Twin Flames

A High School Musical fanfiction

by

GimmeABeat

beta'd by

Stumbling Dragon

Chapter 10: They're Gr-r-reat!

"They're Gr-r-reat!!!"

- Tony the Tiger, referring to Kellogg's Frosted Flakes

The heavily pregnant woman crouched on her knees next to the hearth. A large flat stone of smooth granite sat over the open fire. Dipping her hand into a large bowl of silky blue batter, she smeared it quickly over the top of the greased hot stone until it was completely covered in a thin, even layer. It only took a few seconds for the entire layer to cook and the woman peeled it off in one large sheet, laying it on a wicker tray to cool. She poured out a second layer of the batter and then laid the first cooling sheet on top of the cooking batter. When this first and second layer was done, she removed them and placed them to cool. The third layer proceeded as the first two, with the cooked sheets returning to the stone and the ultra-thin layers of bread growing infinitesimally thicker bit by bit. When she finished the entire bowl of batter, she would take the semi-transparent sheet and fold it in fourths and then, roll them into cylindrical tubes to make for portable eating. That was how one made mowa bread. Unless, of course, a certain pale-skinned friend wasn't visiting.

A small hand shot out and snatched a single sheet of thin mowa before Tsirege could stop it.

"Sse...", the older woman said in exasperation. "How will I ever finish if you keep taking them? Now this batch will be too small. I need huge amounts for the dancers this afternoon."

The corn dance ceremony would take place today in the main plaza and the dancers would dance without stopping for many hours. The only food they would consume during this time was the very portable mowa bread.

"I'm sorry, Tsirege, but it's so good. And besides, you are the last one who should need to worry about fertility dances", Sse told her pregnant friend jokingly, both of them well aware of much Tsirege had longed for this child. "You know … mowa reminds me of home. It tastes just like cornflakes." Sse flopped down on the dirt floor next to her friend and started to break off tiny pieces of the thin bread and pop them into her mouth.

"Cornflakes? What a funny name. What are cornflakes?" Tsirege asked as she continued to work, starting a new mowa which would be just a little bit smaller than normal due to Sse quick hands.

"It's what we eat for our morning meal where I come from … except we pour cold milk over it."

Tsirege rolled her eyes in comment. Even after all this time, she could never quite believe that her friend actually came from a different place and time. Therefore, stoic person that she was, Tsirege had simply decided to not think about it and just accept their friendship and not worry about where Sse came from.

Still, she couldn't help but comment on this statement. Tsirege wrinkled her nose in distaste. "Milk? You mean a lactating mother would..."

Now it was Sse's turn to look applauded. "No! Oh, no... that's disgusting. We use cow's milk. Farmers milk the cow's and then we buy it at the supermarket."

This was how conversations with Sse usually went. She would randomly throw in words from her own language that she couldn't translate into Tiwa and the talk would quickly break down after that. Although, this was happening less and less frequently the longer she stayed among them. This brought Tsirege to something she wanted to discuss.

"So I heard about the blue-eyed god..."

Sse sighed and brought her knees up to her chest. "Yeah... that's why I wanted to ask you to watch..."

"There is no need to ask, Sse. I would be glad to help you, but..." She stopped working and looked over at Sse. "... how long would you need my help? I mean I don't mind, but Tulto...", she asked pointedly.

"No, you don't understand. No one seems to understand. I'll only be gone a few hours, no longer; I promise. I'll miss the dance, of course. In fact, that's why I'm leaving right before it starts. No one will notice us not being there with all the excitement going on."

"So are you leaving with this god or not?"

"No, I'm not going anywhere. I promise. I have too much here now to leave it. But I am taking Troy back to the glyph and I'll help him get back home." The sadness in her voice was palpable.

"I understand, my friend. I will do what I can to help you. Why do not I come over to your apartment? It will be easier than you bringing everything over here."

Sse smiled brightly. "That would be wonderful. You are such a good friend." She sighed again, this time in relief. "Now, how about you teach me how to make this wonderful bread and then, I won't have to steal it from you all the time."

They giggled together as the more experienced woman guided the other in the age old technique of cooking the blueish purple wafer bread … hopefully, without burning her fingers as was the usual outcome of these lessons.

