"Child. . ."

Edythe jumped at the sudden sound. That single syllable seemed to contain all the danger she had been avoiding her whole life. Where had it come from?

She looked down at Esau and saw that he was still asleep, he didn't seem to have heard the voice.

Good.

Edythe let out a relieved sigh but didn't let down her guard.

I didn't imagine it. . .

She knew the voices in her head better than anyone, and she had never heard that one before.

Not daring to take her eyes off her brother, she immediately passed her arms through the straps of the bag she was about to open, letting it rest on her back as she reached for the other one.

"We have to go," she told her brother.

"But you aren't going anywhere." the chilling voice said, and Edythe stiffened. It came from behind her but she didn't dare turn around.

She shifted towards Esau and shielded him with her body before she fixed her gaze on the man behind her, her brother safe within her arms. "Who are you?"

He chuckled, his pristine suit of white fluttering in a gust of wind Edythe couldn't feel.

Who wears white in a forest? She narrowed her eyes at him, already suspicious of his friendly smile.

"I really do enjoy gazing upon sibling love," he ran his hand through his hair, the strands were white like everything else he wore, "but unfortunately for you, you're coming with me."

"Why would I do that?" Her arms squeezed her twin tighter, and Edythe glared at the man that blended so much with the milky fog that she was sure that he was made out of it.

"You have no choice." He smiled again, the rows of pearly white teeth almost blinding her when they reflected the sparse moonlight into her eyes.

Instantly Edythe hated him, the apparently flawless being of white. Somehow she just knew he was going to take Esau away.

Her hands slowly inched to Esau's boots for the knives she knew he kept there, but her searching fingers found none of the comforting steel blades.

She turned back to the man with the pale skin and found the blades she had been looking for sitting right there on his palm.

Edythe stood up with resolve. Determined not to rid her brother of anymore weapons, she pulled out the knives in her sleeves.

"So it was you," She took a small step towards him, then a larger one, deciding to take what was happening as far away as possible from Esau.

"Me?" The man looked confused and he raised an almost invisible eyebrow-it blended too well with the rest of him. "Are you trying to distract me?"

Her stare fell on the hand that wasn't holding the knives and she smiled. It was the only imperfection she saw in him, his bandaged arm.

Her mind flashed to the severed hand she had been holding when she had woken up after the attack; she felt a distinct urge to kill the man in front of her.

Edythe watched as realization flitted over the man's face while she twirled the blades in her hands. "Well?"

He laughed. The sound echoed all around Edythe and the phenomenon confused her. They were deep in fog, and even though it was a bit thinner at this height, it was still a lot.

How could his laugh be so loud when she could barely hear herself?

"You seem not to fear me, why?" the man asked.

Edythe's eyes focused on the one thing that wasn't white on him, it was a pin, a golden eagle resting by his heart. It matched Esau's description of the emblem the soldiers that had attacked their mother had pinned to their uniforms.

"Why do I need to fear scum? You are about to attack a defenseless child."

"Defenseless?" He clicked his tongue then looked down at her knives. "I think not."

Her grip on the blades tightened with each word he spoke. "Where is my mother?"

"I can take you to her if you want."

"And Esau?"

"He can wait here."

"No thanks." She forced a smile and shifted back, about to run back to her brother when she was grabbed by the neck.

"Not so fast, girl." The man walked to Esau while ragging her along. "Why don't I take you both?"

Edythe felt her eyes burn and her lungs catch fire. The pain was worse than suffocation, it was like she was drowning in a sea of flames.

Despite the agony that rippled through her chest, Edythe kept her eyes on her brother and watched in silent anger as the man's hand moved towards him.

She glared at Esau, wishing that he would just disappear. Wake up!

When the man's hand grazed his cheek, Edythe decided that she had had enough.

Using all her strength she stabbed the knife she held into the man's wrist, watching pain flit over his face before it was replaced by indifference. The storm that brewed in his golden eyes scared her, and his hold on her neck tightened.

