By D.B. Morrow

   I was six when it happened. However, I first learned of it when I turned seven, the very next day. It was roughly ten a.m. or somewhere near there. In the mind of a seven-year-old, I don’t think time perception had fully developed yet. A brown-haired girl stopped in and woke me up on my parents’ behalf. She was like the sister I never had, and I couldn’t remember a time she hadn’t been a part of my life. She walked me down hallway after hallway until we stopped at my parents’ room. She opened the door and I spotted my father, sitting on the bed, cradling something in his arms.
           My mother sat on my father’s right side, resting her head on his right shoulder. Her shoulders rose and fell at a relaxed pace, indicating that she was asleep. My escort told me to wait and I looked at her innocently as she hurried over to my father. I looked around the room, the blue color of the walls fulfilling their purpose and providing a calm feeling to the room. It was very light and nearly white, but I was told by Hikari it was blue.
           Footsteps came from behind me and I turned to look at a tall girl with green eyes. She smiled at me and squatted down to eye level, rubbing my ears playfully. My ears were something I had now grown accustomed to. They sat upon my head, obviously, but - thanks to my father - I also had round ears on the side of my head. My mother called them human ears because they resembled exactly that, the ears of a human. The ones on the top of my head, the cat-like ones, she called demon ears.
           It was an elaborate subject and I had very little comprehension of it. The green-eyed girl pointed behind me and I looked at the brown-haired girl as she hurried over to me, squatting in front of me also. She tilted enough for me to see what she now carried. I looked into the wrapping of blankets to see a baby, sleeping as well. I blinked in a confused manner as the green-eyed girl laughed happily. It was my new sister.

           My sister and I were like twins. I would always do something with her, provided she was old enough to handle the activity I had planned. But there isn’t too much a ten year old can’t do. Then again, it’s hard to find things to do in my home. It’s basically a market/castle town. Thankfully, my ever-youthful accompaniment would always join in and make things more enjoyable for the both of us. It was right around this time that I actually took notice in her beauty.
           But, once again, there was a topic I vaguely understood. She had ears like mine and, just like my mother, had no “human” ears. What this meant was she was either a demon or mostly demon. In my case, with the two sets of ears, I was easily discernable as a half demon; or, in the case of my father and sister, who had only human ears, one had to look back through heritage to find the half demon in them.
           I had finally gotten the ears down pat but the age differences in demons still confused me. If you were at least half demon, which, luckily enough on the DNA level, both I and my sister were, you grew until your body chose an age. Then, in demon society, you were that age until unnatural death. In the human community, you continued to age in years, again, until unnatural death. Such complications, it seriously affects how the mental process works, for me that is…

           My sister yawned and looked at me for the same expression. I obliged her and faked a yawn, at which she smiled. We sat at the river nearby and looked over the foliage all around. This was, by far, her favorite place. She would always force me to go there. I was always happy to take her, though. As she so correctly put it, albeit meant as a compliment or expression of endearment, I’m a sap when she’s asking for anything. And, sadly, I can attest to that. After all, she was my sister and, once again put very well by her, what more is a brother worth than to be kind to his sister?