Brave



The cold gripped him like a vice. It was so dark, so utterly encompassing that it drowned him in fear. Terror took him by the throat, and he could not even breathe. ''Smile. You can’t be scared if you smile.'' He tried, but his lips went numb and he felt his fingers shaking uncontrollably. A deadly flash of lightning flared across the dark sky ahead of him. Thunder followed in a raucous snarl. Only, that wasn’t thunder. Something that loud couldn’t possibly be thunder. Just smile.

He felt for his sword. Unsheathing it, he saw another flash of lightning ahead of him. Its reflection danced across his cold steel like a cool flame. He saw something ahead of him, moving in front of the breaks of lightning. It was large, swift, evil - a harbinger of death. Shivering, he looked down to his side. No! It’s gone!

Dismay and dread, horror, and doubt seized him and he fell to his knees. He felt his fingers loosen around his sword’s handle. Another flash of lightning lit up the night’s sky like an explosion. And following it was the lumbering din of an unimaginable beast. He patted his side, eyes wide and full of tears. The ocarina was gone. ''Smile! Don’t be a coward! Tapion wouldn’t be a coward. He would believe in me.''

A loud boom rang and shards of rock and stone flung at him like daggers. He shielded his eyes and looked up just in time a dark mass hurling itself towards him. Desperately, he grabbed his sword, sheathed it, kicked off from the ground, and rolled away. The ground was so dark, he could barely see anything. He frantically looked about, this way and that, but there was no sign of his ocarina. ''It’s gone. I’ll have to beat him like a warrior. I have to be brave, like Tapion. Smile! The fear is weakness. I’m not weak. I’m brave.''

There was a large vortex hanging over the sky just ahead of him. And in front of it was half a nightmare, the bottom section of Hirudegarn. His brother and he had defeated that monster once before, but they had been together. But now he was alone with the colossal beast, and he was scared. He shivered. Why is it so cold? He blinked and the creature was gone. He found himself breathing hard then, knowing the demon was around him. It didn’t make a sound, as huge as it was. He spun around. ''Where is it? How can it hide from me?''

Another flash of lightning made him jump. He reached for his sword and pulled it out again. Spinning around, he narrowed his eyes, looking for any sign of the fleeting darkness that was hunting him. Then, he heard a sound, a crashing that made his ears pop and ring, and he clenched his mouth to stop himself from screaming out in agony. He was just below the vortex now. Its blue-white light shone down on his quivering visage. Then, like a tremor, he felt something move. He gasped, flung his sword to his chest, and looked up. No! It can’t be! The monster was coming out of the portal. It had tricked him. He thought it had left the portal. He saw it outside just a moment prior. Had it really been so fast that it could hide away in the blink of an eye?

A foot the size of a building came shooting out of the portal towards him like a snake striking at its prey. His body tensed up. He could not move. All he could do was let out a cry, a muffled gasp and then the foot was over him. He felt his sword slip from his hands and his body slam against the rocky ground. And then he felt nothing, save for the biting, bitter cold, swallowing him whole.



Tapion stepped out of the time machine and stretched his neck. He smiled. Bulma had been unbelievably gracious in making him the ship so that he could return to his home. He had traveled to 1000 years in the past, back when Minotia had still been alive. He only wished he could live out his remaining days in peace. ''No more war. No more death.'' Tapion left his time machine and walked into his city of birth. It was a beautiful place with massive marble buildings and statues of the heroes of his people. He briefly stopped and looked at the one of him and his brother, and a tear came to his eye. Just seeing the likeness of Minotia in the marble brought back innumerable memories as delicate and ephemeral as life itself. He wiped his eyes and then moved forward. Can’t let Minotia see me like this.

