The Twins of the New Realms: The Dark Prophecy

Prologue

The end was coming. The sky darkened, and the trees shuddered. The wind howled eerily through the naked branches, whose leaves had long since fallen. Bands of light danced in the heavens and the white ground shimmered in the strange silvery-blue light. This was a message. That was why she was here, as there was only one person she knew who could summon such a bright aurora.

She padded quietly through the trees, trying not to arouse suspicion from her onlookers; she'd passed a very suspicious looking owl once in the time she had been here.

To an ordinary mortal, she was just a strange lynx with glowing teal eyes. But to the rest of the universe, she was a legendary warrior: she was Ubakit. It was dangerous for her to be here, the Realms as tense as they were. It was atrocious for any of her Khathi Clan to leave the safety of the Chateau de Lueur. So why, Ubakit thought, would Ecolil be here, right in the middle of Kifiteti?

Even though she was in the Primus Dimension, whose inhabitants had no idea that she even existed, Ubakit picked up her pace, as she figured that Eco would never have called her to this place if what he had to say was not urgent. She travelled in silence for another five flashes. Ubakit used her heightened cat senses to scan her surroundings for any sign of Eco. Where was the prince anyway? She made her way into a clearing. It was like stepping into a snow globe; snowflakes swirled in the wind, the trees grew around in a circle, and a beautiful crystal lake glowed blue, in the center of the circle of trees.

A figure stood on the pebbly shore, watching the fish swim under the coat of ice that covered the water. He wore all black, and his trousers were wet up to his ankles. He had his hands shoved into the pockets of his topcoat which, by the way, wasn't supposed to exist for another thousand years. A faint silver aura glowed around him, much less visible than Ubakit had ever seen it. He turned to face her, and Ubakit now was able to make out his features; he looked to be around the age of seventeen, his chestnut-brown hair was swept casually to the side, and his mysterious lush green eyes glowed in the darkness. Ubakit looked down toward the shore and saw that he was tapping his foot impatiently. He smiled when he saw her.

"Took you long enough," he said. He smirked at Ubakit in his usual annoying way, when he was right, and she, one of the most powerful rulers in the New Realms, was wrong. She hated when he did that.

"Well, you do know, Eco, it isn't every day somebody asks you to run into enemy territory," Ubakit muttered, and then louder, "okay, you called me and I came. What now?" She shifted into her human form and walked towards the boy. "Couldn't you have just come back to the Sea? We could be sitting in comfy chairs in a warm castle instead of out here in this freezing wasteland."

Eco's smile faded. "Well, those enemies you speak of are not actually our enemies," he said matter-of-factly. "We wouldn't even be in this mess if they had control over their own minds."

Ubakit crossed her arms across her chest. "Oh," she said. "You think Pytannie is involved."

Eco's smile returned to his face. "Actually, no. I was thinking of a particular Efni. Pytannie has nothing to do with this."

Ubakit frowned. She said in an annoyed voice, "Oh, so you know everything now, do you? When were you on planning on telling me about all of this?"

Eco laughed. "Is that really a question?" He joked. "Well, I'm telling you now aren't I? So, I've done a bit of digging, and I think I know what Unu's motive is."

Ubakit's eyebrows furrowed. "How do you know that Unu is involved? How can you be so sure it's her?" She said.

"Well," Eco said hesitantly, "She is my twin, after all, and I may or may not have gone to Pytannie, and may or may not have asked her about some of your secrets that you haven't told me yet..."