Um..Was that there before?

[zach]

Zach rolled over and stared at the map. Ashton pulled it away from her.
"Goodness we are lost."
The two exchanged glances.
They were somewhere in Australia, in some cavern. They had set out to retrace the steps that had taken them to the cave drawing before. Ashton however had made a grave mistake in handing the map over to Zach,who admittedly had no sense of direction.
They sat and started to share the last of their chocolate.
It was then that the shaking began.

Zach

Ashton was probably mad at me the time but she wasn't showing. After our chocolate she was deep in her mediation. I decided that I was going to try to figure out the map.

Ashton

Hiaahooua ya yah...*zen* *hamburgers* *sword*

Zach

Suddenly there was this noise, this shaking.

Ashton

Hiaahooua ya yah....

Zach

I looked up from my map as the cave wall seemed to crumble. Ashton was chanting but even she jumped to her feet and grabbed her bag out of the way of the falling rocks. I did the same and we started to run back along the corridor from where we came.

Ashton

*fiddle sticks how unfortunate*

Zach

My twin was ahead of me and I was trying to read the map, shouting out directions, we were well ahead of the roaring avalanche when Ashton drew up sharp.

Ashton

*was this here before?*

Zach

"What?" I asked as I slammed into her back.
I looked up and I saw a wall.
Oh crap. I frantically checked the map.That so was not there before. The roar was so close it was deafening.

Ashton

I turned around unafraid to meet my maker. I saw instead a large as ass black hole.

Zach

I was like. Oh oh my goodness..was that there before?
But then I looked closer...
"Is that a mouth?"

Ashton

I heard her ask it. But I never got to answer. I was swallowed. The last thing I did was curse the day I opened my eyes and realized I was not alone in the womb

Zach

AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[zach]

Ashton

It is obvious that we are lost. That is the truth of this place. The Engraving was disturbing, offering no comfort; no direction. I however, see that as the least of my problems. Here in this place, my twin shall search to find the things she misses from home. I know this because we have been 'lost' before. It is her nature to seek but two things in alien environments, comforts such as food and treasure.

I am not so inclined, but I do not mind these things. So I allow her to chase after them lending her my time and attention. I have always indulged my sister.

I revel in my meditation. My body 'talks' to me. I am acutely aware of the subtle difference in the beat of my heart, the extra breath that it takes to move to the beat of my symbol. This place, that cocoon, all of what transpired has turned myself, the self I strive to master into a being once more beyond my control.

This frustrates me but it excites me as well. For now I will turn my attention towards learning how to master these changes and in so doing sculpt my body. Tonight, my vision is better. I can easily make our the form of my sleeping sister.

This change may simply be my perception. But indeed I believe it is not. I know my body too well. The night here is not silent. It breathes with me.

Last night, my first meditation in this place carried me to a zone that I have never encountered. I am a Dianis, the last thing we do is uselessly fear. That was one thing that my father drilled into us repeatedly.

"A Dianis never fears"

I laugh now at him and his family rhetoric. Zach and I disobeyed him with out remorse. We left home before the arranged marriages, before being allocated to companies to run and before the rest of our 'duty' could be fulfilled to some long dead ancestors.

I breathe deeper, trying to slow my heart beat to an easy pace. Thoughts of our family brings me pain. I loved my father. I, for the first fifteen years of my life, I lived the way of the Dianis. Following the way of the sword and the way of the woman.

Then in a meeting, my father dropped the bomb. Arranged marriages by twenty, company responsibilities. Children to carry on the legacy. Zach laughed at him outright. She was never really into the 'Dianis' legacy.

I have always...trusted him. I wanted to follow in his footsteps. In my private place I wept. Only Zach knew of my torment.

I look at the Dianis sword before me and I breathe deeply, the foreign, yet wonderfully enriching air into my lungs. I felt the urge to return to the 'Sword'. I no longer need to fear my father. Unless he came here in a cocoon, I could return to the sword with out his perversion.

Zach and I fled from a world tainted by his power and influence. As far as we could run, to the ends of the earth we went. But we still carried our swords. Years of ideology focused around Niho's theories are hard to erase in two years.

Zach pretends that she is totally free of it. But indeed I know her bubble-headedness is an act. An act to hide the surge of feeling that would make her return to her roots.

The blue moonlights glint off my sword, I smile...Zach stirs. My meditation is over. My mind is not yet made up. But this land, this Else will allow us both to stop running, to stop fearing the specter of our father and just breathe.

[zach]

The time on Else seems to past quickly. Perhaps it is the difference between it and the 'Other World'. The Earth that the twins left behind is the farthest thing from their minds. The unknown makes one want to forget the memories of yesterday. Time blends into one motive: survival.. or perhaps life. It is strange, is not breathing a sign of life. Are not pain and hunger all shadows of a living soul?Then why does one need love to feel alive. Why is comfort so important..is not living;just living, the objective of all creatures. Biologist and all the great minds of the 'Other World' tout their theories on evolutions and the interactions that the need to survive has on a race, be it animal or plant...However...if living;survival is not the objective of all creatures...then what is? Is that not more terrifying than death?

