[Zale's POV]
Every story has a beginning. These beginnings help to forge what people will become. All beings, whether they are humans, monsters, or gods, started out as less than what they are now.
We are no exception.
The beginning of my life with my brother was not what you would call exciting. We were born to a poor woman who had lost the love of her life to the ocean, or at least that is what she told everyone.
In a sense, she didn't lie.
Our home was a small shack. The roof leaked. The floor was mud. The walls were made of old, decaying wood. It was a miracle that the shack never collapsed on top of us.
That place could barely be called a home. We slept on the dirty ground like filthy animals. We went to sleep hungry most nights. We drank water that should have killed us at times. Everything about that place was terrible.
Except for one thing, my family.
My mother was beautiful. That was something no being in the universe could ever deny. Her face was flawless. Her skin was kissed by the sun. Her hair was always clean and straight (I have no idea how she did that in our circumstance).
Her sapphire eyes could pierce the very soul. I guess that's also why Lucius's eyes was the same blue. In contrast, mine were both dark-hazel, but I shared more facial features similar to my mother than him.
Yes, our mother might be beautiful on the outside, but on the inside she was perfect.
Our mother did not have one bad bone in her body. She showed kindness to every single person that was in her life, even when times were hard. Her smile could melt even the iciest of hearts.
We loved her in all our entirety. I loved her more because I believed that she loved me more than anything else in the world, even more than my brother, but she never shows it.
Our mother never yelled, hit, or became aggressive towards us. Even when one of us broke her rules, she would not become angry. She had the patience of a saint. I would know, because she usually dealt with me on a daily basis.
No other being in the universe was as pure as she was.
So, despite how bad our home was, we were happy. I was happy because I had the best, most wonderful mother in the world, even if I had a twin brother that annoyed me at times.
No one could ask for more than that.
Every day was the same. My family rose with the sunrise at dawn. Most of the time there was no breakfast. Despite our usual hunger, we always smiled and talked as we got ready for our day.
Our mother did many things to try to provide for us. She sowed, cleaned, and laboured for money in the unnamed seaside town when her services were required.
I think she even begged on the streets during our darkest times, when work and food was scarce during those seasons. She took almost any job.
Except for prostitution. Mother would never sell her body.
While mother laboured, Lucius and I hunted for food once we got older. Back then, I was not very good at hunting, although my brother always had a knack for it.
Sometimes, I found small game. Most of the time though, I felt like I was cursed by something that prevented me from catching anything.
For all I know, I probably was.
The one thing that I was good at was fishing. Every day I caught at least two fish. It was miraculous really, as if the fish acted like they wanted to be caught.
After the work day, mother would meet us both back at the shack once sunlight faded. I loved the night back then. Our mother would always hug and kiss us both. Then, we would start preparing the food, usually fish and small game.
As we cleaned and cooked our meal we would talk. The topics always differed. Sometimes we would chat about our days. Other times we talked about our dreams of the future. The conversation would continue until we finished dinner.
Then she would tell us stories. These stories were legends about heroes, monsters, and gods. They captured my attention every night without fail.
She would always call us her little heroes. That was my favorite time of the day.
Not all of the stories were happy. In fact, most of them ended badly. She told us that it was fair they met those ends because of their decisions and actions.
My brother and I now know how true those words are.
So, that was our life. It was a hard life, that was for sure. We struggled every day just to survive. Nevertheless, we were content.
But it could not last.
The end to our naïve life began when Lucius and I turned five.
When I woke up that day, I knew something was wrong. Mother was worried, I could tell. Whatever it was, it had to be huge to visibly affect my mother.
All day, a violent storm surged throughout the area we lived, so we stayed indoors. Our mother jumped at every little noise. I asked her multiple times what was wrong, but she just told me it was nothing.
Then our greatest fear was realized. The shack collapsed.
It was not sudden. We realized very quickly what was happening when the wood began to crack. At first, we were frozen, but then our mother sprang into action.
She grabbed our hands and ran. Merely a few seconds after we got out of our home, it fell over.
For a second, we just stared in shock. Our home was gone. For a moment mother looked like she was about to cry.
Then, we heard the loud growls.
At first, I just thought it was the storm. Our mother's horrified face told us otherwise.
Before I could turn around, we were already running off. Then we were soaking wet and escaping from an unknown enemy. Mother dragged us along as fast as possible.
I could still remember the rapid heartbeats ringing in my ears.
I was terrified, and so was Lucius. Nothing ever like this had happened before. Never before had we seen our mother weep.
