August 18th, 1029. Three weeks before the fall.
A series of sharp, short sniffs broke the intense game of tag between the siblings, a large grin plastered on a young girl's face as she ran toward her house.
"C'mon, slowpoke! Dinner's almost ready!" chirped a bright, laughter filled voice as Mia stopped and turned toward her brother, Andrew. He had tripped over himself seconds after he began to run, lifting his head slowly, his face peppered with mud and his soft white hair clinging to bits of grass. Mia stood directly in front of Andrew, holding out her hand to him while holding back her laughter.
"This is no place to die, soldier!" she smiled, her gleaming red eyes not leaving Andrew's soiled face as he took her hand and was pulled up. Andrew brushed his hands against his clothes, trying to remove as much mud from them as possible, though the grass stains on his white hoodie and grey jeans would be a permanent reminder of his fall from grace today.
"Thanks…" Andrew quietly mumbled, his voice heavy with embarrassment as he looked down at the ground. He felt his hair being moved and saw Mia plucking at it gently and with precision.
"Wh What are you doing?" he asked quietly, his voice filled with confusion, slightly looking up toward her and reaching his hand to cover hers.
"You have a ton of grass in your hair!" she giggled, pulling the blades of grass out and onto the ground, then ruffling his head after she pulled the majority out. She picked him up over her shoulders and carried him inside the house, where their mother was in the kitchen placing small portions of fresh lasagne onto three plates and setting them on the table. Despite the presence of four wooden chairs around the small circular wooden table in the middle, Mia eagerly sat down on the left, staring territorially over her plate and taking a long uninterrupted smell. The aroma relaxed her muscles and caused her mouth to water. She looked forward, watching as her brother sat opposite her, similarly drooling over their food. Their mother smiled as she returned to the kitchen to clean up.
"Thank you, Mama!" they said gratefully, their grins as wide as caverns as they dug into their lasagne, their mother wiping Andrew's face first so he did not accidentally garnish his dish with dirt. Mia let out a content hum as the flavor dispersed in her mouth, and with satisfied sighs the siblings put down their licked clean forks on their plates and brought them to their mother, who had also just finished eating. She took the plates from them with a smile, and the two sat back down at the table. She returned with two smaller plates that were just a bit bigger than the chocolate chip cookies resting on top. Their mother kissed Mia on the forehead before saying,
"Happy birthday, sweetheart," her heart warming as she heard her daughter giggle at the kiss.
"I'm a big girl now!" Mia claimed, ruthlessly devouring the cookie like a rabid dog.
"Big girls aren't messy," Andrew teased as he slowly nibbled at his cookie, savoring the sweet treat and making sure not to drop a crumb. Mia gasped, offended.
"W Well at least I'm bigger than you!" she retorted, her mouth filled with the cookie she was still violently chewing. Andrew shielded his eyes at the abhorrent sight.
"Yuck, eugh, cover your mouth when you speak. Besides, you're only bigger by a year, so not much!" he said, staying turned away while suppressing a giggle. Mia continued to debate that she was a big girl, her smile crashing when her mother interrupted with a finishing statement.
"You're only seven. You have another three years before being a big girl, then another eight before being an adult, dear." She chuckled softly as Mia slumped in her chair, staring at the table in defeat as she folded her arms stubbornly.
"Now, Andrew, let's clean you up properly. You can't be going to bed still covered in mud, can you?" her voice was filled with mirth as she took his hand and led him to the bathroom. Mia stayed seated and let out a long, over exaggerated sigh, then dragged her feet to their shared bedroom, Andrew entering later still slightly damp and in a fresh set of clothes.
Three weeks had passed since then. A loud, bellowing crunch rang out through the night, and in just a second the entire world became a battlefield and a sea of petrified people screaming and gawking at the sky, which now sported an eerie red color. A color everyone in the world knew should not be in the sky. A color indicating one nightmarish outcome.
The Primordial God of Creation had died on September 8th, 1029.
"THE WORLD IS ENDING. THE WHOLE. FUCKING. WORLD." Screams drowned out every happy memory the small village once had. Villagers started to go psychotic, burning houses and killing each other in panic and outrage. Loud noises shattered any semblance of peace. Mia and Andrew were huddled under the warm embrace of their mother as she cooed them.
"It's okay. Everything is okay. We'll be fine. Please don't be scared." She held her babies tighter, trying to calm them down.
The door to their house broke down, and a man holding a knife walked in and stared at the three of them. Mia and Andrew's mother stood and faced him.
"James, wh what are you doing? Why are you holding a" She was cut off mid speech by the man's crazed voice.
"SHHH SHUT UP!" he yelled. Mia covered Andrew's ears as she looked at the man yelling at her mother."YOU KNOW, I REALLY WANTED TO BE WITH YOU, JANE, BUT YOU CHOSE A GUY WHO LEFT YOU AFTER YOU HAD A SECOND CHILD. I'M NOT LIKE THAT. YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN WITH ME!"
"James… you're not making any sense. Put the kni" her voice softened as she tried to stay calm in front of her children, looking back at the two huddled even tighter together as the man continued to yell.
"THEY COULD HAVE BEEN MY KIDS INSTEAD. WE COULD HAVE DIED TOGETHER THIS DAY. IF YOU THINK I'M DYING ALONE BECAUSE OF HOW LIFE PLAYED OUT, JANE, THEN YOU'RE WRONG. SO WRONG!"
The deranged man plunged the knife into Jane's abdomen, twisting and sliding the blade across before slitting his own throat. The floor was covered in blood and viscera as the man's body twitched, a geyser of blood gushing from his throat. Jane remained kneeling, keeping her back to her children, her intestines threatening to spill out.
"M Mia, darling." Jane took a deep breath as she began to cry, not from pain but from regret. "Mia… protect Andrew the best you can. You're going to have to be a big girl a bit earlier than expected… but I'm sure you have the capability to do it…"
Jane's body slumped forward, her forehead hitting the wooden floor of their once peaceful house. The nauseating smell of blood destroyed any sense of joy and peace Mia had known. She looked down at her brother, who had gone limp in her arms, but she did not react. She placed her fingers to the pulse point of his neck, finding his pulse steady and concluding that Andrew had simply passed out. Mia picked Andrew up in her arms and walked out of their old home. People were still screaming, but Mia had no reaction. She had only one goal in mind, the final will of their mother, to protect Andrew.
The coming weeks were torturous. They no longer had their beacon, their guiding light. Mia often begged people for food or water despite the ongoing panic, only ever receiving enough to barely scrape by, often resorting to theft and careful planning. With a success rate of ninety two percent, Mia became more resourceful and independent. By the age of sixteen, she was able to single handedly defend herself from anyone alongside her brother, whom she kept even closer after their mother's death. It was not only her who was forced to grow up, but Andrew as well. He did not want to rely on his already stressed sister, so he sparred with her often, always getting knocked down but lasting longer each time.
They both learnt a lot over the years, and by the age of sixteen Andrew developed the first instance of his Draco Gauntlets using components his girlfriend stole from her parents, (which he reclaimed by going to the wreckage of their old home), because she thought Andrew would like them mixed with modern, commonly attainable materials. Mia, on the other hand, stole from a fisherman, taking their harpoon and claiming an anchor from a wreckage as a prize after sinking a ship on her own, which she used as a close range weapon, and she seized her own ship at seventeen, sailing alongside her right hand man, Andrew.