At the shore of the sea stood a young boy.
Zuru stretched a red band dramatically between both hands before slowly raising it and tying it around his forehead, binding it behind his green hair.
His deadly gaze fixed itself upon his opponent with malicious intensity. Slowly, he tilted his head to the side until a faint crack escaped, then tightened his grip around the wooden staff in his hand.
Lifting the staff, he pointed it toward his opponent while his blazing black irises remained locked on him.
"Get ready to know what your ancestors look like," he muttered in a solemn tone.
"YAAAAAAAH!"
He charged forward, dust scattering beneath his feet. With fierce determination, he brought the staff down.
Leaves flew everywhere.
A straw dummy made from sticks and rope staggered backward before collapsing into the sand.
"You silly thing, just die! Die!"
He continued beating the dummy mercilessly, swinging with absolutely no pattern or discipline whatsoever.
"In fact, grow arms and fight me!" he barked angrily. "Let me deal with you properly!"
Well, the dummy, as expected, declined the invitation.
The seashore was bordered by a narrow stretch of forest, and standing near its edge were two tents. One was noticeably larger than the other.
Sarah stepped out of the bigger tent, brushing a strand of dark hair away from her face.
"Zuru, do you mind?" she called angrily. "Some people are trying to sleep."
Zuru struck the dummy again before replying through clenched teeth.
"I hope you die in that sleep."
"What?"
"We lost everything!" he roared. "Everything! And you want to sleep?"
He smashed the staff into the dummy again.
"We stole those things fair and square. They weren’t legitimately ours, but they were ours! And then those punks took everything!"
"AAAH!"
He struck the dummy one final time and shouted, "I just want to die!"
Sarah folded her arms. "Well, if you want to die, you can do it quietly. The whole world doesn’t need to be disturbed over it."
Zuru narrowed his eyes. "You cruel sister,"
Sarah laughed. At least he had finally chased the sleep out of her eyes.
"Come on, Zuru. You should be grateful. We escaped with our heads still attached to our shoulders. Have you seen what people do to thieves?"
"The hell I care?" Zuru roared. "How else are we supposed to survive?" His voice lowered into a frustrated whisper. "If only I had powers, I would’ve dealt with those bastards myself."
Sarah stepped closer, keeping a careful distance from his staff.
"There were eight of them," she reminded him. "Besides, we still have food and some of the things we managed to save. This is the first time we’ve lost a haul. We can survive until another opportunity comes."
Zuru groaned. "And you think because it happened once, it won’t happen again? And who told you I like leaving a life of management."
He pointed at the smaller tent. "That would’ve been much bigger if we’d escaped with the rest of our loot. Now our tent is practically worth more than everything inside it."
He resumed beating the dummy.
"Come on, brother. Be grateful for what you have. You’re the one who taught me that, remember?"
"Grateful?" Zuru snorted. "Well sister, as you can see, I’m far too angry to be grateful. In fact, I don’t even care if it gets destro—"
BOOM!
A pristine white sphere shot past them and slammed into the smaller tent like a falling meteor, crushing everything inside as a massive crater tore into the earth.
An unnerving silence settled between the two siblings that only the fading echoes of the impact could be heard.
Then—
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Zuru screamed, grabbing his hair and collapsing to his knees.
Even Sarah jumped at the sheer volume of his voice.
"My food! My tent! My Ultra-Directional Supreme Pathfinder Compass!..." He stared at the destruction in horror. "They’re all... goooone!"
Sarah indeed felt the sting of losing all the rations they had, yet she still couldn’t help snickering.
"I thought you didn’t care if anything happened to it," she blurted.
At that, Zuru immediately grabbed her by her clothes, like a loose maniac.
"So you did this!"
"What? No!"
Zuru tightened his grip.
"No one here has powers except you!"
Sarah sighed at her hopeless brother.
Not only had he blamed her instantly, but he had also somehow forgotten what her powers were despite them having lived together their entire lives.
"Well, last I checked," Sarah replied arrogantly, "I didn’t have the power to pull a star down from the sky!"
At those words silence fell.
Zuru gasped. His loud bickering stopped instantly. His eyes slowly widened.
"A...A star?" he repeated, suddenly sounding far more thoughtful than usual.
Sarah immediately understood where this was going.
The next instant, the siblings rushed toward the ruined tent, shoving and elbowing each other until they reached the crater.
But the moment they saw what lay at its center, they froze.
They stared in stunned silence, their hands still locked around each other’s clothes.
"Oh... My... God." Zuru gasped.
"Is that... Is that a human being?" Sarah stuttered.
"No... It’s a fish." Zuru gasped, then he shook his head. "Of course it’s a human, idiot."
Sarah sighed as she rolled her eyes roughly.
"But... but how can someone fall from the sky?" Sarah asked. Her voice so full of bewilderment that it barely sounded like her own.
Just then, a proud smile slowly spread across Zuru’s face. He squeezed his eyes shut and threw both hands toward the heavens.
"I’M A GENIUS!"
Sarah raised a brow. "Huh?"
"My theory was correct all along!" he declared. "Think about it! A star has five points. The top one is the head, the two side points are the arms, and the bottom two are the legs!"
Sarah slapped a palm against her face.
"Universe, give me strength. Zuru, that’s a kid, not a star.... Though I wonder how a kid could fall from the sky."
"Hmm... A kid that fell from the sky... Eeeeh?" Zuru muttered thoughtfully.
Suddenly, his eyes lit up. "That’s it!" he gasped, pointing dramatically at absolutely nothing. "That’s it! That’s it!"
