The events take place outside the Mortal Kombat canon, in a medieval world gripped by a strange virus epidemic. Some races inhabit a single continent, while others live in isolation. In this world, Khameleon and Syzoth are brother and sister, though Khameleon is an albino. The virus slowly affects the living, with symptoms varying in every individual.
The text will contain excerpts from a Russian song "Страшный день" Авантюра.
Syzoth lived in a remote village, only among his people, the Zaterans. There were no humans there, nor any human races. The Zaterans are not a very friendly people. Not all of them get along with humans. Some Zaterans, of course, can become friends, but not all. Many simply have too explosive a temper.
Syzoth was a simple Zateran who lived for his people and his younger sister, Khameleon. Khameleon is an albino Zateran with beautiful green eyes... The Reptile was known by everyone as a very kind and responsive guy. He spared nothing for his loved ones and his sister. He had a loyal horse, with whose help Syzoth often left the village for various towns to bring his people things, medicines, seeds, and food unfamiliar to Zaterans, leaving Khameleon alone. He was confident in his sister. She handled the affairs. She never asked to go with him. She had her own business and interests. Their parents had long since died. Time came, and they left the world. By that time, the siblings were already adults and perfectly understood that thousands of years of life were enough for their parents. They had lived a worthy life... Syzoth often traveled and brought whatever goods he deemed necessary. He brought jewelry as gifts for his sister. He was like a mail service or a mediator. People ordered from him, and he delivered. Very few among his race engaged in such activities, because he knew how to behave properly in human society, as well as how to take on human form, unlike his kinfolk. The guy was a traveler, so he was the first to learn about the mutation, but he firmly decided to hide this news from his loved ones, and above all from his sister.
When the epidemic began, Syzoth was sure the mutation would not reach his people. At first, that was how it was... There was no news of it. Nobody traveled to the city often. Only the stories of those arriving in their village gave knowledge of such a thing, but no one believed it. The entire people lived as well as possible in the first months after the global epidemic, as well as could be expected during that period...
Generally, Zaterans have a body that is very resistant to diseases and all sorts of mutations. They practically never get sick. They live far away, in a warm place, constantly harden themselves, and also their immunity is naturally stronger, more powerful... Tumors do not appear in them because the body does not mutate. If they catch a cold, they just need to drink some hot tea and the cold is gone. The first months, there was no mutation at all. There were no symptoms, not even a hint of it. Yes... Zattera is a heavenly refuge from a world with disease. Syzoth was incredibly happy about this...
"— The mutation won't reach here.. No one will get sick." — the guy repeated to himself every time he left his native settlement.
One day, our traveler again prepared to set out for the capital. For his trips, ever since he learned about the mutation, he began to equip himself as much as possible so as not to get infected. He put on a large mask with an elongated beak, into which he placed medicinal herbs such as carnivorous plant, verbena, and the like, like a plague doctor. He always wore gloves that acted as armor, and a hood. But now his younger sister asked to go with Syzoth. He refused for a long time and looked for various excuses, but Khameleon did not even let him think about anything other than taking her on the trip. She reminded him of herself every minute. The Reptile made many excuses, but still took her with him... He took her... And...
Nothing happened. Absolutely nothing. Their life after the trip did not change. Khameleon continued to live. She lived and was happy to feel alive. Syzoth was beside himself with joy. During the entire trip, he did not let his sister learn about the mutation.
But the mutation was there. It was there and developed in Khameleon body more and more every day, but there were no symptoms except for intense thirst. The Reptile did not notice this. He attributed his sister's thirst to the stress after the trip and to similar things.
Khameleon was as beautiful as ever. It even seemed that her green eyes shone even brighter... They shone for Syzoth for the last time... Soon, Khameleon begged her brother to bring her as much water as possible, claiming that her throat was dry and she urgently needed to moisten it. Only when she began to lose weight, started refusing food, and was drinking about five liters of water a day, which seemed to magically evaporate from her body, did Syzoth sound the alarm. This is not normal! He took his sister to the best healers in Zattera, begging on his knees to find out what was wrong with his little sister, but they only shrugged, giving some banal answer like "she's fine, but she should start eating more." Nothing more. The sister herself, in response to her brother's attempts to feed her, would say that she wasn't hungry, that she didn't need food, and they even argued about it. She would furiously, to the point of hysterics, insist that her brother was overprotective of her, and if he was so afraid for her, he should worry in silence or just leave the house altogether. Syzoth was devastated after another of his sister's outbursts. She had become emaciated, nervous, drank too much water, ate nothing, and had also stopped sleeping...
"What's wrong with her..." Syzoth asked himself day after day.
The healers shrug their shoulders...
He couldn't find an answer. He was too worried, so his heart kept him at home, not letting him go about his usual activities. He hated everything and everyone. Khameleon, himself, his goddamn job, for that matter! He didn't know what to do. He couldn't influence his sister at all... He was afraid to even think about what she might be sick with...
But days passed, and the girl's bones and internal organs began to show through... Her white body seemed drained of blood, yet she lived and felt fine... But it wasn't so... The mutation in the Zateran body developed in different ways, first in the brain, disrupting the central nervous system, shutting down the nerve cells in the stomach, then other parts of the brain, then the kidneys... In the early stages, the mutation was eating away at the internal organs... The Reptile didn't know what to do with himself. His sister had stopped eating... A living skeleton. Syzothhad already forgotten what it was like to live without fear and the nervous anticipation of something terrible.
