(Fan/Act/Hor/Rom/Tra) "Tale of Three Bothers" [M]

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TALE OF THREE BROTHERS

Seth was beaten bloody and hunched over on his knees. The hard rain bashed his back with cold lashes. Justin stood above him staring down at him with a look of disgust.
“Unsheathe your sword!” He yelled at Seth.
Seth looked up at him and laughed, showing his bloody teeth. Justin’s face overflowed with anger and he kicked Seth hard in the face.
“Damn you! Unsheathe your sword! Fight me back! Why do you not fight me!?” Justin was getting annoyed.

Narrator: You’re wondering what the hell is going on here. The truth is it’s hard to explain. Have you ever felt something for somebody so much that you would do anything for them? That’s the way it was with us Brothers. Richard, Justin, and I were one hell of a team. We weren’t real brothers, we were something different. We were a ‘rare’ breed of human that did not go along with the stereotypes. We felt so much more than the average human could. We met sometime during our childhood and understood each other so much; we figured out that the only way we met was by the hand of fate. We each felt and heard nature. You think you can feel it? Think again. Seeing a sunrise on the mountains as the morning fog comes in and feeling pure as you watch it isn’t enough isn’t enough. As once told to us by a wandering warrior: “The deeper you feel, the better you become as a person and as a fighter”. The three of us started small, but eventually our adventure led us on a journey of great sacrifice, pride, loyalty, and physically demanding tasks.


CHAPTER ONE- BROTHERS……. FOREVER
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“If you really think about it, the elements can be split up in three narrow classes: Earth, Air, and Fire.” Seth told to Richard as they walked side by side back home from school.
“You’re crazy, man. Where’s the lightning? Where’s the water?” Richard retorted.
“You’re not thinking clearly on this one. Combine air with fire and what do you get?”
“Lightning, I guess.”
“Exactly, now think about water. Water is under the jurisdiction of Earth. Water can’t exist without earth.”
“How long did you spend thinking on that?”
“Not long, not long at all.”
“So really, Nayru represents Air….. not water?”
“I consider myself a spiritual person. Deep thought on these subjects comes standard with living. Yes, I happen to think that air represents Nayru better than water. The religious freaks around will hang me if they heard that.” Seth stopped to get a drink from the fountain in the middle of the village square. This wasn’t a water fountain, but an actual fountain that many had many rupees lying on the bottom. Seth quickly stuck his hand in the water and grabbed a green rupee.
“Ah, pay-dirt,” Seth sighed as he put the stolen rupee in his pocket. Richard eyed him angrily, “Maybe you should quit that, you’ll eventually get caught, you know.”
“I go to this stupid school, I learn and put up with dumbass reports and books, and I figure it’s about time they gave something back to me.” Seth said as he walked to the river to the east of the village. The bright blue sky had scattered clouds and it seemed that the field behind the river went on forever. There was a tree that hung over the river that the three friends liked to meet at after school.
“What took you so long, guys?” Justin asked as he leaned up against the tree with his arms crossed.

Narrator: Justin. Out of the three of us, he would definitely be the fiery one. Back then, we looked way different than we do now. That was before we were exposed to the truth about our lives. This was the year 3490, and the three of us were fourteen. I, Seth, had pretty shaggy hair. I hung over my eyes and the back was cut. I sometimes parted the hair by combing it up and over. That was the way I had my hair that day. I was Hylian white. My brother Richard was Hylian black. He was almost bald, but he had about a centimeter of black hair. Richard was the most muscular, and he was fastest out us all. Justin had hair like mine, but he kept his shaggy. He was the best fighter of the three of us. I had no idea where I was best…..yet.

