October, Year 483
Forest of Lacau
State of Nicia
North

The forest was quiet. Too silent to be real but too physical to be nothing but an illusion crafted by the whispering night.

There were no chirping birds or screeching insects crawling along the forest floor, every creature seemed to be invested in a slumber that would never end.

The fog was a haze that swamped the sound of nature until it was inexistent, deafening. The resulting silence was eerie, almost tangible as it wrapped around everything that needed to breathe.

Then there was the darkness. If it had a color it would be a blurry white, but there was no such thing as color without light to reflect the absent hue. And there was no light, not anymore.

The moon was gone, like a candlelight snuffed out by midnight when morning was sure to come at dawn.

Esau felt like it would go on for an eternity. But light would always come back in the form of the moon, the sun, the countless stars that should dot the sky with twinkling rays—if they still existed somewhere, out in the universe. It was a fact.

He hoped it was.

In a way he was thankful for the emptiness around him. It masked his failure with a suffocating sense of claustrophobia. The silence pressed hard against his lungs, the darkness scratched his skin uncomfortably. . . It distracted him.

Failure wasn't something Esau faced very often.

He couldn't breathe, and he didn't really want to. The night was over. . . there was no way to leave Lacau today. Everything that he and Edythe did today was worthless; they hadn't gotten far enough into the forest to stay and continue the next day.

They had to go back to the workshop, but he had no idea where Edythe was and he couldn't leave without her.

He had no idea where she was.

The thought frightened him more than the darkness.

"Aren't you going to say anything?" a quiet voice whispered from in front of him and Esau tried not to jump at the sudden noise.

"Great Ali, just scare me to death." Esau hissed and swiped at the air by his face.

Ten minutes ago Esau had tried to convince himself that it was a coincidence that the forest had been shrouded in darkness the moment he and the fake Edythe were about to attack each other. And that it was a greater coincidence that less than a minute later the fake had stopped trying to kill him.

Sadly, Esau didn't believe in coincidences. Something must have happened.

"It's Aleron Alun," the voice hissed back with a serpentine twist to it's words, "say it right."

"Can you please stop wearing my sister's face now?" Esau said with a hint of annoyance and let out a huff.

"I haven't gotten any orders not to."

"Have you gotten any orders to continue?"

A snort replied Esau's question. "You can't even see my—her—face."

"Al—"

"Aleron Alun."

"Sorry, I can't pronounce that, and each time I try you shout at me. How is it spelt?"

"It. . . What is spelt?"

Esau paused and hit his palm on his forehead, this was incredulous. They were supposed to be trying to kill each other, not discussing names and other trivialities. But still, he couldn't help but keep talking. "Al, what should we do now?"

"My master stopped sending me orders to kill you," Aleron Alun said as a matter of fact. "Do you want us to fight?"

Esau tried to muster up some anger, fear maybe, but nothing appeared. The well of emotion in his gut had run dry. He only felt calm. He didn't want to fight.

He just wanted Edythe.

"I don't want us to fight either," Alun whispered, "your mind is really nice."

"Uh. . . thanks?"

"What's a friend?"

"What?" Esau bit his lip and raised his head to stare at the spot he knew Alun sat.

"You were just thinking. . . is this what it is like to have a friend. What is a friend?"

The boy shifted back uncomfortably. "Alun, stop reading my mind."

"Okay."

Afterwards, the silence continued, suffocating and deadly. The usual.

Then it was broken, again, by the same hissy voice. "My name is Alun, not Alun."

"Is there a difference?"

"It's like the word. . . alone. Al-you-own."

"Oh," Esau frowned, knowing that no lesson would help him pronounce the name right. "Can I call you Al?"

"What's a nickname?" Alun suddenly asked, and Esau glared at the spot he hoped he was.

"Stop reading my mind. It's rude and a serious breach of privacy."

After a moment of quiet the branch shook slightly, and Esau knew that Aleron Alun had gotten up.

"I can take you to your sister, you know?" he said.

"Why would you do that?" Suspicion laced Esau's tone. "You're supposed to eat me, aren't you? And didn't you say that you ate her, or something like that?"

"Look Esau," Alun said, "I need to see my master and you need to see your sister. After we get our orders we can kill each other, okay? We're the same."

"Yeah, I guess." Esau answered slowly. They were the same, that was true, completely useless without someone else being there to lead them.

"Give me your hand."

"I can't see you. How can you?"

"I just can." A slender hand grabbed onto Esau's arm and pulled him up.

"Then you could have killed me," the nine year old realized.

"You have nice thoughts," Alun sounded amused, "you don't fear death. I like you."

With a push from somewhere and a tug on their wrists, both of them were sent falling off the tree and down into the cushioning fog. A short fall in reality, but one vastly slowed down by the darkness and the thick soup of fog.

"You're not that bad either, Al." Esau hit the grass with a soft thump, his hand still clasped with Alun's. "Can we be friends?"

"What's a friend?" The serpentine boy with Edythe's face asked again.

Esau smiled wide, knowing that Alun could see it. "A friend is a friend, I can't explain it well enough for you to understand."

"Okay," Alun said simply and took Esau's hand in his. "We'll be friends then."

"Take me to my sister."

It was going to be a long walk and Esau just hoped that he wouldn't have to fight Alun when they found Edythe. If she and Alun's master were together, then Esau had a pretty good idea why Alun had stopped receiving orders.

While concealing a grimace, the boy pushed the thought away. There were almost no secrets to keep when a mind reader stood right next to him, but he wanted to keep this one for as long as possible.

He didn't want to lose the only friend—other than Edythe—that he had made in almost a decade, even if said friend could kill him if they was told to.

His Pa had always said that good friends were hard to come by, and his father would have loved Aleron Alun. He was unique in a way that bordered supernatural. . . A type of different Esau could never be.

Yes, his Pa would have loved Al.

†

Alright. I love Alun... Even though he's horrid sometimes, toyed with Esau and tried to kill him for a while. But honestly, Esau is the friendlier twin. He loves everyone and anyone even if they hate his guts (but he despises men in uniform).

Now. This is science fiction... So tell me, what is Aleron Alun?

(A.) a shapeshifter
(B.) an actual lizard
(C.) a clone of Edythe
(D.) The man in white's son
(E.) NONE OF THE ABOVE

P.S Alun will probably not be a longtime friend of Esau's. And this chapter is dedicated to wentrack because... Just guess why ;)

Question of the chapter

Is Esau drugged right now? Would you have befriended Alun in the the brief moment Esau did? Do you think he had his reasons?