=/\=

Troy was trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, which was really a ridiculous thing to attempt. He was a head taller than most people here and his skin and hair was so much lighter, there was no way he could 'blend'. When he awoke this morning, the boy, Ashtay, had brought him some food --- some sort of dry cereal that tasted a little like cornflakes. Troy hated cornflakes; in fact, he hated all kinds of breakfast cereal, much preferring donuts or some other pastry to sate his morning hunger. However, he was hungry, so he ate it and tried not to grimace too much. When he was finished, he washed it all down with water, wishing the whole time for an ice-cold Dr. Pepper.

After having been declared a god, the natives didn't seem to know what to do with him. They just let him do what he wanted, which made sense, he supposed. Who told a god what to do? Plus they seemed to be in the midst of preparation for some big event, but since he couldn't talk to anyone and he couldn't find Sharpay, he was alone to figure out what was going on. He was still thinking about that dream he had last night about Sharpay and he couldn't help but wonder how she'd spent the night. It angered and worried him equally that Tulto acted like he owned her or something.

Troy looked over and saw Ashtay pretending that he wasn't watching him. He supposed Ashtay must have been assigned to him now since the kid had been following him around all day. The only person he really wanted to see around here was Sharpay and then, he really wanted to 'get the hell outta Dodge'.

"Hey, kid!", Troy called out casually to the young Indian boy. "What's going on around here? Is it always this busy?"

There were people milling around all over the place and a couple of them, to Troy's complete surprise, looked like harlequins. They were odd little men with their hair bunched on each side of their head in two vertical horns bound with corn husks, resembling a demented Pippi Longstockings. Their eyes and mouth were rimmed with black paint and black and white horizontal bands ran the length of their entire bodies. These clowns ran around the other people who were gathering in the plaza, acting the fool for all to see. A few men in elaborate costumes began to assemble and Troy sensed that whatever was going to happen was about to start.

These costumed men were bare to their waists and wore white kilts, decorated with cloud and rain symbols. On their heads, they wore a cluster of parrot feathers. They carried gourd rattles in their hands and had turtle shells tied to their knees which rattled as they walked.

They were joined by an equal number of woman wearing black dresses tied over their right shoulders, the same as every other Indian women. They wore a red and green sash around their waists. Their feet were bare, but their heads were covered with thin boards cut in geometric designs and painted with zigzag lightning bolts, sun, and stars.

The priests, whom Troy recognized from the night before, stood in front of the group and sprinkled white powder on the costumed people while chanting in that hypnotic sing-song rhythm of speech that so characterized the Pueblo Indians.

The group of men and woman lined up to face each other in a matter reminiscent of the square dancing Troy remembered suffering through during elementary school P.E. class. Just as he was sure a caller was going to appear out of nowhere and start shouting, "Promenade, Left!", a strong arm gripped the collar of his shirt and jerked him backwards. He was half block away from the plaza before he was able to slow his captor enough to stop.

"What tha....?!" Troy whirled around, ready to defend himself against his overpowering foe. Instead, he was met with the steady gaze of, "Sharpay? What are you doing?"

"What am I doing? What are you doing?", she asked incredulously. "You were supposed to meet me at the river." Sharpay stood in front of him with hands resting dominantly on her hips. She was wearing the same cotton dress as yesterday, but now she wore tanned moccasins on her feet and had a modern day handbag slung over her shoulder. Troy recognized it as the one she had had with her when she went through the rock. It was dirty and worn and definitely looked like it had been here for over a year.

Man, she always seems to be mad at me in this world. Troy straightened his t-shirt and tried to not look cowled by this diminutive female. "Nuh-uh, you said to meet you at noon." He pointed at his arm and showed her his watch. "See? It's only 11:30. I've got 30 minutes before I'm supposed to meet you."

"Zenith has past. You are late." She pointed up at the sky to show him the obvious.

"Zenith?" He wasn't sure what a TV manufacturer had to do with any of this and he didn't think it would be wise to ask.

She growled at him and marched off, further away from the crowd. He called after her as he ran to catch up. "Look, Sharpay... I don't know why you're so mad at me, but we're together now. So what's the deal?"

