"Brother" A small five-year-old girl held her older brother, Yuki's arm. "What is going to happen to us?" the fear was evident in her voice even though Yuki could tell she was trying to hide it. But he was too scared to tell her so. "I don't know Takara" he hugged her closer.
Takara was the Hen in the Zodiac, and Yuki was the Rat. They hugged tighter than before; Yuki could feel his sister's body shaking. He brought his hand up to stroke her hair to comfort her, and noticed he was shaking too. He too wondered what Akito would do to them.
A year ago, everything was fine, until Takara, age 4 had spilled to her friends what she was. Akito had ordered that their memories were to be erased. Takara couldn't bear it. She yelled and screamed at Akito, and their parents had warned her, them. Look at what happened.
Yuki saw something out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head so fast he got a crick in his neck. What if it was Akito… come back to "educate" them, or someone else sent to? He held Takara so tightly she squeaked in protest. "Shh" he said quickly. But it was just their reflection in one of the many mirrors set on the walls. The room was big, and dimly lit and the walls were covered in long rectangular mirrors. That's one of the things that was so scary about it. That's why they sat in the corner, with their backs against a wall.
"What is it?" Takara asked in a voice that wasn't even a whisper. She breathed the words they were so soft, but Yuki heard them. "False alarm" he said. He too, was quiet. They had gotten used to whispering and hiding lately. Anyone could be watching. The mirrors caused them trouble-seeing things. People could be lurking in the room and they wouldn't even know it. "Your own reflection?" she asked in the same breath voice she had used before. Yuki wondered how she did that. She had always been quiet, much quieter than Yuki and much to quiet for a young girl. "Yes" he said as quietly as he could, still not seeking the breath voice. She was also so smart, smarter than Yuki and he was a whole year older than her! Maybe it was because she was part of the Zodiac, that she was so different from other girls? He buried his face in her auburn hair, and before he knew it he was crying his purple eyes out. He felt her sobbing too her turned her to face him, her brown eyes welled with tears.
It was sometimes good that he was so tall, and she was so short… Even though it was just the difference of a couple inches, sometimes it wasn't good. Like if they tried to escape. His body still hurt where the whip met his skin. He could only imagine what Takara had gone through; she had done the initial rule breaking. But he had stood up for her, against Akito. That was against the law. Bringing her close again they sobbed into each other shoulders, after a few minutes the crying slowed and finally ceased, Takara wiped the tears from her eyes than said "I'm so hungry, and… tired… I feel… so weak." Her head fell and came to rest on his shoulder, where she went to sleep immediately.
He laid her head on his lap and stroked her hair; she was all he had left. She was so dear to him, his parents and brother wouldn't, couldn't help them. They had gotten themselves in to big a mess. During her dream, Takara cried out and fidgeted, and at one point, turned into a chicken; and even still, he stroked her auburn feathers. "They're not as soft as the usually are…" he thought. It was probably from lack of food, and not being able to bathe for, goodness only knew how long.
As time went by, Yuki nodded off into a very troublesome sleep. His dream consisted of whips and other means of torture. Takara was in his dream to, she was calling out to him. "Help!" she screamed louder every time. He fought to try, to get free from his torture, being kicked and hit, being whipped and slapped, but he never got free… couldn't save his sister… He felt the leather of the whip hit his skin and he woke with a jerk. Akito was standing over him, and Takara was under Yuki, shaking. The leather swung down again on his back, he gritted his teeth in pain, eyes watering. Takara called out from under Yuki to Akito "Leave us alone!" her voice wasn't shaky in the least. "We're sorry about what we did, please leave us alone!" she shouted at him. Yuki didn't have time to react. He was flung of Takara and skidded on the floor. His whole body hurt, but not caring he stood up and tried to get to his sister, tried to protect her from the whips and other punishments she was receiving. She cried softly and whimpered every time foot, or leather made contact.
