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Three Years Ago...
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"Are we seriously going to leave them here?" A woman asked the man beside her.
"What other choice do we have? We can't afford to take care of them. We are too close to crippling debt."
"Yeah, I guess we are." The man crouched down near the basket, his face was shadowed by his fedora. The little bit of moonlight that seeped in was enough to reveal a single eye. It was cat-like, a deep and curious yellow.
"I'm sure you'll be fine on your own, as long as you work together. You can search for us one day if you wish, but I can't guarantee our survival."
A forceful knock at the door awakened Ms. Melody. She knew it could only be two things, a dishonest and violent person looking to adopt, or another abandoned child left in a basket. It was such bad timing too, considering the temperature was at its lowest this year.
She put on a heavy coat and headed out the front door, almost stepping on the doorstep basket. She pulled down the blanket only slightly, only to be surprised that there was not one, but two children bundled up together.
"My, I never thought I would experience such a sight." Ms. Melody commented. "Let's get you somewhere warm, shall we?" She pulled the blanket back over them and rushed inside. The other children was fast asleep, and she didn't want to leave them in the same room without their permission. "I guess I'll just sleep here tonight."
She turned on the fireplace, watching as it flooded the dead room with light.
"There, that should keep the cold away...huh?"
She picked up a note, peeking out from the bottom of the blanket.
"These two, beautiful children are named Sage and Nova. We couldn't let them suffer from our past mistakes. If someday, we fix our way of life, we might come back to them, that's only if they haven't been adopted.
They are twins, intertwined by fate, brought by two people in this world who didn't deserve them. By appearance alone, they are the same, but we can tell that they differ in many ways; direct opposites, light over darkness and life over death. One acts as the messenger, and the other is the executioner.
It's hard to tell at their current age, but let's just consider it a parent's intuition."
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Present Day...
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"That's another one dead... this isn't going to end, is it?"
Nobody had an answer to Dud's question. Delta now rested under a pile of dirt, the children all stared in silence at the unmarked grave. "I'm probably the next one, right?"
"Perhaps." Nera answered Dud honestly. "I can't get the thought of it out of my head. He told me that I need to remember... but it doesn't make any sense. Winter never rejected him, and you only live once, so I don't know why he kept going on about dying before."
"What if he is right though? If he somehow does remember dying, how long do you think we have been here?"
"I-I don't know."
They journeyed together through the woods once again, finally gaining the courage to search for Eri's remains. These hills are haunted, that's what the townspeople said as they vanished into thin air. If Melonia Falls has a secret somewhere, it's through the forest nobody dares to explore.
It was either stay in the city and wait for death individually, or travel as one and die together. Every subtle sound was another distraction that made them jump. An hour passed, then another, and eventually the group emerged onto a shore.
Slender trees and melting sand, that was the only thing this shore was filled with; just another piece of land isolated by civilization. "Is that..."
"Do you see something, sis?" Nova asked. "No, it's nothing. I thought I saw a crazy looking bird."
"A crazy bird?"
All the children looked towards the sky, seeing nothing but clouds. "Hey, Sage. Are you feeling alright? You need to tell us, or else we might have another Delta incident."
"Yeah, I'm fine, just shut up about that. Go somewhere and take a nap like you always do."
"That actually doesn't sound so bad. This is a beach after all."
Nova danced over to a nearby tree, while her sister, only looked more irritated by the second. "Sage, you should probably relax somewhere as well." Winter suggested. "We aren't doubting what you saw. I've seen enough crazy things at this point. If you need someone to talk to, just talk to me."
She was ignoring Winter, still staring hatefully at her sister in the distance. "Land to Sage, are you still alive in there."
"Hey, there seems to be some sort of cave entrance here!" Nester shouted. "It actually looks like it leads somewhere crazy!"
The other children followed, unaware that they reached the back entrance of the fairy kingdom. "Is that some sort of fairy dust in those lanterns?" Winter shattered one with a rock. "What are you doing?"
"This isn't sand, nor any sort of known substance. Actually, it looks a lot like-"
"Stardust!" Nova answered. "That's not a light source, stupid!"
"Actually Sage, as crazy as it sounds, our bodies are actually made of stardust. Those colored clusters of light in space is stardust. If there is a way to contain it, using it as a light source wouldn't be so imaginary."
"Hey Winter, enough of your knowledge dropping, is that a fairy over there?"
The children peeked around the corner, and emptying more dust into the lantern, was no doubt a creature straight from a foreign fantasy world.
"No, none of this can be real." the children thought. After the fairy vanished through the cave, Nester bravely reached into the lantern to feel the stardust for himself.
"Hey, there's something slimy in here." he said softly. He pulled out the strange object, examining it closely. "Hey, t-this isn't what I think it is, right?"
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