"OWEN!"
Beckett saw the arrow just as it pierced his baby brother's armor. Well, to be fair, Owen wasn't a baby. He was a warrior, tried and true. Owen had fought by Beckett's side for years now. There was never a more noble, courageous, kind, or supportive comrade. But as Beckett fought his way across the battlefield, he didn't see another wounded soldier. He saw his little brother.
When Beckett finally reached Owen, both brothers knew the situation looked grim. Owen did what he always did when he was scared or hurting: he pushed through the pain and focused on the task in front of him. At least, he tried to. But the arrow was too deep, too close to his heart. Owen hardly made it two steps before collapsing to the ground. He tried to get up again, to rejoin the battle and fight for his brother. But Beckett held him close, trying to find some way, any way, to heal his brother's fatal wound.
How had this happened? One day, they were brothers playing in the palace, the next Beckett was facing exile. Exile wasn't the best, but it was better than this. Better than full-on war. Beckett loved Maggie, and he would fight for her, no matter what. But he never anticipated their love causing all of this death. Deep down, he knew that it wasn't his fault. Ravana's jealousy was to blame. But right now, as his loyal, goofy brother lay dying, he was shaken to his core with guilt.
The battle raged around them, but the brothers just sat there, knowing this would likely be their final moment together in this life.
"Owen," Beckett said, "I'm so sor-"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Owen said with a strained chuckle, "You're sorry. You love me. I know, I know. And I love you too. But right now, I'd rather not get into all of that. I'm actually getting pretty tired..."
Owen shut his eyes. He was still alive, but only just. Beckett felt helpless, numb. He didn't know what to do. He knew there was nothing he could do.
Suddenly, a great shadow fell over the battlefield. It was Fisher! Beckett's loyal best friend had seen Owen get wounded, and knew the only thing that could save him was the herbs from the Himalayan mountains. Fisher immediately left the battlefield and went to the mountain. He wasn't exactly sure which herbs he, so he just grabbed the whole mountain and brought it back to where Owen lay dying. Fisher found the herbs and mixed a healing salve together and began applying it to Owen's woun-
"Fisher! Why are you putting mud all over Owen's shirt?"
"I'm the magical doctor, Mrs. Fite! These are the healing herbs," Fisher called back.
"Yeah, Mom! Can't you see I'm mortally wounded?" Owen shouted, his new shirt completely covered in a mess of mud, leaves, and grass.
"He needs this medicine if we're ever going to defeat Ravana!" Beckett explained.
"Well," the amused yet exasperated mom replied, "I think that's enough medicine to get the job done. No more mud."
"Yes ma'am!" Beckett, Owen, and their friend Fisher called in unison.
-began applying it to Owen's wounds. At first, it seemed like nothing was happening. Then, slowly, Owen's eyes opened. He looked down at where his wound had been, then with a mischievous grin he and Beckett leapt up from the ground and continued their adventure.
Author's Note: I was inspired by the story of Ravana and Lakshmana. Ravana takes revenge on Lakshmana for killing his son and nearly kills him with a dart, but Hanuman saves the day by yet again bringing the healing herbs of the Himalayas. I chose to zoom in on the brothers in the moments where they thought would be Lakshmana's last. I wanted to include my nephews in the story somehow, so I interrupted the episode with a flash to "reality," where three young brothers are simply playing a game in the backyard. For my storybook, I changed a few things from my original story. I wanted to add the paragraph about how they got here. I am debating between adding the story of how this war began or not, but I wanted to allude to the reason either way. But the main focus is the brothers and their love and loyalty, so I didn't feel the need to go into too much depth at the moment. I had to change Hanuman from their brother to their friend, since Lucas has his own character as one of the brothers. The characters are as follows:
Story Source: Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913).
Image Source: Field from the public domain