin behind. She half smiled, proud of herself, and proceeded to raise the hem of her dress to uncover another equally gory injury to her leg. Her lips shook as she took another bit of the liquid on her fingers and repeated the process.
There was no way she'd let her brother know about it. He was praised and loved amongst their kind, and she was a mere liability. Some called her a pet of his, a burden. She tried not to listen. After all, every time she fought back, she ended up on the losing team. It was a stupid idea to piss off witches as powerful as the ones from their coven. The Travelers, after all, were as powerful as they were ruthless, as omnipotent as they were fairly new to the world. The first generation of witches and warlocks who reunited to increase their power.
Stupid girl, she thought as the next wound closed itself. She should run off and end her misery. Find another city, make a living of her own, far enough so they wouldn't find her.
Still, there was a piece of her that whispered dark things inside her head. She knew there'll be a time when she'll get her revenge on everyone who wronged her, treated her like an animal, bossed her around and beat her for the laughs of it.
As she washed the remains of the liquid away from her skin, she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. "You've recurred to dark magic. I should've expected as much from a common disgrace such as yourself." Her back straightened as she turned around and saw the face of her sister.
For a moment, she was taken back. She'd forgotten how much they looked like, but after two years apart, Eirene's face had grown slightly different. Her cheekbones were higher and she had a small dimple in her chin, which was considerably sharper than hers. Her hair was darker too, whereas Verónika's remained the same light shade of brown as her brother's. She'd grown different. And Verónika had seen paintings of their mother. She looked a lot like her.
Eirene, too, took a second to examine her sister's face. She'd expected to meet a reflection of her, but the girl before her seemed even smaller than she remembered. The same rounded cheeks and big, stupid brown eyes. She was the female reflection of their brothers, and she hated her.
The last thing Verónika's eyes encountered was a big, rounded stomach, which Eirene caressed absentmindedly. "You're with child." She mumbled rather stupidly. She was clearly taken back by the sight of her sister, with whom she'd shared her mother's womb, pregnant with a kid of her own.
Eirene took pride in her sister's dumbstruck state. "Indeed. You see, some of us are not absolute pariahs, we can find true love and raise happy families." She teased with a wicked smile on her face. Verónika's eyes hardened. "It's people like you who're meant to die alone and miserable, sister, so don't mind me for stepping back from the inevitable misery that seems to radiate from you."
The younger sister pushed her dress down and stood up. "Enlighten me then, sister," she spat out the term with venom. "What do you mean when you say 'someone like me'?" She walked closer to her sibling and stopped only inches away from her face, their noses so close they almost touched. "Far as I remember, we're the same, aren't we?"
"Don't you ever compare us!" Eirene yelled. With a flick of her wrist, Verónika flew across the tent, landing on the hard floor. "If you were like me, you'd be able to defend yourself!" Something inside Verónika's leg snapped, and she cried out. Eirene's eyes were full of tears, and her otherwise pale skin was reddened. "You're a disgrace, a powerless burden to the family name, your birth was my dear mother's undoing! And what for? A human baby who can't protect the family legacy?"
Verónika held her leg with care, the hatred in her eyes was unlike anything Eirene had ever seen before, but she was blinded by her own rage, so she pushed again. The littlest sister cried out as her head felt like it was about to explode. "I've been away too long, sister. I intend to raise my child in its rightful coven." She laughed. "And you're not a part of it. Never one of us. You can't protect them." She turned her back on her as she cried silently. Eirene kneeled by her sister's side and held her face. "I can feel it already. This child will be a Regent amongst of people, more so than the clingy whore that follows our brother like a lost puppy, more so than me!" She said proudly. "And I can't have you around to taint their existence. No, you need to be gone."
Eirene stared at one of Verónika's arrows, tinted with the dried blood of one of her recent kills. "I'm sure our brother will miss you, but he'll eventually understand why you left without saying goodbye." Verónika opened her watery eyes and stared at her sister with fear. "We could never resolve our differences, what a shame." Eirene held a fistful of Verónika's hair roughly and exposed her neck. The tip of the arrow ticking the pulse point on Verónika's neck.
Tears streaming down her face, Verónika realized death wasn't her biggest fear, but instead letting Eirene kill her without having a chance to fight back. Far away, the crowd cheered loudly. Eirene pressed the arrow closer and a single drop of blood began to make its way down the girl's neck. The elder sister brought her lips to her ear and whispered: "Happy birthday to us, I guess."
Verónika's hand shot up to cover her sister's in a final act of defiance, and something strange happened.
As Verónika's grip around Eirene hardened, it felt as if something snapped inside of her. The younger sibling felt something she'd never felt before, a connection to the ground and the elements around her, a wave of whispering voices in the back of her head, renewed strengths. Her injured leg healed itself almost instantly, the pain inside her head nothing but a distant memory. And before her eyes, Eirene showed fear for the first time in their lives. It drove Verónika past the point of no return.
Hope everyone enjoyed it! Please R&R and do let me know what you think so far. I'll introduce myself shortly.