It was hard being cast down, and he often wondered where he'd gone wrong. Hadn't he done the right thing? He thought he had. He supposed going against his father merely signified that he would rebel further in the future.
But his family should have understood. If not his brothers and sisters, then at least his father. He thought his father had loved him most. He thought he was his father's favorite. It seemed, however, that he was wrong. His father had turned against him, ordered his brother to cast him out.
He didn't understand. His father had asked the impossible, hadn't he? He'd asked him to love creatures that were weak. Unsteady. Pathetic. He thought his father was joking. He had laughed.
Surely you jest, Father, he'd said. We could not possibly love them.
His father and siblings had stared at him. He'd been confused. Why weren't they laughing? Surely this was a joke. These creatures were weak, and their beloved father told them they must love the creatures more than him. Father had said to protect them, to watch over them. That they must put all their love and strength into the creatures' growth. He didn't believe his father when he said the creatures were beautiful and would grow to be important and strong. The creatures were not beautiful; they were ugly, hideously deformed. His brothers and sisters were beautiful, deserving of love, as was his father.
But now his family no longer deserved his love, as they had cast him out without a second thought to love the creatures that were far weaker than them.
He knew he could never go back to his family. He didn't need them anyway. But he did miss them occasionally. No, he did not need Michael, or Gabriel, and definitely not Raphael. He did not need them, but when he thought of his brothers, his heart ached. He definitely not need them, but he missed them. He missed his brothers until he remembered how they had cast him out, their own brother, without a second thought. Then he became angry. Angry that his family had chosen weak little creatures over their family.
Even though the creatures had grown, they were still weak. They were still pathetic. But best of all, they were easily manipulated. If anything, he thought his family had failed at raising the creatures. And for that, he hated them.
No, he hated his brothers and sisters. He could never hate his father. He loved his father more than anything. Which was why when his father had presented him with the creatures and told him to love them more than him, he had found himself unable to do so. Instead, he'd looked at his father and answered simply, unaware he'd be cast down for it.
Father, he'd said simply, I cannot.