1
                                                   Agunkpot





The orphanage slept as the cold night crept in. Rows of beds lined the darkened rooms, squashed together as if keeping each other warm.
On the end of the farthest row a crib rocked gently, by hands unseen, to the echo of a wind- swept lullaby. That same wind whispered a message,
“Sleep well, tomorrow you will return home.”
The crib then grew distant and became engulfed by fiery shadow as the unseen whisperer of the message knelt in a stone room surrounded by lit candles. She peered into the flame of the candle before her, the waxy body of which resembled a crib, and in the flame she could see the crib clearly, as if it were there in front of her and not thousands of miles away in the safety of the orphanage.
Her worried gaze swept away from the crib candle and peered into another, which was in the shape of a small boy; he slept soundly in the flame. “My poor boy… I hope you will understand one day,” and the unseen mother wept at the sight of him.
Next to the sleeping boy’s flamed image, a candle shaped like that of a gaunt faced man, sat, unlit. The unseen mothers face grew bitter. “Still he eludes me, I the mother of his children,” she said, trying repeatedly to light the candle, which refused to light. The ancient Vetala was more powerful than she’d expected; his magic hid him well. She gave up lighting his candle and arose, gazing upon the candle filled room; all of which resembled a person or thing she desired to keep watch over.
She brought her attention back to the crib candle wishing to say goodnight one last time; thankful that soon, all her children would be safe.
As she peered into the candle, expecting to see the crib still rocking gently, chaos had taken over the picture in the flame. The Master of the orphanage was running and screaming,
“Hurry, get them out, get them all out!” Older children were grabbing younger children and fleeing the orphanage. The unseen mother began to panic as fire engulfed her candle flamed image; it was then that she realized the orphanage was on fire!
The room became difficult to see as it filled with smoke. The unseen mother tried desperately to see into the now still crib… A little leg stretched out from under a blanket.
“No!” she screamed in horror. She rose, ready for immediate departure; her body began spinning as she wailed, “I am coming my children…” the voice trailed off and the candle room began to turn into a dreamy haze.

At precisely nine o’clock, Kanda’s voice filtered through the Mesmer- izing flames and all eyes and ears switched to her, and to Colin’s delight, even his sisters. Kanda Macawi’s voice seemed to mingle with the flames, as she serenely began.
“Tonight, I tell a story about truth.
Some time ago there existed a magnificently powerful woman. But although already powerful, her heart was filled with desire for more; until one day, she wanted everything, and even everything, it seems, was not enough.
And then, by chance, she came to know love, true love, a love without condition. It changed her, tamed her, and made her whole.
Love replaced her desire for power and soon, she accepted her new loves proposal of marriage, and became the happiest woman of her day, instead of the greediest.
The morning of the wedding arrived and the woman waited for her fiancé on a cliff overlooking the ocean; it was believed to be good blessings to be married at the rising of the sun, the birth of a new day!
The sun arose and to the dismay of the woman, and the wedding party who waited with her, the man, her true love, did not arrive. She searched for him, worried he’d befallen some misfortune, only to discover him in the arms of another.
The man beheld the woman he was to marry, shamed.
He beheld the woman in his arms, pleading for answers.
‘Who are you? How could I have done this?’
He let go and begged his true love’s forgiveness, and for a chance to let him discover the true meaning behind this betrayal; for in his heart, still filled with love for her, he knew that it was no power of his own which brought him into the arms of this other woman, a complete stranger.

The woman, her heart dying, became bitter, and refused any forgiveness or possibility that there was truth other than what she could see. She obsessed with the betrayal and the pain it caused her, loosing all faith in love, and she vanquished…” as Kanda said the word, a torrent of ferocious flame erupted high into the air which dissipated just as quickly, and Kanda, looking straight into the eyes of her listeners, continued,
“Truth and love from her life.”
Kanda closed her eyes, no one in the group made a sound. Her eyes opened and she continued, sounding pained by the story.
“Her old ways of greed and desire for power returned to her nine fold, and she began a journey from which she could scarcely return.
Her life purpose became to seek revenge on all those whom she believed had conspired to make her believe in love.
The man, her true love, after months of trying to understand his betrayal and prove his innocence, finally discovered that he had been poisoned, tricked into the arms of this other.
By whom he did not know, and for what purpose, he could only guess; perhaps he had been game for prey? For someone in want of his true loves power and willingness for greed.
Being unable to bear the burden of this knowledge, and knowing he would never be able to prove his innocence, the man sent his true love a letter, which simply and truthfully said,
‘I will always love you, even beyond my end.’
He then went voluntarily into death, jumping from the very cliff on which the couple should have been wed.
The woman, after hearing of his death and reading the letter, felt a flicker of remorse, but it was too late, her heart was dead.
Her truth became the final truth; his death proved in her mind to be his final betrayal, and his actions proved no other truth existed.
Her life went on, bitterly, with hatred and greed in place of love and life.”
Kanda paused, again; the twins and Uncle Arnon, along with the Jendaya’s sat attentively listening; Kanda’s eyes were cast directly into the eyes of the twins, sitting side by side.

She then spoke, profoundly,
“The truth is the only real power.”
“The truth is freedom.”
“Not knowing it and not pursuing it is a life of captivity!”
The story ended and everyone remained silent disappearing once again into the flames of the diminishing fire.
After a while Kanda arose and softly offered refills on drinks, and the small party began again to come alive. Meghan shook off the effects of the story and said,
“Well, that was an interesting one.”
“Yeah, real happy ending,” agreed Sebastien, sarcastically.
Colin ignored them and disappeared into his thoughts, peering deep into the fire, analyzing every word of Kanda’s story; it had been much more serious than others in the past. And yet, there were many holes and unanswered questions. Who had caused the real betrayal? Why could the man not prove himself loyal? A lot of the story did not make sense to him, and yet the point had never been so fervently made clear; seek the truth, always.
He was brought out of his pondering by Meghan, saying,
“Hey, hey… you listening to me, little bro?” Annoyingly, he took his eyes away from the flames and glanced toward his sister, answering,
“Yes, I can hear you?”
“I was trying to tell you that Uncle Arnon said we can stay up past curfew tonight.” Colin checked his watch; it was almost ten already, which was normally the latest they could be out. He smiled saying,
“It still feels early anyway.”
Being excited that the night was not yet coming to an end, he forgot about his thoughts on Kanda’s story. Uncle Arnon said,
“Don’t wander too far, you two.”
“That goes for you was well, Sebastien,” added his father, Milo. They sat close as they could to the fire without being too close to the adults and talked the night away.
As they left the fire pit, Uncle Arnon walked on the camp road with the Jendaya’s, while the twins and Sebastien took the path through the woods from The Little Shop. The Jendaya camp was a little closer than the Jacoby’s, so they left Sebastien at his camp and headed home. The catchy gypsy’s music could be heard dancing through the air, as they arrived.
“They seem to be having a good time,” whispered Colin. “Let’s not go any closer, though,” he added, not wanting a repeat of that afternoon.
The cool, dark and empty night sky was suddenly filled with the same screeching cry the twins had heard earlier in the day. It was much closer this time and a large commotion filled the gypsy camp as the music came to a halt and once again everyone scurried into they’re wagons.
This time, Colin was torn between running and hiding, or staying and watching closely to see if they all went into one wagon. Uncle Arnon, who was now rounding the corner, seemed eager to get home saying, sternly,
“Come on you two, looks like it might rain.”
“That was the same cry we heard earlier. Must be a large owl, never heard one like that before,” said Meghan, feeling a little creeped out. Shadows seemed to be dancing around them in what little moonlight was sneaking through; the feeling of a million eyes blazing through her suddenly came into her mind.
“M-maybe we should hurry?” Colin said, feeling the same eerie feeling, as though they were being watched.

