Kiyoshi arms himself, preparing for a fight when one of the hooded figures removes their hood, revealing themselves to be Christina. With her crystal blue eyes filled with tears, she rushes over to her beloved sister, embracing her in an everlasting hug. Sarah, overwhelmed by her sister's embrace, gently rest her hand on top of her sister's head, stroking her hair softly. Long streams of tears continue from Christina's face as she remarks she is overjoyed by Sarah's safe return.
For a brief moment, Christina raises her head from her sister's shoulders, whipping away the tears from her eyes. She slowly walks over to Kiyoshi and thanks him for saving her sister.
"I know it may be just a job to you. But I am indebted to you for what you have done, not only for me and my sister, by for all of Anges du sol. Thank you." Remarked Christina with a bright, angelic smile as she continued to whip the tears from her face.
"You always were a cry baby Christina. But am here now and I am safe. And we must prepare for battle. The Tucsons won't allow my escape to go unpunished. I am guessing by morning they will attack the town to force us out of hiding and wipe us out for good." Remarked Sarah as she laughed, trying to playoff the seriousness of the turn of events.
"But before we set off to battle, we feast." Shouted Sarah as the other hooded members of Anges du sol removed their hoods, revealing their faces. A mixture of humans and halflings made up the group called Anges du sol. But what Kiyoshi noticed wasn't the interaction of humans and halflings in one group, but that the group consisted mainly of young women. Most of them looked no older than the age of twenty-eight.
With more than a hundred members of Anges du sol, there were only about twelve or so men among the overwhelming colony of women. The members of Anges du sol removed their brown hooded cloaks to reveal armored beauties like those of Amazon warriors from Themyscira told in stories long ago.
The women of Anges du sol wore silver breast plates with red roses petal patterns on them and a golden emblem of an angel planting a sapling into the soil. They had golden-plated skirts and long brown boots with white wings on the heels. They also had on white gloves with golden angel wings.
The women and men of Anges du sol rejoice with fists in the air that their leader has returned safe and sound. Sarah raises her fist in the air shouting, l'amour pour tous over and over as she leads her group to their hideout.
Moments later, they arrive at their hideout, which was in the depths of a cave in the middle of the forest. In their members of Anges du sol feast around campfires whilst others get themselves ready for battle with the Amory. Sarah and Christina sit by themselves by a fire, eating when they are approached by Kiyoshi, who asked if he could sit with them. Sarah ushers him to sit and the three continue eating.
Kiyoshi asked the two sisters why they became fighters, breaking the silence among them. The two sisters with mouths full of food looked at each other before Christina replied it was more like we didn't have a choice.
"Explain?" Asked Kiyoshi who grew more curious about the lives the sister led before becoming freedom fighters.
" Hmmm, where do we start Chriss, guess we have to start from the beginning?" Remark Sarah as she begins the tale of their backstory.
"First off, I and Christina were twins born to a female elf and human farmer in a village several towns over. Our farm was in the out-shirks of the village to hide our mother and us from other humans who would try to kill us. Thus, we were home-schooled and the other friends we had were each other. But by the time both of us were five, the villagers found out about our and our mother's true nature and had our family burned in the village square." Whilst our mother and father burn, I looked on as they went to set fire to my sister and that was when my powers awakened. I burst out of my chains and free Christina in the process, slaughtering the entire village. A five-year-old forced to kill people just for her and her sister to survive because of something they had no control over." Remarked Sarah as she grew quiet.
"Am sorry," replied Kiyoshi, concerned that he may have overstepped his boundary by asking them about their past. As Sarah just nodded her head as Christina took over to finish the rest of the story.
"After we left the village, we soon realized how hard life was for orphans and not just orphans halflings but regular humans as well. We watched as others like ourselves suffer due to circumstances outside of their control and we decided to do something about it. First, it was just a way to keep orphans like us safe and protected by grouping together. But as we got older and our powers grew stronger, we realized that just protecting ourselves wasn't the answer as we watched more and more people suffer. We realized we need to be the voice and strong arm for those who couldn't stand for themselves and so Anges du sol was born out of our pain. We became a symbol for the weak and defenseless." Remarked Christina as Sarah held on to her hand whilst drinking a beer in the next hand.
"And what about Arthur? How did he come into play in all of this?" Kiyoshi asked, trying to figure out the situation they were in.
