"The rules are simple." A gruff voice said intimidatingly. "First one to yell red collar loses, if one yells green collar after being hurt then it means they can continue. The loser gets a personal lesson from me, and the winner can rest for the day."
Brenner heard this as he woke up and immediately began to shake his brother to get ready. Brenner is a tall 14-year-old with a dark and tanned complexion from being out in the sun. All he wore was black torn shorts that were too small for him and a thin sweater that looked like it had been stabbed in several places.
"Is it morning already?" mumbled Amil.
With excitement, Brenner only shook his head and ran for the half-broken door and reached for one of the two buckets next to it. Amil was the younger of the two, he was not as tall as Brenner, but he was not short. He was 13 years old and was not as tanned as his brother, but you could still tell he spent too much time in the sun.
Unlike his brother, he had pants that were still wearable, but had a tattered shirt with long slashing cuts in the front and none in the back. Both the brothers resembled their grandpa, a tall man with raven black eyes and long brown hair. Even though he died protecting them, the trauma from the war had left Brenner unstable. Leaving Amil, the younger brother, in charge of survival.
As Amil got up, he realized that his brother was excited because he heard their grandpa's voice again. This was not an unnatural occurrence for them, but he knew something was wrong since it was happening too frequently. Every time Brenner heard his voice, they would spar all day without rest and get injured. Without proper treatment or medicine within reach, if one of them suffered a heavy injury, they would not last long. Amil was worried about this and tried to delay the sparring sessions and make them as short as possible.
"Let's go to the river and catch some fish to eat first." Said Amil as he walked past the door. And with a nod, Brenner followed him.
"I hope we can catch more than one fish today." Said Amil as he raised his bucket in the air. "Today we'll get lucky!"
Brenner simply copied his brother and raised his bucket but said nothing. Brenner had always been a very silent guy, but ever since the village was burned down and their grandfather passed away, he has not said a word.
The river was about a mile away, but on their way there they would always look for anything edible or any supplies that they could find. Amil carried a small dagger and Brenner carried their grandpa's knife. They carried them around everywhere, even when they slept in case of any emergency. They had been trained by their grandfather ever since they were young, they had been beaten to never let their guard down.
"You know, I always wonder…why did this happen? Why are all those people rampaging and ravaging everything? I always wanted to leave the village and see the outside world. Grandpa always said how wonderful and amazing the people were, but would wonderful people do something like this? What do you think Brenner? Don't you think it's strange for them to destroy all of those villages?" Asked Amil.
It appeared like Brenner ignored him, but even if he did not understand, or say anything, he knew his brother was feeling sad. Brenner once again raised his bucket as if to say it was okay.
"Hahaha. You're right. There is no point in thinking about useless things. But even so, the river today looks pretty bad. I don't know why the river turned orange, but I think we need to go scout for a different place to live. Everything up the river was completely ruined, hopefully things won't be how they were upstream…I don't want to see people scattered like broken rocks again. We'll go down the river tomorrow, okay, Brenner?" Said Amil as they reached the edge of the river.
Brenner rushed towards the middle of the river and began scooping the water with his bucket trying to catch the fish that swam by. As Amil was about to enter the water he felt a sudden chill enter his entire body. In his mind, he knew what this feeling was, he felt this when his grandfather had left them hidden under some rocks when the fighting reached their village. A disgusting feeling, a terror that he could not forget, a paralyzing bloodlust. As soon as he realized that it was bloodlust, he reached for his knife and was about to scream for Brenner to come back, but he suddenly heard a voice in his mind "Hey kid, there's nothing you can do, I'm already inside your head." A voice echoed in his head as he tried to move his body and mouth but could not manage to do either.
"Damn it, what's happening? Everything went dark and I feel like I'm freezing. I can't see Brenner. Did he also get attacked? Damn it, move. I can't feel or control my Alm either, if this is an attack, we're both dead." He once again heard the ringing voice.
"You're pretty strong for a kid, well, that other kid is stronger than you, but his mind is broken. I don't want someone useless." With those words Amil stopped struggling, even though it appeared as if he had given up, Amil began to think about his situation.
"I'll give you power, you can leave this place. All you have to do, is kill that kid over there and we can leave. How about it, good deal don't you think?" Those words made Amil remember one of the stories his grandpa told him, a story about fairies that whispered in the dark.