Chapter 01 - Argument between brothers

A hidden wooden house in the middle of the Whispering Forest, Boiling Isles, 1645.

"And with that it only takes a few drops of the Titan's blood to finish creating the portal back home," said a white man with short, slightly wavy, and very very light blond hair. He was tall, slim, very young (he looked to be around 26 years) and his eyes were blue. He would be very handsome if it weren't for his hooked nose and the fact that his two front teeth were separated to the point where it almost looks like there was a missing tooth between them. On his left shoulder was resting what appeared to be a cute male red cardinal.

"Thank God," said an even younger man who looked to be nineteen at most, also tall, slim, and white. He had blue eyes, perfect teeth, a sharp nose, long, wavy dark blond hair in a ponytail. He was sitting on a bench next to the man who was building the door, moving his legs impatiently and completely ignoring the presence of the red bird on the older man's shoulder. "I can't stand this place any longer, Henry! I can't wait to get home, sleep a peaceful night without the sounds of demons and scary monsters hunting down other creatures, and get wet in a rain that doesn't burn!"

"Me too…" Henry said thoughtfully with a hint of longing in his voice as he remembered the time he was a teenager playing with his kid brother in the rain.

The bird on Henry's shoulder chirped a cute little sound as if he were talking and Henry smiled as the ponytailed young man held himself back from grimacing in anger.

"Yes, Winter, of course you can come along," Henry said to the bird on his shoulder. "We're friends forever, have you forgotten?"

After hearing this the bird started to fly, chirping with joy, while Henry smiled being involved by the happiness of the little red bird and the younger man rolled his eyes hating that sugary scene between his brother and that little animal.

"So, Henry, how do we get the blood out of this thing?" the ponytailed young man asked, ignoring the bird's presence again. "Are you going out hunting like before? If so, can I go with you?" the younger man continued to ask excitedly, his eyes lighting up imagining it. "It's been a while since we hunted together, brother… Remember when we, along with the other men of Gravesfield, hunted those terrible wolves that were attacking our village? That was amazing! Thanks to your leadership in the hunt Gravesfield managed to survive the attacks of those terrible beasts! And you even managed to scare off some cougars and -"

"I'm not hunting anything today, Phil," Henry said, his voice very low and a little dismayed, interrupting his younger brother's animated monologue, walking away from the workbench. Unlike Phil, Gravesfield's memories weren't as dear or exciting to Henry. In truth the hunting of dangerous animals and the founding of that village in its old world were more of a torment for Henry than anything else. Sensing the sadness beginning to creep into Henry, Winter landed again on his human friend's shoulder and leaned against his neck, as if to say, "Don't be sad, I'm here with you," thus getting a weak and almost imperceptible smile from Henry.

"Why?" Phil asked, confused and disappointed, looking like someone had just spoiled his fun, not noticing the heavy atmosphere he'd created.

"You know very well how dangerous it is to us to walk around in this world, Phil," Henry said wearily, his mind finally stopping thinking about the past and coming back to the present.

"I know…"

"Besides, the Titan has been dead for a long time, we don't need to hunt them down to draw their blood," Henry replied as neutrally as possible. "Actually... We're living in their remains right now."

"WHAT?!" Phil yelled in alarm, nearly falling off the bench. "T-this huge island?! Is it a corpse?!

"Strange, isn't it?" Henry replied with a smile, perking up again, as if the fact that the two of them were trapped in a land that was basically a giant corpse floating in a sea of boiling water was an exciting thing, not something dangerous or scary. "But it's true, Ava told me once when we were… Eh… Well… when we were talking."

"You mean fornicating," Phil corrected with venom in his voice that came the moment his brother uttered the word 'Ava.'

"PHILIP!" Henry yelled extremely embarrassed, redder than the bird on his shoulder and this same bird was also horrified with what Philip said.

"What? Are you going to say it wasn't it?" Philip asked as if he hadn't said anything much, unfazed by his brother's embarrassment and preparing to release even more venom. "Admit it, Henry, we've come to this part of Hell precisely because you decided it would be a good idea to drag your wing on a devil whor… Ouch!" Philip yelled, being interrupted by Winter via a pecking attack. "HENRY, GET THIS CURSED THING OFF ME!" Philip kept yelling as he tried to shove the angry little bird out of his face to no avail. "I'M GOING TO BREAK THIS THING!"