Sarah sighed. "What now?"
"The stars gave birth to him!" He spread his arms proudly. "Stars are the parents of humanity!"
Sarah stared at him in complete disbelief. Just when she thought he couldn’t possibly arrive at a dumber conclusion, he somehow managed to impress her.
"Yeah," Sarah replied, sarcastically. "I mean, it makes perfect sense."
"I know, right?" Zuru shot back, his eyes shining. "At last, little sis, you’re finally walking the path of wisdom."bHe proudly dusted the debris off his shoulders. "History will remember this discovery."
"Exactly!" Sarah nodded solemnly. "The stars simply spat humans out..."
She suddenly grabbed him by the collar.
"AND THEN THEY CAME CRASHING THROUGH PEOPLE’S TENTS!"
"Who in the Universe could possibly come up with something that unbelievably stupid?"
"Oh, come on, Sarah. Don’t tell me you didn’t believe—"
Before he could finish...
The boy groaned.
With sharp reflexes, both of them turned toward him.
Star was still glowing faintly from the effects of the barrier High Mage Mausack had placed around him. Truly, that might have been what gave Zuru the wrong idea all along.
However, Sarah’s attention remained fixed on him.
"He’s alive! We need to help him!" she cried before rushing toward the debris.
"Come on!" she called again.
Zuru frowned. "Last I checked, I’m the leader here, and I’m your elder brother, so you don’t tell me what to do. Besides, why are we helping him? We don’t even know him."
Sarah groaned in frustration. "Quit ranting and come help!"
"Fine, fine, fine," Zuru grumbled.
Together, they pulled Star from the rubble and carefully lowered him onto the ground.
Sarah studied the boy closely. "He’s... handsome," she remarked almost instinctively.
Zuru grinned. "Oooh? Handsome? So what, you’re in love now?"
Sarah simply shook her head and ignored him. She knew her brother well, and trying to defend herself against the ridiculous notion he had just invented would only encourage him further. Instead, she continued staring at the unconscious boy.
"Who are you?" The question echoed silently in her mind.
But just then... Their other tent burst into flames.
The fire roared through the night as though it had been waiting its entire life for this moment.
"Oh no!" Sarah and Zuru gasped in unison, their eyes widening in shock.
"My, my, my." A croaky voice drifted from ahead.
A fat young man, perhaps twenty years old, stepped forward. He wore a dirty brown jacket and tattered trousers. A bat rested in his right hand as he gently smacked it against his left palm.
"Well, if it isn’t the great Night Raiders." He turned to the four men standing behind him. "I wouldn’t hesitate to spit in someone’s face if they told me the mighty Night Raiders were just two kids."
His companions burst into laughter. The sound echoed through the night and grated on Zuru’s ears.
Zuru’s eyes narrowed as he recognized the fat young man at once. He was one of the eight, that took their loot.
"What do want?" Sarah asked, anger blazing in her eyes.
"You know," the young man said, lazily twirling the bat, "there’s a huge reward for anyone who finds you two thieves." A greedy smile spread across his face. "And I’m going to collect every coin of—AH!"
A painful gasp escaped his mouth.His eyes rolled upward.The world seemed to flip. Then his heavy body slammed onto the ground with a deafening thud.
Sarah smiled. "You talk too much."
While he had been busy talking, she had calmly cut her palm. Blood flowed from the wound like a living crimson serpent.
It slithered silently through the darkness. At its tip, it formed a massive hammerhead.
At Sarah’s command, it shot forward and smashed into the back of the fat young man’s head.
"Seems the other three of your gang weren’t enough of a lesson." Sarah yelled.
Before the remaining men could react, two of them suddenly lost their footing. The blood split into two streams. Each wrapped around a man’s leg and yanked violently.
Both crashed onto the ground. The blood instantly coiled around their heads, lifted it up before smashing their faces back into the earth.
The remaining two men froze.
"W-what is this?" one cried.
"They’ve got powers!" the other screamed, pointing a trembling finger at Sarah. "They’ve got powers!"
He spun around and bolted.
"That’s usually how powers work, stupid!" Zuru shouted after him.
However, Sarah calmly reformed the blood into a hammerhead and launched it forward.
The crimson weapon struck him squarely on the back of the head.He crumpled to the ground instantly.
Only one remained.
The last man turned and sprinted into the darkness, his footsteps pounding frantically against the earth as panic drove him forward.
Sarah stepped after him and sent the blood racing across the ground.
It coiled around his leg like a crimson serpent before tightening sharply and sweeping his feet out from under him.
The boy crashed heavily onto the dirt, and before he could recover, the blood surged upward and reshaped itself into a massive hammerhead that came crashing down.
But it only smashed into the ground where he had been lying a moment earlier, throwing dust and loose dirt into the air.
Sarah’s eyes widened. "Teleportation... Abilities."
Keeping her guard up, she moved forward cautiously while searching the darkness for any sign of where he might reappear.
Unfortunately, her attention was fixed in the wrong direction.
Without her noticing, the thief materialized behind Zuru and immediately seized the back of his collar.
With a violent yank, he dragged him backward and slammed him onto the ground.
Zuru yelped loudly as he crashed into the dirt.
The sound made Sarah whirl around at once, and the moment her eyes landed on her brother, a wave of fear washed over her.
Standing over him was the boy, a cruel smile spreading across his face as he slowly raised the sword in his hand.
"This star that fell is mine," he muttered, gesturing toward Star.
"No!" Sarah screamed.
But the thief paid no attention to her cry.
Without the slightest hesitation, the sword came down in a sharp arc.