(Kendra tried not to tear up from remembering. But fortunately enough, Asahi stayed near her, trying to imagine Kendra's memories in his head with sorrowful eyes. With a trembling tone, Kendra continued...)
"What do you think, citizens of the kingdom?" The Queen requested an audience after seeing the frightened expressions on the mothers' faces in the crowd. "Who should ride the fun ride?
The poor, young, blue-haired teenager," She hoisted my brother up as if he was some ragdoll...
"or the lovely, innocent young girl with a life ahead of her?"
I could hear others crying and pleading for me to be released. Mothers, fathers, and even children begged her not to do this.
Although I was clueless before, I understand now. No one wants to see a child's life stolen, especially for no reason. Just as I thought it couldn't get worse, I saw my mother and father screaming at the top of their lungs. They were behind birdcages dangling from a pole.
"Don't dare to touch my girl or boy,"
My father screamed at the Queen, tears flowing down his face.
In all those years, I never thought I would see my sharp and fearless father well up a tear.
Then my mother, even more terrified and worried about me, shook the cage aggressively.
"Sweetie! It's okay, Mom is here..."
Suddenly, the cage filled up with shocks, stunning and paralyzing my parents. The Queen of Destia snarled at them, then swung my brother and me around by grabbing us, juggling us like balls in her hands.
The crowd gasped in shock as they watched me slowly touch the floor. But just before I had fallen, the Queen of Destia made up her mind and placed me down.
My brother was sent to a catapult, being tied up hopelessly in shades of crimson and gray.
"Please... " I cried as I watched him stare helplessly at our parents and me. "Please..."
And yet, my pleas only made The Queen smile wider as her lavender light flashed toward Jal.
After that, all I could remember was hearing loud, annoying instruments blare out, followed by seeing my brother fly high toward the moon, then descending downward into... the thick shadows of buildings.
I could remember feeling tears fly down my face as I heard the frightful and traumatized gasps of my other siblings behind me.
"JAL!"
"BRO!"
"NOOOO!"
At that moment, I felt as if all the hearts of my siblings and parents beat as one. A sense of insufferable gloom pervaded us all, urging us to act upon this. Even if we were weaker than the Queen, we would no longer tolerate this.
And so,
(Kendra sniffled.)
… we ran away. With all our hearts, the rest of my siblings and I ran away from the light-contaminated fields of our home nation, trying desperately to escape somewhere else.
When I looked around, I felt ashamed of my own abandonment. The cries of my mother and father were so haunting that they made my skin crawl. I could only imagine what would happen if we approached them.
But instead, my siblings and I were cowards. We fleet-footed the flowery plains of Destia into the crooked, sharp, and edged borders of Obrus. From a distance, we noticed a drastic difference from the dreamy plains of Destia.
Active soil. Lush lands. Chaos.
But that didn't matter to us. All my siblings wanted was for our safety.
Although Jal had left us, and our parents had abandoned us, three others of my family had accompanied me.
Sarah, Estrella, and Bourne.
Bourne was the second-eldest in my family. He had our mother's face, chipped and sharp, but my father's hair, a dark cyan. Despite his appearance, he didn't really have any exposure to popularity. Instead, he focused more on studying the history of this world.
But whenever I or any of his other sisters were in danger, he would drop all of his plans and protect us. I recall a particular night when a storm threatened to tear the roof off our small house.
As the wind howled outside, Bourne stayed up all night, holding the door shut with all his strength, assuring us with a calmness that defied the chaos outside.
His protective nature wasn't just in words; it was in every action he took to keep us safe.
And just like the many times before, Bourne had led us out of Destia, keeping me, Sarah, and Estrella safe under his arms.
I remembered Sarah being a stubborn one. Instead of having her mother's face, she had a more rounded one, like her father's, with dark blue eyes and long, flowing blue hair, inherited from her mother.
I recollected her always being focused on popularity and on studying socialism.
But I remembered that among every attempt she had made to gather attention, her anxiousness and weirdness would get the best of her. She only acts confident when she is involved with either me or the other members of my family.
When we approached a cliffside, gazing at the tropical shrubbery in the distance, Sarah turned over to me and whispered.
"Don't worry, little Kendra… You will be safe soon." She said as she sniffled. "You… Y-You…"
I just knew from the look on her eyes that she was about to explode into tears for Jal. But instead of carrying me and letting me witness her cry up in tears, she gave my little body to Estrella.
I remembered Estrella being the calmer of the two. A kind girl with dark blue hair just like mine, but cut short, with dark cyan eyes from her father.
There were moments when she babysat me and taught me subjects that only the students of Destia's Academy would know.
