I stare at his eyes with surprise. I would’ve thought that his eyes would be maybe yellow like his hair, or even orange, as his hair is that colour as well, but no, it's a stark blue, standing out compared to his orangey-yellow hair and light coloured skin. “You had blue eyes?” I was surprised. Funnily enough when he had cried I had never thought to look at his eye colour. Maybe that was why I was surprised. I caught myself on that. No, that’s one hundred percent why I was surprised.

  He stares at me, confused. “Yeah, I always had blue eyes? You saw them before that one night.” I shrug. “I never noticed.” A thought occurred to me as I said this. “Why’d you take the mask off?” He looks at me, surprised by the question before realising it's a completely normal question. “Because it was wet. I got it wet in the spring. Surely you noticed.” I just looked at him guiltily. He chuckled. “Of course you didn’t. What did I expect?” As we’re together, Khaliff looks at us, and then the dimensional bag that's sitting in the corner. “Can I look at what food you have?” He asks, and we nod. “Sure.” I say. He goes over, and starts to rummage through it, pulling out the pretty empty bag of grains, and the biscuits, along with the remaining glow berries.

  He starts to rummage more, brings out the rest of the Korrong meat but then seems surprised. “Nothing else?” He looks back at us. We nod. “Yeah.” Says Dalyva. “We were running low on food.” Fora walks up to us, and says. “Well, you don't have to worry about that here. We get plenty of food from the adventurers and the plants we grow, if you have any seeds?” Khaliff starts looking through the bag, and pulls out the Appa seeds and the leftover Tor that we set aside in case we wanted to grow anything.

  “I’ll take the seeds to the farmers guild, unless you want to keep it?” He asks, and we all shake our heads. “No, we were only going to use it for growing anyways, but we didn’t have any pots or anything to grow it into.” Answers Taegan.

  As we stood there, I looked around at everyone, and then realised-i was bored. Every day before now I had been constantly fighting and struggling for our survival, that now, when we get a chance to relax, I can't. The world seemed duller, more boring, and I couldn’t stand it. It was hard last night to go to sleep without my weapon near me, as I was so used to it being there. It was confusing to know that when I got up, I wasn't in a tent, and nor was there a fire just outside it that could warm me up in the morning. For some reason, despite the forest being dense, and the outside world in summer, it was wintery conditions here, cold and frosty. I would even bet it snowed overnight.

  “Khaliff dear?” Says Fora as she looks at her-presumably-husband. “Why don't you all have breakfast and then you can show them to the Guild main?” Khaliff nods as he takes the food from our dimensional bag, giving the bags to Fora, and then putting the seeds at the door.

  Fora then gives us our breakfast, and it’s simple white rice in a bowl, some kind of soup, a grilled fish, some sort of sprouts, and a rolled omelet. Fora gently chuckles as she notices I don't know what any of it is. “This is a breakfast from the body of the dragon. I got it from Azuma, the kitsune down the street.” She walks over to the dishes on her little box.

  Wait, I forgot to explain. Sorry, we aren’t sitting on the table, instead we are kneeling on our shins and an arched-like box has our food on it.

  She points to the rice. “That’s the rice, obviously, and then we have the miso soup, the yakiayu, or grilled fish, takenoko, which is bamboo sprouts and they’re boiled, and then Tamagoyaki, which is the omelet.” She clasps her hands together happily. “You get it now?” I nod. “You can use a knife and fork, but I can also help you learn to hold chopsticks if you want?” We all shake our heads, just wanting to eat the amazing looking food.

  As soon as she sits down, I start to dig in, eating the delicious white rice and miso soup first. The rice is plain, but the miso soup is good. It’s savoury, and has a flavour that can be described with simple words, amazing to taste though. I then moved on to the takenoko, as Fora called it. They’re mildly sweet, with a crisp texture. I find them delicious, and eagerly eat the whole of them. The fish is like fish, I guess, and quite like home, which I appreciate, even if it wasn’t intentional. The fish is, well, like fish, it has a grilled, smoky texture with that common white meat taste that’s slightly salted.. and finally, the omelet, or as Fora said, Tamagoyaki. It has a silky texture, yet is sweet and much better than the eggs I would have at home.

  Once everyone finishes, and I notice that both Fora and Khaliff have chopsticks that look incredibly easy to use, we get up, put the dishes at the sink, and then Khaliff starts to lead us to the cupboard. He hands me a scarf, and I don it, as he gives us all scarfs and then coats.

  I look outside in wonder, as I see soft white snow covering the ground. Excitedly, I ran into the snow, flopping on it, and expecting a fluffy snow, boo no, it was cold, but it was still fluffy, and so I played around in the snow for a bit as Taegan joined me. We threw snow at each other, ducked out of the way of snowballs, and definitely got snow under our clothes. After a couple minutes, Dalyva stopped us as we finally paid attention to Khaliff.

