Statues

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Akiol finished washing the final dish, "There's a Guild attacking the beginning villages. . . Interesting."

"Is this not normal? I thought this was the reason why you introduced me."

"My start was not so action packed."

"Should I not be hunting these 'Rave' people?"

"It doesn't matter. I'm more intrigued about someone else's actions."

"Oh?"

Akiol pointed to his face, "If you ever come across someone with a white mask that has a single black dot in the center.", Akiol drew the general size of the dot with his finger, "Tell him I want to talk to him in the future."

Rue tilted her head curiously, "Someone you want to contact. . . . You're positive he'll arrive?"

"He usually puts a stop to any form of Guilds flaunting their power. While he's calmed lately, something like this seems right in his alley. Currently I'm too far to handle the issue myself. If it gets worse I can ask somebody to help."

"And ruin my fun? No thank you."

Akiol chuckled as he returned to his room, "I'll be getting some sleep. Goodnight."

Rue paused and hesitated before responding, "Goodnight."

Akiol's door had long closed before she could get a word out however. Making a face she too returned to her room. Eyeing the headset she estimated the time it would take before reinforcements arrive. Unfortunately her experience in A World's Legacy was lacking and her estimation was far off. So she instead also decided to sleep.

~ ~ ~

A piece of a statue? 

Mira felt the rough surface of the statue's eye. It was buried for quite some time. Most likely pure chance that he managed to scrape it up. Yet it was strange. This entire forest lacked the slightest sign of civilization. 

Distracting himself Mira decided to dig in another nearby spot. This time with an objective the hole was created far faster but yielded no results. So he picked another spot, this time he succeeded.

It was a stone finger, again broken off a statue. As if in this very location a statue was broken and buried. With a face of confusion Mira shared his results with Givale. She took the statue's eye and frowned, "A statue?"

Mira shrugged. It appears this forest was not as empty as they once thought. Givale stared at the eye before standing up, "Okay! Let's find more!"

Preparing to start digging Mira found the dirt lifting by itself. Separating the dirt into sizeable chunks Givale lifted the sections with space. Small cubes of dirt rose into the air and very rapidly through the cubes parts of statues became apparent.

It wasn't one statue, it was several. Chunks of various sizes littered the floor. Even as the two moved they found more. As if the entire forest grew on top of a city of statues. Mira and Givale exchanged looks and they started to collect the pieces of the statues.

A large pile of the statue pieces began to form as the two collected all the pieces. 

This process took the entire night and eventually the sun began to rise. The pile of statue pieces was beginning to touch the treetops. Reaching a final area Givale took a deep breath and lifted the dirt.

Strangely enough this time there was still statue pieces, but there were two somewhat intact statues remaining. A large circular space around the two statues was devoid of any pieces. As if surrounded by some sort of barrier.

Approaching these two statues Givale and Mira first extended a hand to see if there was a barrier. Their hands passed through easily, there wasn't a barrier in fact. Givale separated the dirt from the statues and gently laid them onto the ground.

The rest of the statue pieces were sent towards the pile. Now that the statues were clean Givale and Mira were able to get a good look at them. It was two small children, their faces covered in a blindfold. Despite being buried the two statues were in perfect condition. Tears were carved on their cheeks, their arms bent at strange positions. Both were on their knees.

"Should we wait for Akiol? This is really strange. . .", Mira felt doubts.

Givale looked towards the pile of statues and spoke her thoughts, "There has to be a reason why these two statues are fine right? Why are they blindfolded?"

Neither had an answer, they were both confused to the situation. Mira pointed to the pile and asked, "Should we try putting together the other ones?"

Looking at the pile Givale shook her head violently, "No way."

"No?"

"That'd take ages!"

"It might help!"

"We'd spend our entire trip here trying to piece them back together! I still want to explore!"

"Then what about these two?", Mira pointed at the two unharmed statues.

"I don't know!", Givale tossed up her arms.

The two walked in a circle around the statues. Their strange positions, the reason why they were the sole ones untouched, questions rang about in their mind constantly.

