Timeless Awakening
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"So, you two okay?"
When they were set down, Astra carefully lowered Aaryn to her feet and gave a small nod. "I'm fine. But…"
Aaryn carefully removed her wing from Astra's grasp as she nodded her head too, offering a partially reassuring smile.
"It's fine." Her eyes then turned to the girl for a moment before looking at her confusedly. "I thought you were trying to avoid us."
"Nah, I was just looking for a tree to suit my purposes," the older girl responded, pointing to the point where the branch they stood on met with the trunk of the tree, her smile faltering for the faintest of moments, almost imperceptible. "You two just happened to come along for the ride. When I jumped, I was weight testing the branches."
"You jumped because you didn't think we'd be able to follow you up," Aaryn stated, knowing she was at least partially right.
The girl seemed to shift her weight for a moment as she met Aaryn's gaze again, keeping it effectively calm and collected. "I might have been hoping you'd see I was going into the forest and decide it wasn't worth it... it gets dangerous out here after dark."
She was worried about their safety? What about her own?
"Needless to say, I was not factoring potential wings into that train of thought."
"We were bored. And you were the most interesting thing around," Astra cut in this time, offering a small shrug of her shoulder.
The girl balked. It was quite clear that she didn't know quite how to respond to that. "Me? Interesting? You know you're talking to the girl who just talked to a tree, right? Sure 'weird' isn't the right word?"
Aaryn and Astra shared a glance for a moment before they looked back to the girl's torn sleeves, gazes finding their way back to the girl's again.
"Weird's just another kind of interesting," Aaryn said.
A small pause filtered into the air as the stranger sighed.
"Fair enough, kids. But I'd say the most interesting ones here are the pair of Phoenix twins, a rarity among rarities, standing right in front of me." The two before her shared another look. There was that word again. "I don't think I've ever met a pair before... let alone twins of your kind."
"How'd you know what we were?" Astra asked. They were the only Phoenix in the kingdom, or at least that's what they were told growing up.
"I'm a bit of a free spirit. I travel all the time, all over the place, helping out whenever a little extra power is needed," the older girl said, holding up her toned left bicep and placing her other hand atop it as she flexed her arm muscles proudly. They… weren't very big. Just toned. "I've met all kinds of people, some from a few races even rarer than yours… though never twins from any of those."
Aaryn cocked her head confusedly as she heard that, the whole thing sounding earnest and believable. Which only made it worse. "But… we've been the only bloodline still alive."
"Well, think of it this way. There are at least two of you still alive right now. Those other, rarer friends of mine? Weren't that many of them," the girl explained, the sparkle in her eyes dimming a little for the faintest of moments. "As for how I knew, I do have a decent-sized collection of books that I've read over the years which talked about your kind in more detail than you'd expect."
Aaryn only pulled one thing out of that, her fingers clutching at the book she still held at her side. "There are… books on Phoenix?"
She didn't ask how or why this girl even had them. That wasn't in her wording. She was more shocked those books even existed.
They were all supposed to be destroyed.
Seemingly undeterred by the doubt in Aaryn's eyes, the girl simply reached a hand inside her jacket pocket. "Yup. Though not a whole lot of them are solely dedicated to your kind, I do have a couple informationals with sections on Phoenix. I happen to have one on me which fits that bill right now. Wanna see it?"
Astra rolled her eyes as Aaryn's own suddenly widened, a gleam of excitement rushing over her irises while her twin sister just shook her head.
"She's a bookworm. Of course she'll wanna see it," Astra muttered, passing off a small smile as Aaryn glared at her.
"Don't you know how rare those are?"
Astra just shrugged and poked her sister teasingly. "I find more entertainment in seeing you get excited about books than me forced to read them."
"Yeah, yeah. You say that a lot," Aaryn quickly turned her gaze back to the girl in front of them as she bounced a little on their branch, blonde hair swaying with her. "Do you really have a book like that on you right now?"
The stranger's smile became playful as she pulled a book in pristine condition out of her jacket and handed it over to Aaryn. "Section seven. Read'em and weep. Heck, I think there's even a subsection on refining aura manipulation in there. Considering the whole branch thing… you might want to check that part out."
Aaryn's hands immediately clasped the book with a tender delicacy most reserved for their own children, despite being a child herself. Her fingers skirted over the edges of the pages for a few moments to take in the pristine state the actual artifact was kept in.