As Uncle Arnon led the way to the trailer and got them locked up for the night, Meghan’s mind raced over the events of the day; Colin sensed this and asked her what she was thinking.
“I hate to admit it, but, this whole day seems… weird.”
“Everyone does seem a bit on edge, usually it is much more relaxed around here,” he replied silently, so only she could hear. They pondered on the subject for awhile, until their Uncle interrupted.
“Time for bed now, good night you two.” Colin and Meghan hugged their Uncle, who was a little shaky. The twins quickly crawled into bed, both feeling ill at the fact that Uncle Arnon was clearly spooked.
“He’s not supposed to be scared of owls, even large ones,” Meghan stammered silently to her brother.
“It doesn’t seem like him, but maybe it wasn’t the owl. Maybe there was something we missed, like in Kanda’s story tonight, you remember, always seek the truth because it might not be what you first think.”
“Was that her point? I kinda stopped listening at the end,” she lied.
“Yes, it’s what she said, or at least meant.” He quivered at the thought of some creepy, crawly creature wandering around outside the trailer. Meghan said, silently,
“What I want to know is why do those gypsies freak out every time that screeching owl comes around? That really doesn’t make any sense, and tonight,” she paused; he knew what she was thinking about. “It was like I had a million eyes looking at me from all directions.” Colin’s arms were instantly covered in goose bumps as he recalled the feeling. Meghan hated to admit it, but added, “That was a little creepy.” Then, attempting to lesson the creepiness, she said, “It was the middle of the night and very dark, the wind was blowing shadows everywhere… that’s bound to be creepy anywhere!”
“I guess. But there’s something else, owls don’t typically come out and screech like that during the day, and the first time we heard it was this afternoon, in broad day light,” reminded Colin.
Meghan thought hard for an excuse, not wishing to be any more spooked that night and finally said, emphatically,
“It’s always dark in the woods! Maybe it messes with their day and night radar!”
The conversation ended, Meghan rolled over to go to sleep. She hid the rest of her feelings from her brother, knowing she would scare him and he would not sleep the rest of the night. But she had a nagging feeling that there was something going on with the gypsies, and she was now determined to find out what!
Unbeknownst to her, Colin was having a similar hidden thought, but it was changed slightly, to,
“How come I have a feeling Meghan’s going to be dragging me along to try and spy on those gypsies?” He tried to put the day out of mind pulled the covers over his head, and tried to be happy that they were in Camp Agunkpot, and eventually fell asleep.



Meghan found herself dreaming in no time. She was running through the woods, Colin and her Uncle sat on the ground by a tree, reading. She was walking hand in hand with Sebastien. They seemed to walk for a very long time, when the dream began to fill with fog.
She then lost Sebastien’s grip; he had disappeared, and so had everyone else.
Meghan found herself alone, with thick fog blocking the path forward. A sudden sensation of loosing her breath and sucking in poisonous fumes made her realize, it wasn’t fog she was breathing, but smoke.
A silhouette immerged from the smoke; Meghan shouted out in her dream for help. The figure was holding a handkerchief over its face; as it came closer, Meghan could see it was Colin.
“How did I get here?” he asked, dragging his sister lower to the ground where the air was slightly clearer. She shook her head, asking,
“Are you sleeping still, are you in my dream for real?”
“I think I’m in your dream, but how? This has never happened before.”
Meghan panicked, it was the most real dream she’d ever had; and now Colin was stuck in here with her. She kept repeating to herself that it was just a dream. Colin grabbed her arm and motioned for her to follow, saying,
“Stay low to the ground, the air is better.” She answered, “Okay,” surprised at his relative calmness, and crawled forward.
The smoke began to clear a little, and then, scorching heat hit the twins from over head. They stopped crawling and stood up.
Twenty feet in front of them a tree burned, smoke billowed from the top and, to the twins’ horror, a young girl sat in one of the branches appearing to not care that fire was about to engulf her.
“This is just a dream,” said Meghan out loud.
“Of course it is,” agreed Colin, quickly loosing his nerve.
Meghan took a step closer, attempting to coax the girl down. Meghan had the urge to yell to her, but tried to remain calm, saying, “Hey, little girl,” hoping to catch her attention.

The girl stared down at them from where she was perched, her face was pale and her hair was long and deep red, almost black. The girl’s eyes never left contact with Meghan’s, but her arm raised and pointed. Neither twin was sure they wanted to look, but took their gazes away from the girl and looked to the direction she was pointing.
A moving ball of fire was coming directly toward them.
“What is that?” said Colin, wanting very much for his sister to wake up. Meghan also wanted to wake up, and closed her eyes, chanting,
“I must wake up. Please someone wake me up.”
“Yes,” agreed Colin, “Please someone, wake you up,” he grabbed her hand, but quickly let go, covering his head, trying to protect himself from the flames gliding ever closer.
Meghan turned away, Colin said desperately, “Wake up already!” Still not sure how to accomplish that feat, Meghan noticed,
“The little girl, she’s gone.” She felt immense heat coming toward her from behind, and as she repeated to herself again to wake up, she felt a small, half attempt at a tug on her arm.
Colin stood beside her, his eyes wide with fear.
Meghan turned back around, one little step at a time, afraid of what she would see.
There in front of her, starring back through the flames was Meghan. It was herself, only she was engulfed in flames, not burning, or in any pain, but looking straight into her own eyes.
Meghan could not believe what she was seeing, and then, the image of herself came closer, holding out her hand toward her. Meghan backed away, shaking now.
“Colin,” she called out.

There was no answer.
She hastily glanced around. He was gone. “Colin, where did you go?” she pleaded. The enflamed Meghan kept coming closer and the real Meghan found she had backed into a tree; a voice, her voice, came out of the flames.
“Do not be afraid. These flames will not harm you, but protect you.”
“Protect me from what? The only thing I need protection from is you; oh why can’t I wake up?” she said, exasperated.
The flames were upon her now and though she could feel the heat, it didn’t burn. She closed her eyes, waiting for something to happen, waiting to feel herself burning alive in her own dream. When she finally dared open them, the other Meghan was gone and she alone stood with flames engulfing her. With outstretched arms she looked at herself on fire.
The girl with the long hair was back and sitting again in the tree, she sat on her perch and said with an eerie smile,
“Now I am no longer alone,” she jumped and was gone.
Meghan closed her eyes, again, this time hearing voices in the distance, calling her. She followed them and when she opened her eyes she was awake and on the floor of her bedroom, drenched in sweat; she saw Uncle Arnon kneeling beside her on the floor, and Colin beside him, looking half frightened to death.
Meghan gasped for air and asked for water. Colin ran for a glass. Her uncle helped her sit up and examined her arms and legs.
“What are you looking for?” She managed to ask while catching her breath, and wondering if Colin had told him about the dream. Then she wondered if Colin had really been there at all.
“You fell off the bed, making sure nothings broken; must’ve been a pretty bad dream. You okay?”
“Yeah, feel like I was about beat up, though,” which was the truth; every muscle in her body ached and the feeling of immense heat had not left her sensations; she still felt as though the essence of the fire was surrounding her.
Colin came back with the water, saying,
“I made it extra cold.” It was hint enough to know that he had indeed been there. They sat quietly for a minute with Uncle Arnon in deep thought, and Colin unsure of what to say. After a few minutes she began to feel sleepy and wanted to go back to bed. Arnon agreed and helped her back into bed, leaving their door ajar as he went into his own room, leaving his own door open a crack as well.
Meghan caught a glimpse of him sitting on his bed scratching his newly growing beard, still apparently in deep thought. As soon as their uncle was back in bed, she sat up.
“Colin,” she asked through her thoughts. There was silence for a second, and then he finally answered back, asking,
“Are your dreams always that fun?”
“Very funny, Col. It was so real… I never have dreams that real.” She added, “You disappeared, what happened?”
“Uncle Arnon woke me; you’d fallen and he came running in. You were flopping around like you were having some sort of seizure or something.” She wrinkled her nose at the thought of wobbling around on the floor uncontrollably, as others watched.

