Chapter 3 - Prologue - The Cause of Everything (3)

The ceremony started with a few words from Father Davian, then he sprinkled some powder and holy water on the two and said a few words of scripture.

"Now, I need the two of you to come up and touch the altar. This way you will obtain your blessing, for I cannot give it to you, it must come from god himself," Father Davian explained, reaching his hands toward the altar.

Reaching their hands toward the altar, the boys closed their eyes and placed their palms and fingers on the altar. They first felt a tingling sensation before seeing colors flash in their mind.

They were greeted by a man with ginger hair and cream-colored bangs, his eyes were closed and he was wearing a playful smirk. He wore a gold laurel wreath on his head and gold and white robes. He seemed familiar to the two boys for some odd reason, but they didn't know why.

The man came closer to the two and hugged them, then whispered some inaudible words before letting them go and moving his hand in a swiping motion in front of them. The next thing the boys knew, they had opened their eyes and were back in the church.

After that was the conclusion of the ceremony, and the two left quite satisfied, but also wondering which god it was that they encountered.

"Well, I'm going up the canyon to practice my sword swings, I'm eager to see what I can do with this new blessing!" Valor said eager to avoid Father Davian and his lectures. He left his brother to walk home on his own.

"Alright, see you later," Andros waved at his brother as he walked off. He zoned out at some part during his walk but was soon brought out of his daze by the one person he didn't want to see that day.

"Well then, I assume you had a good ceremony, little bird~," A dark figure said, getting in his way and towering over him.

"Oh, it's you," Andros said with disdain, stopping in his tracks and crossing his arms at the man, "What do you want, Rodion Enedia?"

"Haha, don't be like that, i'm hear to congratulate my dear rival on his proper freedom," Rodion said, leaning on the lamp post beside Andros and towering over him even more.

Rodion was around two inches taller than Andros and had much more muscle than Valor, he also carried a sword at his waist constantly. Rodion had short curly black hair coupled with olive green eyes, a sharp jawline, and toned beige eyes. His body is littered with scars from training and going on hunts, but they are covered by his white, gray, gold, and black uniform and metal armor.

"Oh please, I don't need your congratulations, so please just stop bothering me," Andros replied, getting sick of Rodions comments, "Besides if I'm your so-called "Rival" then you should be condemning me if anything."

"But why should I condemn you for something good? I'd rather not think of rivalry as something like that, besides, it's much more fun to compete without hating someone," He reasoned, chasing after Andros.

"Then if you really want to compete why don't you start to compete with someone who has more things in common with you…Like my brother for instance, he also trains in the sword, I'm sure you'd get a kick out of him being your rival," This was one of the many times Andros tried to persuade Rodion to quit calling him his rival, though it always failed each time.

"I want to compete with someone who has logic and knowledge for brains, not muscle for brains like your muscle-headed brother…besides, being rivals with you has proven to be fun!" Rodion replied with vigor, not even hesitating to insult Valor.

It was known in the village that Valor was a muscle head, when he was much younger, instead of opening doors like a normal person he would simply knock them off their hinges. It upset a lot of the villagers and resulted in a poll box of what to do to sort out that habit of his, but in the end, he just got a stern talking to.

"You're lucky you're speaking the truth, otherwise I would've used my "Logic and knowledge for brains" to say some real mean things!" Andros practically grunted at Rodion, warning him to not say things like that again.

"Pfft, this is exactly why I like you, Andros. You always find a way to brighten my day, even if it's by threatening me!" Rodion laughed, amused by the glare that Andros threw his way.

"Haaaa, if you have nothing important to speak with me about then leave me be, I'd like the rest of my walk home to be in peace!" Andros sighed as he tried to keep his annoyance and anger in.

"I'm going hunting soon and I wanted to ask if you'd join me! If you'd like we could compete over who gets either the most prey or the largest kill," Rodion said shrugging his shoulders.

"I would rather not, hunting isn't for me, so you can have fun without me," Andros said walking off, not wanting to hear another word from his "Rival."

***

"Are you boys ready to go?" Davian asked the two twins. 

They were finally leaving Vedia Village to start their journey to find out what really happened the night their father died and what their uncle's real intentions were.

"Of course, Father. I'm just waiting on Valor to finish getting his stuff and putting those boots of his on," Andros replied smiling, then looking up at the stairs.

"Hahaha, don't blame him too much, those boots are indeed difficult to get on!" Father Davian joked. He had a similar pair to the boots Valor had, so he knew just how difficult it was to do up each individual lace.

"Ugh, stop talking about my boots!" Valor yelled jokingly as he came trampling down the stairs, "My girls don't appreciate you talking about them behind their backs!"

The trio burst out laughing. It was the last time they would get to laugh together like this before the brothers left, so once they stopped laughing a wave of deep melancholy washed over them.

"I'm going to miss having you two in the house while you're gone…" Father Davian said, "I almost don't want you guys to leave, but I know you have things you need to do outside of the village, so please don't let me stop you,"

"Heheh, we'll miss you too, and you don't need to worry about us! We'll be just fine on our own!" Andros assured him, putting his arm around his younger twin.

"Yeah! If anything, you should be worried if we get pickpocketed! Well, if we reach the city," Valor smiled, putting his arm around Andros as well.

"Pfft, well whatever happens I want you both to know that I will always care for you and lend a helping hand!" Father Davian said, he then hugged the two boys, "Alright, you'd best be on your way now, I don't want to keep you."

"I guess this is goodbye then?" Andros said ending the hug, picking up his stuff, and opening the front door with Valor following behind, "We'll come to visit soon, promise."

The duo then walked out of the house leaving their caretaker waving at their backs, sniffing because he was so proud to see his boys finally grow up, though in actuality he wished they wouldn't leave the village.

***

Two years later the twins finally returned to the Village, the two didn't change much on the outside, but rather, they changed and matured on the inside. It wasn't shown much but, when they spoke to others they could be heard quite a lot.

Father Davian welcomed them home with open arms, their rooms hadn't changed a bit. 

Andros decided to take a walk on his lonesome, leaving his clingy twin behind. Though Valor protested to not going with him, he understood why Andros wanted to be alone, though in actuality he wasn't going to be given a chance to be alone.

Halfway through his walk, he overheard people from the village butchery discussing something in frantic voices. Worried, he ran over and asked what they were so panicked over, but he would later come to regret ever asking.

"Oh, Andros! Welcome back! I'm sorry to ask this of you when you've just come home, but Rodion went into the woods yesterday to hunt for us and hasn't come back since! Could you please go look for him?!" The panicked villager asked, holding his hands in hers.

"...I can go look for him, but i can not assure you that i find him…I will look my hardest though!" Andros assured her, taking his hands back and running off towards the forest, his sword at his side.

Andros was a person who mostly used his mind to solve his problems and rarely fought, however, he still picked up the sword in case of instances where he could be attacked or if he had to suddenly help someone like Rodion. He only kept his sword with him on a whim, but today, he would prove that his whim was right.

As he sprinted towards the forest he had two things on his mind; worrying his brother, and wondering if Rodion was okay.