Chp.22: After the storm

Haku, Darbi and Kotaru emerged from a hole in the ground. They sniffed the air a little, making sure there was no danger nearby, and then they went completely out into the open air.

"Damn, what a storm" Darbi grumbled. "I've never seen one like this"

"It's winter. It's normal" Haku said, even though he too was surprised by the size of that storm. It had rained all day and night before, so much that big pools of water had formed in the hollows, and the wind had howled so loud it had even uprooted some of the few trees there. Thunder and lightning had rocked the sky for hours, so much so that Haku had feared for a moment that one of them would hit the ground and start a fire, even if given the amount of water falling from the sky it probably would have been extinguished immediately.

Haku, Darbi and Kotaru had been following the tracks left by their siblings for days. They knew how to hide, and indeed would have been impossible to follow under normal circumstances, but the three of them had one advantage: they knew which way they were headed. As they continued north, they occasionally saw the marks of a claw, or a broken branch, or a scale that someone hadn't noticed they had lost; following these cues, they had managed to stay behind them. Well, at least until the day before: after the arrival of the storm it had been impossible to continue, so they had hidden underground by digging a small hole and had waited for the storm to pass. That night they had hardly slept a wink: they had had to stay awake to check that the water level didn't rise too much. They had dug a second hole in their own hole to drain the water, but it was still best to keep the situation under control.

Fortunately, the storm had now passed. In the distance they could still see the black clouds drifting away, but the wind seemed to be pushing them away, so it was unlikely they would change direction and turn back. The landscape around them was completely transformed: from a large plain it was transformed into a kind of marsh. The ground had become extremely muddy and wherever the ground was a little deeper than the rest of the plain a pool of water had formed. Some of these pools were up to a hundred meters wide. "Well, at least we'll drink fresh water" Haku said dipping his muzzle into one of them. The rainwater wasn't very good, but it was definitely cleaner than the ponds where they usually drank.

Kotaru took a few steps into the water, but soon realized it didn't even reach her ankles. "I'm going to look for a deeper pool to take a bath in" she said, eager to get the mud off her as soon as possible.

"Okay. We'll wait for you here" Darbi replied as he dipped his muzzle into the pool to drink in turn.

Kotaru didn't wait for another answer and ran to find a puddle of water that would allow her to wash. Haku pitied his sister. Male dragons thought highly of their appearance, but female dragons held much more. Haku also hated having mud on his scales, but he could ignore it for a while; Kotaru however wasn't willing to remain in that state. Haku hoped she'd find a pool deep enough, but he doubted that any pool around there would be deeper than ten centimeters. "Should we help her?"

"Are you kidding? I've learned that it's best to leave the females their privacy" Darbi replied. "Besides, it's been a while since we've been alone together, just you and me. Uh, I'll take the opportunity to show you something: it's a game I invented!"

"A game?" Haku was a little confused as he watched his brother pull stones out of his dimensional bag. "Why are you taking these rocks?"

"That's the game! I've already shown it to Rhaegal, and he liked it. If you like it too, we can all play it together someday!" Darbi replied.

Haku bit his lip. He wanted to remind him what situation they were in, and that therefore he and Rhaegal would hardly be able to play together again, but Darbi seemed so happy to show him his game, so he decided to let it go and ignore it for once. "Okay. Explain the rules to me"

Darbi threw a red stone away and told him: "You just have to bring the other stones as close as possible to that one! And you can't get close, you have to throw them from here!"

"That's all?" Haku wasn't very convinced. "Sorry if I tell this to you, but it doesn't seem a great game"

"Rhaegal said it too, and he loved it" Darbi replied with a smirk. "Go for it. The first move is yours"

"Mph! As you wish" Haku said throwing one of his pebbles coming very close to the red one. "But remember, I have excellent aim..."

Darbi threw his stone and hit the Haku's one, making it roll further away. Haku was speechless and glared at Darbi. "What? It's allowed" his brother said with a very, very cocky smile.

Haku felt the competitiveness rise. "As you like. Let's play, then!" he said, and threw a second stone hitting his brother's stone, moving it a few centimetres.

In moments, what was a simple game turned into a fierce competition. Both Haku and Darbi started trying frantically to push the opponent's stones away and get the closest position to the stone. It was very difficult, as the stones rolled uncontrollably after hitting each other and therefore it was impossible to predict where they would end up. Haku discovered that in fact that game was very addictive, as well as fun. The two played several rounds, continually teasing each other's wins and losses, until they finally lost count and were no longer able to determine who had won and who had lost.

