The God and His Moon

15 ~ An Eye For An Eye

Io sat in his cave, waiting for Amory. He kept his palms pressed against Pan's side, breathing roughly with his own panic.

Pan has long since squeezed his eyes shut. He was in so much pain, he could pass out any moment, and that wouldn't be good. They needed him awake for as long as possible.

"Io..." Pan wheezed, his chest heaving with shaky breaths. "Where is Angela...?"

Io shook his head. "Safe, somewhere... we can only hope. Now calm. Save your strength, please..."

Pan swallowed hard. A bead of sweat fell down his temple, info his hair. He watched Io's eyes. The green light was fading from his own.

"I do not want to live with them..." Pan breathed. "I do not want to go to w-war with them... to fight their battles..."

Io shushed him quietly. "Save your strength." He tried again, desperately.

"I do not want to conquer all the other realms, Io..." Pan kept right on. His voice was getting weaker by the second. "I do not want to... to kill for just the purpose of saying I won... I w-want to live like a human... a-and love like a human... and die like a human..."

His eyes were fading. Io could see it. He was dying. His brother was dying, right before his eyes.

Tears welled in Io's eyes as he watched Pan's shaking inhale. His skin seemed to be turning grey by the second.

"Bury me like a human..." Pan whispered. "Do that for me, broth...."

Io waited for him to finish his words. But Pan's eyes were seeing into another realm, now.

He was gone.

Io screamed. He screamed all his pain, and dropped his head onto Pan's chest, sobbing. He held him tightly in his arms, despite the blood all over his own hands.

"Come back!" He begged. "Please! Please, come back! Amory is getting help! Please!"

But Pan did not respond. He was nothing but a shell, now.

He was gone.

~

Amory raced back to the cave, help in tow. He had found a Greater of medicine, in the city below. It had taken much sneaking, but he had managed to convince the woman to help.

"He could be dead by now." The woman was saying. Her skin was tan, and her body was covered in cloth wrappings and robes. "What would you be willing to sacrifice to bring him back?"

Amory swallowed. He didn't want to sacrifice anything, for Pan. He had been sent down here to begin with because of the havoc the man was causing, fooling with the wives of the Arabs. And Angela, performing magic for children who were not supposed to know of such things.

Looking up at the sky, he saw it was still dark. Though it should have been only noon, the moon was high in the sky. Wolves were howling from all around.

"I will do anything that it takes to keep Io safe." He whispered.

The woman sighed. Then they were silent.

When they arrived back at the cave, Amory was shocked to hear Io's scream.

He ran as fast as he could, worried of what had become of the boy that he loved. He stumbled into the cave only moments later. "Io, what is the-"

But as soon as he saw his boy holding a dead brother, he understood.

"Oh, Io..." he whimpered, holding his hands over his mouth. "I am so sorry... forgive me... I did not find help soon enough..."