"How old is it?" the smaller girl asked, flipping softly to the section she was told to. And true to the girl's words, there was an entire chapter dedicated to Phoenix.
But not just that. It was… before Kerillor got destroyed.
"It's hard to read, too," Aaryn continued, turning the book slightly as she squinted her eyes and stared confusedly at the open pages. "Some of the letters have accents I haven't seen before, and some don't even look like letters at all."
"As you probably noticed, that one's an oldie," the girl who somehow came into possession of this perfectly preserved book noted with a nod. "So the language used in it is a little… dated. Might need to brush up on older language quirks if it's hard on you. Hmm… I should have a book on the language transitions over time which you could use to translate it somewhere..."
After mumbling the last part to herself, she reached inside her jacket pocket again, then paused briefly as she appeared to be in deep thought. Before long, though, true to her word, she pulled out a book about language and offered it to Aaryn in a repeat gesture.
Aaryn immediately took it and sat herself down on that branch, opening the second book up as she placed the other one open on her lap, stacked on top of her personal book she brought with her. "You had this too…?"
"Weird," Astra muttered, stepping around her sister to balance on the stranger's branch. Her curious eyes fell on the pocket of the girl's jacket before prodding it suspiciously with a poking finger. "What else do you keep in there?"
"Just this," the girl responded before pulling something small and compact out, casually tossing it into the air, and catching it after it did a few flips, the setting sun glinting off the brilliant metal emblem on one side. She then showed the empty interior of her jacket's inside pocket. "My trusty pocket knife and the books are basically all I had on me. I use nature for the rest of my necessities. Been slowly translating the old book with the language book in my head, section by section. Up to section twenty-nine out of fifty-two so far. Planned on going through section thirty before bed tonight."
Astra fluttered up into the air casually to land on the opposite side of the girl's branch, starting to poke at her other pockets too as Aaryn glanced up from her little perch.
"Bed? Do you live nearby?" the twin asked, eyeing the girl again from where she sat. She would've recognized her if she did.
They lived just further into this forest. Their cabin was actually just a few minutes of flight away, now that she thought about it.
"Doubt it. There aren't any other houses out here," Astra pointed out, finally taking her prying hands away from the girl's pockets. The rest were definitely empty. "Wait, were you going to sleep up here?"
Pocketing her pocket knife again, the strange girl raised her hands as if to surrender. "Caught me. Remember my comment about weight testing the branches? I was checking to make sure they'd be safe for sleeping on. Though I haven't chosen a specific branch yet…"
Aaryn cocked her head again as Astra crossed her arms, giving the tall girl an incredulous stare. "Seriously? You're gonna sleep in a tree…?"
Curious eyes roamed over the girl in front of them for another few seconds before turning that gaze to meet with her sister's.
Was this girl serious?
"We don't live too far from here," Aaryn started, looking back up at the total stranger. "Nobody would mind if you stayed the night. Our moms are pretty open with people, but only if they like them."
"Hmm…" the twins watched as the girl hummed softly, eyes distracted for a moment by a large flock of birds scattering out of the trees in the distance.
It wasn't a bad offer they were making. I hadn't slept in a decent bed in quite some time, so as far as restorative sleep went, accepting would present me with a golden opportunity.
There was only one problem with this train of thought. A glaring flaw which made accepting basically an impossibility.
That power influx I felt just now… didn't expect to run into my kindred spirit by accident. I haven't met with them in…
"Almost fifty years…" I mumbled to myself.
I'd promised her… so I couldn't go with them. I couldn't go back on my word less than a century after I gave it. With that timespan of a distance between that event and this one, I couldn't even decently pretend I forgot about it… even if it was a guarantee that they did.
I smiled sadly down at the twins, ruffling the hair of the one who was still standing. "I really do appreciate the offer, but I'm not really going to be sticking around long. I'd feel bad if you all got attached to me in the time I spent here before I had to just up and leave on you. I said it before, but I'm a free spirit… so staying in one place for too long just isn't part of the package deal with me."
"Don't be ridiculous," the one sitting down said, eyes roaming back down to the two books she had stacked in her lap. The other stayed open in her hands. Which was already a pretty impressive feat in itself, given she sat on a high tree branch.
"Yeah, we're not just gonna let you sleep in a tree and turn down a place to sleep," the other cut in now too, my eyes turning down to a firm gaze peering up from beneath my ruffling hand. "It'll only be for one night."
Damn… this weakness of mine hasn't been exploited in a while.