"It's really a good game" Haku said as he helped his brother collect the stones. "But maybe you can improve it. We need a way to tell who owns the stone"

In fact, that improvement was needed: the two had argued several times because after their stones had collided they had not been able to understand which belonged to whom. "I thought about that too" Darbi replied. "I was thinking that we could use stones of different colors. Yes, in short, just as the central stone is red to distinguish it from the others, one player could use white stones and the other gray stones. Or we could tie different colored grass styles on him. Or something like that"

"In my opinion, the method of different colored pebbles is fine" Haku said. "But it's your game, you decide"

"I'll make something up" Darbi replied. "Glad you liked it bro. I'm sure we can all play it together one day"

"Yeah". Haku's smile weakened a bit, but then it returned: "Darbi, I want to say thank you. It was nice not to think about anything for a while"

"Your problem is that your head is always full of reasoning. You should learn to relax from time to time" Darbi said putting the stones back in the dimensional bag. "And by the way, it wasn't my intention to distract you or anything like that"

"And what did you want to do then?" Haku asked.

"I wanted to play a bit with my brother, it seems obvious to me!" was Darbi's curt reply.

The two looked at each other for a moment, then both burst out laughing. "Darbi, brother, please never change" Haku said between laughs.

"Of course I'll never change! If I change, where do you find another funny brother? You and Rhaegal don't fit the description at all" Darbi replied, punching him on the shoulder.

Haku smiled. He loved this simplistic and optimistic side of his brother. He never understood how he did it, but Darbi always managed to be jovial and cheer him up. There had only been a few times when she'd seen him truly dejected… indeed, maybe only once: that fateful moment when their mother had revealed herself for who she was, slamming both in their faces the truth about the unforgiving and ruthless world around them.

That thought made Haku think of something. "Darbi, listen, I… wanted to talk to you about what you told me the other day. I never had the time since we've never been alone"

Darbi stopped laughing. "What are you referring to?"

"The fact that you told me that after our mother revealed that she didn't love us that you clung to me to carry on" Haku replied. "I know it's not a good topic, but... I think we should talk about it"

Darbi looked conflicted, but then sighed. "Okay, I figured I couldn't avoid this conversation indefinitely" he said in a resigned tone. "Well, what can I tell you? What I told you is all true. I clung to you like a lifeline. You gave me the strength to go on... even if you could have spared yourself those jostles"

"Sorry if I exaggerated, but at the time I thought it was the easiest way for you to listen to me" Haku said.

"Don't worry, I know. I don't hold a grudge against you. And after all, I too punched you in the head when you had that crisis, so we can say that we evened the score"

"You did what!?"

"Wow, didn't you really notice? I punched you so hard your head almost bounced off the ground. That's how I woke you up"

Haku was quite offended by that revelation, but he decided to ignore it. "Anyway, you don't owe me any explanation. You were very thorough when you first told me" he said. "What I wanted to tell you was… that I'm sorry. I never realized how you truly felt, even though I was directly next to you at the time. I thought it was just momentary sadness, and I never understood how much I suffered. I didn't support you as much as I should, not as a lifeline but as your brother. I've had a lot of talks about sticking together, but it seems like I've always been the most distant from you all, and I didn't notice many things... too many things. I was too focused on myself to realize how many problems you guys had". Haku took a deep breath. "So... sorry for being a bad brother, and thanks for sticking by my side no matter what"

Darbi was silent for a moment, then he smiled and put a paw on his shoulder. "You haven't been a bad brother" he told him. "Sure, you've made many mistakes, and you definitely have a lot to improve in terms of your empathy... but you've also done many good things for me, for all of us. You stood up for us when we needed protection, you fed us when we were hungry, and although you weren't always there when it came to our emotional problems, you were always by our side when we needed it most. You were there when I needed support, after our mother revealed she didn't love us You were there when Rhaegal was taking out his frustrations on our father's dead body, and you urged him to keep going. You were there when our sisters were hungry, you were there when they were isolated, you were there when they wanted to learn hunting. The plan that we're following you came up with it. Haku, don't forget: you screwed up recently, but it's only thanks to you that all of us are still alive"

Haku smiled at those words. "Thank you. This means a lot to me"

"We are brothers. That's what brothers do, they help each other" Darbi said. "Just remember this: you can make mistakes. So don't blame yourself for making them like you've disapponted us. No one expects you to be perfect. We just want you to be our brother, nothing more"

Haku smiled even more, and was about to reply, but that quiet moment was suddenly broken by a roar. They both snapped, recognizing that sound as Kotaru's call for help, and ran towards where it had come from. After a few moments they saw Kotaru running towards them too, pursued by what looked like a huge armored lizard.