Chapter One:

"Race you to the top of the tree!" shouted Aoife to her twin.

"Okay. I'll count. Three, two, one, GO!"

The sisters climbed the giant tree, up to the very top. It was the tallest one in the forest, reaching up past all the buidings to where the clouds seemed close enough to touch. Not suprisingly, that didn't scare Scathach or Aoife, who were practically fearless.

Aoife was in front, leading by only a few branches, when a gigantic black bird flew right in front of her, startling her and causing her to loose her balance. She screamed as she fell, so loudly the whole city could hear it. Caught in the moment, she dreaded what was going to happen. She was going to die here and now. But before she could fall far, she was caught on something. Whew. Her shirt had gotten caught on a branch. Scathach scrambled over to her.

"Ohh gosh, are you okay?"

"Uhh" replied Aoife, still shaking "I think so."

"Here" Scathach pulled her twin to her feet.

They made their way down the tree, each step taking twice as long as it would on the ground. It was easy to go up, the other way was the hard part. Finally they were almost down. One by one, they jumped from the bottom branch to a pile of leaves on the forest floor.

"How many times do I have to tell you, don't climb that tree. You could have gotten hurt badly."

Their uncle, Prometeus, had emerged from the bushes. Since their parents had abandoned the young girlsfour years ago, he had taken care of them and he felt like they were his only other close family member thay had was the Witch of Endor, their grandmother, who came to visit them often.

"Yes Uncle" muttered the children in unison.

"Your grandmother is coming to our house for supper tonight for your birthday. I expect you to be on your best behaviour. Now go clean up, you're both covered in mud."

"Yes, Uncle" again

An hour later, everyone was finishing a dinner of salmon, potatoes and other vegtables that you would not know of as they don't even exist anymore when Scathach spoke up.

"Uncle, what happened to our parents, why don't we live with them likt all the other children?"

"Ohh Scatty, you ask that every day. I will tell you when it's time."

"You promised us you would tell us on our tenth birthday, remember?"

Prometeus shot a sideward glance at the witch, who nodded slowly.

"Okay. You deserve to know." He paused for a second, looking at the expectant expressions on the twins face, expection to hear something heroic, like that their parents died fighting a battle and saving the world. He was not looking forward to confessing the truth, but he knew it was time. "You have heard of Danu Talis, the lost island that we came from, all the generations befire you. Well, only a few years before you two were born, it fell. During the time of out amazing island, all of us had amazing abilities. But all the children born after the fall of Danu Talis are different. Your parents, well, they thought that you weren't as good as them because of it. They... they abandoned you for only that reason."

The thoughts were still settling in when the young girls went to bed that night, and they styed up late talking about at and simply not being able to sleep.

"I can't believe our parents would really do that" whispered Scatty into the dark.

"Well, I don't even remember them. How could we know what they would or wouldn't do?"

"Aoife, you're always so logical. Can you really believe anyone would be so mean?"

"Well, no. I always imagined the dying in a battle, or right now be fighting some horrible war, defeating monsters."

"I know, I thought the same"

Feeling that there was nothing more to be said, Aoife blew out the candle in their room and shut her eyes.