That weakness of mine was the main reason that, no matter what anyone else said, I would tell them over and over again that I'm not good with kids, even if I had to say it a thousand times for them to get it. No matter what they looked like, no matter how mean they could be, and no matter how little sense their assertions made… I could never tell them 'no' for very long.
I withdrew my hand from atop the standing one's head before holding up my index finger alone. "All right… one night it is. Don't say I didn't warn you…"
Come to think of it, I may as well use this chance… if there are any injured animals from that power influx I felt just now, I can use this chance to heal them. Haven't had to bust out a Druid technique in a while, but not long enough that I'd be rusty…
"Good. Then it's settled," the one still standing next to me finished, her blonde hair seeming to bounce for a moment in a childlike nod. "There's still just one more thing though."
"She wants to know your name," the other twin interjected. "We haven't been told it yet."
I chuckled to myself, closing my eyes and resigning myself to my fate with a smile. She was right… we'd gone this entire conversation without introducing ourselves, hadn't we? Being as I hadn't so much as spoken to a single other sentient being in literal decades, though, I didn't really come up with a new one after I made that promise… but I had just the one in mind.
I opened my eyes and exchanged glances with both of them before saying, "It's Kamiko."
For my will and word to waver this easily… as far as children of god go, I'm pretty damn pathetic, aren't I? Not that they'd know the meaning of a name from a language which has been dead for literal centuries, anyway…
When I turned my gaze back to the one beside me, she met my eyes with an unexpectedly cheeky grin.
"Kamiko. I like that name," she spoke, but her widening grin didn't falter in the slightest. When I glanced to the girl's counterpart, the twin sitting down only looked more annoyed than engaged in where this one was leading this.
The tiniest of springs bounced the branch we were standing on as the girl beside me moved around my front this time. And in the fast moment of the girl passing me by, I watched her smile turn into a grin as she tapped my arm with the pad of her finger and leapt off the branch to my right.
"Sneaky one, she is," I commented down at the twin still sitting on the branch.
If she wants to play tag with me of all people… she really doesn't know what she's getting into, does she? I'll play along for now…
"You have no idea," the twin still here said, her cheek squishing cutely into the palm of her hand as I watched her continue to decipher the book I gave her. "She'll only give you her name if you can tag her. It's just a game we play."
"So you're in on it too, huh? I'll give you both a five second head start to get as far away as you can," I offered, smirking cockily. "Because if you think I won't be able to tag you instantaneously at this distance, you're sorely mistaken."
Her eyes glanced up to mine for a moment before she turned them back down to the book in her lap, delicate fingers working to slowly turn to the next page. "I'm not really too interested. It's a lot of work and she usually has to find a way to bribe me into it, so I can just tell you my name anyway."
I shrugged. "Fair enough. And that name is…?"
Those eyes kept their focus on translating the text in her lap, but she seemed to spare a little of it to open her mouth and speak.
"It's Aa-"
I blinked as the girl yelped and suddenly toppled backward, like she was grabbed. Luckily, the books she sent flying fluttered into the air and went just high enough for me to step over and catch, all three snapping shut as they fell into my grasp.
The girl who started this whole game smirked up at me for a moment before darting away, startled twin nestled in her arms.
I chuckled to myself, shrugging my shoulders as I began to make good on my word. "Five… four…"
I still didn't plan to use any of my real speed in this game. That would be reserved for the enemies I knew I'd be fending off before too much time had passed. But I'd still show them at least a little of what trying to win a game of this variety with me could actually be like… right at the end.
"Three… two… one…"
I could already envision the perfect little strategy to catch them off guard, too. If I could get it off, it'd be like killing two birds with one stone. Except, really, it would be the opposite of that, all things considered. I tensed my leg muscles and crouched for a playful jump.
"Ready or not, here I come…" I mumbled to myself, a wicked smile playing at my lips.
"Awe, come on Aaryn, it'll be fun!" Astra offered, meeting the pouting glare pointed up at her from the girl in her arms. "We'll get to see what she's really made of if we can keep her chasing for long enough."
"Yeah, I get that, but did you really have to pull me like that?" Aaryn muttered back, crossing her arms over her chest as they picked up speed.
Astra's face seemed to turn apologetic for a moment as she smiled down at her sister, hoping that was enough. "You were about to tell her your name. There has to be some incentive for this, you know?"