Ashton stood watching Zach gather the last of her fish. The fear, still poignant in her. This fear Ashton could understand, or so she thought.
As they walked away, truthfully they scurried in those first minutes, then slowed when the sting of the uncertain was once again the swish of the wind.
Zach's mind was calculating how much wood it would take a complete some of the little carving tasks she had scheduled for tomorrow. This whole world was making her think of death in new light. In the 'Other World", one was thought what to fear, but here, you would have to choose what to fear. Simply fearing things that could kill you, would get you no where. One could not build a shelter and stay huddled inside for fear of what existed outside. You would starve your self to death. And in your last days, your inability to conquer your fear even in the face of death by simple starvation would be pure torment. You will know that you are a coward.

Twins are said to have a common mind space. Ashton had many experiences of this type with her sister. Their thoughts silently intertwining; their 'consciousness' only aware of this when they spoke almost similar ideas. She was not aware of that subtle intertwining now. Ashton's mind was also fixated with fear. Here in this world, one feared what one saw as dangerous, threatening to life. It must look ferocious, or act so, taste horrible or have a nasty smell. However, perhaps this could lead one astray. The biology of this world was so different that one must rely on something more to guide one's instincts. She could not say what that was. She thought of the lights that were seemingly affected by her training. Some thought flashed through her mind quickly, she did not catch it in time to ponder it more deeply.

Zach put her actions on auto pilot. Here in this damp world, one did things as second nature once it was realized that one had little choice. She gathered wood suitable for carving and a few fruits. This action was pre-determined. Here in this world if one did not have a plan, one was helpless. Only through planning and execution, even in the face of uncertainty, could one hope to survive...to begin to live.

Ashton filled her new food bag with fruits. She credited Zach with the idea to do such. Zach had carefully explained her plans to learn how to carry food for long treks, so that they could explore. 'Mapping' was important simply to return to a place of 'safety'. Her sister was changing. Her bubble-headedness was still there but her 'far-away thoughts' were all on survival...even if some were abstract.

Zach looked at her sister as she stopped to gather some large leaves. Their eyes met as they both stuffed their findings in their bags.

"I'm sorry, sis. This is as far as I can go for today..."

"Whew. I thought you were never going to stop," Zach smiled, flopping down next to the tree.

Ashton sat as well and they looked at each other again. Quietly communicating, waiting for the other to break the silence.

"We can not run away here." Zach said quietly.

Ashton nodded and began to clean the blade of her sword, Zach noticing that her sword also was stained with sap from plants they had cleared did the same.

Ashton: Everything here is different.

She paused and bit into a fruit, enjoying the tangy taste.

Zach: Indeed sister. But yet, why does it feel so...familiar?

Ashton: Have you not noticed changes in your body; your breathing?

Zach thought carefully about this. A blank look gracing her face for a while. Then she breathed deeply and realized that she could intake more air that usual.

Zach: You're right...but why?

Ashton: The weird pods...the creature. Nothing is certain but everything is a culprit.

Ashton bit more of the fruit and handed the rest of it to Zach.

Ashton: Perhaps even the food we are eating is affecting a change.

Ashton laughed as Zach stopped mid-chew and stared at the fruit in her hand as if she expected it to grow a tail, after it had apparently passed inspection, she gobbled down the rest of it and started on another.

Zach: So we must explore then?

Ashton smirked.

Zach: What??

Aston: Explorers have a place to go home to after their adventures...this is our home now.

Zach said nothing. She dropped her gaze from Ashton's. Ashton empathetic to the effect her word had said no more. She made her self even more comfy and fell to sleep quite quickly.

* *
Zach

I love my sister...but we have always been different. The training of the sword...I do my best to forget...I do my best to forget my father...my mother...Ashton was close to Papa...I was not...I was close to my mother. Right up until she hung her self from the third floor chandelier.

I look at the Dianis sword now....in its blade I can feel her. This was her sword. I know it is insane..but it somforts me..when I let it. Even in my rage for my father and his ancestors...I could not throw my mother's sword away. She gave it to me..she made me promise never to forsake myself for my father.

I thought that by never completing my training as a 'Samurai' I was doing this. I was being myself and not living his way. Now here in this alien world..when the only thing to remind me of my mother is my reflection, my twin and her sword, my heart tells me that I was wrong.

* *

Zach stared off into the distance and breathed deeply. Memories of sparring with her 'teacher' flooding back to her. His calm voice speaking of the way of the warrior, the way of God and of the sword. She heard her mother in the backgrond...she heard her arguing with Papa...the image burst into flames and she shuddered. She was determined to be as great a warrior as her mother...somehow..

Zach: Mother....

Ignoring the strange influx of emotion at Ashton's statement and the subsequent thoughts it invoked, Zach turned to organizing their gear...anything to keep 'Mary' out of her mind.