  Following Khaliff as he led us through the street, everything was white, finally we came across a town square that led to a giant hall. It’s huge and I can’t believe the massive place is inside this seemingly scant town. “What’s the hall for?” Asks Dalyva, asking the question in all of our minds. Khaliff looks back at us. “I suppose you don’t know, do you?” He looks thoughtful for a second, before saying. “The hall is where we have all of our guilds, and as that’s true, we normally call the hall the Guilds hall or just plain Guilds main.”

  Huh. Guild main is a funny name. I almost laugh as I think if a guildsman, especially a respectable one with a tie and suit having a lion's mane just randomly pop into existence around their neck. Sure, there are Leonids, and I’m not saying they’re weird, bit just having it puff up all a sudden? Hilarious. I can barely keep a straight face as my mind wanders to where hair could pop out. Yes, I know my mind is getting off track, deal with it. I pull myself back in, and focus on what Khaliff is doing. I look as he steps into the building, and follow after a second of hesitation, waiting for Taegan to enter before me. That’s why I hesitated. That’s all it is. It’s nothing to do with anything else. Or, is it…. My mind wanders to a distinct possibility. Why did I hesitate? Was I, afraid, to go somewhere new? That couldn’t be it, I never hesitated in a new place, never feared. Surely it was something else.

  I then stepped behind Taegan, as I always had when he was with me, and Dalyva followed me. As Taegan stepped to the side, I almost gasped as I looked at the place. It was huge on the inside, the high ceiling merely making it seem bigger, with arches stretching over from one pillar to another, signalling another room as every pillar in a wall connecting to the building. Meaning that every arch is the essential ‘door’ to where each guild area starts. In total, on one side there are about five of these rooms, meaning five guilds, and the same on the other side. They all have different names, and one up the front, at the end of the hall and on a cylinder-like end it’s the Adventurers Guild. Classic.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  We took off our coats and put them on the racks, as Khaliff did too.

  “What are all the guilds?” Asks Taegan, and Khaliff looks back at us from where he was looking somewhere. “Huh? Well…” He points to the first guild on the left, closest to us. “That's the Culinary Guild, then next to it we have the Civilians Guild, then the Builders Guild, the Supplies Guild, the Knights Guild, The Adventurers Guild.” He points to the area at the end, and then starts to go back to us along the other side, naming those guilds as well. “The Courier Guild, the Design Guild, the Healers Guild, the Cooks Guild, and finally, the Freedom Guild.” I look at each thing, and try to memorise them, but given it took me about 4 years to memorise the kingdoms on my own continent, even as a rhymed song, I doubt that's going to happen any time soon.

  Aside from my own struggles, Taegan starts to walk up to the Adventurers Guild, getting something from a pocket that always seemed closed when I’ve noticed it. “Taegan?” I ask. “You want to sign up, right?” He asks and I nod as I have to jog for a sec to get in stride with him. “Yeah?” He waves a card around. “Well, this is my adventurers card, so I can get signed up for jobs in this area, and we can get you signed up. Keep in mind, it's easy to do jobs and get paid for small jobs even if you’re not a member, but to do true jobs is hard without a Guild card.”

  We walk up to the desk, and an elf with tanned skin, dark green eyes, short yellow hair and a black headband greets us. “Welcome to Adventurers Guild. I’m Lilia, how may I help you today?”

  Taegan places his card on the desk. “I’d like to sign up for this area, and my brother here would like to sign up for a guild membership.” I preen happily as he calls me his brother so naturally, and Lilia nods as she takes his card, reading it. “Well, Taegan, was it?” He nods, and she continues. “I’ll get you ready and sign up your brother….” She trails off, unsure of my name, which Taegan says. “Shankhe.” She nods gratefully. “I sign Shankhe up immediately.” She goes over to a stamp, looks at Taegan’s card, and then flips it to the places of admission, and stamps on it, magic swirling in the card for a few seconds, before a light flashes on the card, signalling its acceptance of the new stamp.

  She gives it back, and then dredges up a paper from under her desk, putting it in front of me with a pen. I fill out all the bits about name and age, before signing where it says I agree, and then handing it back for her to look at, and as she signs it, it transforms into a wooden card that Lilia doesn’t touch, for some reason. “Take it.” She gestures, and I pick it up, confused. Immediately as I turn it over and see it, my fingerprint is engraved on the card, with my name and age as well.