"The deal is that I don't want half the village to see you leaving with me. Plus!" She halted and Troy almost crashed into her. "I don't have a lot..." She didn't finished the sentence as she was looking wide-eyed over Troy's shoulder. "Come on", she ordered instead. "We need to hurry."

Troy looked behind him and saw two Indian men watching them curiously. When he turned back to ask Sharpay what was going on, she was running at full speed down a side alley and Troy quickly scrambled after her.

=/\=

Sharpay could hear his ragged breath behind her as they jogged at a steady clip along the riverbank. She smiled proudly, but decided not to tell Troy how much she enjoyed the fact that she wasn't even winded yet. It was just too cruel... but then again...

"Having trouble keeping up, Bolton?", she called back over her shoulder.

"Naaah", he panted out heavily. "I'm … fine."

"Oh...", Sharpay replied in mock surprise. "I thought we could stop for a break, but if you'd rather keep going..."

"Nope", he clipped. "I'm good … unless, you needed to stop", he added with hope in his voice.

"No, I'm fine. In that case, let's pick up the pace." Sharpay kicked up her heels and sped away from him.

The wind was blowing in the right direction and Sharpay just barely caught a muffled curse before Troy's loud breathing overcame any other sounds.

=/\=

Troy had lost sight of her and was so angry at both himself and Sharpay that he considered turning back towards the village. He started walking and tried to slow his pounding heart and get some much needed oxygen into his lungs with calm, steady intakes of air. Rounding the corner, he saw her perched on a fallen tree which hung out into the river. He was ready to yell at her about how unfair she had been acting all day, about how she'd lashed out at him for supposedly being late, about how she'd run off and left him when he couldn't keep up with her physically... However, when he saw the pensive look on her face as she stared down into the water, those thoughts fled his mind as he quietly joined her on the tree trunk. Whether it was from their shared connection or something else, Troy knew instinctively that this was not a place where Sharpay wanted to be. But for some reason, it was a place she needed to be.

Without saying a word, he took a slow sip of water from the gourd she'd given him earlier and offered it over to her. He remembered that with the shape his body was in now, if he gulped down the water, it was more than likely to come right back up. Sharpay accepted the water, but didn't immediately drink any.

After a few more minutes of silence, he asked cautiously, "You, okay?"

She glanced over at him, but drank deeply from the gourd before answering. "Yeah. It's just... something bad happened here and … I don't know … I guess it's some sort of Oprah thing or something. I think I need to confront my memories and my fear, but I don't really want to do that. Does that make any sense?"

"Sure, we're taught our whole lives about how important closure is, but that doesn't make it easy."

She looked over at him now and smiled. "It would take someone from the 21st century to even understand our conversation. I don't think psychiatry has been invented yet."

They fell into a comfortable silence until Sharpay blurted out, "I'm sorry."

"What?" Troy was stunned. These were definitely two words he never expected to hear from her.

"I've treated you badly all day. And … I'm sorry. I had no right to yell at you about not meeting me or about leaving you when I knew you were having trouble keeping up." She took a deep breath and stared out at the slow moving current of the Rio Grande. "Do you ever pick fights with people because it's easier to have a fight than to talk about your true feelings?" She didn't give him a chance to answer. "Things are going to happen today that are going to make both of us angry and I guess it was just easier for me to try and make you mad at me than to explain the real reason for what has to happen."

Shit, this whole time he had been trying to ignore how she had phrased things when they had first met yesterday, choosing to believe that it had been a slip of the tongue. Sharpay had said that tonight, he would be back home. He … not we. It was like she wasn't planning on coming with him. Unfortunately, Troy was too much a coward to confront her about it. So much for Oprah and closure.

Instead of saying anything and forcing her to confirm his fears aloud, he just looked longingly towards her, but Sharpay was still staring out at the water. He said nothing, just reached over and took her hand in his and joined her in quiet contemplation of the river.

=/\=

Ashtay had run ahead and was just returning to his friend. Polaina was squatting next to the river refilling her water gourd when he she heard him approach. She smiled up at him and offered him the gourd.