"Philip Wittebane, enough!" Henry ordered in a controlled way, but still horrified by his younger brother's words, if before the red in his face was from shame, now it was from anger "Don't call Ava names and don't threaten Winter anymore! He is not a 'thing'! For Heaven's sake, Philip! You are already 27 years old, not 17! It's past the age to learn to behave like an adult and stop swearing at others so offensively for no reason!"

"Okay, Mom, I get it. I will no longer swear at the 'friend' of my dear brother who thinks he knows everything just because he's 8 years older than me," Philip replied sarcastically as he tried to fend off the red bird attacking him. "NOW, GET THAT MONSTRUOSITY AWAY FROM ME!"

"Winter," Henry called reproachfully, bringing the bird to a halt.

Winter chirped something that was definitely a protest (or a very lewd name calling directed at Philip) as Henry glared at him and repeated the call again. With that the bird fell silent, gave Philip one last look of deep hatred (getting an even worse look from his human's brother) and returned to his proper place perched on Henry's shoulder.

"Thank God," Philip blurted out in relief. "Too bad you can't scare off that misfortune creator so easily too..."

"She didn't cause any misfortune," Henry replied in a low but very irritated voice, knowing his brother was talking again about his 'Ava'.

"She lured you into this region of Hell using this damn bird on your shoulder as bait!"

"She didn't do anything! Who wanted to come here was me! The inconsequential one who accepted an invitation to visit a strange world without thinking about whether or not there was a way back was me. Nobody tricked me into coming here! I'm not a little five-year-old who followed a cute little bird into an evil witch's trap, if that's what you're implying. So if you want to dump your frustration at being stuck in this world for four and a half years on someone else, dump it on me! Be mad at me, not at her!"

"Oh, please stop trying to defend that witch, I know if she hadn't deceived you, yo-"

"SHE DIDN'T DECEIVED ME!" Henry screamed, losing control, startling the bird on his shoulder and Philip.

Feeling embarrassed for screaming and still shaking from the tantrum he'd had, Henry held on to the wall beside him as he tried to get his breathing and heart rate back to normal. Winter still on his shoulder, not having moved away from his human even after the fright.

"Sorry, Philip. Sorry, Winter," Henry finally managed to say after a few minutes of trying to calm down. "I didn't mean to scream… I just… I can't stand it when you accuse Ava of something she didn't do and when you treat me like a naive fool, Phil, and now you're doing both of these."

"I was not…" Philip tried to say.

"Yes, you were," Henry said, interrupting his younger brother. "As I've said a million times before, Ava didn't lure me here into an evil trap or anything like that. She never lied to me, she just didn't know that the natural portal she used every day to go to our world to visit me was getting more and more unstable and that it could disappear at any moment. It wasn't her fault that the portal disappeared right after we went through it on the day I WANTED to pay her a surprise visit. In fact, you weren't even supposed to come, the only person she wanted to come here and visit her often was me. You followed me in hiding because you wanted to, Phil."

"And you wanted me to do what?! That I didn't do anything seeing my brother sneak out every day in the dead of night to meet a devil worshiper?!"

"She's not a devil worshiper."

"She is a witch and witches are devil worshipers."

"No, they are not."

"If they aren't, then why are they always trying to capture us to do a macabre ritual to please the devil here?!"

"First off, it's not all the witches that are hunting us down here, just a ridiculous minority of cultists, and before you say any more nonsense born of Pastor Hardman's sheer ignorance and senile follies, those damn cultists are NOT my friends! I DON'T know them and I've never tried to befriend them and I'm just as angry and scared of that bunch of magical menaces as you are! And second, I hate to correct you, dear brother, but even these sick sick people don't worship the devil here. According to Ava, who those bastards really worship is the Titan."

"Th-the giant corpse we're stepping on right now?" Philip asked, venom fading from his voice, giving way to fear.

"Exactly… And the reason these horrible fanatics put a bounty on our heads is that they need human blood, lots of human blood to resurrect the Titan and make the great demons pay for terrorizing and hunting and killing the weak demons and the witches for fun. At least that's what Ava said she heard that lunatic cult leader screaming at the top of his lungs in a ridiculous preaching in the middle of the Bonesborough square," Henry replied, finishing with a shrug, with Winter nodding.

"And you still don't think we're in Hell," Philip commented, his voice becoming civilized again, calm and mostly without malice or venom, but still deliberately ignoring Winter's presence. The subject was getting too serious to continue with his childish teasing.

