Three Alphas, Three Mates

Chapter 40.5 - Krys' Interlude

Author's Note: This part is Krys' POV, and it'll reveal A LOT of things about the current conflict, so even if you're not going to read the second part (which has Bri, Ethel, and Onai), I'd highly recommend reading this. I hope you enjoy! ^^

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Krys' POV - How War Starts

The heat is what I missed the most about my home. Everything was scorching. The sun, the air, the skin on our shoulders. Even our eyes couldn't escape the temperature, burning into a solid red that festered like the clay beneath us or the blood running through us. Hence, Bloodmoon.

Mom would spend most of her time sitting on the deck with Dad and his friends. She would sit in the shade, one arm and all her troubles and all her misery propped up on a knee and and every sigh would echo it. Every now and again she'd call Kaiden and I back to get some water. "Drink slowly," she'd tell us, because she wanted it to last.

I didn't want to. I wanted to drink the water like Kaiden did, with no regard for tomorrow. He'd throw his head back and guzzle it down, letting half of it run down his tanned skin and wild curls. Then he'd run back to play with the others, narrowly escaping another one of her scoldings.

I wanted to be reckless like him, but I couldn't be, because I wasn't.

I was the kind of person that wanted to taste the water more than I wanted to play some stupid game. I wanted it so badly. I sipped my portion slowly, carefully, cautiously trying to memorize the feeling of every drop. Of every molecule. I knew how little we had, and I couldn't pass up the coldness, the relief, on days like that when there was no more in sight. I noticed how the other kids watched desperately, as if tasting it through me, and so I thought that was my way of showing my gratitude.

It would take me so many years to realize that I was wrong, that what I was doing was the cruel thing, and Kaiden's way was compassionate. He threw the water back like it was nothing, like they were missing nothing, like they had nothing to be jealous of. I teased them with every drop.

As the sun set, and the others slowly trickled back to their homes, I lied down on the dirt with Kaiden and stared up at the sky. I was so young then, but I prayed for rain. I prayed for war. I prayed for the end of the occupation. I had no idea what I was asking for, I was just echoing the things I heard Mom and Dad saying, but it seemed to all make sense to me then. That if we got these things, water wouldn't be so scarce, money wouldn't be so tight, and night wouldn't be the only time things were cool. A better world I thought. Three answers to everything—water, war, and an end.

Eventually Dad called us back into the house before curfew, just to be sure. He never wanted to see "those people" if he didn't have to, but he claimed it was for us. He didn't want us to be further scarred by their presence.

Mom would sigh, "You're teaching them insubordination."

He'd scoff. "They can't be disloyal to a nation that isn't theirs... And don't you dare call those northerners our allies."

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend." Mom walked around the table filling each plate with what she could ration. "And we did have a common enemy with them at one point."

"And now we're common enemies," Dad replied, and that was it for now.

"How much greens can we put today, Krys?" she'd ask me.

I'd show her the size with my tiny fists joined together.

She nodded. "How much rice today, Kaiden?"

"This much." He held up his palm.

"Why do you teach him that?" Dad asked, his voice raising.

"In case he needs to know it." Mom sat down, not really paying him any mind. She had grown tired of Dad's presence the way he had grown tired of our situation—that much I later deduced after many years and restless nights thinking back to the way she looked at him.