Inka's POV
There was hot, dry air surrounding us, and a city that looked as if it were built in the middle of a desert. Like Las Vegas, only…old. It looked like one of those cities we visited in one of our various trips around the world. One of the towns where the people didn't believe in cars or electricity or anything. The difference was, this place didn't have that many horses; there were a whole lot of cows.
"Seriously, where is this place?" Ari asked, rubbing the arm that she fell down on, "And what are these people wearing?" Typical Ari, falling into a random unknown place and the second thing she asks is about the fashion choices of the citizens. They were wearing what looked like giant square pieces of white cloth that were tied at the waist.
"Ari! Inka!" We heard a female voice call to us. We spun around and turned toward the direction of the voice. There was a girl with brown hair and a beige off-the-shoulder dress. She had a matching beige thing on her head and jewelry. She held a wand-like thing that had a curly end. I looked at Ari questioningly, and she just shrugged slightly.
"How are my two little sisters?" The girl asked after running to us. Sisters? I didn't have any sisters other than Ari…well, that I knew of, anyways. The girl smiled brightly at us, and I continued to stare dumbly at her.
"Oh…uh…hi!" Ari grinned back at her. Ari could act really well. I can't. I mean, if you tell me to say yes to something that's not true, I'll be able to do it. But I won't be able to come up with any reasonable excuses for anything. I just stood and smiled like I knew this girl who apparently is my sister.
"Wait, something's wrong here," The girl raised an eyebrow.
"Uh, well…you see," Ari stammered, looking around. She was obviously trying to think of a good explanation for the situation, "Inka here hit her head on a rock," She gestured toward the gray rock behind me, "And she kinda lost her memory," She looked back anxiously at the girl, hoping that she would believe it.
"Oh, are you okay?" She turned toward me. I nodded, holding my breath. Then she turned to Ari, "You seem a little off too. I read in some magic book that twins sometimes share their feelings and state of minds. I guess that kind of happened to you, right?"
"Yeah, I guess," Ari breathed a small sigh of relief, only loud enough for me to hear.
"I guess I'll have to teach you all your magic all over again," The girl sighed in frustration, "Well, it's a good thing you just started learning, I don't have to re-teach as much." The girl readjusted her headpiece and started walking away from us.
She turned around, "Well aren't you guys coming?" She asked. We hurried toward her and followed her until we came to a palace. It was pretty impressive, despite the fact that they didn't have the good technology that we did.
"So you guys do remember my name, right?" The girl asked. Ari and I looked at each other, not sure of what to say. We could say that the memory forgetting thing made us not recall her name, but that's stretching it a bit much. I mean seriously, you forget so much that you can't even remember your older sister's name?
"Mana?" A young girl, who looked like a servant, walked over to us and tapped lightly on her arm, "The pharaoh would like to see you in the throne room."
"Okay, thanks Lena. I'll be there in a minute," The girl, whose name is apparently Mana, smiled at the little servant girl. The young girl bobbed her head and walked away.
"Well, I guess I'll have to go. Do you guys remember where your room is?" Mana asked.
"Uh…no," Ari said, acting sheepish.
"That's okay, Lena can show you the way!" Mana called over to the servant girl that delivered the message just a few moments ago. She hurriedly walked over, and gestured for us to follow her, "Get your wands and change out of those clothes."
"And what's wrong with our clothes?" Ari asked, putting her hands on her hips. Why do you care so much Ari?
"Yeah, okay. We'll change out of them," I said hurriedly before Ari could reveal anything else that would blow our cover. Then we started walking away
"Bye Mana!" I turned around to wave and smiled at her.
"Yeah, we'll talk to you later, Mana!" Ari waved and grinned also. Mana waved back and smiled, then turned and walked the other way. Lena led us down long golden halls to the middle of one hallway. She gestured toward an elaborate door and bobbed a slight curtsy, and then she went away.
The room was as big as our bedroom at home. But then again, our rooms at home are pretty big. There were two large beds, put strangely in the middle of the room. The beds were draped with luxurious soft fabric. There was a large desk with two wooden chairs. On top of the desk were two wands, not unlike the one that Mana had. One was white with a blue rounded orb-like thing on top; the other was the same thing, except it was red with an orange orb.
"Which one do you want?" I asked Ari. They were both so pretty! The sunlight glinted off the glassy spheres and made a rainbow on the wall. The straight parts of the wands had what looked like colored metal spiraling down it.
"Hey, did Mana's wand look familiar?" Ari suddenly turned to me and asked.
"What do you mean?" I asked. But she's right; it kind of did look familiar.
"I mean, doesn't Dark Magician Girl have the same type of wand?" Ari said, "But different colors?"
"Yeah," I said, but then brushed it off, "Anyways, which wand do you want?"
"I don't know," Ari said, "We're supposed to know which one is our own."
"Right," I said. We just guessed and chose the one closest to us, which meant that Ari got the white and blue one, and I got the red and orange one.
There was a knock on the door. I jumped in surprise. Ari and I looked at each other, not sure of what to do. Finally, Ari spoke up.
"Come in!" She called loudly across the room. Lena, the little girl that showed us to our rooms before, came in.
"The pharaoh requests your audience in the throne room," She said. Does she just go around saying that all day? Because that would be pretty boring.
"Okay thanks," I said, then she turned to go, "Wait!" She turned around to face us.
"Can you tell us where that is?"
Lena silently led us across the long halls, to the place where we first met her with Mana. Then she went through more of the maze-like hallways. I couldn't believe that she could actually remember where all of these rooms were. There were so many of them in just one hallway! We stopped at a set of double doors, with two guards standing on either side of them. Lena nodded at the guards, and they opened the doors for her. Then she gestured for us to go inside.
"Kneel before the pharaoh when you see him," Lena whispered kindly. We nodded in recognition, and stepped inside the spacious room.
We walked to the pharaoh's upraised throne and kneeled. We bowed our heads and waited in that position.
"You may rise," A deep voice said. We stood up and looked at the pharaoh's face. I heard Ari gasp in surprise. Her face was as surprised as I felt.
"Omigosh," I said, "Dad?"
And that is where I will end the chapter. What will happen next?
