Search and Rescue: Revenge for Klesent

Prologue: The Seer

The one who sees in her sleep found herself on Klesent. She was home. She smiled but then her smile faltered. She was here for a reason and this was one of those few days that she actually knew the reason. She swallowed and began to make her way to a sleek, silver building. There was an old man she needed to see.

He was there when she got there. The odd, blue and red, old man smiled. Hello, Spirit. Why are you here today?

The man did not know her, but she knew him. This was the third time she’d seen him in her life. I am one who sees in her sleep, she began, and I have come here to deliver an important message.

And what is this message, Seer?

Seer, the one who sees in her sleep thought, that is the first time I have been called that. I think I like it...

The one who sees in her sleep took a deep breath, which is awkward and unnecessary because she was, in fact, dreaming, and said, This planet, I’m afraid, is going to be invaded by the people of Yairgand. Many will die.

The man’s smile faltered.

There is hope for it, however. Two twins will be born. They will be your saviors and only hope for the planet. They will be named Ky and Piper but be known as Fireboy and Watergirl to the universe. You will send them to the planet Earth as soon as they are born. But do not take the twins by force; they will be given by their parents willingly. You will spread this word throughout this planet and also to the others. Trust me, it is necessary. You must follow my instructions. Do you understand?

Yes, Seer, I understand. You can trust me.

I know. The one who sees in her sleep disappeared.

A few months later, the one who sees in her sleep came back to the sleek, silver building. The man was there. He didn’t notice her. A couple came in, the woman carrying two twins. The twins’ names were Piper and Ky.

My work here is done, the one who sees in her sleep thought to herself. Let fate take its course. The Seer smiled and nodded, satisfied with her work. She watched two more spirits float into the room, sighed, thought, Good luck, self, you’re going to need it, and disappeared. The Seer, mostly blue with only one bit of red on her left arm, was not in fact, talking to her current self, but her younger self. For her younger self held the fate of many worlds in her hands, even if she did not know it.

Chapter One: The Urge

All who read this, you are now officially warned. They will hunt you down if they find out that you are reading this. I’m not joking. I never joke about something like this. My brother, Ky, did at a time, but not me. Never me.

It all started when Ky begged me to go on an adventure with him. And if you know my brother, which you don’t, at least not yet, you would know that when he begs he gets these big brown puppy eyes and his lower lip sticks out and his jaw wobbles so that he looks like the most innocent thing in the world and like he’s about to cry—which he isn’t—usually. That’s just part of his deception. But as his twin, I couldn’t stand rejecting those big brown eyes and wobbling bottom lip. Plus he’s such a master at this art that his voice alone could make an ocean city move to the middle of a desert. Yeah, he’s that good.

Anyway, he says to me, Hey, Piper, my brilliant twin sister, can we go on an adventure tomorrow?

No, Ky.

But Piper, we need to go there. He was referring to the forest.

Ky, why don’t you just go?

I couldn’t just leave you behind! You could miss something important? And what if something happens out there? Or if I get killed because you wouldn’t come? The first two things did happen. The third, well, I guess it depends on how you look at it.

Those are ‘What if’ questions. I may sound like I’m holding my ground right now, but trust me, I don’t. Because that’s when he looked straight into my eyes with his puppy dog eyes and gave me the Look. Yeah, that’s right. That hurt, innocent, and abandoned look. And I broke.

Maybe it wasn’t just him. It was probably a feeling from inside me that was also pleading with me. Before I knew what I was saying, I said, Fine. I’ll come. That was either the best decision or the worst mistake in my life, again, it depends on how you look at it.

Thank you, Piper! We leave in the morning. Then he became my annoying twin brother again. He ran around me like a maniac, whooping. I don’t know how we could be so different. Him so immature, I well, a lot more mature them him. Then again, that is necessary. We even looked completely different. Sometimes people think we look so far off that instead of being twins, or even brother and sister, they think we’re, you know, a couple. I hate it when they think that. So what, we went for breakfast together. So what, we went on a bike ride together. We do almost everything together! We’re twins!

For the record, he has big, brown, and round eyes. I have smallish blue eyes. Ky has straight black hair that turns a really dark brown in the summer. I had super curly honey-blonde hair that took on the color and feel of straw in the summer. Only a couple minutes in the pool would transform it into its usual dry, straw-like self. (Not that I’d have that problem after this adventure). I’m not even going to even mention the other differences at the moment because you’d have to read forever to get all of them out and would probably stop reading this book.

Anyway, we left early the next morning. And I mean early. Like 3 A.M. early. We left our parents a short note that said quite simply, Going on an adventure. Don’t know when we’ll be back. Don’t worry. Then we signed our names.

We should have told them a time and to worry if we went past that time. Or, better yet, to worry if we came home before that time, at least by a long distance, like if we were there before they even noticed we were gone. Then we should have put it in at least ten layers of clear indestructible Plexiglas and nailed, hot-glued, duct-taped, and overall implanted into a wall. An important and unique wall, the one with pen markings on it to mark our heights and the dates from the time we were three, so that no one could tear it down and put one back that looks exactly like it before they notice.

But we didn’t.

We didn’t. Even though I could not have possibly known, I didn’t.

They were okay, we reasoned. They had already left for a long-weekend trip the night before. We could be gone for at least three days and they wouldn’t notice. Besides, we had gone on long adventures before.