“Didn’t I tell you this morning that we had to stay after school?” Seth asked as he sat down beside the river. He picked up a rock and threw it at the water, it skipped twice.
“Oh yeah, that’s right. Richard had to try out for the bomb squad.” Justin reminded himself. Seth looked up at Richard who stood above him, “So, how did it go?”
Richard smiled, “They like me and want me to come back tomorrow.”
Justin uncrossed his arms, “I thought so. With the way you’re built, who wouldn’t want you?”
“The bombs are heavy and hard to throw from what I’ve heard,” Seth said.
Richard picked up a rock and threw it into the river, too, “Yeah.”
“I know you joined up just for the ladies,” Justin scoffed.
“Yeah, yeah, I know your philosophy: Be yourself and don’t let anybody change that.” Richard cited.
“Damn straight.”
Seth stood up and dusted the dirt off his butt, “So, are we going to spar or what?”
Justin cracked his neck, “I’m going to school you.”
Justin then reached to side of the tree and pulled out two staffs and a wooden sword. He passed one staff to Seth and the other to Richard, he twirled the wooden sword with one hand and laid it across his back, “Who’s first?”
“I’ve been wanting to see how Richard’s new one-hand lion style holds up to my two-hand wolf style.” Seth said as he looked to Richard.
“Well, then. Let’s see.” Richard said as he smiled and walked to his starting position.
“You have the automatic disadvantage, you know. One-hand compared to two-hand? You’re going down.” Seth said as he went to his starting position.
Seth and Richard were fifteen feet away from each other.
“Okay, how many rounds, guys?” Justin asked in anticipation. Matches between Richard and Seth were always great. It was almost beautiful the way their staffs twirled; they went so fast they looked like wings. They almost never landed a blow on each other because they block so well.
“Three!”
“Alright then, get into your starting poses.” Justin said to the two.
Seth used his right hand to put the staff diagonally across his back and went into a slight crouch, bending his knees. Richard simply put his right hand on the middle of the staff and kept it to side; he turned sideways.
Seth eyed Richard’s position carefully. From the way things looked, Richard was going to rush forward with a spin slash. This was hard to block, but Seth was ready.
Richard eyed Seth’s position with caution. He would wait for him to rush forward, then he would block his horizontal slash using one end of the staff and come back with a solid blow to the ribs. Richard would have to be quick to block that one.
“You guys ready?” Justin asked. They both nodded and awaited his next command.
“Okay, Go!”
Richard rushed forward with his renowned speed; he got close to Seth and spun around to the right with a horizontal slash. Seth instantly pulled the staff from his back, wrapped his two hands in the middle and blocked it with the right end of his staff. He quickly sent his left end to Richard’s ribs. Richard struck it and knocked it away in time for another spin slash. Seth stuck his staff in the ground and it blocked the blow. As soon as Richard’s staff hit the rooted weapon, Seth kicked Richard in the shoulder.
“END!” Justin yelled. Richard rubbed his shoulder and looked at Seth, “Good one.”
“I learned it last night while training.” Seth said as he smiled.
“Well, if you’re so good at brawling, what do you say we have round two with our fists and legs?”
Seth smiled again, “You’ll get beat again,”
Justin glanced at them both, “Ready yet? C’mon we don’t have all day.”
Seth and Richard threw their staffs near the tree; they touched fists and went back to their starting positions.
“Can we use submissions?” asked Richard.
“Sure, why not?” replied Seth.

Narrator: The last time Richard and I had a fist fight was about four years ago from this day. He and I still talked about the pain of that day. We fought over who would play The Ancient Hero in our little neighborhood game. We ended up surrendering to each other, but we were young.

“Go!” Justin yelled at us. This sudden start sent both Seth and Richard into a sort of blank-minded state. They had been in deep thought about the fight scenario. Seth came to his senses and ran forward. Richard was prepared- or so he thought. He thought Seth was going for an air kick. When Seth was near Richard he dropped to the ground and spun around, tripping Richard. He rolled on top of him and grabbed hold of his arm. He put his foot on his elbow and grabbed his hand, he then applied pressure.
“Ah!” Richard yelped in pain and tapped out. Seth got off Richard and got up.
“You may have the strength, but I have the skill,” Seth said. Richard looked at him from the ground, “**** you.”

LATER THAT DAY
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The sun was setting on Faurol, the home town of the three young men. They had spared for about three hours. They now were sitting beside the river, watching the sun set. From here, they could see the distant mountains beyond the near endless field.
“I wonder what it’s like across the river,” Justin said as he massaged his jaw. He had been punched there by Richard.
Seth stuck his hand quickly in the water to try and catch a tadpole, but he found out that he didn’t when he opened his fist, “It looks beautiful over there.”
The sunset made the water look orange. Birds flew overhead and chirped. The reflection of the moon on the water made it all the prettier.
“Maybe someday we’ll find out what beyond our town, you know? Maybe it’s better here, though. Out in the wilderness, there are vermin.” Richard added.
“That’s true,” Justin agreed. Seth quickly tried to catch a tadpole again, but failed.
“Damn tadpoles!” Seth quietly yelled. Justin looked at his failure, “No, no, you’re doing it all wrong. Here, let me show you.” Justin came closer to Seth.
“Since when did you become the expert on tadpole catching?” Seth asked.
Justin went in to a funny old man voice, “See here, you gots ta be gentle wit’ em’.”
While Seth and Justin were talking about catching tadpoles, Richard stood up and heard something like a faint drum beat.
‘Boom-boom Boom-boom Boom-boom’
Richard looked around suspiciously.
‘Boom-boom Boom-boom Boom-boom’
“Guys, you hear that?” he asked them while still looking around for the source. Seth stood up and looked around, “Yeah, but where is it coming from?”
Justin went lower on the ground and put his ear to the earth.
‘Boom-boom Boom-boom Boom-boom’
His ears picked up the direction of the drums, “Due west. There are many footsteps.”
Justin got up from the ground and stood near his brothers. The drums sounded again. They felt uneasy, the sound of the drums had an evil tone about it.
“You don’t think that…” Richard began.
“No. It’s impossible. There’s no way The Moblin Army would come here!” Justin assured.