"I'm still not as fast as you. And I definitely can't fly as long as you either," Aaryn replied again, her eyes trailing behind them for a moment as she watched the tall tree fall further and further away. "You know stuff like this always tires me out."
"Tell you what, I'll rub your wings tonight if you try your hardest not to get caught. Deal?" Astra asked, a pleading look forming in her eyes as she stared down at her twin sister's face.
That stray gaze finally turned back and met with Astra's again, narrowing in contemplation for just a few short seconds before the girl seemed to visibly resign in her carried grasp. "Fine. But you do it until I fall asleep."
Astra's grin turned cheeky again as Aaryn lifted her hands, pressing them into her twin's shoulders before pushing her way out of the girl's grasp.
Two black wings of her own quickly spread again as Astra watched her twin quickly drop into a stable flight just beneath her, Aaryn's gaze looking back up to her for a moment before turning back.
"Left."
Already?
Astra immediately rolled left, breaking away from her previous flight path as Aaryn rolled the other way, the twins' eyes both watching as Kamiko passed straight through the air they'd just been cruising at before falling toward the ground.
And probably to get back at her from before, she even flashed Astra a smirk during her drive-by.
"Did she jump all the way from that tree…?" Astra asked, eyes snapping back to Aaryn, who was just closing the distance again to get to her twin.
"Yeah. She made it look easy too," Aaryn replied, eyes watching Kamiko disappear back into the tree canopy before her analytical gaze snapped to a small rustle two miles from where that figure disappeared. "Dive."
Astra and Aaryn immediately fell thirty feet to let Kamiko's next attempt pass by overhead, a small wave directed down at them as the twins spiralled together and returned it.
"She's playing with us," Astra pointed out.
"Then we just have to make it interesting," Aaryn returned, flashing Astra a small half-smirk. It was a smile that always got Astra's blood going, the girl immediately returning it as she grabbed her twin's hand and shot forward with her wings.
The two dove into a spinning dive as they broke through the tree canopy and split up, working to divert attention through the branches and make tracking them impossible for anyone actually normal.
And beyond that, it made following them and catching them infinitely harder.
Astra's and Aaryn's figures crisscrossed and swapped between the branches of the trees, keeping lower than the canopy itself to avoid the bigger clusters of branches. It made them more visible, but Astra was the only one capable enough to fly through that at this speed.
Aaryn wasn't as precise yet.
But the sure sound of a third body following them through the branches made its way into their ears with every rustle of shaken leaves.
She was still following this closely?
Combat boots planted lightly and quickly against branches as the twins peered behind them, spotting out a radiant blonde-streaked blur of black kicking through the trees to keep up with them.
They needed a new tactic… considering they weren't building any distance at all. Even if the speed they were going was making the trees whip by in hazy blurs.
Aaryn gave her sister a passing look as they crossed paths again, Astra immediately nodding as soon as she saw it before the two took mirrored hard banks and tore off in opposite directions.
They were forcing Kamiko to make a choice on who to follow.
But not who they were expecting.
Astra slipped her way through the branches of a tall tree and took that small window to peer behind her, spotting out that bright streak of her follower's hair before she tore that gaze back ahead of her.
So… she went after the harder one to follow.
She was a challenge seeker. Astra actually respected that in people. Kamiko wasn't going for the easier target to make this easier on herself.
The twin smirked to herself as she realized all she had to do was stall now, the bait dragging around on the metaphorical line she was leaving in her wake as she took a hard turn and bulleted to the right again.
All she had to do was keep her following for just long enough to-
"W-Whoa!" Astra had to force her wings down just hard enough to lurch her body upward, Kamiko's raised hand just casually held in the air and so dangerously in the way to getting tagged.
How'd she get so far ahead? The twin pushed herself up further into the trees to get away from where Kamiko lazily leaned against a tree, Astra's movements becoming erratic and fast as she darted through the branches up top.
She kept away from the forest floor this time. It was a mistake giving Kamiko that kind of advantage to keep up with them.
Astra wasn't even sure if their plan was going to work anymore, especially if she was being pushed this hard to fly so evasively. There was no way Aaryn would even be able to keep up, let alone catch up.
The lone twin mapped out a quick path before following it, the blurred branches from before starting to whistle by louder and more dangerously than they were moments ago. A crash at this speed would break half the already hollow bones of her body, but she was skilled enough to avoid that.
