I am sorry for the extremely long wait. I was working on chapters for this fanfic and another fanfic I'm working on. Because of this, I hope you enjoy the next three chapters of Search for the Twin.

Search For The Twin:

The Good And The Bad

I didn't know what to do. I was stuck between two dragon ladies and a pack of wolves. And both parties were slowly making their way towards me. Did I mention that both parties also had sharp weapons with them? No? Well, guess what. They did. When I looked behind me, the dragon ladies were holding sharp spears. And the wolves had five mouths full of razor sharp teeth.

You're probably wondering which one I was more afraid of. I'll tell you. It was the wolves.

Taking a deep breath, I finally made up my mind to run for it. The only problem was, by the time my mind had finally defrosted itself from my current predicament, the dragon ladies were in throwing distance and the wolves were in leaping distance. I decided to make a run for it anyway. With a sharp turn to my left, I darted for the trees.

About halfway there, I fell to the ground and in terrible pain.

What happened next was just a blur in my mind. I remember hearing the growls of the wolves and the hisses of the dragon ladies. And I remember searing pain as I tried to drag myself up and out of the area. But that's about all.

Oh. I almost forgot the darkness that quickly followed and the touch of fur on my face.

To be honest, it was that furry touch which brought me to my senses. I didn't care that I was in pain at the time. All I did was remember the growling wolves and I jumped back from the furry thing as fast as I could.

It was a stupid idea. And I paid for it afterwards. How? Simple. With the amount of pain I was in, I was surprised I wasn't dead.

After the red dots eventually faded from my vision, I was able to lift my head up and look around. It was still dark, so I couldn't see much. But I was able to make out that I was somewhere with a lot of trees and a lot of boulders. At least, I thought they were boulders. They looked furry… and they kept moving… gently… up and down.

Hold up there.

Did I just see what I think I saw? A boulder lifting its head? And that head having triangles on top of it?

My mind instantly travelled back to what happened earlier with the wolf pack and the dragon ladies. What I thought was a nightmare turned out to not be a nightmare. It was a living hell! I don't know what happened to the dragon ladies (and I hope they stay away from me) but I think I found out where the wolves went.

They were right in front of me.

I don't know how I managed it, but I got up and ran in the opposite direction of the wolves. To be completely honest, I was surprised and impressed with myself for not dying of fright right there and then. But I guess fear does strange things to people.

Either way, as soon as I was sure I was alone in the woods and there were no wolves following me, I managed to calm myself down enough to find a natural shelter and rest for a while. It was then, as I was resting and trying to convince my racing heart that it was okay to slow down, that I looked down at myself.

I had a limp in my right leg and my left arm was patched up something fierce. My clothes were old and torn and holey, and I swear my shoes had holes in them as well. That last part was probably true because my right shoe looked like it had a chewed up stick wedged tightly into it. In other words, I was a mess. And combine that mess with everything that's happened to me so far and boy do you have some crazy street urchin from right out of those old books that Gran loved to read all the time.

Just thinking about Gran instantly made something squeeze at my heart. I knew I was home sick. I'd felt the same feeling before. And to make matters worse, at the thought of Gran my stomach began growling for some of her cooking. She may be old, but she was one hell of a cook. With a sigh and I think a stray tear, and looked around to try and find something to eat.

That's when I noticed the flickering of lights through the trees to my right. And where there was light, there was bound to be civilisation and civilisation meant food and water. That made up my mind. I found the best fallen branch to use as a walking stick and managed to get up; lumbering towards the distant blinking lights.

By the time morning had come around, I had somehow managed to drag myself to the edge of the city. I didn't known which city it was nor did I care. All I wanted was food and a drink.

The drink was easy enough to get; just wait until the nearest McDonald's opened to get a free cup of water, and if you really couldn't wait, there was always the water from the public bathroom sinks (though I highly suggest keeping away from the bathrooms). The real problem was getting food. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure that free food isn't readily available. Especially for people who look like me because they were being chased by monsters.

I ask again. Why me?

So I got the water and drank every last drop of it. Heaven! Then the strangest thing happened. I was staring at the cardboard cup that once held the water when all of a sudden it shimmered and turned into an ice cream cone. Before I could stop myself, I was drooling and my stomach was urging me to take a bite. And, damn that ice cream looked tasty.

Maybe it was my mind playing tricks on me, I don't know. What I do know what that ice cream looked like it was raspberry flavoured. And that's my favourite flavour. To be honest, I think I actually did take a bite. I don't remember. All I know is that I ended up throwing the ice cream/cup into the bin not long afterwards. People were staring at me and I don't like that. Creeps me out big time.

So, stomach growling something fierce, I started to hang out near the food shops, just sitting near the doors and hoping someone would help a starving kid out. And if I got kicked out of my spot by the door, I found a new shop and started all over again.

The hunger was that bad that at one point I was driven into an alleyway by the shop owner for stealing a bread roll off her shelf. And the worst part about it was that she had a really nasty looking broom in hand and I was a hobble with a broken arm and I'm pretty sure a broken leg using a branch to get along. So not only did I have to deal with the pain from both my arm and my leg as well as the pain of hunger, but I also had the woman's broom to deal with.

At least I managed to get hold of the bread roll.

And that, my friends, is how I ended up in an alleyway, staring at a cheese and bacon roll. Why was I staring at the thing and not eating it, you ask? Believe me, I'm asking myself that same question. To be honest, I think it has something to do with one of the lessons my grandparents taught me when I was little. If memory serves me correctly, I think I had just stolen a dog bone.

" Dominic Jonas Smith!" Grandpa roared, running out of the house and over to where I stood with the dog bone in hand. " You give that bone back to the dog this instant! Dogs don't like no one stealing their food - even if that dog is as gentle as one of my Saints."

Of course I was young and had to argue the point. But you do have to bless a child's innocence.

" But there's no more meat left. I was putting it in the bin."

Grandpa heaved a heavy sigh before saying anything. " It doesn't matter. But you need to give that bone back. What you're doing is stealing."

" But Grandpa!"

" You wouldn't steak from me or Gran, would you?"

" No."

" You wouldn't steal from Mr Tommy the grocer, would you?"

" No."

" Then you don't go stealing from the dogs. You never know what they might do to you. Now you give that bone back and remember that you don't go stealing from nobody."

Just to make sure that I learnt the lesson good and proper, Grandpa made dinner that night. It was some kind of vegetable soup with all vegetables that I didn't like: brussel sprouts, pumpkin, beans, broccoli, and capsicum… and I had to eat every last drop of it.

Now, looking at this tasty cheese and bacon roll that I held in my thieving hands, the taste of that awful lesson was returning to my mouth. The sad thing about it, it happened about ten years ago and I had nothing in my stomach to even bring up anything.

Finally I gave in to my hunger; I took a bite out of the roll. That first bite, I have to admit, tasted like cardboard (though that may have been thanks to that phoney ice cream, but I doubt it). It was probably thanks to the whole stealing thing.

Either way, I found out that if I didn't think about stealing it, the food tasted a little bit better. It still didn't taste completely right, though. But, just to make sure that no one was after me with any more broomsticks or anything worse, I decided to ditch the city as soon as I had finished eating. The only good thing about that bread roll was that I made a new friend out of a little blonde mouse with it.