“What happened after I left?” he asked cautiously, unsure he wanted to know.
“The flames engulfed me, the other Meghan disappeared and I became her, in the flames. And then, the little girl came back and said…” she stopped, hesitating.
“What, what did she say?” Colin asked eagerly.
“She said, ‘now I am no longer alone’.”
“What does that mean?”
“How do I know?” she snapped back, silently.
“Sorry.” He waited for her to continue.
“I can’t explain it. But it was so real. If I had to, I’d swear it really happened.”
“Well, I would say its official now, we haven’t even been at camp for a whole twenty four hours yet, and already it’s the strangest summer we’ve ever had.” That Meghan agreed to and her body began to feel tired.
“Night, Col, going back to sleep.”
“Okay, and a, no more dreams, or at least, leave me out of it, huh.”
She didn’t reply, and secretly hoped it would never happen again. Meghan tried to put the dream out of her mind, becoming annoyed that her sleep had been interrupted; the heat of the flames nagged at the back of her mind, but sleep came quickly from the exhaustion.
Colin wanted to sleep, but his reeling mind would not allow it; how had he ended up in his sister’s dream? Perhaps he had hooked onto her thoughts while they were sleeping; it had never happened before, but their ability had changed over the years, so why not again?
And then, alarm filled his thoughts.
What if without realizing or knowing how to stop it, they started getting into each other’s thoughts while they were sleeping.
It was a horrible thought; he pictured himself watching his sister’s dreams about Sebastien, and made a horrible pooing face at the thought.
Then, he saw his sister wandering through his dreams, the one place he had always been safe and free; he could not allow it to happen again!
Although not sure how to control this new step in their abilities, he did his best to clear his mind, hoping that would be enough, and re-pulled the covers over his head, and waited for sleep.



Sebastien arrived the next morning and the trio headed to the lake for a short canoe trip; as they lifted the canoe they realized it was tied down with a terrible knot. Sebastien set in to untie the knot, but after a few minutes had made no progress.
A presumptuous voice startled them from behind.
“I could help you with that.” The three looked up, and to their surprise, it was the boy Uncle Arnon had nearly run over the day before.
Unsure of what to say, the twins gawked awkwardly at the tall, scrawny boy, who stood with arms loosely crossed; he had a sad sort of smugness in his smile, and his face, if possible, was paler than the twins’.
“Okay,” he said slowly, “Do you not need any help, then?” Any sadness the twins sensed disappeared, as arrogance came forward again. Meghan shook off her surprise and said,
“Sorry, you startled us.
“I’m good with knots. Let me have a go at it.” Sebastien, not knowing the boy, walked away, allowing the boy to give it a try. He knelt down looking it over, then, hid the knot from view and seconds later he stood up, rope in hand. The twins and Sebastien clapped their hands, amazed at how quickly he had done it.
“Thanks,” said Meghan, smiling at the boy.
“Was nothing,” he shrugged it off, letting his hair fall over his eyes.
“My names Meghan by the way, and that is my brother, that is, my twin brother, Colin. And this is our friend Sebastien.”
“That’s cool, names Jae. I’m staying in the camp; you might have noticed all the wagons.”
Without thinking, Colin piped up,
“Yeah, we noticed the wagons and we saw you there, too.” Colin realized he had said a mouthful and was afraid he’d given away the fact that they had been spying; his face turned beet red and he cast his gaze to the ground. But Jae didn’t seem to care. Silence fell amongst them. Meghan finally broke it asking their new acquaintance,
“So… how are you, anyway?” He gaped at her, his head tilted a little, as if he didn’t understand the question.
“Fine… I guess,” he answered, looking puzzled.
“Oh, good, we were just worried is why I ask.” Sebastien looked just as confused; Jae replied,
“Okay… worried about what?”
“Our Uncle nearly ran you over yesterday as we were driving in, we were afraid you might’ve been hurt or something,” Meghan answered.
“I… think you’ve got the wrong person, it wasn’t me.” The twins were stunned, and now they must have also looked the fool.
“Are you sure?” asked Meghan, “Coulda swore it was you latched onto the hood of our Uncle’s car.”
“Nope, sorry,” Jae sounded sure.

Meghan quickly linked up with Colin. “Could we be wrong?” She asked him silently.
“No, I’m sure it was him,” he answered. She said,
“Maybe we’re just embarrassing him or something.” Out loud, she said,
“We were just about to shove off and paddle around the lake, would you like to join us, Jae?” She motioned for the boys to pick up the canoe and head for the water. Jae glanced back toward camp for a minute, appearing to be struggling with the decision, but finally said,
“I think I will, but I can’t stay out for too long.” The smugness had disappeared and the sadness had returned.
The twins wondered what could make a boy change emotions so quickly.
Jae helped bring the canoe to the water and the four hopped in. He offered to paddle saying it had been a long time since he had done so and thought it would be fun.
Sebastien grabbed the other paddle, not wanting to be outdone by the newcomer.
So Colin and Meghan sat back and enjoyed the water; it was crystal clear and thousands of minnows swam near the surface, toying with the lake spiders gliding across, leaving tiny waves of water behind them.
Colin sat in the middle, with Jae in the front, leaving Meghan and Sebastien sharing the back seat; Meghan watched him row, thinking to herself how well he did it. Every motion was smooth and effortless. She did not linger in her daydream long; her brother broke in, taunting her.
“You like Sebastien… you like Sebastien.” Meghan’s temper became instantly hot, but she ignored him. The air was filled with buzzes and chirps from birds, frogs and insects. Thankfully, it wasn’t yet black fly season; otherwise they would have spent the whole day swatting instead of paddling or relaxing.
“So we heading in any particular direction?” asked Jae, it was the first words to come out of his mouth since they had gotten into the canoe.
“I say we head to the marshes,” said Sebastien, “The water is still deep, but sometimes there are large lake turtles in there.”
Jae asked, “How large?” He acted suddenly concerned as they changed course.
“I’ve seen a couple close to two feet,” Sebastien boasted, hopeful to impress. The smugness returned, with Jae’s under his breath reply, which none of the three could decipher.
“What was that, Jae?” asked Meghan. He answered,
“Hope we get to see one,” clearly not repeating what he’d actually said.
“Be careful as we get closer, it’s easy to get tangled in the plants,” Sebastien warned; Jae signaled back, okay.
Meghan took her hand out of the water, which had been skimming the surface, not wanting to feel the slimy plants against her skin.
“So, Jae,” asked Colin, feeling more comfortable around the new boy, “Where is your caravan from?” Jae answered the question as if he had rehearsed the answer a hundred times.
“Traveling is our life… we’re not from any one place.”
“Have you always traveled around? Cause we have since we were two, with our Uncle,” said Meghan.
Jae was surprised.
“I can’t believe you’d do so by choice! Wouldn’t you much rather just be in one place?” Disbelief replaced any arrogance in Jae’s voice.
And then again, he changed his attitude very quickly. “I mean, I can understand why your Uncle would choose to travel, there’s really no other way to live.”
Meghan, Colin and Sebastien were baffled by Jae’s sudden turn in attitude. Colin said,
“Well, our favorite part of traveling, besides not having to go to regular school, is coming here. It’s the only place we get to visit for a long time… four whole months every summer.”

