Brothers

This was not the first time that Aridien had found his brother to be capable of this much courage and valor. When they were younger, they were about 12. There was the sun still. Valleys and streams. Mountains and the bright blue sly. There were samurai, village folk, bad people, and demons. Demons of all kinds roamed around the land.

That day, as Takei and Aridein were playing a game near the mountains, they witnessed a tribe of warriors runs atop the mountain. They marched with staff and swords with haste and anger. Takei and Aridein stopped playing and watched these men climb the steep slopes. The demon face plucker and his not ferocious but terrifying and aged brother Bark Moon were hidden in the caves of the mountains. Face Plucker was notoriously dangerous and got his name from actually plucking the faces of men with his bare hands. He was about 8 feet in height and broad and plain-faced. His face was hollow and diverged inside like the starting section of the trunk of a tree.

But Takei and Aridien did not know that and the dangers that lay ahead of them. They thought it was a normal attack by two village men. Aridien and Takei too ran up the slopes without an idea of the peril that lay ahead of them. They stood by the entrance of the caves as the warriors were beaten to a pulp by the demon face plucker. The two kids watched in terror as face plucker ripped apart the faces of the men one by one with relative ease. The brother Bark Moon was 12 feet in height and tree-like body and a 500-year-old bark-like face. He was scared and hid himself in silence as his brother tore the faces apart of the men.

"That is enough," shouted Takei.

His brother Aridien was scared and looked at him with grave concern. Bark Moon too looked at them with sad eyes. Face plucker turned back and had in both his hands the faces of men. He stared at them and Aridien caught the hands of Takei and wanted them to run away as soon as possible. But Takei refused to run. He stood there standing at face plucker.

"Then what happened?" asked Tiberian.

Both Aridien and Takei laughed.

"I will tell you some other day," replied Ariden as they walked to the home of Tiberian.

It was hidden in the hills of the nearby mountain, far away from the path of the vampires.

"Arasmus?" they all said and turned back.

He was missing. He was gone!