Indomitable

t.h.r.e.e

Remi woke up the next morning with the sunlight shining through the canopy, casting a warm glow on her face. She smiled and stretched, before wrapping her blanket around herself and coming out.

She was surprised to see Killure already awake, staring at a photograph with a raised eyebrow. He snickered upon seeing her, then looked back at the photo.

"Give me that," she muttered, snatching the photo away from him. The picture was of her, Faye, and their cousin Caede, all in their beach clothes, grinning at the camera with wide grins. Remi's bangs were cut far too high on her forehead.

"I hated the time it took to sit and have my hair cut, so I thought I'd do it myself," Remi cringed, hiding the picture frame under a loose sheet of paper. "Didn't work out, as you can see."

When she looked back over at him, she ground her teeth in annoyance when she saw his shoulders trembling from suppressed laughter, and his free hand clutching his aching side.

She glared at him in irritation when he replied, "I can see that."

Killure's eyes snapped to the door before it opened, tensing his body.

However, instead of some hostile intruder, it was only Kareem, her little brother.

Kareem wobbled in on chubby legs, heading straight for her with open arms. "Emi!" he cooed with a big smile.

Remi reached down and picked up her little Kareem, spinning him around in her arms and eliciting a myriad of giggles.

When she finally set him down, he reached under his shirt and pulled out a small, crushed bird. Its brown wings were broken, and its head was slightly squished. Dead. And by the stiffness of its body, it'd been dead for probably quite a while.

"He had a broken wing, and couldn't fly away when the horse carriage came by last night. I would have brought him back earlier, but he was already dead and auntie said I needed to go to sleep," Kareem jutted out his bottom lip, before glancing back down at the bird.

His hand began to glow, and before long the bird's wings were perfect, without a single broken bone.

"You're turn," he smiled up at her, holding the still-dead bird in his outstretched hands.

She nodded at him. If he put any of the little bird's internal organs or brain back together wrong, the bird could come to life and be in immense pain with everything inside all twisted up. Only one who perfectly knew its anatomy could bring it back to life.

Remi tilted her head back as she felt the familiar sensation rejuvenate her body, accumulating in her hands.

Little Kareem giggled when her eyes began glowing green as she began putting the bird's broken pieces back together in the same way they'd been when he was alive.

And in a sudden flurry of movement, life began coursing through the bird's little body. In a flurry of movement, it flew from her hands into the air, chirping happily at Kareem before flying right out of Remi's partially open window.

Remi took Kareem's chubby, little hand and picked him up as they watched the bird dive and spin in the sky, before coming to rest on a thin tree branch.

"Nice work, buddy," Remi placed a kiss on his forehead and tickled his belly. He laughed and squirmed, and did a slow twirl when she put him on the ground again.

She stepped forward, pretending that she was about to chase him. Kareem screamed, running away without looking in front of him.

And ran straight into Killure.