She was the better flier of the two, especially at speeds like this. But even so…
"Still?!" Astra dipped down into a vicious swoop as Kamiko kicked her legs idly on a branch ahead of her, the twin watching as stormy gray eyes tracked her blowing by.
This girl… How was someone this fast?
Astra's eyes frantically peered through the branches as she saw a ray of sky break through, the figure of her sister flying overhead of her slipping through. Aaryn was waving her upward.
The twin below immediately took the nearest route back into the sky, breaking cleanly out of the forest canopy to reach up and take Aaryn's hand. With a swoop already prepared and a building of speed, Aaryn quickly led Astra up toward the clouds, breaking through the white layer of the sky in just a few seconds flat.
"There's a high chance that she has some kind of acute tracking ability," Aaryn said, pulling Astra forward now as the layer of clouds beneath them rolled quietly by. "Either that, or she just has some sort of insane speed in her with the way she was following you."
Astra stared down at the glowing clouds in worry. Even up here, she knew they weren't out of that girl's reach. "I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure she has both."
"It's hard to believe she can have both, but it certainly looks like it," Aaryn replied, following Astra's wide gaze before tightening her hold on her sister's hand. "We can handle going higher if you want."
"Somehow, I doubt that'd help," Astra replied evenly. "She's still holding back."
Aaryn quirked a brow quizzically as she turned her gaze down again, scanning the golden glow of clouds for a second time in the setting sun. "What makes you say that?"
"Because she could've tagged me twice now, but didn't," Astra returned.
"I guess so, but…" Aaryn's voice fell quiet as they passed by an opening in the clouds, a manifesting yellow glow filtering through the trees of the forest below.
What was… that?
The twins came to a slow stop as they peered down into the opening, the bristling leaves of the tree canopy shining with a weirdly ethereal glow for a few solid moments before that light faded away.
It… spanned over an impressively wide area too.
And when it died fully down, they were only reminded how late it was. The light of the sun fading further and further into darkness as they gazed down into the forest below.
"Hey, Aaryn?" Astra muttered quietly, tugging lightly at her sister's arm as she pointed in the direction close to home. "Look…"
Aaryn's gaze drifted over to follow Astra's direction, falling on a large, dark clearing in the canopy far below.
Just behind where they knew their cabin was. It… looked like a large portion of it was… deforested. And the ground looked upturned in every possible way.
Aaryn's gaze silently grew wide before she brought it up to meet with her sister's, a deeply rooted worry falling into the pit of her stomach.
"Ira…"
"Gotcha," a calm yet smug voice rung out from directly behind them as the twins both felt a light poke to their backs, on the spot in between their wings. "Looks like my distraction tactic worked out."
The twins seemed to hardly notice.
Co-Author: A New Username
Co-Author: HydraFlow
X: *lightly pokes Username*
Username: Ahem. Welcome back to chapter three of Timeless ladies and gentlemen! We're doing a joint bottom author's note this time, just for kicks. This chapter's tag scene choreography was written jointly, so it only seems fair (Okay, Xera did most of the work, I just planned out certain events in it. You'll see what my choreography is like soon enough). *Pokes Xera*
X: My only job was to show Kamiko's speed… and how she was toying with them… There wasn't any choreography. But despite that, some actual choreography will take place down the line. Username will be handling that one. For now, this was just an ambiguous show and tell to garner interest through the twins. Who happen to know Ira.
Username: Well, they did ask for her to play a game with them… so she did, simple as that. :P
X: Astra did. Aaryn got dragged into it with a bribe. Astra's good at doing that...
Username: In all seriousness, yeah, the tag scene was a fun little way to show that Kamiko is on a different level entirely from them. I'd wager we'll see some of what she's really capable of eventually, but for now, it's all fun and games… so she's just gonna mess around with people.
X: She'll get serious eventually. And to avoid an endless back and forth, I'll mention this here. Look forward to meeting Ira's full family. You've met most of them already, including this chapter.
Username: Yeah, guys… if you follow Xera's stuff, you'll recognize some of them, but if you're one of my followers, you'll have no idea who any of them are lol. But as an audience member for certain scenes which you'll see in due time, let me just say I find certain character relationship dynamics to be… very entertaining.
X: Prepare for flirting.
Username: Xera's underselling it, I assure you.
X: They'll see. Ira's moms are… fun to see interact. Anyway, that's it for now xP.
Username: See you next chapter!
X: These notes are long… maybe we shouldn't do them often xD.
Username: Let's have the readers decide that. XP