Beast of the Night

Leuan - TEN

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Continued

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-FIVE HUNDRED YEARS AGO-

"Leuan, do you like our mother?" the serious child holding onto a taller, skinny man's firm rough hand questioned.

The soft light-toned complexion faced down to the child with a warming toothy smile, "why do you think of that?"

"Leuan!" the child's furrowed raven brows tilted up to Leuan, "you know fully well that she hates me for what I am. But she loves you because you're human."

The older brother sighed and stopped his feet, bending down to the child with their faces level. Leuan had deep brown hair, tied up in a ribbon. He stared to the red eyes of Ennard with his own sparking hazel. "Even if the entire world hates you, Ennard, I will never leave your side."

"You swear it, Leuan?" The boy spoke with a sniffle of his nose, hugging his own hand onto the other's palm.

"I swear it," Leuan gave the boy a wide smile of assurance.

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"Brother!" A screaming toddler came running from the foggy distance, his arms flailing in the cold stale air. It was dusk, and this boy was wearing winter padded clothes, a comfortable scarf around his neck.

Ennard Ambrogio silently sat under the shade of the tree, even with the dimming sky, the black baggy robes hung over his shoulders, tied with one long strap to keep it from falling back. His height was no more than 133, but the same long raven-hair had not changed. The boy calmly raised his head from the torn book in his little pale hands, "what is it, Adriel?"

Adriel huffed and panted; his hand clenched around a veiled object. The fangs on the two boys were tiny and harmless, although Ennard's nails were already turning to black growing claws. The toddler smiled ear to ear once he had regained his breath, his clenched arms rising above his head to stretch. He stepped over to the tree his elder brother had perched on, plopping down right beside him. "Is this what Leuan was speaking of?" Adriel uncovered the object in his palms, lifting it to Ennard's red eyes.

A pink, frilly petal fell from the slits of his little cupped fingers, five remaining still in his hand. The insides of the connected petals started from a red coral, and slowly spread to light pink. Four strings protruded from the middle, covered in a golden dusty pollen. It was beautiful.

"Leuan?" Ennard questioned.

Adriel's eyes lit up with a sparkle, "yes brother, he uttered about gifts, and if a human were to give you a flower it me-"

"Who gave you this," the serious raven-hair cut in.

Adriel went completely quiet, the happy puffy face and wide brown eyes turning down into a pout. "Leuan gave me one."

Ennard suddenly lifted his pale chin and sniffed the stale air.

"Adriel," dryly muttered the child on the tree. "where is Leuan."

The toddler lifted his little arm and pointed in the direction of a small home on the hill, its large stone-grey bricks cracking yet sturdy, and the chimney smoking out a welcoming scent of rabbit stew. However, it was not welcoming in the least, as a figure was walking up that steep hill, towards the house of the humans. This figure had a dull blue broadcloth, most popular among the people of the kingdom. The mahogany brown straightened hair hung loosely in a ribbon tie, twirled in a bun.

Ennard hopped up from his place and bolted as fast as his little legs could carry him, which was not as quick as he could in his later stages of life. "Leuan!" He smelt human blood, and as his brother walked into the broken wooden doors, which almost looked as if it had been attacked by a crazed animal, Ennard instinctively ran off to him.

Leuan walked inside the home with a stench of iron, covering his nose at the putrid scent. The man looked around, finding that there was a woman sprawling out on the wooden floor. She had red, glistening liquid over her exposed ribcage and torn up clothing, which reflected only by the moonlight that shined through the small dusty windows. The face was shrouded in fear, the eyes open, but half of her jaw skin was missing. One leg curled over the other, and one arm crossed over the mangled body it was truly foul for a human like Leuan to see. 

The man bent down and touched the woman's shoulders as if he could wake the contorted body up. Instead, only his hands bloodied, and the smell was even worse. Leuan covered his mouth in an effort to stop his lungs from shouting out a scream. Even his feet started to stumble back towards the exit. The footsteps of the hunter, carrying a lump of fur on broad shoulders to his home on the hill reached Ennard's sharp ears. The panting boy, halfway up the hill, looked around with fear.

"Brother, get out of there!" Ennard shouted, stumbling over the stones of the hill.

The greyed, bearded hunter carrying a small dull knife, and a matchlock handgun, stepped closer and closer to the broken-down home, only to halt at the smell of blood. 

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