The conversation ended and the rowing ceased as the canoe came to a slow stop. The foursome listened and watched for anything interesting in the water, which was still; Colin noticed that all the minnows and lake spiders had disappeared. Meghan blurted out,
“Ah let’s go! This is boring.” They all agreed. But as they tried to move the canoe out of the marshes, a low moaning sound bubbled up out of the water. All four passengers searched around the canoe for the source of the sound.
It happened again and this time, large bubbles surfaced beside the canoe, splashing Colin’s face, which had been daringly looking into the water.
“There’s something down there,” he said, stumbling sideways.
“Grab him,” yelled Meghan, “He’s gonna tip the canoe!” Jae gently lunged forward and steadied Colin, and the canoe stabilized.
Sebastien started paddling and Jae sat back down and started as well, but the canoe was stuck.
“How can we be stuck? It’s still deep here,” Sebastien said with uncertainty. Colin stood back up and from a more distant post, tried to carefully look into the water; more bubbles were rushing to the surface. Colin cried out, insistently,
“There is something down there!”
“What exactly do you mean by something down there?” asked Jae, with growing agitation, still trying to paddle the canoe free of its hidden captor.
“I don’t know, but it’s… enormous!” He sat back down gripping the edge of the canoe, trying not to fall out. Sebastien argued,
“There’s nothing enormous in these waters, it’s a lake.”
“Just telling you what I saw, look for yourselves,” said Colin, determined not to move from his seat.
Meghan sat next to Sebastien, her eyes peering over the edge, a little afraid she might actually see something enormous down in the water, but was quickly straight back in her seat when the canoe began to rock violently.
The moaning continued and larger bubbles came from underneath the canoe. It took all their strength to stay in their seats; Sebastien and Jae stopped trying to paddle and were now hanging on. Jae looked like he might be sick. He mumbled, barely audibly,
“This is my fault. I shouldn’t have come.” No one responded; they were too frightened to try and figure out what Jae had meant.
The canoe began to rise up out of the lake; water began seeping in through a crack forming in the bottom. Meghan screamed and fell into Sebastien’s lap as the canoe lurched to the side; there was no time to be embarrassed by the lap incident, since the next moment all four of them were thrown from the canoe and into the cold, slimy plant, leach filled water.
Meghan and Sebastien were able to upright themselves, both were covered in slimy plants; Meghan choked on one that found its way into her mouth. Jae was all right and started swimming to shore, with Meghan and Sebastien right behind.
A voice rang out in Meghan’s mind, “Sis,” it called, hesitantly.
“Colin!” She began to sense her brother’s growing fear, and finally, being able to touch the bottom of the lake, she searched for him.
The three near the shore watched, stunned, as they saw the canoe broken in half, and part sunken, with Colin sitting upright, seemingly on the surface of the water.
“I’ve landed on it,” he whispered, shaking and pointing below the surface.
“Don’t move,” said Jae with growing unease, “Stay still.”
“How do we get him out?” cried Meghan. The water around Colin began to bubble again.
“Grab onto something,” yelled Sebastien.
“What would you suggest I grab onto, exactly,” he shouted over the bubbling water. They waited in silence unclear of what to do, as something began to surface before them, lifting Colin out of the water.

A gigantic set of antlers, spiky and covered in the lake plants, followed by a massive muscular body, with Colin straddling its back, surfaced from the now murky lake. It had to have been eight feet tall, the antlers at least six feet wide.
Recognition seemed to hit the three at once. It was a moose, just a moose. Sebastien sighed, saying,
“I should’ve known.” Meghan laughed, relieved, soaked and slimed.
“At least the sun is still shining, going to be a long walk back home, though” said Sebastien, laughing at the slime and leach covered Meghan. She pushed him back into the water for it and began to pry off the leaches, grumbling with every new one she found.
Jae looked highly relieved and for the first time that day, laughed, but also, swam back out to help Colin.
“I think its best to wait for it to go back under, and slowly slide off its back into the water. It’s pretty clear around you, so you shouldn’t get tangled.”
“Easy for you to say, you’re not sitting on top of an eight foot tall Moose,” Colin responded, doubtfully, hanging onto the antlers to keep steady.
They waited, while the moose, acting quite unaware of the human presence, munched on a water plant. After a few minutes it shifted itself around and began to go under the water. Colin reminded Meghan,
“I’m not a strong swimmer,” as the Moose took him even farther from shore.
“You’ll be fine, just let go and slide into the water,” she urged.
“Just kick and move your arms,” added Sebastien. Colin slowly slipped off the moose and tried to get himself swimming toward the shore; to Meghan’s relief, Jae swam out to meet him and helped him back towards the beach. Colin was quite happy to accept the help since he didn’t believe he could have made it on his own. Once in shallow water Jae let go and they collapsed on the beach, out of breath.
“Unbelievable,” Jae said to the other three. “I’ve seen a lot of things before, but that was … different.”
“New one to me,” agreed Meghan, sitting her brother up. As they walked back around the lake looking for an exit that would take them to the road, the twins couldn’t help but notice that Jae seemed happier as they laughed and relived the Moose tale.
The day grew later and the evening air rolled in bringing a chill as the sun fell below the trees; Meghan began to shiver. They had finally come out of the woods, but there was still a good distance to go. Jae ran up to her and took off his somewhat dry jacket, saying,
“Here, still a bit damp, but it’ll help,” he kept walking, not waiting for any response. She took it, calling after him,
“Thanks,” lingering her eye on him a quick moment.
Sebastien tried not to notice and kept talking with Meghan, regaining her attention.
Soon it was nearly dark; Jae started to hurry them along.
Anxiousness grew noticeably in his eye, though he tried to act like nothing was troubling him.
He often looked up to the sky.
Hours after the ordeal had begun they found themselves at last, at the camps entrance. As they neared the Jacoby camp Jae stopped, once again, standing with his arms folded; Meghan sensed the happiness waning.

