As He Sleeps...

The two young High-Elf boys play among themselves outside the families manor within the capital city. Sounds of laughing and screaming as they both pretend to be warriors, defending the realm from its enemies outside the borders. This was all too familiar to the pair, as they were inseparable from one another and loved to do nothing more than spend every minute together... a loud scream pierces the air, its a familiar voice, their mothers. Caldiin and Malekith drop everything and rush back to the manor, hearing an exchange of words between their father and mother through a window.

"Their just children! You cant do this!"

A loud thumping sound is heard, like a boot stomping onto the floor hard. Theirs a scuffle and a crashing sound, like a table being knocked over. Their mothers cry of pain. Caldiin looked to Malekith with worried eyes and Malekith instructs Caldiin to raise him to the window so he could peak inside. After a minute of fumbling around, Malekith stood on the shoulders of Caldiin, his head just barely at the windows ledge, he needs to stand on his tippy toes to look inside, which causes Caldiin a bit of pain. "Hurry up, Malekith. What do you see?" His hushed words called up to Malekith who silently peaked over the ledge and into the room. But he said nothing... the exchange of words becomes harder to hear as the two parents had moved into another room opposite of the window, but the door was open and Malekith hushed his brother so he could listen. A few moments pass and Malekith pushed himself from the wall and dropped to the ground, heading inside.

"What happened?" Caldiin chased after Malekith who did not respond, but instead continued into the manor with cold eyes staring ever forward, leaving his brother outside to wonder what he had seen. "Malekith..?"

Darkness...

(A new scene, another time, a different place...)

Caldiin sits in the kitchen with his mother now, he pushes an apple around on the table with heavy eyes staring thoughtfully down at the red skin.

"What bothers you?" A beautiful voice questions the boy.

Theirs a long pause, Caldiin stops pushing the apple around, thinking about his next words before he would ask. "Why does Malekith hate me?"

His mother stops what she was doing, her eyes moving to her child, heart sinking in her chest. "Malekith... does not hate you." she replied, hesitantly. "He has just grown different." she moved to Caldiin and sat next to him on the bench at the table, taking the apple from him and a knife from the table to cut a piece off to offer to him.

Caldiin does not respond to her attempt to sooth him, his eyes remain forward and distant. "He wont play. He's mean to me. And will even hurt me sometimes. He hates me, and I dont know why.”

She stared down at him and reached her arms around to hold her child closely to him but said nothing more, the vision fades away...

(Passage of time continues...)

Caldiin stands in a field with Malekith, the grass surrounds them and reaches about waist high. The two staring each other down from roughly twenty meters apart, either boy looked to be in their young teens but as elves they had already seen many more years than a Human child. “I will serve in the High Kings army...” Caldiin yells across the way at Malekith, who in turn smiled back at his brother, a cold mocking smile. “You're too weak. Just stay home, you're worthless. You'll just die” Caldiin swallowed in what felt like a dry throat, his heart raced and he shook his head. “No.” Malekith frowned and shook his head, raising his arms to either side of him in a shrug. “If we need to do this the hard way...” he took a dagger from his backside and pulled it out in front of him, Caldiin had mirrored the actions of his brother. A moment passes as they two elves stared each other down before they ran towards each other, Caldiin's movements were swift, precise... but so were Malekith's. And despite the two having the same or similar training, Malekith had always been a little stronger, a little faster, sharper...

Caldiin dropped his dagger to the ground and dropped to his knee's, his hands clutching his abdomen, blood staining through his shirt. Malekith stood behind him, his back turned to his brother, he had not even bothered to look at him. “You're too soft. Just stay here with mom.” Caldiin dropped his head to the ground, nearly unable to speak from the pain that had coursed through him from the wound, but he shook his head. “I wont let you go alone.” he whispered into the dirt. “Ill come.” Suddenly their was a flash of light, a sharp pain. Caldiin's eyes tore open wide as his entire body was sent crashing to the side, skidding over the long grass. Malekith standing where he had been, his leg in the air after he had used it to strike his brother. It took a moment, the pain. It filled his entire body and Caldiin clutched his arm, holding it tightly, riving in pain on the ground. His opposite arm held tightly to the one Malekith had kicked, the humerus had been snapped in two by the swift and strong impact. Blood pouring out of Caldiin's stomach.

Caldiin glanced to his side, slowly blacking out he only seen Malekith walking away, heading towards the forest till finally everything turned dark and he blacked out...