Yuki screamed. He couldn't take this! Being so powerless! He kicked and screamed more, and fought to get to Takara. Tears were streaming down his face and kept shouting "She's all I have! I'm all she has!" At one point he tore through Akito, and lay over his sister, protecting her. Under him she was breathing softly. Very softly, it worried him. "Do whatever you want to me, just don't take us apart" he said his voice shaking horribly.
Akito just laughed "That's my decision as head of the family, THAT'S MY DECISION" he sneered and stormed out of the room.
Yuki got off his sister, laying on the floor his body keeping her in that corner. Protecting her like a small fence. He touched her cheek with his hand. It was bleeding from a scratch going horizontally across her cheek. But that was not the worst of her wounds; she had bruises and cuts, and her breathing was ragged. He felt along her chest checking her ribs, when he reached the second lowest rib down, on the left, she squeaked in her sleep. So that one was either bruised or broken. He checked the last one. Again she squeaked but this time it sounded like it hurt more. He checked the rest, they were fine.
Yuki rested a moment from the fight, and then sat up. He had to do something about her wounds. They couldn't afford to get an infection, not now. He took off his shirt and shivered from the cold. His shirt was all the cloth he could spare, and that's what he needed now. He ripped the shirt into long, thin strips, like an old fashioned band-aid. He put little strips of the red shirt onto Takara's little cuts, and the longer strips on the bigger cuts. It took him awhile and a lot of care to put the cloth on the wounds correctly. When he was finally finished there was about enough cloth for him, but after thinking about it he saved it. He didn't have many wounds, just a few scratches and a bruise.
"Lets run away" came the breathing whisper from his sister. He looked at her. "That's impossible" he told her gathering her in his arms again. "How?" she asked, her voice getting quieter every word she spoke. "We can turn into animals, and call other animals to help us." Yuki paused, that was true. They could escape, but what if it failed? They'd be in worse trouble than before. "What if were caught?" he asked her. "If I lose you… Your all I have left, I'm all you have left. We can't." He buried his face in her hair again, breathing in her scent. What if he did lose her? What would happen? He'd never forgive Akito that's for sure. But would he live? To continue on his life would probably make Takara happy, but he probably wouldn't be able to take it. Then again what if he died, and she lived? What would she do?
"Were going to die if we stay here anyway." Her voice had gotten so soft Yuki couldn't hear it anymore. He put his ear next to her lips, and she repeated what she had said. But Yuki didn't pay attention to that. Her voice was so weak. "What's wrong? Takara what's wrong!" he asked her urgently. He looked at her, willing her to say something above a whisper for a change. "Weak… Tired…" she said, Her eyes flickering closed. Yuki was not comforted by these words at all. "Don't go to sleep, not yet. We'll run away just don't go to sleep!" She tried to keep her eyes open at this. "Why brother?" she asked. "its just sleep, not eternal sleep." She opened her mouth a little to let out a yawn.
"Are you sure Takara?" he asked her worriedly. She nodded her head slightly. "OK, when we are rested, then we'll escape. OK?" But she was already asleep, breathing slowly and deeply, but she winced every once in a while. Sitting up strait Yuki rested his head on the wall, and was soon asleep. Tonight he was too tired to dream, just blackness. The peaceful darkness.
When Takara awoke she felt something wrapped around her in different places. It couldn't be her brother, Yuki. She looked at her arm, it was wrapped in cloth, White clean cloth, not her brothers shirt cloth. She looked around her self, white bandage covering every wound she felt. She looked over at her brother, he to had the white bandage where his wounds were. She sat up quickly but immediately regretted it. Her ribs hurt like nothing else. She gasped and gritted her teeth, that's when she saw the tray of food.
She sat on her knees making sure her back was strait so her ribs wouldn't hurt as much. She didn't want to wake her brother and tell him about the food, he was sleeping better than he had in days, so she let him sleep and didn't eat the food. She waited patiently for him to wake up. She kept herself entertained by thinking of what her friends were doing. What time was it? Was it night? Day? She didn't even know what time it was for goodness sake. But her mind kept wandering to the food. She was so hungry! She hadn't eaten in days.
