Teryte Chronicles // Brotherhood (Patreon)

This month for something a little different, both in terms of Teryte art and stories. Something that has a deep significance for me, cause I was finally able to flesh out one of my favorite characters from the lore :D

I won't be introducing him, since I'm sure Aksan will do a much better job of this than I ever could!

I hope you enjoy this slightly different story format. And as usual I invite eveyrone to read. Aksan is so good with words, it's incredible.

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1.0.7.19

Near the grandest of them all, perhaps the greatest and most fearsome beings to yet walk upon Teryte, the two find comfort in each other’s arms. From opposite stones, with newfound words, they became the binding at the heart of the siblinghood. Smokey breath swirled between their nostrils and over their faces as their heavy beats attuned in their chests.

1.33.9.17

As sisters snorted and sneered, under brothers’ envious eyes, the pair exchanged their gifts. A great and brutal axe, sunk effortlessly into the earth at their feet, for books, and a woman to read them. But as their brows met and they tightly embraced, the true gifts of the day became clear. No more redolence by lonely oak fires, the pair would not be parted this night.

1.47.8.23

Fires raged around them, spreading, consuming endlessly as the moment stretched. Covered in ash and blood, their brows met with an immense sound, but for all others it was lost beneath the screaming. They inhaled each other’s familiar scent, clear to them over the charnel smoke. A lungful to buoy their spirits, a shared few bars of their pounding hearts, then back to their gruesome task.

1.61.8.19

To the defenders on the walls, to the men that tried to rally their might in the face of oblivion, to their victims, the sight of the pair was unnerving in a way their minds were never built to understand. Weapons still in their hands, the pair were laughing and jostling each other like boys about to take to the village green for games.

1.92.5.18

Discomfort poured off of him, radiant in its anger with the family that drifted around him, with the many pairs of eyes, all but bursting into flames, with the very stones of the house and the city. But as a drowning soul may snatch a breath, he found reprieve in his brother's arms. They were kind, welcoming, forgiving, not just in spite of the anger but because of it. However, like the visitor, they were fleeting.

1.182.9.15

For a moment, brow to brow, the horrors and brutalities faded away. They were just brothers as they always had been. The smell of burning meat and eggs, the blood that pooled at their feet, forgotten against their own musk and the weight they pressed into each other. For a moment their heartbeats slowed together, before they rose and all was anger, and teeth, and betrayal.

1.397.6.23

A hulking figure on the beach demanded another, and their brows met, dripping in the ocean spray. Soon voices rose to best the roaring waves. On the hills above, a mother listened with her children, telling them of how this argument went when they were but children, or when their mothers, and grandmothers, were.

1.603.2.4

Trudging through blood-stained blue, the pair cautiously closed on each other. One eye avoided two as clawed hands reluctantly opened, axe and swords fell slowly away as palms were laid bare. A much needed embrace, unforgotten scars slowing the hands that stroked over the fractured scales. Not a word, just the breath drawn in and all solace was lost. Swords and axe quit the field.

2.126.13.14

A ring of spears and shields, among them the eyes that once burned were cold. Coiling wrath was gone as huge hands drew close their kin. Eyes drifting shut, it was easy to forget everything but the arms that held him and let the centuries melt away as their smokes mingled. But the huge hearts refused to fall into step. The threat of violence returned. No negotiation. An ultimatum. The abjured cast himself out.

3.735.10.19

One was closed, for the last time. Two closed themselves. Heads held and bowed by a thousand regrets met at the brow. There were flames around, hateful eyes, and family. But it was a single lonely heart that beat; a single source of smoke, oak and ozone. More was imagined as memories of brotherhood, joy and love, were permitted. No tears were shed as they parted, their history sealed.