With furious rage, Sarah slams the mug of beer, breaking while she shouts that fucking bastard can't believe he betrayed us.
Christina turns to Kiyoshi, remarking that Arthur is the third in command after Sarah and herself. She then pauses for a moment before continuing by stating that he is also their half-brother as well.
"Your half-brother."? Asked Kiyoshi in utter confusion. "You didn't mention him in your story." Remarked Kiyoshi.
"That because we didn't tell you how the villagers found out about us." Remarked Sarah, annoyed by the mention of Arthur's name.
The two sisters paused, looking at each other with worrying looks on their faces before Christina continued by saying when they were four, their mother went to the village without their father's knowledge to get supplies for them. But upon arriving in the village, some men in the village discovered the true nature of our mother and for that, they repeatedly raped her till she escaped.
"And one of those fucking bastards is Arthur's actually father!" Shouted Sarah, who interrupted Christina with her sudden outburst.
Christina places a hand on Sarah's back to comfort her before continuing the story. At first, we didn't know what happen to mother until one night I overheard mother and father speaking on it. With Both mother and father in tears, as our father tells her that he still loves her and that he loves this baby as if it was his actual blood child. But what we nor our parents didn't know is that the people of the village were looking for our mother and knew she had to be somewhere close to the village and three months after Arthur was born, we were captured. With mother hiding Arthur in some nearby bushes before we were held by the villagers. So after we broke free, our mother, burning and using the last of her strength, directed us towards where she hid Arthur and from then on we became the only family he knew until Anges du sol was formed.
"So he doesn't know of his birth?" Asked Kiyoshi.
"He does." proclaimed Sarah as Kiyoshi ask how since he was so young when their parents died.
"Because I told him," replied Sarah with a stoned looked on her face.
"Let me explain." proclaimed Christina as she continued her story. Both me and Sarah were about eighteen at the time and Arthur was thirteen. We were sparring and training him to become a great warrior. Sarah and him were clashing swords when Sarah got the upper hand, throwing him to the floor. Sarah remarked that he was weak and needed to get stronger and, just like that, Arthur reacted in an outburst. Remarking that both I and Sarah look at him with disgust and that he doesn't look like us despite being siblings.
"With his outburst growing more and more I became annoyed, and I shouted because your father raped our mother and that how came to be." Remarked Sarah as she stares into the mug full of beer.
"I remember his horrified look as Christina, in an attempt to deescalate, explained to him the events surrounding his birth. I remember Christina looking at me for the first time in our lives with a look of disgust and disbelief because of what I said to him. He was so depressed after learning the truth, but after time he returned to the Arthur, we knew and both Christina and I thought everything was back to normal but I guess we were wrong." Continued Sarah as she just stared into her mug.
"So, knowing all this, what do you plan to do with him?" Asked Kiyoshi, causing a moment of silence between him and the two sisters.
Sarah takes her sword and stabs it into the ground before replying to Kiyoshi's question. "Simple, we kill him." She responded to the horror of her sister and to the surprise of Kiyoshi.
"How could you even think, let alone say, that Sarah, we are his sisters and we are the ones that raised him. If anything, it is our fault not his that he turned out like this!" Christina shouted as stood to belittle Sarah on her decision to kill their only brother.
"And what would you have me do, Christina, huh? Spank him on the ass for being a bad boy and welcome him back into the group. And how will that look to the other members, huh? He betrayed not all of us but everyone, thus it is no longer just a family issue. You and I might not like it, but we are leaders first and we do what needs to be done and deep down, you know I am right." Replied Sarah in an unusually calm voice.
Christina, hearing enough quickly, leaves enraged but her sister's heartless demeanor towards their brother.
"I do love him." Remarked Sarah as she sit there looking at the other members prepare for battle.
"But I have to decide what is best for the group and not just me and Christina and she knows this but, like usual, her soft heart gets in the way of her brain's ability to think," Sarah added.
"Am sorry my questions caused a two to fight," Kiyoshi responds as Sarah continues drinking her beer.
"Actually, I thank you, samurai. This conversation was needed. Now I must get my sister. It's time for us to address the group before the battle begins." Remarks Sarah as she leaves to go retrieve Christina.
As Sarah takes her leave, Kiyoshi looks into his cup and wonders what has he gotten himself into this time as the clock ticks before an all-out civil war begins.