Old Legends

Chapter 10 - Than

I stood in the forest with my brother, Dagon, holding a letter from my father. Reading it reminded me that it had already been one and a half months since we arrived at the village. I couldn't believe how much had happened that first day we were here, because the time after passed without much incident. Due to our help with Nico, the village trusted us enough to let us roam freely and hunt with them. My attraction for Sela had only grown in the past weeks, but her duty as a Holy Child took priority over our feelings for one another. I hadn't kept track of how long we had been here, but my father's letter broke the glamour of our time here. Dagon and I had duties as princes of the Royal City and couldn't remain here forever.

I looked down at the words my father had written Come home, now. My heart ached at the thought of leaving Sela and not knowing when I would see her again.

"Than, Dagon!" I hear Sela calling from somewhere within the village. I crunch the letter in my hand and look up at my brother who is staring at me inquisitively.

"Let us go back, Sela is looking for us." I tell him, grabbing his arm.

He pulls his arm out of my grasp. "She calls only for you. Why do we not leave now? No one is here, they will never know. You read that letter, father wants us to come home." Dagon says looking out towards the forest. His jaw is clenched. He doesn't belong in a small village in the middle of the forest. He belongs in a castle with plenty of women and men at his disposal.Still I sigh. "You're honestly wanting to run, after all their hospitality? You were the one who said you understand their precautions."

"Yes I understood them then. Now almost two months later, we have shown we are not bad people or out to destroy this village. Why do they still keep us from our home? From our mother?" He said the last words very pointedly, knowing that our mother and I had always been close. She always said Dagon was her fighter and I was her dreamer. Like me, she wanted to avoid bloodshed and war, in order to come to an amicable agreement.

Still, my mother's love aside, the Royal City help nothing but pain and animosity for me. "We are not wanted back home. We are bastards to our father, nothing more. We go back and what, you are praised for being powerful like Aidan, and I am beaten and whipped until I can barely stand?"

"That is because you do not act like a man, Than. Men are supposed to fight, not read. They are supposed to kill, that is how they learn the ways of life, not by studying in some library." Dagon says, looking me square in the eye. We had always disagreed on this and even though he pitied the beatings I endured, he always blamed it on my soft nature. His eyes softened and he added "Even Sela knows we can't talk our way through problems and that sometimes we have to fight."

"That is what you believe men are supposed to be. I am my own person and will always be a reader not a fighter. In wars you will wish you had learned what I have. I know every spell the Pixie's use, every shape a shifter can take, and every move a merman will make to evade any attack. I learn that from reading, not fighting. You go back to that wretched city by yourself" I say, turning my back on Dagon and walking into back towards the village's newly built walls.

"Then be at my side when we fight!" Dagon shouts after me. "I can be the brute and you can be the brain. I need my twin, Than. I need you more than she does. We shared a womb and you've only known her for a few weeks!"

I tsk and keep walking. My jaw clenches and unclenches and I hold my tongue. Dagon doesn't understand the connection Sela and I have. It isn't just physical, we hadn't even done anything yet. Some of the women in the village said we were soul mates, that Luna weaved a thread from our life cloths into one another's. I didn't know if I believed it fully, but I did know I needed to be by her side, otherwise I would shrivel away. I liked feeling like I belonged with someone, by someone. As more than just another's twin.