Nymphlandia

Chapter 2: The two brothers

„you let him go?" yelled Dolfon in anger „he is only one scrawny old man! How I ask you, How, did you let him play you like that!?" he was quickly moving from one side to another od the room, trying to calm himself. Everyone was frozen in place except Tothan who looked at what was happening slightly interested. One of the guards then spoke quietly "we also lost one of our men.." Dolfon stopped and suddenly you could almost see his eyes spitting fire out of anger. As they stood there for a second, Dolfon started suddenly yelling "What!?" everyone remained quiet "I asked you something you worthless piece of good-for-nothing garbage!" the guard slightly twitched before he opened his mouth, but before he was able to say anything Dolfon raised his hand, showing him to be quiet. Tothan, who had remained silent all that time, finally spoke up "Listen here you dumb pricks," he made a slight pause before he continued "you all will be hanged first thing in the morning. You will be wearing only clothes that will cover your private part. You will not be shown any kind of mercy. As you hang there the citizens are allowed to throw you with rocks. This is our final decision which can't be changed. It shall be a warning for everyone who disobeys our orders and messes up. We can't afford that as you know." with these words he called other guards and ordered to take them away in the dungeon. After everyone except these two kings had left, Dolfon said: „brother, are you sure the rocks were necessary?" before answering Tothan thought and answered „probably not big brother. But it is worth seeing and will also frighten those who even thought about betraying us." Dolfan remained silent for a second but then laughed and said „you are right Tothan. It really is something worth seeing." As Dolfan was ready to leave Tothan spoke up „remember the time when our fellow humans betrayed us?" Older brother stopped and looked at his younger brother laying in his throne and swinging his leg „of course I do my dear brother. He turned around and walked to his throne and sat down. They looked at each other,  faced forward, held each other's hand by the wrist and activated memory magic. Immediately they were thrown back in time. Back to the time they were young. Dolfon was 5 at the time and Tothan 4 years old. They were left in a cold and dark forest that seemed endless. They saw how a dark figure that brought them here rushing away. It was extremely cold as they wandered around holding hands. At first, they tried to follow the figure, but soon it looked like it had disappeared into nothingness. They wandered and wandered as they felt cold rushing through their body and down their spine. They weren't scared because they didn't understand what was going on. They didn't know if that person will come back looking for them or leave them there. After for an hour walking and wandering around the endless, dark forest, they sat down on a stump that they found by accident. Tothan leaned against his older brother and they tried to keep themselves warm by sharing their body warmness. Tothan had already fallen asleep and Dolfon was about to fall asleep too when he suddenly noticed a blueish and reddish light between two trees. It was bizarre but it was their only hope of survival judging by the fact that it had to lead somewhere. A house perhaps? Dolfon quickly woke up Tothan and together they started to walk towards it. They walked faster and faster until they started running. As they were standing there in front of this strange-looking light source. It was bright and it looked like there was something inside of it. Dolfon and Tothan held hands even tighter as they stepped into this strange thing since they had nothing else to lose. When they woke up, they were inside of some kind of a hut? Or a house maybe? They couldn't really tell. As they were looking around the room they were currently in, they noticed a man standing and... making something? They couldn't tell what that was but it sure did smell good. The man turned around and as he saw the two boys sitting up in the bed he said „Oh you are awake" as he saw Tothan hiding behind Dolfon he quickly added „Don't worry I won't hurt you! I promise" he had the kindest smile you have ever seen. The boys loosened up a bit as they learned that he found them lying on the ground. The man introduced himself as Master. After some introduction and learning about each other, the boys got more comfortable around Master. As the years grew by, Master was training them to be great young men that could do great things. The older Dolfon and Tothan got the more they were curious about magic and wanted to possess it. At first, Master refused to give boys magic but as he saw how enthusiastic they were and were really obedient he finally gave in and said: "you will get your magic as you turn 18." Brothers were so glad to hear that and started training how to use magic at first without really using it. They learned how to focus and read books about mages, sorcerers and witches. Finally, when the day came when Dolfon turned 18 he got his first magic and learned how to use it without a problem. The next year was Tothan's turn. They took way longer to use magic than other creatures took because others in this dimension or planet were born with it. With every day passing, their greed for magic grew and grew until