“It was an… interesting day,” Jae said, “but I gotta run.” A bit of the arrogance returned as he hurried away.
“Wait,” said Meghan handing him back his jacket. “Thanks again for that. If you don’t get into too much trouble, maybe you could hang out again tomorrow.”
Jae seemed taken aback at the offer, and stuttered for a second, then said,
“Wish I could, but you see, we’re leaving tomorrow night and I’ll have to help out around camp.” He waived goodbye, with his stringy hair covering his face, and disappeared into his campsite.
“I can’t believe he’s leaving so soon,” said Colin, becoming somber. Meghan wondered if Jae’s apparent arrogance was just blocking the same feeling she and Colin always felt; people never stay around very long, so why get to know them?
The remaining trio gathered together quickly, and ran to their Uncle’s camp; five figures hurried toward them with instant questions and sighs of relief.
“Where on earth have you been?” demanded Uncle Arnon, standing next to Kanda Macawi, at the same time Mrs. Jendaya was asking,
“Why are you all covered in mud?” The three took turns explaining, each filling out parts left out by the other, including meeting Jae.
“I’m surprised you didn’t seem him run by,” said Colin. “He was just ahead of us.” The five adults shook their heads; none of them had seen Jae.
After the tale was told, the adults were laughing as hard as the youngsters had after the event had occurred. They were dragged closer to the fire to warm up and have dinner. Once warmed, the Jacoby’s guests decided to head home. After a round of goodnights, the twins watched as the Jendaya’s and Kanda disappeared into the peeper filled night. Meghan walked into her room and saw herself in the mirror; she let out a scream, causing her Uncle and brother to come running.
“What is it?” asked her Uncle, worried there was some overlooked injury.
“Why did someone not tell me how horrible I look?” both the Jacoby men rolled their eyes. Meghan had weeds in her mud caked hair and her dark makeup had streaked down her face. After getting cleaned up, she sat in the kitchen, make-up-less, and having a hot cup of blackberry cider, a specialty only her uncle could make, loosing herself in a dream.
Her uncle watched her intently from the other side of the room, trying to grasp what she could possibly be thinking about. He called her name, but she didn’t hear him.
“Meghan,” he said loud enough to catch her mind.
“Sorry, dyou say something?”
“I was wondering about your dream last night. Has that ever happened to you before?” Meghan had almost forgotten about the previous night’s fiery dream, with the long events of the day, and shivered at the memory.
“It was nothing, just some stupid dream about me and Colin, and another little girl I didn’t know, who was caught in a fire.”
“A fire, well that would be scary,” he lifted his eyebrows an leaned forward some, asking more intently,
“And was that the first time you and Colin have ever shared a dream?”
Meghan did not know what to say; she imagined her face must have given away how stunned she was, because her Uncle continued without waiting for an answer.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to frighten you. You didn’t honestly think I didn’t know about you two, did you? What kind of Uncle would I be if I hadn’t seen it many years ago?” Trying to find her voice, Meghan stammered,
“How long have you known, and, how did you know?”
“I’ve known since it began, back around the age of two I think, right after you came to live with me. Before you guys probably even remember. You had this special language you used between the two of you, and then one day you didn’t use it anymore. But I noticed you still acted like you were talking to each other. I caught on pretty quick.” Amazing thought Meghan; she thought they had been so careful.
“So, was that the first time, in the dream?”
“Yeah, why do you ask? And how did you know he was in my dream?”
“Curiosity mostly, wondering how far this talent will go? And Colin was clearly spooked, I sort of… assumed,” he chuckled, adding, “You haven’t told anyone else about it have you?” Meghan had a tinge of guilt, but knew honesty would be best.
“Only Sebastien; he kinda picked up on it one day by accident, so we told him… a few years ago.” Her uncle smiled,
“I figured he might know.” Meghan was still taking this news in as Colin came out of the shower; he looked back and forth between them.
“Why are you both looking at me like that?” he reached for his head, “Did I forget to rinse the shampoo from my hair again?” They both gawked at him, and Meghan said amusingly,
“Would you like to do the honor or should I?” Uncle Arnon put out his hand in a gesture for her to be his guest.
“Our secret” she said, “Is out!” Colin fell back into the wall, his towel almost falling off. After regaining his composure and not being sure if his Uncle was angry or not, he stood with the same look of amazement that Meghan had only minutes before. Meghan, reading his mind said,
“Don’t worry; he’s known the whole time, even before we can remember.”
“I thought we hid it so well, Uncle Arnon,” said Colin.
“That’s what I said,” replied Meghan, dryly. Uncle Arnon then added,
“I’ve heard of twins that have a secret language that only each other seem to understand, but, I think you guys are a little different, so…”
“So we shouldn’t go telling people about it,” guessed Colin. Arnon smiled.
“Since Sebastien knows, that fine. He’s a good friend, and I don’t think it’s something he would ever use against you.”
“Sebastien, never,” said Meghan defensively.
“Oh, I agree,” replied her Uncle quickly. “And best to try and keep others from figuring it out, if Sebastien and I both guessed, than others could as well.”
“We’ll do our best, Uncle Arnon,” said Colin, Meghan added,
“We promise.”
Colin joined Meghan for a hot blackberry cider before heading to bed. It was a relief to have their secret out in the open; they had always felt guilty for not telling their Uncle, but had honestly feared he would not believe them.
“Off to bed now the both of you, long day tomorrow.”
“Long day?” they both asked Uncle Arnon in unison.
“Do we have plans for tomorrow?” asked Colin. Their Uncle stuttered for a second then changed his phrasing.
“What I meant to say is, it’s been a long day today, and we all have a whole other day to get through tomorrow, which will be longer than today if we don’t get our rest, after a long exhausting day like today.”
The twins eyed him, oddly, but went off to bed. As they were crawling in, Colin asked Meghan, through his thoughts,
“Are you starting to get the feeling that Uncle Arnon is up to something?” Meghan thought about it for a minute before replying,
“You do have to admit these have been a couple of abnormal days. Maybe it’s just because he was knew he was going to tell us about knowing our secret.”
“Yeah, I’m sure you’re right, sis. Maybe it’s our birthday party?”
“Oh, I wonder what he’s planning?” said Meghan, instantly sidetracked and excited at the idea of presents.
“Night, sis.” Colin could see her mind was now wandering, and talking would be pointless. She muttered back,
“Yeah, night, Col,” and fell asleep, dreaming of clothes and shopping, and what wonderful gift Sebastien would buy her.










                                                     3

                                 A Rude Book Surprise





The Blue Moon Festival was beginning; Meghan and Colin headed out to meet up with Sebastien. It was a small festival, with food, music, a flea market (Colin’s favorite) and a few old carnival rides no one was ever sure was safe to ride, but did anyway.
They glanced for Jae, hoping for one last chance to waive goodbye; footsteps neared from the gravel behind them. As they turned to see who it was, two large stacks of packages ran into them, causing the packages to fall in all directions. An older unknown boy stood by a familiar one; the familiar face began anxiously picking up his strewn packages.
“Hey guys, sorry.” It was Jae, who seemed in a hurry.
Meghan said, “It’s a wonder you could walk at all, carrying all that.”
“Let us help you the rest of the way,” insisted Colin, already picking up a package.
The unknown boy, dressed in a casual sports jacket and turtle neck, had already picked up his packages, and was leaving Jae behind, eyeing him sternly, but never saying a word as he passed by the twins, making Colin nervous. As the boy disappeared Meghan exclaimed, sarcastically, “Is that boy always that friendly?”
“That’s Ivan; he’s not so much, unfriendly, as just, all about business.”
“All about business?” questioned Colin. Jae said,
“Hates wasting time, always working, that sorta thing.”
“Let us help you back to your site,” offered Meghan, again.
“No! I mean, thanks, but I got it.” She replied, insistently,
“Are you sure? Cause its no bother, the camps just over there.”
“No, I’ll be fine; I gotta hurry. I was sent into town to retrieve some things; they’ll have been expecting me back by now.” As the twins piled the last packages back onto Jae’s arms, Colin said,
“I hope you didn’t get into trouble yesterday for getting home so late.”
“Yesterday?” he seemed far away in thought. “Oh, that. Uh, it was, okay.” The twins were happy to know they hadn’t caused him any trouble. After the last package was back in his arms he said, tiredly, “Sorry I can’t hang longer, so many things to do today.” He started walking toward his camp, saying, “Maybe our paths’ll cross again sometime.”
“Yeah, that would be nice,” said Colin. Meghan smiled at him, sad that she wouldn’t get to see him again.
“Good luck, wherever you go next,” she yelled after his package hidden figure.
“Thanks. You, too,” he echoed back.
“Wonder where they’re heading, such a big group?” she said.
“Don’t know, but it must be a ton of work. It’s a lot with just you, me, and Uncle Arnon, can’t imagine that many. There must be around two hundred of them all together.”