"And we're not, Phil," Henry replied casually. "What makes this place comparable to the place of Eternal Damnation is just the presence of these miserable cultists hunting all beings that are different to turn them into 'a sacrifice to the Titan' and the existence of great demons hunting and killing all other beings weaker than them for fun! If not for these two groups of miserable bastards, this world would be as good or even better than ours. "

"Apart from the rain, you mean, right?"

"Yeah, except for the rain."

"And the sea…"

"Yes, and the sea."

"And the food…"

"Enough, Phil."

And Philip chuckled triumphantly as his brother tried to keep a frowning face to no avail, eventually melting into a small smile as well.

"Okay, Phil, you win," Henry said with a slight smile still on his face. "You're right, this world isn't nearly as good as ours, but it might still be a good place to live if it weren't for those bastards."

"I'm always right," Philip said victoriously.

"Not always," Henry said. "You were pretty childish while you were bickering with Winter now."

"He started it!" Philip defended himself.

"Winter is only seven years old, you are twenty-seven. Which one of you two should be the adult in this situation?"

"But he attacked me!"

"Phil, please… Winter is only seven inches. It's not possible for a six-foot-tall adult man to be afraid of such a small animal."

"I'm not scared of this little monster! It's just that his pecks hurt! I'm full of little wounds here because of this pest!"

"Let me see it," Henry said, stepping closer to his brother to examine the wounds left by Winter. "Okay… I admit, they are bleeding, just a little bit, but they're still bleeding. It's not a small nonsense as I was thinking..."

"Did I not say?" Philip said with smug confidence, sending a superior look at Winter, who was with his little head down and starting to feel bad for hurting his human's younger brother.

"But it's still nothing serious… A healing glyph should do," Henry said, rushing back to the workbench.

"WHAT?!" Philip yelled, so scared he'd lost all color, turning paler than the snow from his fear of those glyphs. "I-I don't need this... I'm fine..."

"Yes you do," Henry replied, drawing the glyph on a sheet of a small notebook that was always in his pocket. "We can't risk having an infection in this world. We don't know what kinds of ailments can enter our bodies via open wounds here.

"B-but the little wounds a-are so small… You even had to get close to see them… I don't believe anything can get through them…"

"Believe it or not, something can enter in these wounds," Henry said again, halfway through the glyph. "We'd better close these wounds soon before- PHILIP!" the oldest of the Wittebane yelled as he saw his brother running up the stairs. "Come back here!"

Philip kept running until he reached his own room, entering it and locking the door afterward, his heart still pounding from the fright and the rush. He definitely wouldn't let Henry use one of those scary glyphs on him.

"I think I escaped," Philip said to himself, forehead leaning against the door, breathing still labored. "There's no way Henry can catch me here."

"I wouldn't count on it," a male voice replied in a neutral tone, making Philip feel a shiver down his spine.

The youngest of the Wittebane turned and froze as he saw his brother sitting quietly in the chair beside the desk in his room flipping through the damn little notebook full of glyphs he carried with him all the time, surprisingly that cursed red thing in the shape of little bird was no longer on his shoulder.

"How did you get here so quickly?" Philip asked, already imagining the answer. "And where's that little monster who likes to make your shoulders and head a perch?"

"Teleportation glyph," Henry replied with a shrug. "And Winter is still in the studio, I asked him not to leave there until I get back. I know you don't like him and you don't want him in your room."

"I'm glad you understand at least this," Philip said.

"Okay," Henry said, rolling his eyes. "Back to the main topic, are you going to stop making a scene and let me cure you or not?

"Do I have a choice?"

"Depends, are you going to cry like a baby if the wounds get infected?"

"I DON'T CRY LIKE A BABY!" Philip screamed, redder than Winter's feathers.

"You're crying now…"

"I'm not!"

"Your voice pitch became higher."

"IT DIDN'T!"

"You even made a falsetto now."

"WHAT?! I... No... Argh! Fine! Let's get this over with."

"At last," Henry sighed in relief, taking a glyph sheet from his notebook and tucking it back into his pocket.