I’m supposed to be the responsible one, the leader. I’m supposed to make sure we don’t go on any adventures that last for more than a few hours, three at the most, and get home safely. Wow, I really need to rethink that. They really want to rethink that.

We should have gone with them like they asked us to. But I wasn’t in the mood to spend a weekend on a farm with Grandma and Grandpa. It wasn’t that they were bad people but they could be so dull sometimes. They ignored me and Ky when the whole family is over yet wouldn’t leave us alone when it was just us. I could tell Mom forced Dad into going, he felt the same way.

When we did come back they didn’t recognize us. In fact, they were afraid of us, not that I can blame them; we were freaks.

We are freaks.

Let me tell you about our parents, they aren’t our real parents. We were adopted. Apparently, we had shown up on the doorstep to our house in a basket. Our birth parents had left a short and rather blunt note stating that we were twins and that our birthdays were June 21st, 1999. They had also said our names were Piper and Ky. They never said our last names. They didn’t sign the note either. So Mom and Dad, not the real ones, had taken us in. It’s actually somewhat comforting to know that they aren’t our real parents because we have nothing in common. Even less than Ky and I do. Trust me, it’s somehow possible. Ky and I do share some things in common, like having the same parents and sharing a house and place to sleep and a rather odd past and a secret. But never mind that for now.

We literally have a forest in our backyard. Our backyard started out normal but ended in a line of trees. Ky led me into the woods. I don’t know what he was thinking or if he thought anything at all besides, Dum de dum de dum, but I knew how and why he was led to the spot. He felt the Urge, as we have called it since that day. I felt it, too. We couldn’t stop it. There was no possible way. It’s part of us.

As soon as we were in the trees, it started. We walked at first. And then we went faster. And faster. And faster. Within minutes we were both running as fast as we could. Maybe even faster. We raced through the trees, bobbing and weaving. At the time I didn’t even notice the poison ivy that brushed my ankles or the unnatural silence for we made no sound, neither did the birds. There was no wind. I didn’t notice when a huge poisonous spider landed on my arm or the blood on my legs from the thorn bushes. Nor did Ky feel the spider web (most likely belonging to the poisonous spider) that he ran into or the tree branches that wacked into him and, under normal circumstances, would have made him unable do anything but fall and scream in agony as my normal immature, previously pampered twin brother would do. But nope, he kept on running.

But then the Urge stopped. And we both witnessed a great pain from our injuries, suddenly feeling them all at full force. We both fell, lower than the ground. My feet didn’t hit the bottom, I was suspended somehow. I lost sight of Ky. Most of the pain in my legs stopped but even more pain came. My head felt like it was about to burst. My brain was too big. I couldn’t get oxygen into my lungs. The skin on my neck was being ripped away from it. Strange images flashed before my eyes, some foreign, some not. I think I cried out but I couldn’t hear anything and something filled my lungs as soon as I breathed in, making me choke and cough. The skin on my neck got even worse as I retched, something was growing on it. Muscles? Nerves? I couldn’t tell.

Images of water and the beautiful things that live in, around it, and that depend on it filled my vision. In other words, glimpses of everything. A fish here, a camel there. I know what you’re thinking, Camel? Why a camel? In truth, I don’t know exactly. Maybe it’s because they drink water by the gallon or that they can survive for weeks without water. But we may never know.

I couldn’t feel anything but my body. Or see anything but the water and the random images.

And then it stopped. It was so sudden I didn’t realize it for a few minutes. I tried to pry my eyes open but couldn’t. Total exhaustion had taken over me. I tried to fight it. I gave up quickly and fell asleep.

I opened my eyes and found myself floating in a pool of water. A deep pool; I was submerged. I couldn’t breathe for a moment, water filled my lungs and I coughed it out. Then I calmed myself and was able to breathe again. I felt a tickling on my neck and raised a hand to it and felt something odd. Very odd. Flaps of skin that took in water. The truth hit me like a bowling ball hurled at me by a professional football player.

I had gills.

I ripped my hand away and that’s when I caught sight of my hand as well. It was a pale blue that gave off a bluish glow. I looked at the rest of my skin. It, too, was blue. My clothes had changed as well. I was wearing a loose three-quarter-sleeved shirt that seemed to be made of solidified water. It rippled and flowed and fitted me perfectly. Surprisingly enough, although it wasn’t see through—far from it—it changed colors with the light. I wore capris made of the same material. My hair, thankfully, had retained its normal, if not a restored, color but now emitted a bluish glow. It was still tied back in a ponytail but it was neater, no longer just pulled back in a hurry but now brushed, rid of knots. I decided to take it out and when I did, it seemed to fall perfectly onto my shoulders. I ran my fingers through it. For the first time in months, they went all the way through instead of stopping at a knot.

Having discovered all of the changes, I pushed myself upward until my head broke the surface. It was unusually bright and I had to squint until my eyes adjusted. When they did, I pulled myself out of the water. I felt weak then; hungry and tired despite the fact that I’d just woken up. I wriggled around gasping like a... like a... well, like a fish out of water. I realized I had started to breathe like I had before. When I remembered how to breathe underwater, I sat up. I was in a clearing, but it wasn’t just any clearing. It had a deep and wide pit of water, and a similar pit that contained a liquid fire. I scooted as far from the fire pit as I could, watching it with a wary eye.

Then something emerged from it. A head. A fiery red head with hair that was darker than I had ever seen. Deeper than the darkest pit. The creature looked at me. It seemed... frightened, rather like a lost puppy dog. And then it pushed itself out of