"Thank you." Ashtay took the water gratefully. "They're just ahead ..." He took a gulp of water and let some of it pour over his face. "... on the fallen cottonwood."

"Good, I was beginning to worry that we wouldn't get to them in time." She nodded in understanding and tried to stand, but the pack on her back threw her balance off. Ashtay quickly reached out and caught her and they climbed back up the riverbank to the trail.

"It's not far, but we should still hurry."

Ten minutes later, the two young people rounded the bend and saw Sse and Troy wading across the shallow expanse of the big river.

Ashtay shouted and ran after them. "Wait! Wait! Don't leave without us."

Shielding their eyes against the glare coming off the surface of the water, Troy and Sse stood still for a few seconds until they were able to make out who had called them. Then, they both made their way back to shore with Sse sloshing through the knee-high water as quickly as she could. Then, she ran up the bank to where Polaina and Ashtay stood.

Anxiously, she called out to them, "What are you doing here? Is something wrong?" When she noticed what Polaina had on her back, her voice dropped and she asked pointedly, "What have you done, Polaina? Does Tsirege know about this?"

The girl was obviously surprised by Sse's reaction and shrank back a little at her harsh tone. "I-I thought you would want to say goodbye before you left."

"Oh, Aina..." Sharpay hugged the girl to her and cradled her head against her chest.

=/\=

Troy was completely confused; however, since that seemed to be a normal state for him lately, it didn't worry him too much. His self-appointed stalker was back, the boy, Ashtay. With him, was a girl Troy recognized immediately, it was Butterfly, the girl that Ashtay had been drawing yesterday and whom he and Sharpay had seen so clearly in the glyph back in the own time.

The really confusing part was Sharpay's reaction to all of this. She was mad; she was beyond mad; she was royally pissed. Fortunately, her anger was on a slow simmer right now, but he knew it could turn to a rolling boil without any notice. In the interests of self-preservation and the fact that he was pretty sure none of this discussion was any of his business, Troy decided to just stand back and watch.

Sharpay's countenance changed to one of resignation and she stomped over behind the girl to remove the backpack from Butterfly's shoulders. Just when he thought he understood Sharpay, she did something else completely unexpected. Her ill temper instantly melted away and the look on her face became one of pure love. Troy unconsciously moved closer to see what was affecting her so until he was standing within six feet of her.

Sharpay gently lifted off the backpack and began talking and cooing to it in the Indian language with unabashed delight shining in her eyes. She turned it around and Troy realized that it wasn't a backpack at all. Instead, it was a baby strapped to a board that Butterfly had been wearing on her back.

The baby was wrapped completely and tied to the board with wide bands of cloth, so that only its head was visible. Its head was full of coal black hair that stuck up at all angles, and it had a chubby face with rosy little cheeks. Even with his limited exposure to these Indians, Troy realized that this baby's eyes were remarkable. Everyone here had the same color eyes, so inky black that the pupil was indistinguishable from the iris. This baby's eyes, however, were big and bright and a beautiful shade of … brown. They were darker than Sharpay's honey brown color, but still they were brown. She angled the board around so Troy could better see the baby. Confusion shadowed his face and he couldn't for the life of him fathom why Sharpay Evans, former drama queen of East High, was watching him with such trepidation.

"Troy..." She took a deep breath as if she really didn't want to make this introduction. "This is Pata, he's my..."

Her words were swiftly cut off as a large, black blur plowed into Troy, knocking him to the ground. An instant later, a steel vise started tightening around his throat. His eyes popped open to meet the deep-set blackness of Sharpay's big Indian, Tulto.

=/\=

"Tulto! Stop! Please, stop!", Sharpay shouted as she handed Pata, still strapped to his cradleboard, back to Polaina.

She ran over and tugged frantically on the big man's shoulder, but it was like trying to move a boulder. She doubted that he even realized she was there. Troy was clawing at Tulto's face, but that didn't seem to have any affect either. Sharpay could tell Troy was growing weaker and his face was starting to turn bright red. She quickly jumped on Tulto's back and began pulling desperately at his hair. With what looked like his last bit of energy, Troy reached up and grabbed onto the either side of Tulto's head and jammed his thumbs into his attacker's eyes.

