IX

Now, please bear with me as I write this chapter. I apologise in advance for the poor quality it will probably result in.

For the first time, I saw snow on a winter's evening. Pandora Kingdom is usually too warm in winter for snow to fall, however, this evening snow fell in a region stretching from Mandala to Pandora City and deep into the Great Forest. I saw this fact on television - just because Fa'Diel may centre itself on Mana, it doesn't mean that it is too backward a society to have the creature comforts of Yamauchi.

Naturally, Ark and I were excited. We went outside to play in the clouded light of the six moons - there are always at least three in the sky above Fa'Diel - but we hurried inside soon afterwards when we realised we didn't have enough warm clothes. Yes, we wore clothes just like every other human did; we tried to assimilate ourselves as much as possible. Getting your head through the collar is hard, though.

So, with that discovery, we sat at our bedroom window and watched the world turn white.

"How did that tune go again?" Ark asked me as he pulled out his wagalbo.

We had discovered music as another common bond between us, and often we would play together, our harmonies exciting us.

"Well, I think it went something like this," I said, pulling out my potosa.

And we played music for quite a long time, with strings countering reed and flue. How different things may have been if we had enough clothes.

This music also brought us back together in the times when we were at each other's throats: needless to say, we were brothers. There was one time the morning after it snowed, with the light of the sun and a Kakkaran wind melting the snow - it became as hot as a summer's day. We were mad at each other over something…I believe it was about a screwdriver for his robots going missing, his blame being put on me. I took the usual stance and stormed out of the inn, slamming the door as I left. My father said it was bad for business, having the door slammed shut - inns are always meant to be, technically, open. So, as usual, he would have reprimanded Ark and sent him after me.

The place that I escaped to was the pool where I found the emerald. I'd end up sitting beside it, covered up to my waist in mud, and after thinking about the world in general and my dislike of it, I would start playing my potosa to ease my mind.

I had started taking music lessons outside of school time with Syoro Toripe, on his suggestion, and it was one time before my lesson that I had a fight with Ark. As always, this brought up my resentment of life, and Syo. Toripe picked this up as soon as I walked into it.

"What's wrong, Dyluck?" he asked.

"I hate the world," I snapped. "I hate school, I hate my parents and I hate my brother."

This took him aback a second before he said, "Did you fight with him?"

I nodded.

"I understand your feelings really well. I have a brother, and when we were children, we used to fight. I didn't like school, either, and my parents gave me a hard time. That's why I learned music and I enjoy it so much - it gives me an escape from life."

This gave me the idea to try it, and it would always send Ark running to re-unite us. My potosa would echo along the creek to Yoshi Bend, and all Ark had to do was follow the sound. He would then find me, and start to add wagalbo harmony as he approached - he knew it would clear my mind and make me happy and amiable again. Then, coated up to his stomach in mud, we would start talking about life and all would be forgiven. This time was no exception, and I remember distinctly saying, "I'm so glad I have a brother as good as you, Ark."

Little did we realise that the waterfall was getting wider and the flow of water stronger. Grey storm clouds had started to roll in from upstream, and with the rain and the Lofty Mountains' melted snow, water was soon lapping at our feet, and getting higher and higher. Within a minute, it was around our waists as we sat. I paid no attention to it until then, when I realised that something wrong was going on.

"Must be the rain," I said as I looked up at the clouds.

Ark nodded as the rain started to sprinkle on our faces.

"Let's get back," he said, getting up.

As he did, the rain poured - it was driving and it stung my skin. We started to run for cover to some trees when I stopped in my tracks as I heard an unearthly roar - a sound that will haunt my nightmares forever. It was a mixture of the rain, trees breaking, and the waves of the ocean. It rapidly approached us, and as I turned my head, I saw what was making it.

Within three seconds, the waterfall expanded from a five feet across to about eighty as a wall of water leapt off the cliff and bore its weight down at us.

Ark started running, but I just stood rigid with fear.

"Dy-y-y-y-y-y!" he yelled as the water hit us and smothered us.

I surfaced about a hundred feet downstream and gasped for air. My instincts told me to swim to shore, so I attempted to, but Ark surfaced and yelled. Instantly, I decided to swim after him to try to save him - my sense of protectiveness as his elder brother being my guide. His five blond bangs provided a beacon for me as we were swept along the stream. The tops of the conical trees were screaming past me, and the houses of Kippo flashed by in about two seconds. The buildings close to the bank - Keroco's and Rumpil's store - had their bottom floors about four feet deep in water. Fortunately I was in the middle of the stream, so I didn't get knocked into anything…but as the water took me past a rock, my left side scraped it and I winced. I had some surface cuts along there, with a deeper one at my stomach area - the scar is still there.

Then I fell a short distance and surfaced, wiping my hair out of my eyes. Syoro Yarapren had taught us about local geography, naturally, and his words came to mind instantly:

"The stream continues for a mile downstream from Kippo before there is a small waterfall, called Approach Falls. They're called Approach Falls because soon after them, the stream falls down a deep, wide hole, and goes underground. We don't know where it surfaces, nor will the dwarves tell us. We can't get down there either, because there's a rock overhang."

I swore as I realised that the drop was the falls. Ark and I were headed straight for that hole, and my adrenaline-quickened logic realised that a drop onto the outcrop would probably kill us both.

I saw Ark swim for a log that had wedged itself in some rocks. I could see it went clear to shore, and I swum towards it. Ark had grabbed the end of it, and he had swung around so his feet pointed towards the hole. I grabbed it, slightly dislodging his grip as he yelled, and I could see the water disappear ahead in a gap in the trees. For the first time, I realised how the rain stung, but soon an even greater stinging coursed its way from the front of my thighs and shins - the splinters in the log had dug themselves deep into my legs. I screamed in pain, and instantly tried to get them away from beneath it - but the pressure of the water was so great that it was no easy effort. I mustered strength and pushed my left leg backwards as I turned, before I let the flow of the water push it along the surface. With a heave, I had it over the log as I lay along it, facing Ark. I then sat on top of it, my hands grabbing the sides of it, so I leant over, staring into Ark's desperate face.

I clambered along it as best as I could until I was as far as I could go - the log then had broken, and Ark was holding on to one of the jagged points with both hands. I then reached out towards him with my left hand, but I couldn't reach him.

My heart pounded in my chest as I yelled above the rain's din, "Give me your hand, Ark!"

I saw Ark grit his teeth and look up at me. Something there and then had gotten into his mind, and with a flash of his eyes, he uttered the fatal, brave words, "No, Lich, I can help myself! I don't need yours!"

To this day, I still wonder if the love that I had given Ark was being returned. He had never called me Lich, except when he was angry, which was often the linchpin for my storming out of home. But, in that situation, when he was nervous, why did he call me by the name I hated?

The world then seemed to slow down, as if the River of Time had turned into treacle, and Ark's hands slipped. I don't know if it was a sudden burst of water, or his actual trying to get onto the log, but he disappeared under the water, and I didn't see him again.

"Ga-a-a-a-a-a-a!" I cried, Pandoran for "no".

I felt myself slipping as well, so I clambered backwards until I could turn around sufficiently, and made it onto shore. The pain in my legs reached a crescendo, and as I looked down, I saw my flesh torn, holes bleeding. Soon it grew too much to bear, and I fainted.

I woke up in my bed, and wondered if it was all a dream for a second, but as I saw my bandaged legs, I bawled. The pain of Returin's death and Keroco's anger, Dogo's bullying, my parents misunderstanding of me, my spells not working and fights with Ark combined could not even match the pain of loss I felt right then, and would feel forever.