Edythe felt the world around her slowly fade away but was still painfully aware of the man's fingers slowly circling her brother's neck. She raised her other knife and threw it towards Esau, dizzily watching the blade cut into the man's hand like it was warm butter.

She felt like laughing, but the pain that ran through her spine when the man in white dropped her, paralyzed her voice. It was a feeling she was too familiar with.

Edythe felt like closing her eyes, sleep knocked around in her head and exhaustion slowly sunk into her limbs. But she knew what would happen if she succumbed, she needed to be awake. . . For Esau.

She watched the man vanish and stared at him blankly when he reappeared on the spot were he had stood before. He pulled the blades out of his hands and glared at her.

"You little demon," he looked at blood trickling down his fingers, "I was ordered to bring you back unarmed, but you really aren't making this easy."

I know how hard it is to get blood out of white. Edythe sat up, wincing when she felt the burn in her neck and everywhere else. Unconsciously, she looked at Esau. The only wound he had was that scratch.

She felt proud.

Ignoring the man, she walked back towards him, fighting to keep her vision clear and her feet steady.

"You should have known that when your hands are in my vicinity they are bound to get damaged," she knelt down in front of Esau, feeling utterly exhausted as she raised a brow at the smiling man. "Don't expect your wounds to heal anytime soon."

Edythe felt extremely pleased with herself when his smile turned to a scowl.

"Poison." He hissed.

The nine year old grinned through her pain. "Of course."

"What type of poison is it?"

Edythe laughed and took her brother's hand in hers, still inspecting him for wounds. "Do I look like a poison specialist to you?"

Of course she had made it just yesterday, but he didn't need to know that. It was a recipe her mother had taught her and the antidote was another.

His scowl reverted to his normal smirk of nonchalance. "I know what I should do now, it was stupid of me to have used anything less than my best against the daughter of Harriet."

Edythe froze on hearing her mother's name.

"Where is she?" She watched the gold in the man's eyes morph to a blood red.

"Do you know rare it is for a halfling to be half awakened by a hybreed?" He seemed to be talking more to himself than her. With his eyes giving off that eerie red glow, he licked his pale lips. "Barely ten and yet your eyes glow much more than mine. You can only blame yourself."

"What?" Edythe had never been more confused in her life. And something told her that the man wasn't going to explain things to her.

She watched in a sort of frozen awe as the blood on his fingertips condensed into a small ball and flew towards her. When it didn't touch her she immediately feared the worst.

Turning around, she saw that it hadn't gotten close to Esau either, but had instead landed on a lizard that happened to be crawling down the trunk of the tree from a higher branch.

Like magic, she saw it grow in length, size and shape until somehow she ended up staring at her own face. Without her mind fully understanding what was happening, she watched in a daze as her brother was taken away by a tree crawling version of herself.

Edythe stared in confusion at the empty spot in front of her. The only signs that her brother had been there were the gloves that were now clutched tightly in her hands and his backpack. She had been holding onto him then he was suddenly whisked away.

He was gone. . . . It didn't make any sense to her.

Edythe had let him slip right through her fingers. . . Was that even possible?

"Now child," the man started again, glee audible in his voice, "come with me or your brother dies."

†

Ah, the mystery is solved. Who expected this?
Okay, the man in white sort of reminds me of our doctor in red, haha. I have no idea what's wrong with people in this universe, totally obsessed with colors.

I'm glad to announced the end of tree time! Esau and Edythe have been successfully separated and will probably stay that way for a while. Poor twins.

Edythe really annoyed this guy, staining his white clothes with his blood. Tsk, tsk.

Now, up next should be Philip. Then after him should be Dawn, then after her should be Corey. And after all that we'll see what happens!

I can't believe we've gotten this far (imagine gratefulness on my face). Thank you for reading, please do vote and comment if you enjoyed.

Question of the chapter

Are you confused? Any theories on where this guy that's harassing our twins came from?