Tulto jerked back and let go, dumping Sharpay onto the ground. Troy immediately rolled to his side and started coughing as sweet oxygen flowed into his lungs. Before he could launch another attack, Sharpay ignored the stinging on her hands and knees and scrambled over to place herself between Tulto and Troy.

She spoke in a clear, strong voice. "Tulto, stop. This is not what you think." In her peripheral vision she noticed that Troy was on all fours now and slowly starting to rise to his feet.

Squinting through the painful tears running down his face, Tulto replied slowly, "It is exactly what I think it is. Not only did you lie to me about leaving, but you are taking my son away from me too."

"I would never do that to you. I promised." The hurt in his voice cut her deeply and she instinctively took a step forward to comfort him. As Sharpay laid a hand on his large arm, he reacted violently and struck out against her, again knocking her to ground.

"You will be going nowhere." The hurt in voice was quickly replaced by ice.

He reached forward and started to pull her up by her hair when Sharpay looked over and saw Troy stumbling up behind them. Troy's face was beet red due to a combination of the harsh sun and the near asphyxiation he had just suffered. Shaking his head to clear his vision, he stalked up to Tulto. Clasping his hands together over his head, he drove his arms down with all his might on Tulto's upper back in a hammer like blow which knocked the larger man to his knees.

"Stay... away... from... her", Troy rasped out through his bruised larynx as he stumbled back on unsteady legs.

Suddenly, everything seemed to happen in slow motion. Sharpay saw the murderous look in Tulto's eyes, and for the first time she became truly frightened. She vaguely registered Pata's cries, but they sounded as if they were coming from very far away. Polaina was screaming at her brother to stop and then, Sharpay saw why. As Tulto slowly stood up, he pulled a large hunting knife from his legging and whirled around to attack an unarmed and barely cognizant Troy Bolton. Sharpay pulled herself to her feet and stepped closer to Tulto just in time to catch the edge of his sharp blade as he swept the knife around towards Troy. It sliced open her dress just below her right breast and she immediately felt the sting of the cut on her skin. She stared down in amazement at her hand which had gone automatically to her injury. It was covered in blood. Looking back to Tulto, she saw the he must have stopped when he realized he'd cut her and now stood dumbfounded, staring from the knife to her and back again. He looked on the verge of dropping it when a wild scream rang out in the suddenly silent day, even the baby had quietened.

All eyes swung over to Troy who was barreling at full speed toward Tulto. He scarcely had time to raise the knife again before Troy hit him full on and both of them fell to the ground in a conjoined mound. Then, the slow motion Sharpay had been dragging herself through flipped to fast forward. She could barely keep track of which arm or leg belonged to which man as Tulto and Troy rolled back and forth across the ground until in one heap they rolled down the embankment and into the water with a splash.

Ashtay and Polaina ran to help Sharpay stand and the three of them rushed to the edge of the six foot drop off that fell into a deep lagoon-like area of the river. Anxiously, they stared at the now still surface of the water. And they continued to stare for what felt like an eternity until one head suddenly appeared and sucked in a much needed breath.

TBC

Author's Notes:

Wow! I hoped that worked. This action stuff is really hard to write. And looky... another cliffhanger.

The more reviews I get, the faster I'll update. Please let me know what you think.

Native American Character List:

Tsirege – Tha-a-ba's wife, means little bird

P'ah-tah-zhuli - Toltu's 'first' wife, means little deer bean

Paxopatona -Tulto's mother, also mother of Shyuote, Sayap and Polaina

Polaina – Tulto's sister, means butterfly

Sayap – Tulto's youngest sister

Shyuote - Tulto's younger brother

Sse – corn silk, what Tulto 'renames' Sharpay

Tha-a-ba – Tulto's friend, brother to Turkano, Thing 2

Tulto – The Big Indian's real name

Turkano – Tulto's friend, brother to Tha-a-ba, Thing 1

Ashtay – Polaina's friend

Hishtanyi – medicine man of Nafiat

Pata – Sharpay's (drumroll, please) son. Yeah, like everybody hadn't figured that one out. Means blackbird.