Zephyrus

SS
Wistful winds flew before us, the hollowed estuary we now trod on told us the tale of a much calmer time. Though the creed in our clan is to always look ahead, misfortune would fall upon us if we did not remember the forgotten. Yet always I seemed to ask myself the question why we ever bothered to do anything anymore, our fate was already sealed at birth. Yet here the two of us were, traversing on our pilgrimage, our pilgrimage that promised us hope. Our pilgrimage that promised our kind to be reunited once more. Well, whatever hope was.

I heard Gabriel's voice ring out to me, and I soon emerged from the depths of my pondering to hear that melancholy voice mutter,

"The mountains, Samael, this is what we came here for is it now? Samael, can you really hear me?"

I could hear him, in fact. Yet the choice of listening to him was a whole other debacle,

"Yes I can hear you, dear Gabriel." I finally chose to say before continuing, "I hear you, yet to your unknown dismay I can hear Uriel's mourning cries from that temple. Come hither, there is no time for sightseeing. Our journey is forwards. And that is where we will head."

S
We trekked onwards towards the mountain, towards the temple that nestled between the jagged rocks. Gabriel sodded on about our destiny and why we were on the pilgrimage. After what must have only been 15 or so minutes of walking, we reached the temple. Gabriel was so busy rambling about clan history and I was so busy ignoring him that neither of us noticed that the temple had no door. Despite the intricate designs blanketing the structure and the temple-shaped... shape, it could very well have been a piece of solid rock carved in a deceptive manner. The one thing keeping me from packing it in and giving up on this bloody stupid pilgrimage was Uriel's cries, although I was half convinced they were some practical joke too.

"Samael,"

Gabriel queried me, "Would you happen to know the whereabouts of the door?"

"I'm looking at the same building, brother, so I will return that question to you,"

I responded, although I would have much preferred to say he was a sodding idiot as I bludgeoned him with a nearby rock. I was picturing him screaming 'noooo don't kill me' with his stupid little squeaky voice when he rudely interrupted my train of thought.

"We must respect our clan's history and complete the pilgrimage, brother. We will find a way in."

"Well yes, Gabriel, but how?"

WV
Gabriel was about to carry on the train of useless questions, when Uriels' cries suddenly increased in pitch until my brother was kneeling over, covering his ears pityfully. I was quite used to it by now, but even so I winced at the squealing.
I slowly lifted the screaming baby out of it's sling on my front, holding it by the chubby shoulders. I patted it's head calmly until my brother could regain his posture enough to carry on. After a minute of me patting Uriels' head and Gabriel searching for an entrance to the temple, the baby had finally settled down and I put it back in its pouch, before rejoining my brother to combine our efforts.
As I began fingering the wall next him, he spoke

"I can't wait for the sacrifice."

For once I agreed with my brother. I never intended to sacrifice a baby in my life- especially not off the top of a jagged cliff face- but the crying was getting on my nerves.
It had been a tradition in our family for thousands of years to sacrifice a child by 'death of being hurtled of a mountain by your big brother' if the child was born without our unique moustache hair. I of course inhereted extremely fertile moustache follicles , but being of the younger generation, I saw the cruelty of killing a child for no fault of their own. That was why i carefully balanced brown string fibers around Gabriels philtrum immediately after he exited the womb.
What a mistake that was.
I will not repeat it, Uriel is getting sacrificed so I don't have to sacrifice my own sanity, being the oldest child with fertile moustache follicles pays sometimes.