  However, as I noticed no species, I grabbed Taegans from his hand, and looked at his. Same as mine. No species. I then look up at Lilia. “I thought Guild cards were supposed to have species?” I ask, confused. She tilts her head, then holds out her hand. “Here, give them to me.” I hand them both to her, and she then pulls out her own card. “They are.” She says. “Say, did you two, maybe, rank up in the last couple days?” We nod, unsure how this is related to anything. She sighs. “Sometimes, ranking up, especially for some species, means that the features start to come in and the disguise of ‘human’ wears off, or, if you’re a shifter it means you can shift now. Do you know what species you are?” She asks cautiously, and we shake our heads. “We’re both orphans.” Answers Taegan, and Lilia nods. “Well, we have Dan, our species specialist out back, and as you need your species on your Guild card to make sure you’re not underage, I’ll lead you to him. Although, I doubt you’re underage.” She assures us. She gestures for us to follow her, and we do, another guild employee taking over Lilias spot.

  We head to behind the desks to where, in a room next to the training room, a simple old man sits in a chair. He has a white beard, and grey hair, with a wise look about him. “A species evaluation please Gareth.” Lilia said to the man, no, Gareth. “Gary, girl, no need to be so formal.” He smiles. “A rank up reveal?” He then asks, and she nods. He takes out a book, about three cm thick, and looks up at us. “Names?” We look at each other. “Taegan.” Says Taegan, pointing to himself. “Shankhe.” I answer the old man's question.

  A smile dances his lips as he looks at both of us. “Perchance, boys, did you get named by the people who picked you up, or did a name enter their heads?” We look at each other. I hadn’t told anyone what Matron said when I came of age, that apparently the first adventurer to touch me had a name enter their head, and that’s how I was named. “A name entered their head.” I answer cautiously, wary of the old man. “Oh, no need to be so scared.” He waves his hand at my expression. “You?” He points to Taegan with his frail fingers,and Taegan responds. “A name entered their head.” The man chuckled.

  “This is too easy.” He answers chuckling, but then becomes completely serious as he looks at Lilia. “Please leave, this is extremely private.” She nods, and leaves, closing the door behind her. He takes in a deep breath, and we look at him with rapt attention. “Have you heard of Fae?” He asks. “Aren’t they the extremely strong and almost mad warriors who partner with barbarians as they all live in the dragon's tail?” Taegan answers, and the old man points at him. “You would be correct young man. They are not extremely strong though, they are immense. That’s why they have barbarians to keep them in check, to make sure they don’t destroy themselves with power.

  You two though….” He trails off. “You’re twins.” He says that like it's something sort of bad, yet immensely something that isn’t talked about. A taboo of sorts.

  “What about it?” Asks Taegan, and I can tell he’s happy that someone else confirmed we’re twins. “Well, if you were a normal Fae, and had ranked up without a barbarian or person to help regulate it, your spesh would have gone wild, and driven. You. Mad.” He says the last three words with extra emphasis. “But you’re twins. Meaning your powers subconsciously regulate each other, and you have no need for a barbarian. That’s why Fae twins are known as the most powerful warriors in all the lands.” He pauses for a moment before continuing solemnly.

  “Alongside blood, space and time spesh people, they are also one of the highest kidnapped in the world.” I look at Taegan. “You mean we weren’t just part of a monster attack?” I ask, still skeptical that they would bring a child, a baby no less, to the other side of the world just because its a twin, not even knowing anything like how smart or good at fighting they were.

  The old man nods. “I know it's shocking, but people will do a lot for profits, especially when they need money.” Then he stands up. He can stand! Anyways, he walks up to us with determination, and grabs his cane, whacking us over the head.

  I look at him shocked, Taegan immediately grasping around his waist where his Jambiyas normally sit, but they’re not there. He had left them at home. My vision starts to blur, and everything goes white. The last thing I see is the old man's face as he holds up his hands defensively, saying something that I can't hear.

  ————————————————

  My mind is fuzzy. Who am i? I look down at my hands as I see silvery cream skin. For some reason, my instincts are warring. I feel like I’ve seen these hands before, yet my instincts are saying they’re not my hands. A mirror is placed in front of me, and I look into it. My eyes widen in shock as memories flood me.

  I’m Shankhe, and I have a twin. But, I don't look like this. I have short blue hair, like the sea, and yellow sandy eyes. But as I stare into the mirror, that isn’t what I see. I see person with long forest green hair, and light green highlights as the hair trails down past my chest. I see eyes sparkling like emeralds, and a replica of me next to me.

  “What did you do?!” I say, panicked as the old man moves the mirror. “Simple.” He said. “I let your Fae form out. But you better not show it to too many people, as they’ll eventually realise that your skin is silvery, not just cream and hunt you down.”

  Taegan looks at the man. “What does this mean for us, and especially our friends?” The old man sighs, sitting down as if he knew this question was coming. “It means, well, that you have to be careful who you show your true strength, as there are always people wanting more power, and they sadly use Fae and overpowered spesh people to get there.” He then taps us on the head with his stick, and I brace for the feeling I had before, but now it was simple, more instinctive. “You two go, I’ll inform Lilia of your species and get it put down.” He then finishes with one thing. “Make sure you are careful with who you trust.” He waves as we leave, and finally it’s over.