They met up with Sebastien and headed into town. Their Uncle and the Jendaya’s were going to join them later. It was about a mile walk down a winding country road, which opened up to a nice sunny clearing about half way to the town. The thick pines gave way to birches and maples surrounded by large fields. The lake was off in the distance and a graveyard lined the side of the hilly road, which led into the town.
Music drifted by in the breeze, and the hum of a crowd filtered behind it. They quickened up their pace, and Meghan, who was trying to make sure her hair and clothes were just right, said, out loud, meaning for only Colin to hear,
“Do I look okay?” she did not get the answer she expected. Before Colin could speak, Sebastien answered,
“I think you look really great.” Colin didn’t wait for the two of them to get over their awkwardness, and he continued onward, making a face at Meghan as he walked by.
“Sorry, you weren’t asking me were you?” said Sebastien.
“Not exactly, but…thanks,” Meghan replied, trying to regain her composure. After a moment of silence, he said,
“I meant it you know. You always look great; I especially like it when you wear slimy lake plants in your hair.” She humpfed and hit him in the shoulder; they hurried and caught up to Colin, who was clearly annoyed at the two of them.
As soon as they were in Agunkpot, they went directly to the music. A small band was playing, so they listened, dancing a little in between. Colin sent Meghan a thought saying he was bored and was going to the flea market; she could feel a little anger in his voice. She said back,
“Okay,” and told him they would find him later. He shook his head and walked away, Meghan sensed him throwing angry thoughts at her and said, accidentally again, out loud, “Now what?” Sebastien looked at her, puzzled.
“Oh, not you, Colin, mad at me again.”
“For what? Something I couldn’t hear you guys arguing about?” he asked, slightly miffed.
“Well, yes and no.” She couldn’t very well say, “We were fighting over your attention…”
“Anything you want to share?” he prodded, looking down at Meghan with his handsome eyes, making her turn slightly pink again. She stalled, saying,
“I think… I think we should go find him. I have a feeling he might get into trouble on his own; those same bullies are probably around like last year, they always bother him and I’m the only one…” she was cut off.
“Who gets to bully my little brother; I remember well.” He paused,
“Why do you call him little brother, isn’t he really older than you?”
“Yes. But he’s small, and kids like to pick on him.”
“Don’t you think you should stop sticking up for him so much, I mean, what would happen if you weren’t around? It’s bound to happen.” Meghan looked at him like he was crazy and suddenly way to grown up.
“Why would I not be around?” She said testily.
“I don’t know, but you’re not going to be fourteen forever, things change.”
“I’m not fourteen, we are not fourteen, we’re turning thirteen next week, remember?” She was getting upset now. How could he forget how old she was? She said,
“Let’s go find Colin, all right. He likes spending time with you, you’re like the big brother he’ll never have,” she rolled her eyes and shook her head as if her brother was intruding on her life, and started walking away; Sebastien followed.

They found Colin deep in the flea market, in a tent far away from the others. It was full of old books, antiques, and knickknacks that seemed to have no purpose.
“Hey, guys,” he beamed. He had not expected them to find him. He pointed to an old tattered looking man behind the counter, with a full head of white hair leaning on a cane.
“That’s Jasper Thorndike, he owns all of this.” The man nodded hello. They waited patiently, as Jasper showed Colin around the store. Meghan and Sebastien were only partially listening, but tried to act interested; a few times they caught each other’s eye and tried not to laugh.
A short while later, she was less upset and felt bad for getting angry at Sebastien. They were about done shopping when Colin stopped to browse over some books he had missed, when Jasper Thorndike came out from behind the counter leaning on his cane. He spoke with a grizzled voice,
“I’ve noticed you like my books.”
“I would take them all if I could,” Colin responded.
“Don’t you have enough already?” argued his sister. Colin loved reading and owned as many books as his shelf would fit. He ignored her, and the trio watched as the grizzled man pulled down a book that looked like an antique itself. It was dusty and had a thin ornate wooden cover; he handed it to Colin who set it gently on the counter. Jasper pronounced the title, seeing that Colin wasn’t sure how to.
“Magi-cantee…magic and then antee…like ante up, put together.”
“Magicante,” Colin repeated, enthralled. Meghan and Sebastien glanced over his shoulder and watched as he opened it, carefully.
“Wow, what are these?” he asked Jasper.
“A collection, a pretty darn good one, and one I would only entertain selling to the right buyer.”
Inside, was a collection of the most beautiful and exotic leaves that Colin had ever seen, they were thickly textured, with deep browns and reds, glimmers of gold popped from the edges; they measured five to six inches wide, and just as long. Meghan could see that Colin would not leave without the book, he loved collections and this one was quite unique.
“These aren’t from around here, are they?” asked Colin, captivated; deeper in, the leaves glimmered with yellows, greens and silver.
“No, I dare say they are not! However, I’m not at liberty to say where they came from, since I reckon I don’t rightly know.”
Sebastien and Meghan watched Colin as he flipped through the collection. Jasper Thorndike seemed pleased, “That book there, Magicante, “Is yours for the rock bottom price of five dollars.”
“Are you serious, five, just five?” Colin was already reaching into his allowance money. Jasper took his money and then said, with a mischievous glimmer in his old eyes,
“Congratulations, young fellow, keep it well.” They walked out of the store and headed back toward the crowd, it was time to meet up with their Uncle and the Jendaya’s, and, they were hungry. Right before they spotted their Uncle, Colin hit his hand to his head.
“I gotta go back, I should’ve asked Jasper where he bought this, might help me track down where these are from.” Meghan knew he would take forever if he went back to speak with Jasper Thorndike.
“Why don’t you go back after we eat, Colin?” suggested Meghan, “I’m pretty hungry.”
“I’ll only be gone a minute,” he argued.
Meghan and Sebastien looked at each other with faces that said, “Yeah right.” Colin glanced back toward Jasper’s shop. “Fine.” He resigned to the fact that he would have to wait.
A second later, Uncle Arnon, still wearing his camping hat, with the addition of a scruffy looking beard, along with Sebastien’s parents, came driving into town.
“Why’d your parents rent a car, Sebastien, they always love walking?” asked Meghan, hardly able to see her Uncle or the Jendaya’s through the heavy tinting on the windows.
“Dad’s back isn’t so good lately,” he answered.
Colin instantly ran to the rolled down window and showed them his new acquisition. The threesome piled into the car and headed to a small outdoor café, in an old lighthouse at the end of the lake.
Deserts were their specialty, with coffee, cocoa, hot cider, and whoopee pies. Today’s flavor was maple molasses, which was a layer of maple cream in between two round Chocolaty molasses cakes.

Dinner done, they headed back to Jasper Thorndike’s shop, Colin getting annoyed when everyone got side tracked, slowing their progress. They rounded the last row of tables and shops heading toward Jasper’s, but when they got to the end of the row Jasper was not there; his shop, truck and trailer, were gone.
“Sorry about that, Colin,” said his Uncle. “Guess we took longer at dinner than we thought.” Colin, trying to be a good sport replied,
“It wasn’t a big deal. I’m sure he told me everything he knew about the book when he sold it to me.”
The group headed back toward the central part of the town to see what band was playing, and after a few more hours, Uncle Arnon decided it was time to head back home. The Jendaya’s and Sebastien were going to stay in town and meet up with some other friends, locals to the area, so they said their goodbyes for the evening.
By the time they neared the camp, the sun was beginning to fade and the air was growing chilly. Meghan and Colin lagged behind about twenty feet; mostly due to the fact that Meghan’s bootlace kept coming untied.
“I don’t get it,” she said, haughtily. “It never does this.” Up ahead Uncle Arnon rounded the driveway into Camp Agunkpot; his voice rang back toward them,
“Don’t be too long.” Meghan was forced to stop again and tie her boot. Colin held up for her off to the side of the road, his back to the driveway. As Meghan finished, the breaking of some branches in the woods ahead of them interrupted her irritation.
“What’s that?” she whispered, pointing her head into the direction of the sound. Colin whirled around cautiously looking for the source of the breaking branches. They took a few steps closer, hiding behind a large half fallen tree trunk. Footsteps were now quite clear. Colin, relieved, said,
“At least it doesn’t sound like an animal, must be someone hiking through.” Down the dirt road, which was still a little muddy, two shadows emerged from the pine thick and crossed the road, heading into the campground.
“Wonder what they were up to?” whispered Meghan, adding, “Let’s get a little closer.” She moved out into the open.

