And... Because of the thick blood and power, the royal family always has twins. Crow... is my older twin brother. Never thought I'd be the one who was dominated...

Like the two eternally battling birds, Crow and I have our own battle. His dark black eyes search for my own. The distance between us faded away, eyes locked onto one another. I stubbornly hold my own, never looking away because that will mean he'll strip me of the last piece of my pride. And I will not allow that. 

I can hear his ugly beast coming closer. I state slowly, "Do you really think I won't escape? Once I do I will kill you." I smirk, "Even this tree is flammable." 

Crow throatily laughs, like we are sharing a lovely joke, "You don't know how long I will await the day you do brother..." He snaps his fingers amused, "But it won't ever be soon... Because this tree will never be burned down by your flames." 

I hiss, "Impossible... you know as well as I do, I can burn anything."

"Anything, but yourself."

I twitch, not sure what he means by that. About to laugh at him, fear close my throat when I see what the beast is carrying. There's the scrapping of metal on stone, then hissing as it slithers over sand. chains... small lengths about the size of my pinky all linked together in a single thread attached to an old rusty red collar. 

I have heard about this collar, only in legends. A cold forbidden shiver runs up my spine and up to my brain freezing all cognitive actions. How in the universe of universes did Crow find it? It's supposed to have been destroyed by our ancestors... I can only watch fearfully as the beast brings the chain over to Crow. 

He lifts it up to the moon, the soft blue runes pulsing quietly against its red iron. 

I don't know who's sicker, the one who created it or the one who's about to use it on me. 

The collar has several names, but the one that's always stuck with me is The Binding Collar. 

Crow takes his time, looking the collar up and down before he takes a step toward the water's surface. He whispers a few words, the air shivering with magic as it swirls around him. Spell incantations, he steps onto the water as if it's solid ground. 

Sniffing the air, I can taste the pure Shyrian magic he used. Only Pure Blood can use magic as clean as this. 

slowly he glides on over to me, the chain trailing behind him. With each step the water's surface twinkles like stars, firefly blue mist steaming around his body ablaze with light as he walks with all the confidence of the world. He stops just below me, looking up yet still looming over me. Dark glowing eyes glimmer with emotions, many I can't read, but I am sure he's tasting victory.

I keep my voice calm, "Are you really just going to roll over and let our sister turn you into her little domesticated pet!" I laugh, urging my arms to try and pry themselves from their prison. They do not listen to me, instead they stay firmly stuck. "She will kill you, in a freak accident or in an assassination. She will kill you, and I'll laugh in my grave... unless we come to another form of agreement." I smile savagely, "We can let the past be the past, and work together to keep her in line?'  

He moves the chain from hand to hand as if he's thinking about what I said. but shakes his head, "I can handle the likes of our sister without your assistance." He moves the collar up, leveling it to my throat. The rusty collar cracks open eagerly, the blue ruins inside flashing on and off like fireflies. Crow's voice holds a mysterious muskiness to it choking him with indescribable emotions. "You see, you were in both of our ways. Now..." He smiles sweetly, but his eyes are cold, "You are no longer in our way. We both will have our little feud, with the winner being me and all. I might come back to gloat." He chuckles adding, "If there's anything left." 

Crow leans in close, his eyes level with my own. The world shifts and it's only us. He smiles, his eyes, his moon flesh, his steady breathing. I shiver sensing something sinister and bright gleaming in his eyes. All the while the collar came closer and closer to my neck. Jerking backward and twisting did nothing for me. 

He smirks, pressing the cold metal onto my flesh. Locking it in place. 

The cold metal burns with power, tightening around my neck painfully. The end of the collar glows red, arising out of the glittering water, it pauses, shaking itself like a snake orientating itself. Suddenly it flashes forward almost too fast for my Shyrian eyes to keep up. It lengthens and grows to wrap itself through branches and straight into the bark exiting a little too close to my head. 

I gasp, as suddenly blood flies from my chest. I cry out in pain, the chain crushing my heart, burning chains scaring my flesh. It twists, staring me right in the face before slamming back into my chest and out my back. I can feel the chains slam into my hands, and ankles, and poke through my body.

Gasping my voice strangles empty, my mind rushing through several thoughts. My thoughts and pain, the mind of a Shyrain, but there's something else coming into clear view.

Heat, flesh, wood, sun, moon, and deep pain. So much pain... I twist feeling the roots below, so much further down than I thought possible, close to teh core of the earth, spinning and burning. I can feel the wind rustling through the branches, and hear... Some slow steady train of thought. Terrified, scared of me, scared of the chains, scared of my mind! 

I slump forward, unable to move my body.

I can hear Crow chuckling turning his back to me, "Have a good nice little nap, brother." 

An hour later, I hear explosives caving in the tunnel. 

I am alone... Truly alone...

Closing my eyes I shiver. How can the heir to the Shyrian throne fall so far from grace?