She would defend me when I had done something wrong or even submit herself to protect me. But now, she felt terrified not just from the death of our brother, but from the group that was ahead of us.
It seemed that Obrus' borders were enforced correctly, preventing anyone from entering or exiting.
That, or these five people wearing strange, curvy crimson veils on their faces were just rude and didn't want anyone to trespass upon their lands. Yet, we were desperate.
We hadn't wanted to set foot on the nation of surprise's soil any longer. After we had set foot into the line of tropical streams, the five men quickly pulled up these strange wooden weapons from their backs and warned us.
"Trespassers! Don't you dare set foot on this land any further."
"But… we have to go here," Bourne replied as he tried to keep his calmness at bay. "Isn't The Queen of Obrus forgiving to outsiders?"
Suddenly, my sisters and I screamed in horror as we saw one of the veiled men stab my brother's side with a sharp silver dagger. He immediately collapsed to the ground, breathless and motionless. I could remember hearing Sarah scream at the top of her lungs.
"NO!"
Our burning glances drifted upon his blue face, his forehead high, and very pale. An icy chill ran through me, and a sense of insufferable anxiety oppressed all of us. We sprinted over to him and just as we could reach our touch to Bourne,
"You foreigners are not welcome on these lands." The man fired at my brother's face, delivering a traumatic moment to all of us.
(Just before she could say any more, Kendra trembled in fear at the thought of it. Sweat slid all over her pores as she kept her eyes on Asahi's, trying to comfort herself with his existence.
At first, her eyes riveted over to the contour of his fair face, and then, the radiance of his soft white hair.
Without thought, she fondled the bristles of Asahi's head, smiling remorsefully.
Asahi quickly raised a brow at the sudden action. But even more at the spring scent that had been omitted from her body; it reminded him of the fresh aroma of clear waterfalls falling upon a still lake.
Pushing that thought aside, Asahi questioned with a soft face.
"Why are you touching my hair?"
For a moment, only silence had answered his question. It looked like Kendra was about to continue the memory, but couldn't just because of how traumatizing it could be.
But when her gaze focused on Asahi's body, she felt a sense of comfort rise within her, for some reason.
With thin and shrunken lips, Kendra replied as her heart paced in frequent bursts.
"B… Because… it reminds me of someone." Not long after, Kendra's recollection continued.)
It was a fluid, liquid feeling. Estrella looked confused, her pale face betraying her emotions. I could remember her glance shifting back and forth, the magical blue essence that streamed from a luminance in all our chests.
The blue essence, known to some as the Heart's Ember, is a manifestation of our inner will and connection to the world around us.
It was said to be a rare gift passed down through generations, rooted deeply in the heritage of our people.
At first, our eyes were lifeless and lusterless at the hopeless sight of our brother's demise. But then, I remembered something. A voice I heard in that house the other day.
We watched as the glittering, liquid-blue essence relentlessly pushed back the five veiled men. It swirled in circular motions, slapping and tossing the men and their weapons upward.
Hope started to press on me as we watched them fly over. But to my surprise, even after all of that, the men stood still as if it were nothing.
"Fools!"
One by one, after that word was screamed out from one of the veiled men, I saw all my siblings get involuntarily slaughtered by those five men.
I shuddered at the presence of their three bodies flying high with the glowing bullets, scattering into dust the moment I tried to reach them. All those loves, all those memories, torn from me in an instant.
Tears began to stream down my cheeks, and the sensation of my heart being ripped off my chest.
The blue magic faded and flickered into nothingness, followed by my body lying there in the open of a gigantic crater left afterward their attack, covered in streams of dust.
Like the child I was, I cried desperately, mourning for the loss of my siblings. Even if I were so young, defenseless, and exposed, I could still understand the situation that had transpired before me.
So I cried, almost endlessly.
The five men questioned whether or not they should take my life as well. But one of those men stopped the others. Judging from the tone he had spoken in, it seemed that he felt pity for a little girl like me.
"No. Don't hurt the child."
"Why not?" said one as he lowered his weapon.
"Because… Because I know what it was like to lose someone I love."
The man trembled as he stared at me with his pink eyes.
"To lose everything so young, and be forced to build up your life on your own."
Despite some stopping to think about their actions, there was one man—a man with a considerably large belly—who approached me with a shotgun clenched in his fists, giving me an inconsiderate stare.
"Don't matter. Baby or not. Trespassers must be executed."
Without resistance, the five men nodded and held up their weapons at me, aiming their sights directly at my face.
I knew that man was heartless; I could see it from his shady, smug smile.
All he had wanted was wealth and nothing more; I could see it from the golden chains and jewelry he wore. It seemed that he was the leader of this group.