Date: 3 years before the beginning of My Empire

Canon: Canon

Notes: A monster was reported terrorizing a village in Ethiria, and the high king goes with the General to take care of the threat together

Enjoy!

~~~

The forest loomed around the two brothers, the trees tall and dark, the creatures that normally resided within silent.

The two royals, armed to the teeth and weapons unbared, stalked through the underbrush, the faint light that filtered through the leaves to the forest floor glinting off them.

Noah walked ahead, the glow from his fiery wings lighting the area around them with a reddish hue. The light glanced off of Indigo behind him, the glow making the blue streaks in their purple hair shine with a greenish aura from where it was tucked into her helmet.

Noah had discarded his formal royal clothing and ceremonial armor for a proper set of armor, black armor lined in reds and oranges that seemed to glow from within, an illusion created by their phoenix wings. A simple chestplate and leggings, with an opening in the back for his wings to stretch freely, and simple leather boots with steel toes and ankle armor. His helmet was stylized to look like the head of a phoenix, his face visible behind the spikes on the helmet that looked like a beak, the metal spikes on his head around his ears decorated as feathers, with strong rubies and garnets that glowed with imbued energy dotted throughout.

Indigo mirrored him in darker blues and purple, a celestial in impossibly dark purple and blues, with a helmet stylized in the shape of a crystalline star, pale blue and purple spikes jagged around their head and adding to the ethereal look.

Both of them looked inhuman, powerful beings capable of razing worlds to the ground. 

And they were play-fighting with sticks.

Indigo threw another stick, the branch clattering harmlessly off Noah's shoulder and falling back to the ground. The sound made Noah whip around, a handful of small sticks and a random acorn flung back in retaliation.

Indigo shrieked, covering their face with their hands. One pebble got past their defense and fell into their helmet, rattling by their ear and setting there.

Noah paused as Indigo sighed, irritated. "No, it's fine, one just got in my helmet, one sec," he said, yanking the headpiece off and shaking his head, trying to make it fall out without having to put down the helmet. Unfortunately, it was tangled in his hair.

They went to put the helmet down on a tree stump, but Noah stopped him with an outstretched hand.

"I'll get the stupid rock out," he grumbled, his gruff tone concealing the care in which he handled the purple strands, being careful not to pull on them as he untangled the rock from the nest it had made itself in Indi's hair.

"I really need to cut my hair, ha," Indi said, staying still with his head tilted so Noah could access the pebble. "I keep forgetting with everything I have to do all the time."

"Just tell everyone to fuck off and go hack it off," Noah suggested, fingers twisting in the hair and accidentally jabbing Indi's ear. "Fuck, I'm going to crush this fucking rock when I get it out of here-"

Indi almost nodded, but froze his head at the last second. "Almost nodded," they commented with a chuckle. "Just cut it off, I need to get rid of the hair anyways and we need to get the monster before sunset."

Grinning, Noah deftly pulled a knife, a gift from Indigo on his 19th birthday, the handle decorated with skulls and blood red garnets and the blade sharpened and polished to perfection. Pressing it just below Indi's ear, they both paused for a moment. A single inch deeper, and the knife would slice through one of stars major arteries. The volumes of trust between them were visibly present as Noah angled the knife to get the hair and Indi stayed perfectly still, trusting him not to cut them by accident.

A moment later the stone was freed, purple and blue strands falling to the ground as Noah flung the rock away, not looking to see where it landed. Indi relaxed, immediately bouncing on the heels of their feet and wiggling their fingers. Staying still was so hard.

Noah stepped back, eyes skipping over stars neck to make sure he didn't accidentally hurt them. Noticing the concerned glance, Indi grinned reassuringly at Noah, nudging him gently with their shoulder.

"You did great, man, I barely even felt it, no worries," Indi said, looking up at their much taller brother. Noah scoffed.

"I wasn't scared, fuck off." He shook his head and started walking, ignoring the knowing smile creeping across Indi's face. "Let's go kill that monster motherfucker."

"Yeah!" Indi cheered, trotting to catch up with Noah's fast gait as they put their helmet back on, face concealed behind the elaborate metal spikes and decoration.

Distantly, a feral roar echoed over the forest, along with the scream of a very suddenly injured animal. Noah and Indigo both froze, Noah raising a fist in a signal, listening for any more sounds or clues to the direction of the creature.

A further scream reached them, the monster celebrating its catch. It must have just caught something to eat. Indi hoped the poor animal had been put out of its misery quickly.

"Northeast," Noah whispered, the barely audible sounds carrying themselves to Indi's ears. Star nodded, and they both dropped into a simple defensive formation, all play and jokes forgotten.

Advancing near-silently through the trees, Indi flipped around to check behind them, making sure nothing ambushed them as Noah continued to cover their front.

