TIME: Many years ago
LOCATION: Slums of Roshmi City
INTERACTIONS: none
"Stop that kid!", shouted a guard to his men as he pointed at a child running away. The child mention looked back at them and stuck his tongue out in a teasing way before running and disappearing into an alleyway. The guards chased after the kid but when they got to the alleyway, he was gone. The alleyway was filled with random junk and the kid just hid behind one of the bigger ones.
"Come out, come out, wherever you are... You little brat", the guard said with spite. The kid closed his mouth so he wouldn't hear his breath as the guards walked closer and closer to his hiding spot.
Just then, one of the guard's men called their attention. "I found him, sir! He went inside a shop!". The guard ordered his men to go to that area. The guard stayed behind for a bit, growling and leering at the pile of junk, before leaving the alleyway and following his men.
After a few minutes of tense waiting, the kid emerged from his hiding spot. He looked at the direction where the guards were heading to and then, making sure the coast was clear, he went in the opposite direction with a smug look on his face. There were those who have seen the child, but those who live in the slums were too caught up in their own problems to care about some random kid's law-breaking.
The kid passed a grungy store with windows to look at his reflection. Bits of dirt and grime were on his ragged clothes and his yellow-ish-green-scaled body was etched with various scars he gained from living on the streets and fleeing from the city guards. He looked at the bag he stole which comprised of freshly baked bread he stole from a baker.
Neither he nor his younger sister knew anything about their parents; they don't even have names. The only thing he could remember was living in an orphanage, where he grew up to become a wild troublemaker while his sister grew up to be mute. He would always end up in fights with the other kids who teased his younger sister. The siblings were not likable by prospective parents either as they don't want to adopt a hard-headed troublemaker boy or a special-needs mute girl. Knowing that no one will ever love them, they both left the orphanage as they believe it's better for them to live in hardship together as they always knew they had each other's backs.
In this part of Roshmi, it's every demihuman for themselves. The young boy made sure that he secured a spot for him and his sister so they'll never have to worry about finding a place to sleep in. As the boy approached their spot, he could hear a bunch of children laughing and it seemed that it came from the direction of their spot.
The boy rushed to the place and discovered that a bunch of other street children was teasing his sister. They were more heartless than the kids at the orphanage; they tugged at his poor sister's hair, pushed her around and kicked her, while she could only cower in a fetal position as tears ran down her face. One of them grabbed the girl's cherished stuff toy and began to tear it apart right in front of the sister, and that's when the young lizard boy first heard his younger sister cry. It was so loud and full of pain and hearing it made the brother remember all the hardships they have endured together. He felt the bread he stole drop to the ground, and then he blacked out.
When he came to, the first thing he saw was his sister's face that's full of fear. He looked around and saw the children that were once teasing his sister were now lying motionless on a pool of blood. They were covered in scratches, bite marks, and bruises; most of them even had broken bones. He looked at his hands and was surprised to see that he too was mostly covered in blood, their blood.
He fell on his knees on to the pool of blood, realized what he's done and cried in anguish for the first time in years. His sister crawled to him and hugged him as he shook in fear and shock, not caring about her becoming stained in blood. They cried in each other's arms: the brother because of how much of a failure he was from not being able to give a better life for the both of them, and the sister because she knew how much her brother sacrificed for the both of them.
"If only there was a way, huh?"The siblings stopped crying in surprise to look at the person who just spoke. The brother immediately faced the stranger, spreading his arm to keep his sister protected behind him. The stranger was using an umbrella and wore very foreign clothing. Her long, white hair flowed through the wind, and she looked at the siblings with a glint in her pupil-less yellow eyes.
"There is nothing more powerful in this world than the bond of a family. You have endured so much together, experienced so much together, at such a tender young age. You may call me Sakura and I'm here to help you. I know you want nothing in this world than to be together forever, so I have a proposition to make...
I want both of you to help me do some work. In exchange, I will both give you power you can't even imagine, power you can use to defend yourselves, and power you can use to hurt those who dare hurt you back. Of course, both of you will be inseparable. Nothing and no one can ever tear you apart from each other." As Sakura said that, she knelt down and handed out the little girl's stuff toy that looked good as new. The girl's eyes brightened and she grabbed her toy while smiling graciously at Sakura. The boy was still confused about whether or not to trust this stranger, because no one actually paid attention to them nor showed them kindness.
"If you agree to my proposition, all you have to do is take my hand." Sakura said as she opened her hand while smiling serenely at them. The girl smiled at her brother, eyes twinkling with excitement. Trusting his sister's judgment, he looked at Sakura, nodded, and shook her hand.
TIME: Later than night
LOCATION: Sakura's place of witchcraft, somewhere in Daka Island
INTERACTIONS: none
The siblings, once feeling cleaned and refreshed from taking a decent bath and having a decent dinner for years, now knelt in the middle of a blood circle while facing together. Candles surrounded the perimeter of the blood circle and Sakura stood at the edge, holding a large wooden mask. Standing beside her were two figures made of various materials, mostly wood. Their heights were exactly the same as the siblings'.
When Sakura began chanting, the flames on the candles turned grey and grew in size, surrounding the three of them in a large tornado of grey fire combined with the shadows of the night. The siblings began to cower in fright, but Sakura wrapped them in an embrace and gently shushed them.
"Would you like me to tell you a story?". Sakura kindly asked the two of them, and they nodded.
"There was once a man, grey and hollow
Where woe and pain were sure to follow
Weighted by the curse of being alone
Burdened with sins he hoped to atone..."
While Sakura told them the story, the grey fire began to consume the siblings. They arched their backs and screamed in immense pain. Their eyes and mouths began turning as black as night. Despite that, Sakura continued:
"As he lived on, time receded his sanity
Until his heart had forgotten how to be happy
So he picked up an ax and split his core
And he finally had a friend forevermore..."
Their bodies shuddered and they kept on screaming until two bluish-white orbs, their souls, came out of their mouths. Black energy emerged from the wooden mask, grabbing the children's souls and infusing them within it while their physical bodies burned to ash. The plan mask began to change until it turned into a despicable object of terror, a mask so horrifying that it will cause anyone who looked at it to fall into madness and despair.
The mask was brimming with power and Sakura simply picked up an ax next to the ground and split the mask into two. Both of the two halves let out a blood-curling scream and they flew around in the air, vibrating violently. They both flew into the faces of the child-like figures beside Sakura, changing their appearance to look more like two smaller versions of the original mask. The energy from the two masks flowed through the two figures' bodies, and they shook violently, their bodies jerking and snapping until they finally came to life.
"From then on, they no longer felt hollow
In their wake, woe and pain will surely follow
And when someone dares to separate the two-"
"THE MASKS OF ZATURNA WILL COME FOR YOU."