He would kill every Kashvar himself. Hirudegarn would never be summoned again. He just needed to find their homeworld. It was the solution for everything. His planet’s war council would surely know where those cowardly vermin lived. Tapion made his way to their building, which was a gigantic octagon situated at the center of the town. Climbing the steps, he noticed plenty of people milling about, laughing and conversing with one another as if life was normal. ''Good. I’m going to keep it that way. We won’t have to be afraid ever again.'' Entering the great council chambers, Tapion saw ahead of him several people standing. As he crept up on them, moving from being marble pillars, he saw that they were him and his brother. He froze.

He remembered this - it was when the great Konatsian wizard who had given Minotia and him their ocarinas and swords sealed them away in their music boxes. I’m already there, he realized. He had come back in time, but he had only just now realized that his old self would also be in the past. ''Of course. I’m so stupid.''

He watched the wizard seal his past self and Minotia away in the music boxes. Soon, others would come to take those boxes away. He knew his past self would be sent to Earth and his brother to the other side of the universe. Not this time.

Tapion stepped forward. He saw the confusion, the disbelief play across the faces of the war council and the wizard alike. Clearly, they were shocked at his sudden appearance, for they had just watched him get sealed away.

“Tapion? H-how… wh-what… what is going on?” one managed to speak.

“We just watched you get put into that!” another said, pointing furiously to his music box.

Tapion nodded. “I’m in there, I guess. The past version of me, anyway.”

“Who are you?”

“I’m from the future,” Tapion said. The council fell into utter silence, their faces stony and cold. “I’m here to put a stop to Hirudegarn.”

“If what you say is true, then you know what we are doing here,” the wizard interjected. “This measure will prevent the monster from ever returning.”

Tapion breathed out. “No, it won’t. He will get out in the future kill many people. He killed my brother. He nearly killed me. But with the help of a couple friends, I was able to stop him.”

They stared at him like fresh corpses.

“This plan won’t work!” Tapion yelled, his voice echoing throughout the chambers. “We have to kill the Kashvar! We have to do it now! Tell me where their homeworld is, and I’ll do it myself. I won’t let anybody else die over this!”

“It is a terrible thing wage war on an entire race. Many of the Kashvar are not evil…” one council member began.

“All of us will die if I don’t do this!” Tapion spoke. “All of you, our people, even my brother!” Tapion’s eyes grew desperate at their lack of resolve. “Don’t you want to survive? Any of you?!”

The wizard stepped forward. “If we must kill millions to save billions, then so be it. What say you, councilmen?”

The others nodded and grunted in approval.

The wizard stepped forward and put a heavy hand on Tapion’s shoulder. “You know it is a grievous thing to kill innocent beings. You must live with that if you choose to do this.”

Tapion looked down at the two music boxes. “I will. And my brother will live because of it. That’s all that matters.” The wizard smiled softly, patting Tapion’s shoulder. Tapion screwed up his face. “Don’t tell my past self or my brother that I came. I don’t want them to know. Just let them be happy.”

The wizard gave Tapion his word, and the mohawked hero exited. Soon, he found himself back in the time machine, shooting off towards the Kashvar homeworld. Many of them were innocent beings. But it was for the greater good. Hoi’s ancestor was somewhere on the planet. If he did not die, countless other trillions would.

Tapion felt sad in a way. Even as he exited his time machine and threw a giant green ball of ki into the center of the Kashvar homeworld, soon watching it cause the planet to collapse in on itself and explode in a brilliantly silent blast, Tapion felt alone. It was brave, being the one to do this, he told himself, but he scarcely believed it. All he knew was that he couldn’t return to the past. There was already a Tapion in the past. And it wasn’t him. So Tapion, his heart being suffocated by the weeds of sorrow, decided to return to the present, where he knew only death and misery awaited him.



It was an ugly world, where his brother had been sent to. Grey rocks and jagged mountains that looked like broken teeth dotted the world’s surface and little else was noticeable. He landed the time machine in the valley between two such mountains, following the wizard’s instructions on where Minotia would be. He soon found craters and cracked rocks and saw the heavy, deep imprints of Hirudegarn’s footprints sunk deep in the old stone. And then, before Tapion, was the ocarina of his brother, cast aside in a corner as if it were nothing. He snatched it up and held it close to his chest. He knew he was close.