To keep her mind off the wonderful aroma of food, Takara lay down on the floor on her right side, careful of her ribs. She closed her eyes and let herself drift of to sleep. This wasn't healthy, not for such a young girl as herself, to go starving and living in this room with open wounds… well now they were bandaged. She thought about changing into a Hen, but then her bandages would fall off, and that wouldn't be good. She snuggled closer to Yuki. It was cold, so cold.
As she started to fall asleep again she heard a door open. She stiffened but stayed where she was, maybe he wouldn't hurt them until they were awake? She held her breath, but nothing happened. Well no pain at least.
"How long are they going to sleep?" said a soft, solitary voice, Takara didn't recognize the voice. It was a pleasant voice. She heard a sound and saw the tray of food was gone. The person, a young man, was humming as he walked across the room. Takara felt the little flame of hope of getting food extinguish. And when Yuki woke up he saw her crying.
"What's the matter?" half urgently, half tired. He lifted his hand and rubbed his eyes. After a moment he noticed the bandage. "and what's this? Where'd you get the cloth.?" That only made Takara cry more. Yuki comforted her as much as he could. Finally her tears ceased. "I woke up with this." She pointed at the bandages on herself. "There was a tray of food to but someone took that away." Yuki nodded, "it's OK." He told her. "I miss food" she said "I can't remember what a blanket feels like either. A warm soft blanket." Tears trickled down her face but stopped quickly. "Lets get to work" she said with new determination. Yuki nodded. He was scared, but when was determined, no one could stop her. But no sooner had she said the first chicken word did the Humming man come back. He was carrying the tray, this time the food was steaming.
He started when he saw them awake. He smiled "How are you feeling?" he asked them. Yuki got in front of his sister and looked at the man untrustingly. He didn't say anything. Takara followed his lead, but she peeked her head out to look at the food that filled the room such a wonderful smell. Her stomach roared, she was soooo hungry. The man just smiled and walked up to them. He put the tray in front of Yuki. Straitening he said "I'm Sohma Shigure" And then walked out the door, closing in behind him.
Takara was the first to recover. "Should we eat it?" Yuki nodded "We need our strength. He looked at the tray, then slid it in between them. The meals consisted of rice, chicken, beef, and different vegetables. Takara tried to break apart her chopsticks, but she was too weak. She saw Yuki was having the same problem. So Takara picked up a chunk of rice with her fingers, and ate it like that. It was so good to have food now, her stomach didn't hurt as much any more. She quickly ate her fill, with food left over… a lot of it too.
She packed her food up in the little boxes it came in, and waited for Yuki. When he finished packing his food he nodded to her. "Ready?" She nodded back. She closed her eyes, thinking of her second language, words flowed out of her mouth, though they were not any one of people's languages. She asked all the farm chickens and wild chickens to help her and her brother. A mob of chickens were on their way. She opened her eyes. Already a mob of rats were forming chewing holes in the walls to get in. Yuki looked at Takara. "We'll have to leave the bandages here." She nodded then focused on the miserable, and uncomfortable parts of this, of her life. Next minute she was a chicken. She saw her brother in the mass of rats. He climbed on her chicken back and other rats were finishing the huge holes they had created to let the chickens through. They climbed on the other chicken's backs and set off through the holes.
The ride on his sister's back was bumpy. But it was better than being in that death chamber. Yuki clung to his sisters feathers for dear life, as Takara ran as fast as she could as a chicken. Looking back he saw a few people running after them, he saw a few brooms so he could guess they were chasing them away. "Good" he thought to himself. After a little bit Yuki couldn't believe she was still running. "She really is that determined to get out." He thought.
When they got to the gate to enter and exit the village, Yuki let out a breath he had been saving. But it was to soon. Some people blocked their path, both men and women with brooms.