This is a really bad one, but I thought I’d toss it out tonight.
The screaming caught Dmitri’s attention first. It wasn’t like a scream of terror, more like one of sheer pain and anguish. As they drew closer, Dmitri began to pick out words, and sobs from within the screams.
“Oh no,” Pluto tossed his cigarette to the ground and crushed it before breaking out into a run, “fuck.”
Dmitri stumbled after Pluto until they came upon a lake being filled in by a construction crew of humans, on one side of the lake, a small black haired boy was being held by two tall men, all while he was screaming and begging to be let go, or for the humans to stop.
“LET HIM GO!” Pluto bellowed, storming towards the nonhumans. One nonhuman obliged, but the other refused to budge.
“Stay out of this,” he snarled.
“Let him go,” Pluto repeated, his voice low and dangerously soft, “he’s trying to protect his home.”
“We don’t need another Faerie Raid,” the nonhuman retorted.
“We also can’t afford for an entire species of nonhuman to go extinct you dickhead!” Pluto spat, turning towards the humans. He strode over to the crew and began, speaking to one of them, occasionally gesturing to the boy, who was looking more hopeful by the second.
“More and more are siding with these freaks every day,” the nonhuman dropped the boy and looked Dmitri up and down, “you got an opinion on this.” The boy glanced at Dmitri and lit up.
“You’re one of the Valkyrie brothers!” he grinned.
“Oh,” the nonhuman pulled a face, “a Valkyrie, nevermind then.”
“What’s so bad about him defending his home?” Dmitri asked.
“Oh I wouldn’t care,” the nonhuman shrugged, “if these things hadn’t massacred a bunch of humans for one little kid.”
“We were defending our home!” the boy argued, “And I never helped with those raids, I wasn’t even born yet.”
“You’re still a Riverfolk,” the nonhuman spat, “that’s enough.”
“What the bloody hell do you think you’re doing?” Dmitri raised his voice, bringing the nonhuman’s attention towards him. The nonhuman’s friend looked between Dmitri and the nonhuman cautiously.
“Justice,” the nonhuman snarled, “Riverfolk decimated humans, it’s time they learned a lesson.”
“Oh you’re fooling yourself,” the friend cut in, “I can’t believe I agreed to help you on this.”
“I-Andrei?” the nonhuman looked confused, as if he didn’t expect his friend to say something.
“Killing them won’t rewind what was done,” the friend commented, “they already paid for their crimes, humans die, face it, we’ve killed humans before, and we will again, the only difference is that we’re not fighting to keep our homes from becoming a human apartment complex.”
“Then they shouldn’t have killed all those humans.”
“Humans killed, no, not just killed, tortured and killed a seven year old and dumped his dead body into his home river for the unforgivable crime of not appreciating humans coming in and acting like his parent’s land was theirs? That was one death, one slow and agonizing death too many for them. They were justified.”
“They killed thousands of humans. A few of them won’t be missed.”
“That’s no justice though.”
“Oh yeah? What is it then?”
“It’s a massacre.”
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