Then the eldest Wittebane placed the leaf on his brother's forehead and touched it. Immediately the leaf began to glow and fall apart. As the leaf fell apart, the little wounds disappeared at the same speed. At the end of the procedure there were no more leaves or sores all over Philip's body, in fact even what was left of a little cold that the youngest of the Wittebanes had caught a few days earlier had been cured. Philip had never felt as healthy as he'd felt after letting his brother use the healing glyph on him, but he would never admit it.

"Sooooo?" Henry asked expectantly.

"So what?" Philip feigned ignorance.

"How are you feeling?"

"Well, but that doesn't change my opinion of magic."

"I didn't expect it to change," Henry said with a half smile. "I just don't like seeing you hurt."

"I know…" Philip replied in undertone, looking to the side. "And I don't like it when you get hurt creating these stupid glyphs and magical machines."

"I don't get hurt," Henry snapped, now it was his turn to look away.

"If you don't get hurt, then what's this?" Philip asked, taking one of Henry's arms by surprise and pushing up the sleeve, revealing a part of Henry's arm, which was covered in old scars from cuts and burns.

Henry, scared and embarrassed, feeling as exposed as he would if a crowd were seeing him naked, immediately pulled his arm away and then began to try to explain himself:

"Philip… I-"

"If you're going to start making up an excuse now, don't even start," Philip said, interrupting his brother. "As you often say to me, Henry, I haven't been a child for years. So please don't try to make a fool of me."

"I don't try!" Henry said, trying to explain himself. "It's just that not all of the scars really came from failed experiments with magic, a lot of it came from escaping from carnivorous demons and cultists when I go out to buy supplies and some of these bastards find out I'm human…"

"Wait, do you go out there alone?" Philip asked, shocked. "In this hell?!"

"Someone has to go out and buy gryphon eggs, vegetables, cleaning supplies and other supplies when Ava can't come visit us."

"I could d-"

"You refuse to use magic."

"Of course! Magic is from the devil!"

"And how do you expect not to be captured by a cultist if you don't use magic?"

"Using my pistol."

"The same one those fanatics turned into a clay sculpture?" Henry asked coldly.

To that Philip had no answer. The only thing the youngest of the Wittebane could do was, trembling, still in shock, to ask:

"Why didn't you tell me before?"

"Because I didn't want to worry you," Henry replied, his voice low and weak, guilt exhaling from every pore in his body.

"And do you think that's fair?" Philip asked, appealing to the emotional side. "Lie and hide something so serious from your only living brother and relative?"

"No…" Henry admitted, head down, embarrassed.

"I can handle living in this hell, Henry. If it's necessary I accept to spend eternity here to pay for all the sins I've committed in the past… But what I can't accept is losing you to this damned place."

"You won't lose me, Phil."

"It's really good, because if you die before we go home I swear to God I'll learn to use this unholy art called magic just to bring you back! And I'm warning you right away that if I have to do this I won't let you touch any glyphs again and I won't let you out of my sight until I'm sure you won't kill yourself again. You will practically be a prisoner, understand?"

"Wow… Weird way of saying you love me," Henry said playfully.

"This isn't a joke, Henry!" Philip said aloud, almost shouting, desperation in his voice. "I really can't even think about living alone here in this hostile world without you."

"You don't have to worry about that, Phil. I have no intention of dying anytime soon," Henry assured him. "I still want to have children and grandchildren with Ava, and I also want to live long enough to see them all grown up and well. So you don't have to take weird oaths about necromancy and other macabre things, okay?"

"Okay."

"Thank God. The direction of this talk was starting to creep me out… I think it must be hunger and fatigue, spending all day finishing the portal exhausted me. By the way, I just noticed that it's already dark and I haven't cooked dinner yet. I think the fastest dish to make right now is vegetable soup, will you take it Phil?"

"Of course, I'm starving."

"Okay, I'll get Winter from the studio first, he doesn't like to be left alone too long and he's an excellent helper. As soon as the soup is ready I'll call you."

With that, Henry took the notebook out of his pocket again and tore out another sheet with a glyph drawn from it. Then he touched the glyph and was gone.

A while later Henry called Philip and the youngest of the Wittebanes went into the kitchen, seeing the table set with plates and cutlery laid out neatly. Henry had just put out the fire and was talking to the red bird perched on his shoulder as he waited for his brother.

When Philip arrived, Henry set the pot on the table and the three of them had a happy quiet meal… At least for Henry and Winter, while Philip couldn't stop thinking about what he had discovered about his brother and the bad feeling these discoveries were beginning to give to him.