"Droman! Stop teasing me." Daezin pushed her brother away, and stumbled when he didn't move a finger. Graceful she was not. Daezin growled when he tousled her hair in return.
"But it's so much fun." He grinned. Then, after another glance at her scowl, he put on his mock-serious face. The one that made his eyes twinkle and his left cheek dimple cave in like a termite trail in a nurse log. The one that drove Daezin crazy, but she tried to hide it so that Droman wouldn't keep using it. She was pretty sure he knew and that's why he kept using it with her.
He cleared his throat. When he spoke, his voice came out a couple of notes lower than usual. "Dearest sister--"
"Only sister."
"As I was saying... Dearest sister. Tell me again. Why are we wandering in the woods, far from the village, on this warm spring day?"
"Well, brother dear, we are here to find a nice piece of wood for carving. As you well know." Daezin fought to keep her face solemn.
"And what is it you want to carve on said piece of wood? What size and shape does this wood need to be for your purpose?" Droman's eyebrows were always too expressive in Daezin's opinion. Especially, as he could move his eyebrows in ways she never could. Unfair.
"People with naming day celebrations soon should know better than to ask such things. Particularly when such people are reaching the nice old age of eighteen years. Dear brother, are your faculties becoming impaired?"
Droman stuck his tongue out, proving that he wasn't yet an adult, despite his advanced years. Then, he mocked her cadence, saying, "No, my faculties are not becoming impaired." He picked up a long, narrow stick and began to swing it around like a sword. "I am a great warrior. Quick. Light on my feet. Deadly with a blade and courted by every king and emperor to lead their armies. People tremble before my skill and prowess."
Daezin opened her mouth to quip back, to tease, to play with this brother of hers who loved her, protected her, believed in her goodness. He didn't let the looks and snubs and whispers about her change how he felt about her. Her brother was her hero. The one thing that made her world bearable. The one person who loved her as she was, not how he wished her to be.
Her mouth opened to respond but her vision darkened at the corners, narrowing into a tunnel. At the end of a tunnel, her brother stood, bloodied and angry, tall with a posture made of steel. In his scarred hand, he carried a stone. This stone was black, jagged, and seemed to carry all the stars in the universe within its form. Seemingly, Droman stared Daezin down. "You are evil." and hurled the stone down the tunnel towards where she stood, mouth open and filling with bile.
"Daezin." Repeated shaking accompanied the dear voice of her brother. "What's wrong? What happened?"
Daezin blinked as she stared into the warm hazel eyes of her big brother. Then, she turned to the side and vomited all over the the new shoots of greenery poking up through the ground cover on the forest floor.