In this circular motion Mira paused and stared at the statues. The angle he viewed them suddenly made him picture something. Leaning closer he suddenly realized, "They're supposed to be hugging each other!"

"What?"

"Their positions! That's why their arms are weird, they're hugging each other!"

Givale joined his side and looked at the statues. With this new bit of information she found herself agreeing with him. Utilizing her mastery of space she slotted the two statues together and they hugged each other while crying.

"How did they separate?", Givale asked aloud.

Crrck-!

A large crack formed on the statues. It sourced one statue's left eye and moved across the arms to reach the other's statue's right eye. Immediately Mira and Givale leapt back and held onto their weapons. 

One of their tears hit the ground and the stone shattered. Revealing the two kids crying in each other's arms. Now no longer stone they held each other with flesh and blood. One cried, "Sil!!"

"Isk!!", the other cried.

Givale slowly sheathed her daggers and cautiously approached. As to not startle them she intentionally made her steps make noise. With a steady approach the two children looked her way despite their blindfolds, "Please don't hurt as anymore!"

Crouching down Givale gently extended a hand, "We're not here to hurt you. . ."

Their hair matched the color of the stone, their skin looked dust covered with how gray it was, their face shape was almost identical. The way they clung to each other, and their similarities. . .

These were twins! 

One was a boy, from their crying names this one was Sil. The other a girl named Isk. They clung to each other, their clothes a pure white. Despite having been buried their clothes were shockingly clean. 

Even as a tear fell onto the clothing there wasn't a stain. The tears simply rolled off the clothing and towards the ground. 

In response to Givale's outstretched hand the two twins clung to each other tighter. Gently retracting her hand Givale felt unsure what to do next. Sitting crisscrossed she showed she meant no harm, "We found you guys as statues. We have no idea what happened, or who you are."

Sil hiccupped while struggling to speak, "Wh-Who are you?"

"I am Givale. He's Mira.", Givale pointed at the stiff Mira.

Once his name was spoken Mira retracted his axe back to the mark and lowered his head. 

No longer sensing any aggression the twins seemed to be more accepting of the two, but remained cautious. It was still unknown how the two were capable of seeing despite the blindfolds, but they still looked towards Mira.

Slowly sitting next to Givale Mira leaned and whispered, "They're dangerous."

Givale grimaced, "I know."

Indeed, despite the two's seemingly desperate condition they radiated the feeling of Third Stage. More importantly whatever they were, they were something of great power! With their own strengths Mira and Givale's intuition regarding powerful beings was particularly sensitive. As a Dragon she could sense an authority. Mira's heart also thumped at an increased pace upon seeing the two.

Yet they did not fight. Following Givale's example Mira showed no aggression and simply sat. Allowing the twins to slowly gather themselves and their bearings.

Slowly their tears stopped shedding, and their bodies stopped quivering. They did not, however, stop holding each other. Their sniffles and hiccups continued, but their fear was slowly being subsided.

Eventually Isk spoke, "You. . . why are you here?"

"We hoped to go on an adventure.", Givale replied honestly.

"Adventure. . .", the twins spoke simultaneously but none said anything further.

Another ten minutes passed and the twins slowly loosened their hug on each other. Slowly they came to realize Givale and Mira really meant no harm. Overcoming their fear Sil asked, "How did you find us?"

"We dug about and found statue pieces. When we explored we found you two."

A pair of tears fell down simultaneously. One from Sil's right eye, and the other from Isk's left eye. Moving in tandem Sil wiped Isk's cheek, and Isk wiped Sil's cheek. This sort of action looked automatic, as if in reflex.

Givale smiled patiently and asked a question of her own, "Who are you two?"

Despite hearing the twins call each other by their names she wished to still let them make introductions. 

Isk was the first one to answer, "I'm Whisk."

Sil was the second, "I'm Basil."

Isk and Sil were nicknames! Givale was glad she asked. Rubbing her hands together she asked, "What happened to you two?"

Basil and Whisk looked towards each other and tears began to flow again. Yet they did not wail or shake like before. Pressing their foreheads together they calmed themselves, and the tears once again stopped.

Givale pinched her palm and frowned, perhaps she shouldn't have asked that!