A growl; the two warriors paused, weapons ready. The silence drew out, Indi and Noah on alert and tensed, prepared for anything.

After what felt like an eternity of waiting, another grumble echoed from the left, intermixed with a few munching and crunching sounds.

Indi and Noah exchanged a glance, speaking without a word in the way siblings did. Together, they moved as one, splitting from each other to circle the small clearing ahead, the monster messily devouring what looked like the remains of a very mauled doe.

It was a monster, that much was clear, but what kind of monster escaped the two brothers. It was large-ish, larger than a bear, but slender and aquiline instead of bulky and thick as bears tended to be. Its skin looked wrong, not leathery or scales but not real skin either, some sort of devilish mix between snake scales and the skin of a naked mole rat, but as black as a starless night and five times as wrinkly. Stunted growths erupted from its back, bones and raw flesh sticking out of it and pulsing, probably in time with its heartbeat. The monster didn't seem bothered by either the gruesome thing on its back or the ooze sliding steadily out of it and dripping down its skin-scales into the grass.

Its head was turned away from them, busy feasting on the animal it felled, but they could see two small, pointed ears, swiveled forward and twitching with each enthusiastic crunch.

It had four legs, all spindly with massive paws that had twisted, bloody claws sliding out of the ends, digging into the churned dirt where it lay. A tail swished behind it, spiked and trembling with a burning sort of frenzy.

The creature was feral, no doubt about it. Perhaps it used to be a normal wild animal and got twisted into the monster it had become, or perhaps this was some sort of new monster that had somehow appeared and began to terrorize the area. But regardless of what it had been or what it would become, it had to be killed. The villages nearby could not continue to suffer, losing both farm animals, crops, and people to the monster's voracious appetite. And so Noah and Indi would do what they had come to do, and defeat the monster. Very classic of them.

Now on opposite sides of the clearing, Indi met Noah's eyes across the space and nodded, flicking his hand towards the back legs of the creature and then jerking stars head towards the slimy growths on the back of the monster and pointing to themself. Noah frowned, but nodded, agreeing.

After another moment, waiting for the perfect moment to pounce, the monster huffed, lifting its head to sniff the air, the deer it had killed now reduced to a few scraps of fur and some blood spatters in the grass. Even the bones had been crushed and swallowed.

Before it could scent their presence in the air, Noah launched out of the bushes with a fierce battle cry, wings flaring out behind him in a radiant display as he swung his great battleax down, slicing right though the hind leg shoulder of the monster. They pulled back just as quick to circle around, facing it with a fierce grin and axe over his shoulder, dripping with the monster's unnatural greenish black blood.

While the monster twisted around at the sudden attack, roaring in pain, Indigo shoved their way into the clearing, running and jumping onto the creature's back in one great leap, easily balancing on its skin. It didn't even notice the new light weight on its back, too focusing on snarling at Noah, who snarled right back in a clear challenge.

The monster suddenly stood, wobbling as blood gushed out of the injury on its back leg, but steadied, now standing as tall as the trees around them and almost knocking Indi off its back if star hadn't pulled a small dagger out and plunged it into the monster's back, using it to remain astride even as the monster screeched and spun, looking for the source of the new pain.

Noah used the distraction to dart in, stabbing at the monster's chest, but it swiped at him with its claws, nearly catching them if he hadn't ducked, dropping bonelessly to the ground before bouncing right back up, backing up a healthy few steps as they appraised the new situation.

Indi carefully shifted, climbing up the creatures back using the lumps and wrinkles of its skin to navigate. They pulled the dagger out, sheathing it quickly in case they needed it again later.

The monster snuffled, clumsily circling and sniffing before a furious roar nearly shattered Indigo's eardrums, as close as they were to it. The monster definitely knew star was there.

Noah yelled wordlessly, slashing at the creature's legs to try and regain its attention, but it kicked at him, catching his head with a clawless slap and spinning them back, Noah losing grip on his axe as they fell back against a tree, the axe landing blade down a few feet away. Indi yelled Noah's name, scrambling up and down the monster's skin as it scratched back with its forearms, trying to claw him off itself.

Trying to escape the monster's paws, Indi misstepped, and their foot plunged into one of the growths, pus and blood spurting out around their leg and they twisted, trying to free himself from the hole they had created.

The monster screamed, now furiously stumbling about, claws slashing empty air as it screamed and screamed and screamed. The growths had to be sensitive, and Indi finally pulled themself out, only for the monster to violently shake itself as it dropped back to all fours, throwing Indigo off and into the trees, a branch spearing through a hole in their armor and deep into the flesh of their arm.