Narrator: The Moblin Army. Back in those days, the name struck fear into the hearts of everyone. They were an army of moblins that killed for no reason. No one knew why they killed. They would burn entire villages, kill every last man, woman, and child. They were ruthless killers from the gates of hell. Faurol village was pretty remote. You’d have to travel across the mountains and through the “endless field”, and after that you would have to hike the mountain trail. Why would any army travel that whole length just to destroy one village? It was rumored that the drums precede them.

“Holy ****, I think it’s them.” Seth said nervously. The drums got louder and the villagers walked out of their houses to see what was up. Voices began to rise among the people. Many parents held on to their children tightly. The three boys looked at each other with a look of panic.
Justin began, “You know that the drums aren’t the only thing that the moblins play. We still haven’t heard the------
Justin’s talking was interrupted by the loudest horn ever to grace their ears; it was deep and shook the ground.
“AHHHHHH!!!!” One woman screamed. The whole town rushed inside their houses. Little children could be heard crying.
The horn sounded again.
Seth, Justin, and Richard ran to their houses to get to their families. Seth reached his house first. He opened the door and rushed in, “Mom!? Dad!?”
He looked to a door to see that his family was packing up clothing and food as quickly as possible. Seth instantly rushed to help. The horn sounded off again, it was muffled a little by the house’s walls.
“I can’t believe they came! Why did they!?” Seth’s father said nervously while packing up clothes. His father’s hands were shaking so badly he dropped a shirt. Seth bent down and got it for him.
“How are we going to escape?” Seth asked his mom. His mom quickly glanced at him, then back to the food that was being put into a bag, “We are going to the port, and we’re sailing off on the river in a ship that’s waiting for us.”
The loud horn sounded again. This made his family get faster with their packing. Seth looked out the window to see that some families were on their way to the port upstream.
“We’re done! Let’s go!” his dad said as he rushed out of the door. Seth and his mother followed him outside. The sky was darker now, and a faint torch light could be seen on the mountain trail in the distance. Justin and Richard’s families came out of their houses. Seth was glad to see that they made it out as fast as his family did.
The loud horn sounded twice in a row.
More screams from babies were heard all around. The mothers tried to calm them down by holding them closer. Seth looked at one mother to see that she was having trouble carrying her baby and her bags at the same time.
Seth rushed forward, “Here, let me help you with that.”
He took the bag and walked along side her. He knew who she was. She was the widow of the village. Her husband had died some time ago and Seth felt sorry for her. He heard she was having complications with trying to make ends meet. Her name was Martese.
“Thank you, Seth.” She said with happiness.
Seth nodded, “It’s the least I can do.”
Richard’s sister, Rhondine, was crying. His mother tried to comfort her, “Listen, baby, nothings going to get you. You have nothing to worry about when you’re with us.”
The loud horn blurted once again.
Rhondine squealed and buried her face in her hands. Richard and his father walked in front of the other two.
“I can’t believe this happened to us. It’s impossible.” Richard’s dad shook his head in doubt. Richard wanted to cry, but this was no time for it. He thought of Seth and Justin and his troubles went away.
“Hurry up, mother!” Justin told his pregnant mother. He grabbed her hand and walked as fast as they could go.
“I’m trying, Justin, I really am.” She told her son with regret.
“I know. Just keep on trying and don’t stop. See, the ports right over there!”
Seth’s family had reached the ship and was already boarding. Seth looked at the humongous ship with awe. It was so big; he had never seen this ship in the port before. He thought to himself how lucky today must have been for this ship to be here. Seth followed behind his family with Martese. She was hushing her baby.
“Sssshhhh, baby, it’s okay.”
Seth and Martese entered the big holding room for all of the small village. The holding room was big and could definitely hold all of them.
Richard and Justin entered with their families at the same time. They left their families and went to Seth.
“I’m glad we all made it!” said Richard a little happily.
“Yea, they did move pretty slow to be a ‘death squad’ of sorts.” Justin said.
Seth pointed to the entrance of the ship, “There’s no more, we must be ready to set sail.”
Seth was right, two men came from the captains room and pulled in the ramp. They grabbed on to some rope handles and pulled up the flip door.
The horn sounded again, but it wasn’t loud enough to hurt their ears through the ship’s layers.
The room they were in was dimly lit and smelled like cedar. The villagers talked amongst themselves about what just happened.
“I noticed that your sister was really scared back there, Richard.” Seth acknowledged.
“Yeah, she can be a real weakling.” Richard replied. Justin leaned up against a wall and crossed his arms like he usually does, “So, about round three earlier today…”
“What about it?” Seth asked.
“It was a draw,” Justin stated.
The memories of that fight flowed back into Richard’s mind:

