Crash Landing

earth

*Zax*

Paranoid.

That was how I felt about this current situation.

There was simply no other way to describe it either.

The rustling of leaves falling to dry and ruined forestland that I could once call my own before it was snatched away from my fingertips within the blink of an eye or the crack of thunderous lightning that prowled throughout the skies like a predator searching for its prey.

The scent of the blossoming flowers that cloaked helpless animals in their grasp, shielding the defenseless creatures momentarily from their inevitable death by either one predator upon four legs or another raising up onto two.

Much like how I was moving as the softest of exhales filled with carbon dioxide exited my tense lungs whilst the deadly weapon between my fingers, a bow sharper then one's mind and arrows that could pierce one's heart quicker then an admirer ever could, only confirmed the fact that I was about to slaughter a defenseless creature once again.

This wasn't the first time I've had to commit such a bloodied crime but I did have to indulge a bit into the carefully calculated sport as I was surviving in the wilderness and I could not live off of berries and tree water for a sustained period of time.

"Zax, would you please hurry up already? I only have so much patience and most of it has been wasted while I've been waiting for you to just murder some animal already."

The complaints that I heard only made me want to roll my eyes and take even longer to find a sizable animal to shoot and then skin before feasting on over a warm, glowing fire.

Because the complaints were coming from a figure that I was all too well acquainted with.

My cousin, Zion.

He was a strange fellow, that Zion.

He wasn't equipped to handle the wilderness like I was, wasn't thrown out of the life of royalty with nothing but the clothes on his back to keep him warm.

Oh, no.

Zion had chosen to escape the life of riches to live one alongside me, one of rags and endless hunger that could never be fully satisfied no matter how much meat I consumed or how many canteens of water I could flood my system with.

No, this hunger came from deep within, it was pulled from deep down beneath the years of resentment and anger that was fortified by none other than my prestigious family members who couldn't barely utter my name when I was in their godly presence.

And even now, I couldn't barely hold back the slightest clenching of my fingertips against the bows natural curvature, the tension beneath the surface of my tight muscles only building up to a tipping point where it would overflow and cascade when I would completely snap and lose control of my bearings.

But that point wasn't for quite some time now.

And I still had an animal that needed to be killed so I could fuel my aching stomach for the long trek ahead.

Shushing my blood related companion with a sharp glare tossed over my bare, bronzed shoulder, I turned my attention back to the matter at hand, killing the beast that could feed Zion and I for at least this one meal while we continued our journey across the outlands surrounding one of the most exquisite cities known to our lusciously, vibrant planet.

One of the cities that I was also banned from ever entering again, that announcement came right after I was dethroned and Zephyr, the irritatingly arrogant brother that I never wanted to begin with, was all too willing to show me out the door when he found out that he was inheriting the throne by default.