With Indigo immobilized and barely conscious in the trees, and Noah slumped where they had fallen earlier, the monster stilled, still growling and snarling near continuously as it twisted, curling to inspect the oozing hole Indigo had made in its back and licking at it. The hole began to close over, skin unnaturally knitting over it and flesh bursting out in ropes to knit the growth more firmly together, like armor plates.

Unnoticed by the wounded monster, Noah staggered back to his feet, staggering over to their axe and raising it silently, pure rage and fury making his eyes almost glow as his wings flared. Noah lifted into the air easily with a silent wing flap, going up and up as he raised his axe over his head. The monster noticed him too late, Noah releasing a furious roar of his own that rivaled the monster's screech as he dove, the axe meeting the neck of the monster and slicing cleanly through, decapitating the monster in a single blow.

Noah rose back into the air as the monster wobbled, body collapsing as the head rolled off the corpse, stopping against a tree a bit away as green-black blood gushed out of the neck, spilling all over the clearing floor and soaking into the dirt.

Sheathing his axe in its holder, Noah flew over to Indi, perching on the tree next to them. Indigo had managed to right themself and snap the branch off the tree, leaving it embedded clean through her arm.

Indi blinked dazedly at Noah, glancing down slowly at the dead monster before looking back at him, decidedly not looking at their own arm.

"You did great, man," Indigo said, their voice light and through gritted teeth as he fought to stay conscious.

"Fuck that, are you alright?" Noah asked, panicked enough to let the concerned question slip out instead of disguising it under sarcasm or hostility.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm great, it's just a teeny tiny stick going straight through my arm, everything is fine, all great." Indigo released a slow breath, eyes tracing the passage of a carrion bird circling above, probably calling to other vultures that there was food nearby.

"I'm just gonna yank it out," Noah said, and Indigo nodded, looking over at them. "Wait, we should do this on solid ground."

Indigo tried to move themself over, inhaling a sharp breath when they moved the injured arm and accidentally hit the branch against Noah, moving it inside them. Screwing their eyes shut, they let themself fall back into Noah, who carefully maneuvered him down the tree to sit against the base of the trunk.

In one swift yank, Noah slid the stick out of Indi's arm and immediately pulled out a flask of medicinal alcohol and some bandages Avery had given them before they left, in case either of them got injured.

Indigo was unconscious by the time the alcohol hit the injury, but they twitched, eyes furrowing and body tensing at the sting. Noah hurried to wrap the bandage around the puncture as blood began to steadily pump from the hole, hoping the pressure would help it stop bleeding quickly. He didn't know much about fixing injuries, they were a warrior, not a healer.

Luckily, Indigo woke up a few moments later, unsteadily pushing themself up with stars good arm as Noah helped him from the other side, Indi looking to the side at the monster's body, which had more than a few crows and vultures hopping around, tearing bits of flesh off.

"Well, at least all that meat and stuff won't go to waste," Indi commented, and Noah snorted. Of course the first thing they thought about was practical use of several tons of dead monster meat.

"Let the birds have it. It can go to the deepest hells and rot there forever, the fucker." Indigo laughed, pulling himself to his feet along with Noah. "Very much agreed. Let's head home? I want to take all this armor and stuff off, much good it did when I needed it-"

Noah scrutinized the armor, already thinking of ways he could have the royal blacksmith improve it to better protect their older sibling. They were knocked out of their thoughts by a tap on their shoulder, Indi grinning and pointing across the clearing, where a small group of villagers, armed with pitchforks and a few rusty swords, were gingerly climbing through the underbrush, some stopping to gape at the dead monster while others approached the two brothers, bowing.

Noah glared at them, his default expression for everyone except for his family. The villagers shrank back, except for one of them, a tall, shabbily armored woman who must have been their leader. Indi nodded at them, stepped slightly forward and let go of Noah to support themself standing, slightly wobbly but upright.

"The monster is dead," Indigo announced, raising their voice to reach the rest of the people gathered around. "You shouldn't have any trouble now. Be careful with its body, we don't know if it's still dangerous, even dead."

The leader bowed again, along with everyone else in the clearing, before someone started cheering. The others were quick to join in, everyone cheering and clapping for their two heroes, the king and general of Ethiria.

Noah glared, shifting back, while Indigo ducked their head down, waving back somewhat shyly and smiling at the people.

After some insistence, Indigo and Noah agreed to stay for a few days at the closest village to recover from their injuries before heading back to Celeste.

Another successful mission, a danger to the empire eliminated efficiently by the king and his general, the two most powerful warriors in the empire. There would be celebrations, and parties, and lots of social nonsense when they got back to Celeste, the people and nobles taking any excuse to party and suck up to the king in hopes of favors, but for now, there was just the satisfaction of a job well done and the comfort of being together, two siblings relaxing by a fire and talking quietly about their strategies and how they could improve their fighting skills together in the future.