These were words Colin hated to hear from his sister, because no matter how he tried, there would be no changing her mind; another rustling interrupted them.
Meghan grabbed Colin and ducked into a ditch. They lifted their heads and peeked out as two more people, who appeared to be from the gypsy caravan, crossed the road. This time they were close enough to over hear what was being said.
“All precautions have been checked and double checked, Vian Sadorus, sir, we should be right on time.” He then said, cautiously, “Barring any unforeseen incidents.” The second man observed the direction they had come from, looking apprehensive.
“We’re the last ones out, correct?” asked the one who was called Vian Sadorus, authoritatively. The man named Sadorus was a tall fierce looking man with spiky hair, a large piercing over his left eye, and, he wore a rather boisterous overcoat that seemed quite warm for the summer weather.
“Yes, no one else left, sir, all back at camp ready to depart.” The man named Sadorus nodded and they continued through the woods heading back toward the gypsy camp. The twins were bewildered.
“Why would anyone depart through the woods?” asked Colin.
They waited until the coast was clear and dug themselves out of the ditch. As they wiped dead leaves and bugs off their clothes, Meghan looked eagerly toward the path the men had come from.
“There is no way they’re leaving through there; they must have been talking about preparations to depart, while out hiking.” In a smug voice Colin retorted,
“If you ever noticed anything… important… you would have seen that they were lacking any hiking gear. Couldn’t have been going very far, could they?”
“You know, that’s true. Why don’t we take a look?”
“Uncle Arnon will be expecting us soon, we should get back,” he said.
“No weaseling, it’ll just take a sec; like you said, it can’t be far.”
She headed off; Colin knew she would never let him forget about it, if he went back to camp without her. He sighed deeply and then jogged down the road to catch up.
“Are you sure this is where they came out?” asked Colin.
“Think so,” she answered.
“Hey, wait a minute, this is where Uncle Arnon almost ran over Jae, or not Jae, but some boy who looked an awful lot like Jae,” explained Colin.
“Well, now there’s all the more reason to go check it out, we can see where he went,” she stepped into the woods. Out done again, Colin knew there was no choice but to follow.
After only a few steps down the pathway, they could barely see the road behind them, but fresh footprints lead the way.
“We better not get lost,” said Colin a bit annoyed.
“Shhh,” use your inner voice, just in case.” So with his inner voice he repeated,
“We better not get lost.” She did not respond.
Fifty steps or so in they came to a clearing where a fallen pine tree lay on the ground; some of the limbs reached twenty feet long, and most of the needles were still intact. They walked around it, the footprints ended at the tree.
“Why would they stop at this fallen tree?” muttered Meghan under her breath. Colin responded silently with,
“Inside voices, please.” She scowled back at him.
The fallen tree had about seven or eight secret rooms, large enough for a few people to stand in at once.
“You know, this would make an awesome fort,” said Colin, out loud, correcting himself instantly, before Meghan could remind him about inside voice. “You could throw a lot of snow balls from a secret hideout like this,” he added in his silent voice, quickly day dreaming of getting back at the local bullies. Meghan did not let him linger in the day dream long, sending back to him,
“We better get back, Uncle Arnon’s gonna start worrying soon.”
Colin was just starting to have fun climbing through the tree, and Meghan was grabbing him out of the tree, when above them, they heard the distinct sound of heavy wings snapping in the air.

A tremendous shadow cloaked what was left of the evening light.
They froze, with Colin clinging to a branch with one hand and sitting on another, and Meghan still grabbing his leg to try to pull him down. Without moving they tried to see what had landed. Colin sent Meghan a thought,
“I’ve never heard wings that large before, and that shadow was,” he gulped, “The largest shadow I’ve ever seen. I don’t know of any birds that big.”
Meghan and Colin got the eerie feeling of a million eyes suddenly surrounding them; a feeling they hoped they would not experience again.
A squashy step in the muddy fallen leaves outside filled the quietness of their secret room.
Neither twin moved.
“I knew this was a bad idea,” Colin sent to his sister, with an, ‘I told you so’ tone.
The creature outside started moving; a second set of footsteps could now be heard, with the same squashy steps.
Colin squeaked slightly, Meghan yanked on his leg motioning for him to shut up!
Whatever was outside the pine tree seemed to be walking around the tree, just as the twins had done a few minutes before; which meant before long it would find their secret room.
The shadow stopped and sniffed like a boisterous dog with a cold.
It was close enough now that the twins could see the eyes of the creature, piercing red and black, shooting back at them.
“Okay, I will never, not listen to you again,” sent Meghan to her brother.
Normally, Colin would have wanted to relish a moment like the one just brought about, but he was to overcome with fear to respond, and now that his sister was also scared, his own fear was doubled.
The creature stood on a large rock just to the other side of the pine tree.
“Where is the other one? I know I heard more footsteps,” sent Colin to his sister. They searched frantically, but couldn’t see it.
Finally, it joined the other one, standing on the ground beside the one on the rock; from what the twins could see, it was a towering grey skinned creature, and seemed to have small arms.
The one on the lower ground was obstructing the view; outside the wind picked up rather quickly, and the two creature’s attention was drawn toward the sky; the one on the ground moved and Meghan and Colin were able to get a much better view of the body, but the head they could not see.
“What is it, Colin?”
“I… if I had to guess, it looks like an extremely large… bat.”
“There are no bats that large!” She argued.
“Well, you can see, it’s wrapped itself inside its wings.”
“How is this possible? It’s not!” She answered herself.
Another voice interrupted the twins’ silent conversation, and they both held their breath, looking around for this new source of panic. It sounded like a human voice, but it was deep, echoed, and controlling.
“Tonight, you will do what must be done. At midnight they will come, you will wait, and then you will strike.”
At the final word of the echoed voice, both creatures lifted up their wings, which must have measured ten feet across, and let out a ferocious snarl.
The one on the rock stepped down, Colin, not believing his own bravery, moved a little piece of heavily needled pine branch, so that he and Meghan could get a better view; as he did, Colin wished he hadn’t.
He came very close to screaming and fainting, but Meghan reached up and cupped his mouth, and once again they froze looking into the eyes of the beast.
The face of the creature resembled a wolf, with long pointy fangs. The torso of the creature appeared more human and the legs, which were hairless, were muscular with large claws on each toe. The wings had arms that extended a good two feet beyond the wings, and appeared to be webbed, but flexible, with two long curled claws extended from each of its arms.
Meghan let her hand drop form Colin’s mouth and he softly dropped the pine branch, keeping them as hidden as possible. Then, the creatures began exploring the tree again.
“We need to get out of here,” he managed to croak.
“How do you suggest we do that?”
Colin had no idea, and shifted on the branch; his new book nearly fell to the ground. Meghan caught it before it made a sound, but as she did the book fell open; the pages glimmered slightly, like bright dust settling. She asked Colin silently,
“Did you see that?” He nodded yes, then asked,
“Does it say anything?”
“You want to read it, right now? When we are this close to having our heads chewed off by what ever, those… things are.”
“Yes, I do.” He grabbed it from her and read the leaf-covered pages. “I need to get down from this branch,” he whispered, getting her attention.
Meghan grabbed the book and laid it on the ground, closed, and helped her brother out of the branch and onto solid ground. “I think we should sit low to the ground, less chance of catching that thing’s eye,” he said, sitting down, cross-legged. As Meghan followed Colin, sinking to her knees, he sent silently to her,
“I hope Uncle Arnon doesn’t come looking for us.” He began to shake at the thought of him coming across the path of these creatures.
Outside the pine tree, the human voice was heard again.
“Do nothing until I have instructed you, do not be seen, nor heard.” The creatures were growling and clicking in a high pitched screech, in what the twins could only assume meant agreement.

