I looked over the top of my book from my place on the motel's couch and looked at my brother, who had now begun sniggering. We were on summer vacation, and we had decided to spend part of it at Death Valley. Both my fifteen-year-old twin brother and I were sharing a hotel room, while our parents stayed in the room next to ours. We had gone to see Scotty's castle earlier in the day, but now we were just hanging out in the hotel. My brother, Zack, sat on his bed, cross legged, while simultaneously watching TV, IM-ing, playing a role-playing game on his laptop and reading. I, less multi-tasking talented, sat on the couch reading a library-book from back home, The Warrior Heir.

"What's so funny?" I asked him, putting down the book.

"Nothing." He replied from behind the screen of his laptop, "just something Jonah said."

I rolled my eyes at my blonde-haired brother, before re-putting my own long brown hair into a ponytail, and turning back to my book. Though my brother and I were twins, we looked extremely different. Zack was blonde, green eyed, slightly taller than me, and had no freckles.I, on the other hand, had dark brown hair, blue eyes, and copious amounts of freckles. Few people knew that we were twins, until they learned our last name was the same, and even then, most people thought it was just a coincidence, until we told them.

I continued reading for another half-hour before I glanced over the top of my book, and saw the beautiful rock formations of Death Valley outside the window. I closed the book, and got my brother's attention.

"Zack."

"Mmmhph," he said, before looking up at me. "What Arianna?"

"Wanna go hiking?"

"Ummm, I guess. Where to?" I pointed out the window.

"There's gotta be some hiking trails out there."

"Okay, just give me a few minutes." My brother unplugged his laptop and turned the TV off, while I put on a pair of sneakers. I threw my book onto my bed, then grabbed my hiking backpack and threw 6 bottles of water into it. When Zack had his shoes on we were ready to leave. I knocked on the door joining our parents' room to ours, and then opened the door.

"Hey Mom, We're going to go hiking, and we'll be back around 6:30-7."

"Uh, okay. Do you have your cell phones?"my mother said, looking up from her laptop.

"Yes"

"Water?"

"Yup."

"Sunscreen?"

"Yeah."

"Okay them, stay together, and be back before it gets dark." My mother turned back to her laptop.

"Okay." I closed the door to their room, and followed Zack out of ours.

About an hour later of walking, Zack and I finally reached the first trail in the Mosaic canyon. We walked for a little while down one of the paths, staring at the beautiful natural rock formations, towering above us. The path eventually got really small, and difficult to follow.

"Let's climb up these rocks, and see if the path goes on, if not we can turn around." I said, fanning myself from the heat.

"'Kay." Zack said, and we started to climb, helping each other up the rocks. Other people had obviously done the same thing, because in several places, people had carved their names and other stuff into the rocks. We eventually reached a place where we could see the path ahead, but decided to keep climbing, neither of us wanting to go down. Soon, we reached a natural shelf, about halfway up the hill of rocks. I sat down, and pulled a water bottle out of my backpack.

"Tired?" Zack asked.

"Yeah, let's go back down." I replied, starting to open the water bottle. I gulped about half the water, while Zack pulled out another water bottle. He started to take the cap off, but then he dropped it. The bottle dropped and bounced off of several rock shelves, before it landed on a shelf about thirty feet beneath us, rolled underneath a natural rock arch, and disappeared.

"That was strange." I said, closing up my water bottle, and tossing it back in the back pack, which I then zipped up.

"No, it probably just rolled under something while we blinked." Zack replied.

Zack began to climb down the rocks, and I followed him, albeit more slowly because of the back pack.

He reached the shelf, closely followed by me.

"That's weird," he said, "I can't see it." Zack said. Zack walked under the same arch that the water bottle had rolled under and he too disappeared!

"Zack!" I exclaimed, but he didn't respond. I followed him under the arch, but as I walked under, I found myself in a strange forest; my brother was in front of me. He stared at something behind me. I too looked back, and saw more forest. Nothing remained of the arch, the rocks or any of Death Valley.