An evil night, like a herald of doom
We forget how to live without fear!
The last remnants of will are leaving,
A day will come, there will be much pain! — Авантюра
"Злая ночь, будто вестник краха
Забываем как жить без страха!
Будет день будет много боли!")
Another night ended in ruin. Ruin for everything Syzoth had. Three in the morning. He had barely fallen asleep. Khameleon knew that her brother now only fell asleep closer to dawn. She knew she was mutating, but she could do nothing about it! Her body wouldn't obey, her brother was worried, her condition was getting worse. All her organs were being compressed! Terribly compressed! Pressing, pressing, pressing!!! The girl thought her end was near, but her brother wouldn't survive it... Khameleon crept out of the house in a white dress and headed out of the settlement. She took her true form; now all her wounds and the consequences of the mutation were laid bare... Her entire hide was covered in sores, her dry, hard scales were cracked like old paint on a little girl's favorite porcelain doll... It was a terrible visage. The girl had almost reached the gate of the house in her form when suddenly instincts, which in this race were almost suppressed, kicked in sharply. She experienced an unreal hunger! Now the white Zateran woman was running around the yard on all fours in search of food. All the high-cultivated plants, the livestock except for the horse, were torn apart and eaten within ten minutes. The logs that made up the house were scratched, as if by some wild beast. Khameleon was losing her humanity. She ran around the yard, roaring in pain, trying to turn back into herself, but the mutation was taking over... She fought with all her might. It was as if she was trying to regain control of her own body... All she could do was cry out quietly, covering her snout with her paws. It hurts... It hurts. It hurts! But suddenly she collapsed to the ground from exhaustion... The girl took her true form with her last remaining strength and resolutely went to the kitchen, picking up her older brother's sharp travel knife. It was honed to a deadly sharpness... It could cut through anything... And no wonder. Her brother was a traveler and a hunter, ready to do anything to protect his family from everything in the world. Even if it was a small, harmless tiger cub... Her hands are shaking. She squeezed her eyes shut, aiming the blade at her chest, but her hands would not obey... They wouldn't let her stab herself... No matter how hard she tried, for ten hellish minutes. She already understood that she could not hold her human form. The girl fell to her knees and crawled to her brother's room, holding the dagger. Her arms and legs were turning into raptor limbs up to the joints. She scratched everything around her. When she reached the threshold of the Reptile's room, a piercing scream rang out, one that couldn't help but wake Sazot. She roared, screaming in agony, no longer holding back at all. The guy woke up immediately, ran to his sister, and lifted her into his arms as she struggled against herself. Her head, arms, and legs kept shifting into their true form, scratching Sazot. Her tail, which appeared and disappeared, tried to strike. Her head tried to bite him. She would resist, then calm down.
— SYZOTH!!! BROTHER, PLEASE!!! I...
At that moment, the girl let out a feral growl. Her brother laid his sister on the bed and fell to his knees before her, begging every god he knew for mercy on his sister. Now... Now, for the first time, he wept. Tears fell onto his sister...
— Khameleon... Khameleon... I will help you! I... I will find a cure! I promise, sister... Don't leave me, I beg you...
Then, the girl came to her senses for the last time and handed her brother the dagger, speaking with a sigh.
— Brother... I... I will never be the same again... Never... Kill me. Kill me! I beg you! I don't want to suffer... I don't want to at all...
— But... I can't live without you...
— You can... I don't want to torment you... It hurt me from the very beginning... Food made me sick. At first I hid it and ate through force, but then food started tasting like rot... It wouldn't digest...
Syzoth froze, and the girl kept talking.
— I found out about the mutation from a trader... No matter how much you tried to shield me back then, I found out on my own and understood everything right away... There is no cure for it...
— I beg you, brother... Kill me and set out on an eternal journey... My soul will always guide you... I...
The girl slowly began to lose consciousness, and then the Reptile decisively grabbed his dagger and thrust it sharply into her chest... It was an agonizing pain... Her sternum and ribs crumbled to dust, and from her heart gushed thick, dark-green blood. So viscous... Syzoth was shattered... The next day, he buried his sister, adorned her grave with flowers. Returning home, he packed a backpack of belongings and set out on his horse, going wherever his eyes would lead him...
He traveled for a long time. For months. For those months, he fled from everything. He tried to find those who had not mutated. In him alone, the mutation did not occur. During his wanderings across the world, he lost his horse. Now he walked on foot... After months of wandering, a village finally awaited the traveler...
In wild turmoil, people rush about, some walk on
For many centuries, people and beasts have been so far away
But a lonely traveler walks toward this village
A misunderstood gleam in his eyes, he barely trudges along.
Traveler, what drives you through snow and fire?
The clang of swords, the cry of suffering, the battle fervor
Perhaps on the border of light and darkness
You will suddenly realize that you are not alone...
"В диком волнении мечутся люди все, кто-то идёт
Много веков уже люди и твари, все так далеко
Но одинокий путник в эту деревню идёт
Блеск в глазах непонятый, он еле бредёт.
Путник, что тебя гонит сквозь снег и огонь?
Звон мечей, крик страданий, пыл боевой
Может быть на границе света и тьмы
Ты поймёшь вдруг внезапно, что ты не один...")
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