It was then I realized that we would all die once we were caught.
We ran and ran. Surprisingly, Lucius and I never got tired. In fact, we were able to keep up with a fully grown person easily. I resisted the urge to not pass my mother as we retreated from whatever was behind us.
Soon we arrived at the beach. For the first time that day, our mother smiled. She led us to the sea and kneeled down to our eye levels. Her last words have continued to echo in my mind since.
"Zale, Lucius. Both of you need to go out into the water! Do not ask any questions, just do as I say! Go into the water and you will be safe!" Our mother wiped away her tears while smiling sadly.
"I will lead the monster away! Go, my sons! Don't look back! I will be safe!"
She then pushed us into the dark waters. For a moment, I believed that I was going to drown.
The water didn't hurt me at all, though. I could even breathe in it! However, Lucius struggled and didn't seem to be able to do what I could do initially, so he had to resurface.
We obeyed our mother at first. I swam out for a few meters, then stopped as Lucius caught up to me.
I could never leave my mother behind. She was the only thing I loved in my life aside from my brother. I could tell Lucius felt the same way.
So, we turned around.
That sight still gives us nightmares even now. Our mother had lied to us. She was not safe at all.
That... Thing was attacking her. Shrouded in a dark mist, the monster had the body of a reptilian beast and large fangs.
No eyes were present on its oblong head, and protruding skeletal ribs gleamed under the dim moonlight. Its arms and legs were humanoid in nature, with the limbs and digits of the hand and feet identical to you or me.
Sounds of skin being torn filled the night. Blood was shed as crimson rain scattered into the air. Worst of all, her screams pierced through us and haunt us to this very day.
Righteous fury filled my heart and mind. Our mother was being killed by... That thing. The most perfect being in the world was dying, and it was all our fault for being weak.
Lucius and I yelled and shouted for help. Unfortunately for us, only silence returned our calls as I realized that we were the only ones alive.
Our home was gone. The seaside town was already destroyed by the creature, with the sounds of the massacre masked by the howling storm. There was no one left to help us.
I willed with all my might that something, anything, would strike that beast down. Finally, something magical happened.
The water acted with my will. Forming into an arm, it suddenly reached out to the monster, grabbing it. Then, like I wanted, it began to crush the beast.
The creature whined and yelped, struggling. Those noises immediately cut out when the water crushed it like a hydraulic press under my control. The beast then disintegrated into black ash.
Like a sudden switch, my anger was gone. In its place was only fear and despair. I moved through the water with lightning fast speed, with Lucius following behind.
I dove to my mother. We cried and sobbed. I carried her bloodied body while Lucius held her hand. We mourned for her to come back to us.
The storm then subsided. It was a vivid scene, of two small boys dressed in rags clutching their dying mother, wailing under the silent night sky.
Finally, our prayers were briefly answered.
"Zale? Lucius?" She weakly croaked. I felt Lucius's head appear beside mine, tears streaking down his face.
"Mother! You're alive! Please hold on, brother and I will get help!" He cried.
"No, no my sons. Stay with me." Our mother's beautiful blue eyes began to dull.
"But if we do that you will die!" Lucius and I were hysterical at this point.
"I will die no matter what, so please stay with me in my last hours."
"Mother..." My voice cracked. Our tears mixed in with the deafening rain. My brother and I trembled uncontrollably with grief.
"Listen to my last words. My sons. I want you to grow strong... I want you to live." She coughed up blood at that point. I still remember my face being splattered with crimson drops. "Find happiness and fall in love. Live until you are old. Then..."
"Then die... Die with... No regrets..."
"No mother, don't leave us! We love you!" I was on the edge of losing control, hyperventilating.
"Mom!" Lucius screamed as well. "We love you!"
Both of us were going insane.
"I love both of you too... I am glad that those are the last words I hear my my sons say to me..." She finally stopped moving.
Her breathing ceased. Her heart no longer beat. Our mother was dead.
"Mother!" We continued to scream and sob.
For a long time we just sat there in the storm. Our lives were shattered. Our family was destroyed. Our innocence brutally erased just like this.
The rest was a blur. I remember the waves hitting Lucius and I. They felt almost comforting. Then, the water began to gently pull us in.
I did not fight it, although Lucius struggled a little. There was not a part of me that cared anymore. Dying would be a comfort at that point. A comfort that my brother and I would unfortunately never get.
As the waves pulled us away, Lucius and I looked back for a moment. That was the last image we ever had of our mother.
Our beautiful mother...