The weight of killing all those innocent Kashvar coupled with finding his brother’s corpse left Tapion anxious. His heart was beating so fast that he could hear its screaming thumping in his ears. He was even finding it hard to breathe. He had never felt like this before. ''What’s wrong with me? Why am I scared? I know what’s coming. I can’t be scared. I must be brave. For him.''

(Cue Fix You)

And then, he saw it. Ahead of Tapion, in a broken bit of rocks lay his brother. Upon seeing Minotia, Tapion ran. He ran all the way up to him and then found himself kneeling over his brother’s corpse. He softly grasped the back of Minotia’s head with his hand and pulled his head towards Tapion’s own. It was then, he saw a flicker come from beneath Minotia’s eyelids.

“Minotia?” Tapion gasped.

His brother’s eyes cracked open, slowly and painfully. For a brief second, the two just stared at one another. Then Minotia spoke, his voice quiet and deliberate. “T-tapion? A-am I dead?”

Tapion felt tears coming to his eyes and he had to swallow to keep them back. “N-no, I’m here! Minotia I’m here. It’s okay. Everything will be okay.”

His brother smiled that same smile Tapion knew him so well for. Tapion couldn’t help but smile back. “I’ve missed you, Tapion. I-it’s been so long… I almost… forgot wh-what you looked like!” He grabbed onto Tapion’s arm, hard. “T-tapion… I hurt. I hurt all over,” he whimpered.

Tapion saw tears welling in his brother’s tired eyes. There were bruises and gashes with dried blood lining his face. His nose was broken, and his ribs were too, most likely. Tapion couldn’t believe he was even alive at this point. “It’s okay, Minotia. I’m going to fix you. You will be all right.”

Minotia looked up at his brother with those wide innocent eyes of his. “Did you… k-kill Hirudegarn?”

“Yeah, we got him.”

Minotia sighed, looking up to the sky. He smiled. “I want to go home. I always wanted to return home. I’ve m-missed it so much.”

“You’re home, brother. As long as you’re with me.”

“I’m so glad I got to see you again.”

“You’re going to be okay. I’ll find you somewhere where we can-”

“No, Tapion,” Minotia whispered feebly. Tapion felt Minotia’s grip on his arm tighten. “P-please, play me something on the ocarina. That’s all I want.”

Tapion sat up straight, realizing what that meant. This time, he could not hold back the tears. “No! I can fix you! I can save you!”

“Tapion, please…” his brother said in a tremulous voice.

There was nothing else to do, nothing else he could do. Minotia was barely hanging on. He saw the life flickering in his brother’s eyes like a dying flame. He could try all he wanted, but he could not fix Minotia.

So Tapion sat back and drew up Minotia’s ocarina to his mouth. He began playing, slowly at first. It was a haunting tune, the same one Minotia and he had learned to tame Hirudegarn. He remembered those times, with the great wizard. They had defeated Hirudegarn the first time together. All three of them. He remembered how Minotia had called Tapion a brave warrior, a fearless hero after the battle. He looked down at Minotia, who was still smiling up at him, even as Tapion knew his brother was in immense pain. ''How does he do it? How does he smile through this?'' Tapion could barely see, his eyes were so wet. He was no hero, no brave warrior. He was miserable. He was going to have to carry that weight. He would have to go on. And he was scared. He was so very scared. He wasn’t ready. He wasn’t ready to let go.

Tapion felt Minotia’s grip loosen, and then his brother’s arm fell to the ground. Tapion shuddered. His skin felt numb, his mind started swimming in despair. But he sat there still, until he had finished the song. He owed his brother that much. It was Minotia’s now, and Tapion was going to carry that weight. He was going to be brave.

No, he thought, ''I’m not the brave one. Minotia was braver than I ever could be.''