(Later... again. Much later...)

Heat swept over his face. A wet and warm feeling covering his body. He lay on the ground inside their home, the home they grew up in. He couldn't move, he couldn't feel anything. A much older Caldiin lay on the ground in a pool of his own blood, his eyes wide open staring forward. Their were sounds of movement all around the building, soldiers... his eyes moved to the side as the front door opened slowly and he came walking into the building. “Malekith...” Caldiin mouthed the name of his brother, but no sound escaped his lips. Malekith looked down at Caldiin, the two were much older now, men. He crouched next to his brother and lent him his ear. “Protect mom.. don't let them take her.” his eyes swelling with tears, not from the pain that he had gone through, but from the simple idea that his brother was right all along. He was too weak...

Malekith stood up from the ground and glanced at his hand, his brothers blood coating his fingertips and he closed it into a fist, calling out to the men outside. “Take care of this filth.” He wiped his hand on the wall and headed out the front door. Caldiin's tears continued to trail down his face, knowing his brother still sided with their father. Him and his sick goals... the soldiers came rushing into the front door, taking hold of Caldiin and carrying him outside. Outside he looked down, blood trickling down and falling into the white snow that blanketed the area. His breathing was ragged, and he felt his consciousness slipping in and out...

“Don't give up.”

He felt himself coming back. The darkness subsiding from him and he could see blurry images before him.

“We got you.” a voice of a woman called to him, he opened his eyes and seen the two healers crouched over him. They both used magic and modern medicine to help him, setting his bones, closing his wounds, and wiping away the now drying blood. Caldiin sat up but he felt the delicate hands press against his chest, pushing him back down.

“ You're too weak. “

He swallowed and shook his head. “I'm not...” replying back to them sharply. He pushed himself back up and when they moved to stop him again he twisted out of their arms and stumbled to the side out of their reach. He quickly began to run into the woods, already feeling his wounds tearing open as they had not fully healed. He had to save her... “Please Malekith... don't let him hurt her.” he kept repeating these words in his head, over and over. Hoping that their was something left in his brother that would fight the urge to go along with their fathers order. “Don't do it...”

Minutes had passed, and the further he moved through the dense forest the colder it got, the thicker the snow became. A trail of blood followed him but he kept moving, unsure if his muscles or pure determination kept him going. Eventually he came to a clearing, standing in the center of it was Malekith. His shirt was torn, blood dripping down his back, in front of him. Mother. She silently sat on her knee's eyes closed and her head held low, as if praying. Caldiin smiled seeing she was fine, their father no where in sight. Not yet, he was coming. Caldiin looked around, he could feel it, the ground shook and tree's crashed. “Fuck.” he tried to move but he couldn't, he wanted to move closer to them, his family. Falling into the deep snow he couldn't do anything more than reach out for them and as he looked up he saw Malekith draw his sword and with one quick swipe to the side it was over... the pure white snow splattered with blood, a line trailing to the side and then the sound. The head of his mother dropping into the snow and her body slumping over.

Caldiin's eyes widened, he couldnt believe it. He wanted to cry out, yell, get angry, but he couldnt. He couldnt even move. His eyes remained set on the back of Malekith, watching him get on his knee's in front of his mother corpse, what was he doing now? Malekith leaned over the corpse and then a sharp coldness erupted from around him, it was different than what he felt before... this cold was like no other he felt in his life. Drawing back from the body, Caldiin could see in the hand of Malekith, a little sliver of a black icicle. The icicle had blood on it, and a mysterious aura that only reminded him of her... Caldiin clenched his fist, the snow around him was completely covered in blood. “Why...” he whispered and as he had, Malekith turned and looked back to Caldiin. His left eye was gone, torn from his skull. Leaving behind a bloody hole. He stared across the field at Caldiin as if thinking about something but a noise interrupted them and Orrian Daetris emerged from the dense forest.

Tree's crumbled around him as he pushed through the forest, breaking them like twigs. His entire body was coated in what appeared to be stone. He looked across the field at Malekith who held onto the object of his desire and he reached his hand forward. “There... give it to me.” he started to walk across the clearing, heading towards Malekith who was still looking to Caldiin and holding the icicle. Slowly Malekith stood up from the ground and Caldiin shook his head but his vision continued to blur and darken. “No. No, nononono.” tears trailed down his cheek, burning them from the intense cold but it mattered not. Malekith headed towards Orrian with the ice heart and then it was all black...