2 Chapter 2: Eve

"What's that?" A townsfolk pointed at the skies.

There were many speculations about it, another message from the King, the divine nymph making it's grand appearance, a blessing from a dragon, etc.

"What are they all doing outside?" Adam peeked from the window.

{Bark! Bark!}

To his surprise, the hound was awake. Swiftly, he grabbed Eve and rushed upstairs for safety. The Frost Hound, however, was not barking at them, but rather above them.

The puzzled Adam took another glance from the window.

"What is that?"

His jaw dropped when he saw a gigantic orb afloat on top of the town square.

At this point, the people of Gilgan were more focused on what it could possibly be rather than what it was currently doing. The orb was getting rapidly bigger, and by the time Adam noticed, it was far too late.

A bright light enveloped the entire town, and then-

{BOOM!}

He didn't remember much of what happened next except finding himself below a pile of rubble, gasping for air with ears bleeding and body covered with countless bruises and wounds.

With a large gasp, he yelled, "EVE!" but no one replied.

Adam yelled her name multiple times but it was futile. Lost in thought, he found himself flipping the rubble in hopes of finding his twin. And he did. A hand is sticking out of the ground, most definitely his sister's.

"E-Eve! Hang on!" his eyes lit up with both hope and worry.

The boy frantically dug up the surrounding debris and checked his sister's pulse. With a sigh of relief, he embraced his unconscious, bruised sister who just awoke-

"Brother… W-what happened? It hurts a little..."

"I- I don't know." Adam breaks down. Everything happened all of a sudden. But he needs to be strong. After calming himself, he stood up and grabbed Eve's hand-

"We're gonna be fine, alright? Let's go. We need to find our family."

The explosion's influence was obvious to the entire town. Town, I say, but there was no town no more. No town library, no town hall, no people. It was not a town any longer, but a ruin. What remains is rock and flesh, both scattered around in a million pieces. Adam and Eve had a hard time passing by them.

'What a brutal way to die!' he tightens her grip to her sister. He fears that the same thing occurred to- No, they are alright.

They must be. They have to be.

Dreadfully, their humble but warm home was no more to be seen. Their memories, scattered along the ground as mere chunks of a loved shelter. The only thing left is their mother's pendant, sitting atop an altar covered with red cloth that miraculously endured the tragedy.

The sibling's tears must've reached the heavens, for it rained.

Eve passed out til' midnight. Though, Adam couldn't even close his eyes even if he wanted to, for his mind was full of thoughts and what-ifs.

Feeling cold and shameful, Adam snuggled to her sister closely under the red fur sheets, perhaps to seek protection from the dark.

"Do you remember this pendant Eve?" he caresses her sleeping sister's worn out hair.

"Cain used to smuggle this and play with it. He laughed at the snotty-looking brat inside this pendant, along with his snotty-looking parents. And everytime he gets caught, we get to see a circus!" Adam's soft laughs slowly turned into weeps.

He kisses the pendant and places it on Eve. Her sister is a spitting image of their mother, thus it is only fitting that she acquires the treasure.

{Glow}

A faint light in the distance caught his eye.

Strangely enough, it multiplied. Constantly.

Soon, there was multiple glowing lights moving all around him, lighting the midnight sky as if it was day. It was truly a sight to behold.

"Glowflies." He muttered unconsciously.

Glowflies are butterflies that have evolved to glow in the dark. They are mostly- No, they ARE found only in the caverns of the east, so Adam's surprise is no surprise at all.

These glowflies emit colors from orange to yellow, and now that he observed them carefully, the insects were guidelines to a path. Not far from the rubbles of their former home was a cobblestone path that lead to a golden sword stuck on the ground. The path and sword was not there before, so the child was indeed very curious.

"Sir Jake Francis." he read the name on the sword's sheathe beside it.

Father was not only a gardener, but also a book writer. Understandably, he wasn't very famous mostly because his writing style mixed parts that were often irrelevant, but if you ignore these faults you can enjoy a beautiful story that often ends with a lesson.

Such is the story of Sir Jake Francis, an honored knight who died to protect his prince. Each night, Dave would tell this story to the twins. He didn't like it, but Eve very much did so he spoke nothing of it.

"So he… was real?"

To a certain point, he was very much real as well as the rest of his father's stories. It is only now that he realized that.

"!!!"

The glowflies are flocking together, trying to shape a curious form. Oddly enough, it turned into a sphere. Adam learned his lesson of spheres so he distanced himself away from it.

Strangely, it homed to him. Seeing that he couldn't outrun it, Adam instinctively embraced his sister to brace for another explosion.

However, it did not explode like he expected. Instead, it just went right inside his chest.

Adam frantically groped his own body, inspecting if something was wrong but found nothing. With no clue what happened, he just shrugged it off.

"{Yawn} B-brother, is it morning already?"

"It is still midnight Eve. Go back to sleep."

"Then why is it so bright?"

"It's just the glowflies."

"But there's no glowflies here… Wait, y-your eyes!" Eve pointed at his face. Adam grew anxious as he remembered the orb that entered his body not-so-long ago.

"M-my eyes? I-is there something wrong with it? Is it bleeding? I knew it! All orbs are evil-"

"No Adam, your eyes are glowing brightly!"