They sat on the ground and watched the movement outside. A lofty breeze came sweeping through the pine tree blowing open the book, and at the same time, sending the twins’ scent to their unaware captors.
To the twins’ surprise, the first leaf had a floating message on it, in gold letters. It read,
“If this book has opened and you are reading this, then you obviously need my help. You must ask for what you need …”
“For what we need,” repeated Colin. “How do we know what it is we need?” Meghan shook her head, still disbelieving what she was seeing. “Does it need to be specific?” Colin asked the air silently, trying to understand.
“Look,” pointed Meghan.
“Yes, of course specific. Since it appears you don’t know what you’re doing, I suppose I’ll have to give you an example.”
“Kinda rude isn’t it,” remarked Meghan, then, catching herself, “How can a book be rude?” Colin replied,
“It can be as rude as it wants if it can help us get out of here!”
“A book can’t help us, Colin! I agree this is an odd book, but there has to be some explanation for it. This isn’t one of your fantasy stories, this is real and we need a real way to get out.” A new message began to float brightly on the leaf,
“That’s more like it! Perfect example, so if you two are quite done, and you seem to know what you need, aka …a way out. Just ask already!”
“That’s what you call an example?” Meghan inwardly and haughtily stated, “That didn’t tell us anything!” Colin was thinking deeply and keeping his eyes on the shadows of the bat creatures moving outside.
“I think we should try this,” he said.
“What! Are you nuts? You think this book is magic or something; that were just going to magically fly away from here! This is just some kind of really sick, joke book.” Meghan was growing more furious by the moment.
“Maybe it is, but do you see any other options? Don’t you think its coincidence that I would get this book today, and we would be sitting here in this position tonight?”
Colin was not sure why he was defending a book, but began to wonder if all the many things he had read about, in dealings with magic, could possibly be true.
The creatures were moving again, sniffing the air and making clicking and growling noises; the human must have understood what they meant, because the voice began shouting.
“Are you sure? Where? FIND THEM, NOW!”
“I think we are about to have company,” Colin said trembling, adding a sudden thought, “Do you think these creatures were making the screeching sounds that scared the gypsies?”
“I somehow have a sneaking suspicion the answer is yes, but this is not the time, Col, we gotta get out a here.”
Meghan, seeing the creatures beginning to investigate the tree grabbed the book and said,
“If this works, I’ll never call you little bro again.” Colin was taken aback; his sister had to be very afraid to be willing to try something so ridiculous.
“On the count of three, then,” he whispered out loud, “We’ll say together, take us to camp.”
“And when it doesn’t work?” She asked taking her brothers hand, as they both grabbed hold of the book.
“Then, I guess…” he gulped deeply; his throat was to dry to continue.
Claws scratching against rocks and high pitched screeching by the two creatures grew louder and closer.
“Let’s just do it,” he sent to her, unsure of whether anything would come out when he tried to speak. They closed their eyes and began counting.
“One… two… three ... TAKE US TO CAMP!”

They kept there eyes closed listening for the sounds of the creatures finding them out, half expecting to be hurled into the air, or mauled by one of the claws.
All was quiet, neither twin was breathing, and they kept their hands held together still gripping the book.
The sounds of growls and clicking footsteps were gone and so was the cold wind, the only sound they heard was that of music, guitars playing somewhere not too far away.
Meghan was the first to open her eyes, slowly, and only one at a time. She gasped, and hit at her brothers arm; he slowly peeked one eye open and then the other.
They were sitting on the ground, a few feet into the woods behind the Jacoby trailer. The music they were hearing was from the gypsy caravan, from around the campfire, like the previous nights. Meghan sat in disbelief, muttering,
“I don’t know what to say.”
“This is amazing,” said Colin, opening the book and stroking the pages with sudden fond amazement. Another message appeared, however, this time the book spoke, in a snidely agitated old mans voice,
“Coming from you two, those votes of confidence may just be enough for me to give up all of this, fun, and retire.” The twins sat in utter disbelief, again, their eyes glued to the book.
“How… can… you… talk?” asked Meghan as if she were talking to someone who spoke another language and could not understand her.
“I… will... not…answer...such…a…stupid…question…!” the voice from the book retorted mockingly, and then it slammed itself shut, developing what resembled a mouth, and stuck out a make shift tongue spitting at them, then closed up again refusing to open, no matter how hard Colin tried.
“Great, you’ve insulted it.”
“Listen to yourself, how can I possibly insult a book?”
“I don’t know, but only you could.”
“At least were home,” she said, and once again, picked herself up off the ground.
“Uncle Arnon,” Colin said with sudden urgency; they ran to the trailer where their Uncle, who was sitting on the front steps, met them. He didn’t look happy. Meghan shot to Colin,
“We took way too long. He looks totally miffed.”
“Thanks a lot, now were going to get grounded again.” To their surprise, however, Uncle Arnon did not get angry, but simply said,
“Well that took you long enough, how many times did that boot come untied?”
“Sorry,” they said together. And then Meghan added, “We got a little side tracked, saw a deer in the woods and decided to watch it for awhile.” It sounded more like a question than a reply.
“Good one,” sent Colin to her, “Go with that.”
“As long as you’re careful, you never know what you might run into in these woods, not everything lurking out there is as friendly as a deer.”
“Ain’t that the truth,” the twins mumbled together, under their breath.
“What’s that?” asked their uncle.
“Nothing,” replied Meghan quickly, for fear he might question them further.
“I’m feeling awfully tired,” yawned Colin. Meghan followed him with a yawn of her own and they slipped past him and into their room shutting the door behind them. They plopped down, taking a few minutes to soak in all that had occurred.
“Tell me one more time, Colin, that it wasn’t just a bad dream.” He did not tell her, but mustered up enough strength to stand up and lean over and pinch her hard, which followed by Meghan punching his arm.
“Nope… no dream,” he winced.
“I still want to know what those things were, and how they got here, and who they’re planning on attacking later, and why!” said Meghan, wiping a stuck pine needle off her face.
“And I would like to find that Jasper Thorndike and ask him again where this book came from.” They sat in silence for a few more minutes calming down from their unbelievable endeavor.
“Do you think we should tell Uncle Arnon?” asked Colin carefully.
“Oh, no way, we would really be grounded, then.”
“True, never mind.” After a few more minutes of silence Meghan said,
“Okay, I wanna pass something by you, Col, maybe this is far fetched but…” she trailed off.
“What?” he said eagerly.
“Remember, before we went into the woods and ran into those, bat- wolf things, who we saw coming out of that path?”
“Oh yeah, I’d almost forgotten, they were from… wait, do you think those things are here to attack Jae’s caravan?” Meghan shrugged; a little worried that he might agree to her thinking.
Colin considered the possibility. “It is ironic that they are supposed to leave tonight, and they might be leaving via that path, and, those screeches they kept running away from, it makes perfect sense, and--oh man.” He quivered, looking at his sister’s face.
“We need to warn them, Col. Maybe we’re wrong and they’ll think we’re completely crazy. But what if we’re not? They might get hurt. Jae might get hurt, or maybe even… killed.”

As much as Colin did not wish any harm on Jae, or his caravan, he did not want to go near those creatures again.
“This is insane. I don’t want to go back out there in the dark with those creatures nearby, it would be suicide,” he whispered loudly.
“It won’t be if we have the Magicante,” she convincingly tried to say.
“If you recall, the book sealed itself up, I couldn’t get it back open.”
“Fine, Colin, you stay, but I can’t just sit back and do nothing.”
He sat, worried and jittery, thinking of Jae and his caravan being attacked by those creatures without any warning, and sighed deeply.
“Okay,” he said, matter-of-factly. “If we do this, how are we going to do it? I don’t think we can just walk up to their front door, knock, and say, hey, if you guys are thinking about any night time strolls through the woods to a certain fallen down pine tree, you may want to think twice, cause it seems like a couple of bat- wolf like creatures want to attack you.”
“Point noted,” said Meghan.
They paced back and forth, hearing Uncle Arnon go into his room and turn on his radio. It was getting late and the guitars at the camp were no longer playing.
Which meant only one thing… they were running out of time! 

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If you would like to read the rest of Journal One, please use CONTACT RACHEL and I will send you a PDF of the entire first Journal. Sorry, I did have the entire book posted, but too many people were unable to pull up the page due to its length. 

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