Master refused to give them any more magic than they deserved. The Brothers took it as a betrayal and went to sleep angry. Later that night they woke up and packed their things. Tothan headed to Master's bedroom and wanted to snatch his wand to get unlimited magic that came with unlimited power. Just before he was about to take the wand he felt something on his wrist. It was a hand. Master had grabbed him by the hand and threw him across the floor in slight anger „what do you think you are doing boy?" he said in a mighty tone that he had never used before. He started to move towards Tothan when he suddenly felt a shiver that went down his spine and then pain. He looked down on his chest and saw something sticking out of his chest. It was a sword. The sword that was covered with dark magic. Master landed on his knees holding the sword that was sticking out of his chest and coughed up blood. Dark magic started to slowly spread, destroying his body bit by bit. Confused he tried to look around but every movement made it hurt even worse because someone... someone was twisting it! He suddenly realized who it was. It was Dolfon who had stabbed him with that cursed sword. He desperately gasped for air as Tolthon suddenly opened his mouth and said „you should have given us the magic we asked for. If you hadn't stopped me taking your wand then you would have stayed alive you know. It's such a shame that you had to die because of one stupid mistake." he started laughing like a maniac and looked him dead in the eyes. As they saw Master struggling to hold on to every bit of life he had, they both felt some kind of strange pleasure and relief. They were alright with the fact that they won't see this man who had raised them ever again. Dolfon pulled the sword out and went to stand beside Tothan. Master gave him a look that he couldn't understand whether it was anger.. disappointment or confusion perhaps? And as his last words Master said „How could you?" and his lifeless body fell to the ground and then disappeared into nothingness. The whole sword and floor were covered with blood. After that incident, they traveled across the land while taking over small cities and villages, burning houses and after that kingdoms. They were headed to the main city of the biggest kingdom called Nymphlandia. They wanted to take it over and destroyed every living thing that crossed their paths. They took down armies singlehandedly without any other help but each other. The wand gave them unlimited power and the cursed sword eventually erased every body it had cut even just a little. They were unstoppable. When they arrived in the main city, they took it over. Of course, the previous king put up a good fight but he wasn't nearly as powerful as these two outsiders were. After that most of the land fell under endless darkness. Every flower was destroyed and turned grey. Every color was suddenly sucked out of the kingdom and probably most of this planet. Nobody could get against them and no other magic could heal these diseases and death. Brothers let go of each other wrists and were immediately pulled back into the present they both seemed pleased about what they have done. They were proud that they were able to climb that far up. It was nighttime already. They had sent the wand to a safe place a few years ago because there was no reason to use it. There was no threat. Dolfon felt uneasy about this and said „Tothan! We need to get the wand here in this castle!" Tothan was surprised that the words of the madman still had somehow got to his brother but he agreed to it. The wand was supposed to get there in a few days. Men went to bed and fell heavily asleep. They waited for a few days which turned into weeks for the wand until it was obvious that something had happened. It still wasn't here. Soon enough their fear became true. One of the guards rushed into the throne hall, all cut up and bloody, kneeled and as he breathed heavily he told them the news „my kings! I'm afraid your package has been stolen on the way here. We were attacked and as we tried to secure it, our men were taken down. Everyone was dead with the blink of an eye and the wand was taken as well with the other valuables. It appeared like there had been 20 men coming at us. I was the only one who got away since I didn't have anything else on me. I was trying to get the wand back but got stabbed in the leg and couldn't follow them. As I saw them running away it looked like they all merged into one but I'm not sure. It could've been my imagination since I lost some blood" everyone went quiet and the only thing that was heard was how a cup of water was thrown all across the room. Tothan and Dolfon were angry. As Tothan sat there with his head between his hands, Dolfon was leaning on the wall behind the throne. Quick as a flash he activated his magic and hit the guard with a blast, he was immediately set on fire. As Tothon looked at the burning guard he said „it must have been duplication magic. This thief was alone but as it seems to be, really skilled. I haven't seen anyone who knows how to possess 20 duplications at a time. That man took singlehandedly out 8 of our men by duplicating himself into 20" Dolfon raised his head and looked at his brother in the eyes with a serious expression and said „we have to find him. And we have to kill him in the most gruesome way possible. Nobody messes with us and our power!"