A wagon pulled by a beast of burden trundled up the dirt road toward her. The elderly driver brought the cart to a halt, examining her quizzically. It was so strange to see a person without a tail, or the triangular ears of a Subject atop his head. The Apostle had never seen anyone without either.
“Tell me,” she said, “have you heard the Gospel of Cain?”
Chapter 3: Leaving Home
There were always chores to be done, and Kari was usually the one who got stuck doing them, because her two older brothers were completely useless for just about everything except for a few occasional laughs. Forcing them to help, and listening to their whining, was usually worse than doing the work by herself, but not this time.
Stomping though waist high grass, she moved aside only for the sparse trees
which, despite her best scowl, did not get out of her way. Her brothers lovingly called her “the beast” because of that scowl. And that was usually amusing, after her anger passed.
Following the scent of her brothers through the grass, she found herself beneath a large oak tree with several low hanging branches. Storming right up to the tree trunk, She kicked it with all of her considerable strength. The mighty oak shook violently and her two worthless brothers fell from its branches.
Regarding her with identical shocked expressions, the twins sat up from where
they’d fallen, massaging their hurts. Looking at each other, they seemed to communicate telepathically before turning back to regard her with quizzical expressions.
Jonathan and Michael were near perfect copies of the Northern Sage, their father, if a little shorter and much younger. Except for the fact that her father was a human and her brothers were Heretics, of course. Their mother was the daughter of a Demon, and so all of her children had Demon blood in them. It did strange things when mixed with humanity. Kari herself was a fox demon. She had pointed fox ears atop her head and two bushy foxtails that were mostly hidden beneath her skirts. The boys were either dogs or wolves, and they changed their minds often as to which it must be. They also had triangular ears atop their heads and wolflike tails as well. They bore their father’s purple eyes and black hair, where Kari’s eyes were bright green and her hair was pale blonde, hanging loose to her waist in the way her mother confided got the most attention from the boys. Not that there were any boys around that she was not related to, but that was beside the point. What girl didn’t want to look attractive?
“So there I was,” Kari folded her arms beneath her breasts, “digging a new well in the east field and I say to myself, ‘self, why are you doing this alone when you’ve got two strapping older brothers to help you with it?’ And then myself replied, ‘why self, I have no idea why my worthless brothers aren’t helping!’ So I said, ‘well then self, I’d better go drag them by their tails back here to dig this damned well!’ so here I am.”
“What a beautiful story,” Michael said.
“Beautiful indeed,” Jonathan nodded, dabbing an imaginary tear from his eye.
“What are you up to all the way out here when you could be helping your dear
baby sister dig a well?”
“As little as possible,” the twins replied in unison.
“Ah,” Kari nodded. “Is that so? Well, you’ve got about five seconds to come
along on your own before I drag the two of you over to the east field by your tails.”
The twins looked at each other, and again seemed to communicate without words
before they turned back to her.
“I’m afraid we’re going to have to respectfully decline.”
“You see, if we were to help you dig a well.”
“We’d no longer be doing.”
“As little as possible.”
They knew how much it annoyed her when they finished each other’s sentences!
“Sorry, sister dear,” they said together. “But we’re busy.”
“Oh,” Kari raised an eyebrow. “Busy, are you? And what are you up to?”
They looked at each other again.
“What makes you think we’re up to anything?”
“Because you never talk in unison like that unless you’re up to something!”
“We do,” the twins asked in unison.
Kari’s glare was the only answer they received.
“Ah,” Michael nodded. “Duly noted.”
“So,” Kari prompted with a gesture.
“Ah, right,” Jonathan sighed dramatically with the air of someone quoting badly from a script. “Can’t fool her.”
“Oh no, she’s too smart for that.”
“Right. She always knows when we’re up to something.”
“Observant as always.”
“And might I add pretty.”
“Yes, we mustn’t forget pretty.”
“Did we mention smart?”
“I think we did. But she’s also so very skilled at cooking and sewing.”
“Why yes she is. And freakishly strong too.”
“That’s rather sexist, don’t you think,” Kari broke in, not sure which one of them deserved her glare more.
“It is true, isn’t it,” they replied in unison, with identical flat looks.
As much as she wanted to say that they were wrongly stereotyping her, she
realized that she couldn’t. She did, indeed, know how to cook and sew, amongst many other skills including several types of combat. She was even a master at Hemomancy, manipulating the demonic energies in her blood that had twisted and remade her human flesh into that of a Heretic while still in her mother’s womb.
She prided herself on being a capable woman in all aspects of her life, and her brothers made her sound like some feeble housewife with no greater skills or ambitions than raising children and taking care of a husband. How dare they! She was beginning to have fond thoughts of throwing them back up into the tree just so she could kick them out of it again. There was nothing wrong with being a housewife, but it seemed such a waste when she knew that she could be so much more.
Their mother was the perfect role model. She was a wife, a mother, a musician, and an extremely skilled warrior that had fought in many a battle. She’d shown Kari by example that women could be so much more than what her idiot brothers seemed to think she was good for.
“You know, I was thinking, brother dear,” Michael said.
“Yes, so was I,” Jonathan agreed.
“Hey sis,” they said as one, “we’re gonna leave home. Wanna come?”
“Leave,” Kari asked, so shocked that she forgot her anger. “You want to leave?
But where would you go? What would you do?”
“But that’s exactly it,” Michael said with an expansive gesture to the sky.
“There’s a billion worlds out there.”
“A billion different adventures waiting to happen,” Jonathan nodded.
“A billion sights to see.”
“A billion people to meet.”
“A billion stories to live.”
“A billion poor girls to be liberated from their oppressive virginity.” Jonathan eyed Kari. “Er, I suppose there’s boys held captive by that cursed virginity as well, unless you prefer girls? I know I would if I was a girl.”
“Don’t be daft,” Michael said with an expression of mock horror. “You’re far too ugly to be a girl.”
Kari rolled her eyes. They were identical! One was just as ugly as the other.
“You’re serious,” Kari asked, trying to imagine life without them. It would be extremely dull and boring. Since their adopted sister Mera left home, things had gotten rather boring, especially since she was the only girl now. There were some things that were just completely impossible to relate to boys, no matter how hard she tried. They were different creatures entirely, and she had a very hard time making them understand the female perspective on life sometimes.