Regal Prophecy [rewriting]

FOUR: MILD SIBLING RIVALRY

CHAPTER FOUR

MILD SIBLING RIVALRY

Quicker than I would have spoken, Maze lunged for his brother, pushing him to the ground. Kiel stood up immediately, regaining his composure, and restrained both of Maze's hands to keep them down. They struggled against the deadly grip of the other.

From Kiel's side I noticed a glimmering object fall to the ground. A ring. Time seemed to slow down as I noticed the intricate design of the piece of jewellery and its familiarity.

A shining red stone and a short glimpse of the manner of writing found in the rings that Maze and I owned. There was no way that I was wrong.

I continued to stand with a hazy feeling as I watched Maze, still restrained by Kiel, shouting inaudibly at his brother.

I was yelling at them to stop, but I felt like no one could hear me, just as even I couldn't hear myself. Drowned with the need to keep the peace and to stop the fight, I yelled louder, or at least I thought I was. It was then that I felt a sudden surge of electricity in the tips of my fingers. The tingling sensation distracted me from the fight as it felt stronger and stronger as every second ticked by.

An extremely strong gush of wind came in from the direction behind me without warning. The strength of the wind was so strong that I had to hold on to a street lamp post to keep my feet rooted to the ground. My knuckles turned white as I struggled to hold on to the cool metal. The wind separated Kiel and Maze, sending them in opposite directions.

Then for a moment, it all just stopped.

The rough wind, the electric sensation, and the fight.

It all stopped.

I looked around me in confusion and found myself surrounded by the colourful red, yellow, and orange leaves of autumn. There was no breeze, or the most little gush of wind. The wind calmed down from its deadly rage in just a second. It was so quiet that it felt as if everyone and everything was dead.

Before Maze could attack Kiel for the second time, Kiel spoke the words of a different tongue.

"Oboriatur caligo, frater."

There was worry in Kiel's expression, and the way he said those words sounded almost like a warning.

My best friend didn't reflect Kiel's worried expression. If he was worried about the situation, then there wasn't much to read in his nonchalant expression. Maze was a closed book. Worse yet, he was a closed book shut in a hundred security facilities located in a military base. "Tu frater non sunt meus," he replied. "Tempus habemus."

The words were somewhat familiar, but I couldn't put my finger to it. It felt like a bad memory that I did not want to remember.

What was happening?

"Mild sibling rivalry, regius filia." Kiel winked, seeming to have answered my unspoken question. Their argument grew even louder after that.

Words from the strangely familiar language continued to banter back and forth between them, and Kiel left with a sour look on his face. Before getting in his car and driving away, he approached me and whispered, "Be careful, princess."

I nodded, unsure of what I had to be careful of.

Oboriatur caligo, frater, I repeated over and over. I racked my brain trying to remember why the language was familiar. Then it clicked.

Frater meant brother.

The language was Latin.

It all started on my sophomore year of high school when Maze and I agreed to try to learn basic Latin just for kicks. It was his suggestion actually, and I followed along because it seemed cool at the time.