Cantral The Entra

Show the Universe who you are.

Fendan and I burst from the ship and jump upon the frozen lake. Frosted snow crunches under our boots and birds pause their song. Tall trees stand sentry on the edge of the lake. A magical place caught in an eternal winter. But life flourishes here and this continent is as active as any temperate forest.

The chilled air burns my throat, it makes my jaws ache. I don't care that entra can survive extreme temperatures, I hate the cold. My body shakes and I blame the bitter breeze, not the sight of Haroc as he stands upon our ship, draped in an intimidating suit of black metal.

The suit is different to the one that decorates every other entra, it's stronger than the one Fendan wears and it can only be removed by Haroc himself. The first time I have seen him wear it, but he's shown it to me before and I've seen it countless times on display in his apartment.

Fendan holds the knife to my neck, and my back presses against his chest. The beat of his wild heart fills me with fear. Fendan was my rock, the man who always had the answers, the man who never showed fear, even before Haroc. But I realise, that was never him, I just refused to see the truth, the real Fendan.

Haroc walks across our ship, the sound of his boots crashing against metal drowns everything. They quell the sounds of nature and erase the constant thump, thump of my heart. And then silence as Haroc pauses. He's being careful.

Fendan edges back and drags me too. His hand rests upon my shoulder and he pushes me to the ground. The snow brings a gasp to my lips, it numbs my senses. The click of a gun ruptures in my ears and Fendan's other arm outstretches and aims the weapon on Haroc. But what good is a gun against the suit Haroc wears?

"I wonder," Haroc says, with genuine curiosity, "if you'd be able to fire enough rounds to make a hole in my helmet before I reached you?"

"Would you care to find out?" Fendan replies and I hear the smile in his voice. "I've always been a good shot."

"You have," Haroc admits. "Fendan." He sighs. "Once, you were so much to me, once, you were everything, and now your life means little ... Now, you hold a gun to me and a knife to Cantral. The Entara were always unstable people, emotional people... and you are so very Entara."

"Yes, I am," Fendan snaps, his fake joy takes a hike. "My Entra heritage is so very weak ... You never meant anything to me! I propelled you into the position of power and now you have outlived your use!"

Haroc laughs, long and loud, it's the same laugh he used with me when I was a child, when I said something amusing, when I did something silly. A laugh straight from the pit of his stomach.

"Don't you realise Fendan the more you scream, the more visible your lies are." Haroc jumps from the ship, and a bullet whistles through the air above my head. It hits Haroc's visor, and recoils from the contact. Subtle cracks shimmy across the glass.

"I wouldn't take another step," Fendan says, to Haroc, and the knife pushes harder against my neck. "Drop your blade."

The blade hits the ice with a dull clunk and Haroc remains still. "You loved me, you still do. Fendan, you can't kill me," he speaks with a voice full of care and love, and it hammers in his words even harder. "You're weak, you're a failure. You're Entara. You are worthless, defective." He takes a step forward. "How old are you? And yet you are that same boy I first saw, you are a whimpering coward ... you cried when we first met, do you remember? You disgust me."

"Quiet!" Fendan screams.

"You disgust me!" Haroc takes a step forward. "Your blue skin disgusts me, your hair, your voice. Everything that is you makes me shudder with repulsion!"

Haroc's boots strike the snow as he sprints towards us. Too fast to register and yet it's as if everything happens in slow motion. Fendan's gun drops to the snow, the knife falls beside my knees.