Location: Forest Village Uri,  South of Diptabhumi

As the elder sister, Eka felt an inherent duty to bail out her younger sibling from the troubles he created. It seemed like she was constantly on a mission to fix the messes he left behind.

 

People, well-meaning as they were, often advised her to let her brother face the consequences of his actions. "He needs to learn to face the music," they'd say.

 

Eka would nod in agreement, acknowledging that it was indeed his mistake, and he should bear the brunt of the aftermath. But the world around her had a different perspective. They argued that he should have straightened himself out by now. After all, he was destined to be the young master of the house. All the land, the house, and the livestock would be his once he reached the age of inheritance.

 

This notion gave Eka pause. It made her ponder. She had braved the snapping jaws of their relatives, who were always quick to criticize, and yet, he would reap the rewards of her years of hard work. She even had a niece to look after—a consequence of an ill-fated adventure.

 

Society's advice can be a double-edged sword. It can be so wrong and yet so strangely right.

 

Why had Eka been so forgiving of her brother? Was it because she had raised him more like a son than a sibling? Did she do it knowing that the avaricious relatives, like hungry lebrouts, would consume him in their quest for a perfect home once their parents had passed away?

 

Looking back, was it a wise decision, twelve years ago, to take on the role of raising him when she, herself, was just a fifteen-year-old girl?

 

"Why," Eka wondered, "am I the one rocking a toddler who isn't even my own?" Her brother, the one responsible for this late-night ordeal, should have been the one soothing the child they brought home hours after her birth. He decided to defy their grandparents' wishes and raise the baby himself. Yet, when he arrived home, he placed the bundle into Eka's arms, declaring, "Didi, you shall be her mother, just as you have been mine."

 

Eka stood there, a pillar in the house, accepting this new responsibility like a nail being driven into her head. She felt the weight of her ever-loving and ever-forgiving elder sister role. At that moment, she should have treated her brother like the bull he was, reigning anger upon him.

 

"Why am I thinking all of this?" Eka pondered as she was led by the leader of lebrouts to their den, destined to be a feast for their colony. She questioned her choices and worried about her brother and niece. Her immediate concern, though, was how to free herself from this dire situation.

 

One moment, she was hanging clothes out to dry, and the next, she was being dragged by her feet. The best-case scenario would have been to fall into the clutches of assassins – a swift end and all her belongings transferred to her brother's name. However, that now felt like a distant dream as she faced her inevitable doom.

 

You might wonder why she remained so remarkably composed. She had previously flailed her limbs and hurled stones at the monster, but now, she was strangely impassive. Numbness had enveloped her, to the extent that she had forgiven her brother for his most significant blunder.

 

The sky transformed into a beautiful shade of crimson, signaling the onset of evening, perhaps around seven. Her usual chores—picking and folding clothes, collecting wood for dinner—could have awaited her. Instead, she was on a perilous journey, destined to satiate someone else's voracious appetite. She couldn't help but refer to herself as mere food.

 

Did she taste that delectable? She wanted to ask but found her mouth tightly bound. She had pushed them to their limits, particularly their leader, with her relentless questions when her feeble strength failed to save her. She hoped her ceaseless chatter could at least claim one of them.

 

Eka knew nothing about this peculiar arrangement among the lebrouts, nor did she expect the most accomplished one to possess a level of intelligence resembling that of a human preteen. This was unlike anything she had ever read in the Encyclopedia of Monsters. They were not just emotional and indecisive creatures. Surprisingly, their leader had organized his band of lebrouts into a tactical ambush and captured her.

 

Through her incessant questioning, she learned the underlying reason behind her capture—it was none other than her brother. He had stolen the Onyx egg they had waited a millennium to hatch. He had taken their Queen, of all things.

 

Eka was both pleasantly surprised by her brother's daring act and dismayed by his lack of foresight regarding the consequences. The lebrouts had traced his scent to her house, and upon not finding the egg or her brother, they were prepared to wait another millennium for their Queen's ascent. This would be achieved by sacrificing her heart, consuming her essence, and feasting on her body to gain a strange form of strength.

 

This revelation raised the perplexing question of why they were sharing this gruesome detail with her. The answer lay in the egg's disappearance, which necessitated the selection of another lebrout as the vassal for the nest queen. They had a tradition of not educating the next vassal on the process, relying on instinct to guide them when they devoured her brain.

 

Eka involuntarily retched, emptying her stomach over her clothes. She realized that not even a strand of her hair would be left behind. The distant fantasy of being abducted by assassins now seemed appealing in comparison to her current predicament.

 

The sun had dipped below the horizon, casting a beautiful hue over the wilderness. Illuminated leaves, radiant in neon green, danced above the glimmerbugs. Glimmerbugs are the protagonists in love stories beneath the starry night sky.

 

The band eventually reached a grotto with intricate veins of glowing purple snaking across the ground and stone walls. These veins persisted as they entered the tunnel, leading them to an altar adorned with the same luminous branches, forming a peculiar crown.

 

The Lebrouts solemnly bowed towards the empty altar, remaining in that position until Eka was forcibly dragged and placed upon it. Like a true priest in a sacred temple, the lead Lebrout donned dark leather robes that eerily resembled human skin, complete with the shape of an ear near his armpit.

 

Eka shuddered at the thought of her skin becoming leather too. The world's a stage, she knew, but was her twenty-five-year struggle in Diptabhumi destined to culminate in being mere apparel?

 

Her hands and legs were tightly bound, and her mouth was gagged. She wished her eyes were too. She yearned for a painless end before her worst fears became reality.

 

The monstrous leader brandished a sharp stone to his neck and swiftly drew blood. The purple veins absorbed the green fluid, growing brighter and more intense, almost blinding to behold. The next step was for the chosen one to complete the ritual by offering her heart, and her blood, and sharing in his own, while also consuming her brain. This was the part she dreaded most, praying for an act of divine intervention.

 

Eka clenched her eyes shut as the sharpened rock neared her chest, taking one last breath. Her heart raced at a hundred hilus per second.

 

Then, in an instant, chaos descended. Twenty heartbeats later, the scene was a massacre. The Lebrouts lay lifeless, replaced by dark-cloaked, heavily veiled figures carrying deadly weapons.

 

Where the chosen Lebrout had stood before, a human figure now remained, likely a man.

 

Eka felt overwhelming gratitude toward her savior for sparing her life. Tears streamed down her face, an outpouring of relief and thankfulness. If not for her bound hands, she would have gladly kissed his boots. This moment was the culmination of the extraordinary events in her life.

 

Her parents passed away on her birthday, her brother had betrayed her in a perplexing manner, and she became an aunt before experiencing her first romance.

 

Now, her savior… this person… shattered her preconceptions. "So, have you fallen in love with this person? We are beneath the starry night, surrounded by glimmerbugs..." he murmured, gazing into her eyes.

 

If her mouth hadn't been gagged, she might have spat in disbelief at his masked face. Was she in any position to entertain romantic notions while she faced such peril? She imagined her expression contorting into one of utter disdain, and her savior's companion seemed to shift uncomfortably.

 

For the record, glimmerbugs were a common pest in this country, more a nuisance than a symbol of love. She wished she could slam the poet's head against a nearby rock, where he was probably awaiting his lover, and tear apart the notes that composed his foolish love ballad for his treacherous affair.

World Encyclopedia :

Hilus 

Hilus is a horse-like creature that was one of the first animals to be tamed after humans of this world evolved and gained intelligence. The appearance is more like a hybrid cross between a polar bear and a horse (as you guessed it).

Lebrout

Lebrouts are beings somewhat like goblins but are more human-like in appearance. They are like gorillas and cannibals by nature.