"What? What do you-"

Without letting his brother finish, the insistent young girl dragged him to his sleeves towards Gilgan Lake.

"See? Look!" she points at his reflection in the water. It really was glowing.

"What the-" with his mysterious newfound eyes, Adam was able to see things that he wasn't able to see before.

The dark town, with his vision, was lit up with colorful outlines of the miniature life that teemed on the rubble and the dead.

The dark midnight sky which was usually covered by a thick mist revealed constellations of twinkling stars. Everything was clear to him.

Adam, unsure of what exactly is really happening, have had a long day and thought nothing of it. Instead, he stood up and simply appreciated the view.

"Oh sister, if only you could see what my eyes are showing me."

"What is it showing you?" Eve held his hand while yawning.

"A… string?" Adam spotted a mysterious red string that connected from the island on the middle of the lake to a lakeside tree standing right beside them.

The tree had a hole in its bark. Adam reached out inside and found a golden ring that bound the red string to it by a knot. There was also a sheet of paper with dried blood that had writings in it in a language he had no clue of.

"This ring is beautiful. Eve, you can-"

As soon as he turns around, her sister already lost her balance and is about to fall. Eve preferred staying in the house rather than going with Father and his siblings for their weekly bath in the lake, so she doesn't know how to swim-

"Watch out!"

Adam rushed to grab her sister's hand, but it was too late. They were both falling and he knows he can only swim if it's by his own-

'No, not you too!' He embraced Eve to brace for a wet fall-

{Splash!}

Holding his breath, he closed his eyes.

"Brother, I'm still sleepy." Eve yawned once more.

"…"

They're…. afloat? The water seemed to be as solid as land. But how?

As Adam stands up to process what strange phenomenon is occurring, he accidentally steps on the golden ring. It wasn't hard to piece everything out after.

He picks up the golden ring and put it around her sister's finger. To his surprise, the thread was twitching as if it was excited.

With nothing left to do and nothing left to lose but the faint hope of help from someone alive on the island, they followed the thread.

"Whoa-" Eve's eyes widened in awe.

With their foot set on top of the island, they realized that it was small. Small, but big enough to have 3 trees with rings on its branches and a grand ringed altar in the middle of it.

He remembers this altar. Father said that his wedding ring was blessed here by Gilgan.

Inspecting the altar, it had a ring-shaped carving which conveniently fits the ring.

{Clink}

Nothing happened.

"… Well that was anticlimactic." Eve picked the ring up from the hole.

{Rumble}

"!!!"

'Maybe you shouldn't have done that sister-'

All of a sudden, the stone statue on top of the altar was getting dyed with colors. It was being brought to life!

The siblings covered their eyes for it was too bright. The moment it settled, a beautiful glowing woman was floating in the air while beaming.

"My love, you've finally retu-"

Her smile faded and turned to a scowl.

"W-who are you children? And why do you have 'that'?" She crossed her arms.

"That?" Eve innocently asked.

The lady pointed at her-

"That ring you have. It is not yours, is it?" she said matter-of-factly.

"Y-yes-"

"We just found it on a tree beside this lake." Adam saves her sister.

The lady flinched grimly. She turned around for a moment before facing the siblings-

"How did you find it? Only 'he' was supposed to have the ability!"

"There was a string I saw. I only followed it in hopes of seeking help from someone. Turns out to be a disappointment- no, offense my lady."

"Help? Help from what?"

"The town of Gilgan is no more." Adam clenched his fist.

"!!!, Is this true?"

"Yes! My Mother and Father are no more as well!" Eve sniffles.

"My town… the town that 'we' built together… Forgive me for being rude, it's just that... M-may I see the ring?" She asked, but she was reluctant about it.

Eve didn't speak but a nod. As she hands the ring over, Adam interrupts-

"I also found this paper. I think it might've belonged to your… companion-" Adam handed the worn out paper.

After reading what's in it, tears streamed from her lovely eyes. She stared at the siblings and embraces them.

"You have done me a great favor. This will not remain unpaid. This ring… and a few others shall be my down payment. For now… I need some time alone. Farewell-"

"Wait!"

And the lady disappears with a flash of light. Surprisingly, they were already on land in front of a lit house with a couple of trees abundant with fruits.

Looking at the lake, the island disappeared with their injuries.

"What a weird lady." Eve sighed.

"But we found shelter. Come, it's getting cold." Adam wrapped her sister with the same red cloth on their altar before going to sleep.

"Hey brother-"

"Yes?"

"I think the lady earlier was Gilgan."

"I think so too."

"So, do you think this ring belonged to her lover?" She fidgets the golden ring in her finger.

"Lover?"

"The Hooded Stranger of Gilgan. Father told us this story once. It was about the mysterious hooded merchant that offered golden rings to Gilgan every year-"

"That's too much gold for today. I'm getting sick of lights and brights. Let's sleep alright?" Adam chuckled.

"Okay." she cuddled closely with a smile.

It was a very long and tragic day. But, for one short night, they forgot about everything except the comfort of each other's warmth.

On the day that followed the last,

Except the pendant and ring on the floor, Eve was nowhere to be found.