Brothers.

7

Josh stood up in the pouring rain. He was somewhere in a dark forest and the rain stung his skin like small frozen arrows raining down from the sky.

Obviously earth, no other world looked like this and had this weak feeling to it. Josh stood up and retracted his wings, his clothes clung to his body.

"Who goes there?" His head shot in the direction of the voice.

A boy and a woman, most certainly his mother, stood in the doorway of a small hut. Josh looked around him and noticed other huts covered in white snow. The sky was bejeweled with thousands of stars, but not the stars of In Tutum that moved constantly. Static stars that smiled down on them. The wind blew and Josh folded his arms to warm himself, but with no promising results.

The boy took a step forward, but his mother held him back. She had a concerned frown on her face or so Josh thought. He couldn't really see in the twilight and his side was killing him!

Blood ran down his leg like a powerful river and with it, Josh's strength left him as well, he could already feel his legs shaking from the strain of standing upright.

"Who are you, sir?"
Josh realized that the boy was talking in a foreign language, but fortunately, he could speak about any language! Josh took a step forward.

"Help,"
he croaked as he fell to his knees, unable to continue any further. The arrow must have been made from occisor because it had pierced through his body. Josh looked down at the blood gushing from the wound. It colored his white shirt a dark red and the blood clung to his body, warm, but quickly cooling down from the cold.

The boy ran to him against his mother's protest. He fell to his knees next to Josh,
"What happened?"

Josh looked at him. He was unable to focus on the boy's features and he felt himself swaying from side to side,
"Help."
He fell backward into the snow and the world faded into nothingness.

                          ***

Josh came up gasping for air, but almost immediately fell back on the straw bed. What, straw?

Josh looked around him in confusion. The room was unfamiliar to him.

A wooden stool stood next to his bed and a bucket of water as well. The roof was made from straw and it didn't really keep the cold outside. Hands covered the clay walls, must be the work of the builder. All in all this place was not In Tutum with its domed stone roofs and walls as smooth as a baby's buttocks.

It took him a moment to remember where he was.

Earth, what a place to be. It had been years since Josh had been here and after leaving he had never wished to return, this world was boring with its easy-to-kill inhabitants who thought they were the lords and ladies of the universe and strange animals who hunted each other or ate grass. Josh actually hated earth since no one had powers and understood magic, but for now, it was his home until he could go to Obscurum.

Tears came to Josh's eyes as the truth finally sunk in, he was a maligan. The truth both saddened and disgusted him. How could all of the people have lived around him for so long without ever saying anything to him?!

Now it was clear why Micheal never called him son since he wasn't his son. Josh was no more than an enemy who was being kept as leverage, a way to keep the maligan at bay. It angered him to know that all he was, was a lie, but Josh was more furious at himself for never noticing anything out of the ordinary.

The signs were always there. No one trusted him, liked him or even really talked to him. He had been too insipid to see it and now it was too late. He failed Micheal because he could never make him proud. Josh was a  disgrace and deserved to be accused of the act of murder. To die would only be mercy, but he would never resort to killing himself. That was the job of the enemy who now was sadly Gabe.