“So let me get this straight, you going to do this round with only you legs?” Justin asked surprisingly. Seth shrugged his shoulders.
“Yeah, we are. I’m going to win this time, too.” Richard said confidently.
Seth scoffed, “Don’t forget that I won that last round with a kick,”
“I know, but this time I’m going for the kill.” Richard bent his knees, ready for the signal.
Seth sighed, “You never learn, do you?”
Seth stood upright, relying on impulse. Justin eyed the two of them. Both of them had deadly legs.
“Go!”
Seth let Richard run straight at him—

“Richard!”
His thought was interrupted by someone yelling his name. He shook his head and looked around. There was a humongous hole in the side of the ship and water was rushing in.
“What the hell were you thinking about!? The ship is being attacked!” Justin yelled at him. Richard heard voices around him.
“The ship is sinking!”
“My baby, where’s my baby!?”
“The three goddesses have mercy upon us!”
Richard looked over to his left to see Seth holding a baby in his arms.
“What are you doing with that baby?” he asked Seth.
Seth looked at him with a sad face, “Martese fell out of the hole!”
The water was waist deep and the boat was getting deeper.
“Where’s our families!?” Richard yelled over the commotion.
Seth and Justin both looked at him and shook their heads. Seth held the baby close for warmth. The baby was whining out of control.
“We’ve got to get out of here somehow!” Justin yelled.
“Looks like the only way out is the hole!” Richard said.
Seth looked at them, “Let’s try it!”
“Are you going to be able to do with that baby?” Justin asked. The water was chest-high. Seth was holding the baby above his head, “I can.”
They went up to the hole and counted…..1….2…Go!
Seth waited for the baby to breathe in after a long whine and closed it’s nose. He dove down into the water and swam after his friends. He had to use one hand to swim through the water. They couldn’t show their head above the surface, or they would surely be caught by the patrolling moblin boats. Seth could see the watch lights looming over the water, looking for survivors of their wrath. Seth was having difficulty swimming with one hand. He could make out a shore that was pretty close. He could barely see through the black water. He saw Richard and Justin get on shore and run to a forest opening. Seth reached the shore and climbed out; he instantly ran to the forest opening as to not be caught by the spotlights. He joined his friends behind some thick bushes and sat down.
He looked down at the baby; he wasn’t whining anymore. Seth bounced the baby a little…it stayed as still as stone.
“Guys,” Seth said softly.
Richard and Justin turned around to see the unmoving baby.
“****, man.” Justin gasped. Seth put the baby down softly on the ground.
“I guess I lost my grip on his nose while swimming. Damn…..it’s all my fault.” Seth said to himself.
Richard grabbed Seth’s jaw and turned him around, “No. It wasn’t. What happened today was terrible. I hope this never happens again. Keep this in mind, though: We still have each other! Now you guys promise me, that whatever happens we never look back! Promise me we’ll be brothers…..forever!”
Richard looked at them both.
“I’m never looking back,” said Justin to Richard.
Richard nodded at Justin and turned to Seth.
“Seth?” Richard asked.
Seth wiped his tears from his face, “Forever.”

Did you enjoy it? Hate it? Please tell me in your review. More chapters to come. If it's not too much trouble, could you give me feedback then rate it out of ten?

Well there's a lot of talking - but very little in the way of explaining why any of this is happening. The characters and conversations are okay and believable. The action is interesting and all - but again why? It's hard to sustain interest without a little more information as to why things are happening.

Finally a review! Thank goodness! Thank you.

Well, the plot REALLY thickens as time goes on. In fact, it might be too thick...
Anyway, it gets better and better as times goes on. It's my personal belief that if I don't get a review, I stop. So, thank you again for allowing to start on chapter 2!