Snow fluttered lightly toward the frozen ground. A young girl perhaps no older than fourteen, sat at the stone fountain staring at her reflection in the newly formed ice. She possessed all the features of her mother: long, flowing white hair, mesmerizing green eyes, a cute button nose, a small chin, and thin pink lips; the only feature she wished to be rid of resided between her legs. She goes by the name: Candace. Just a few weeks earlier, the mayor of the small village ordered the fountain to stop flowing. The fluffy, frozen flakes danced across her equally white hair and pale skin. Her jacket that she clutched onto tightly stopped below her knees, her stockings protected the rest of her legs from the cold elements.
Something struck her forehead, something not new to her. The crimson river flowed down her white brow. After two weeks, she stopped running. After three weeks of being new to the village, she stopped dodging. The agonizing wait seized when the other rocks fell on her like hail.
Kids charged her from all directions. A fat, chubby kid—their leader—grabbed hold of her hair to let his minions beat the small girl. He watched in delight as his prey flopped on the ground like a fish out of water. He kept a firm grasp on her gills making her gasp for air. He now became the keeper of her fragile life.
“Beat the freak! Beat the freak!” the hellions chanted.
She prayed to the Gods, praying that they would kill her now to end her suffering. Alas, the Gods failed to hear her pleas. Tears streamed from her eyes, not from the pain—she could bear that—but because the Gods had forsaken her again. To die was her only wish.
“Get away from her!” Alexia demanded.
The children turned to see the auburn haired girl across the courtyard. Rage burned in her hazel eyes. Behind her back, she held the handle of the broom, the head of the weapon long since discarded.
“I won’t tell you punks again!” she warned.
A second of hesitation and confusion spread through their ranks.
“Get her!” the husky kid ordered and the battle began.

Alexia quietly hummed as she swept the back porch. “Dust, dust, be gone! Dust, dust, be gone!” she sang in her mind to her own tune. She began thinking about how she had matured physically and mentally over the past two years. Her thoughts were interrupted by feet running toward her. Looking up she saw her friend Sora.
“Hey!” the rusty haired girl chimed, “Jack plans on beating up that freak Candace this morning! Come on!” When she noticed Alexia did not follow, Sora turned around and asked, “Aren’t you coming?”
“No.” Alexia replied sternly.
“C’mon, it’s fun! Besides, everyone is doing it.”
“Well, I’m not and that’s it.” She leaned on the broom. “Don’t you think twelve kids beating up one kid is unfair? I do. Would you like all those kids beating you up for no good reason?”
“No…” Sora hung her head down in shame. “You are right. You are always right, Alexia.” She smiled at her friend who smiled back.
“I have had enough of this!” Alexia’s twin sister growled, busting through the door. “Let’s go teach those idiots a lesson, Sis.”
“Right with you, Kimi.” She agreed.
The plan was simple: Alexia draws the kids to her, Sora will throw rocks at them, and Kimi would go after the plump kid. On the way to the battlefield, Alexia could not help but wonder how Kimi could be her twin, they looked nothing a like! First off, Kimi had short, raven black hair that always seemed to be covering one of her crimson eyes, and she had the height to match her temper. Also, her skin tone was a shade darker than Alexia and she did not have the same body. Alexia concluded that Kimi got most her genes from Father and that she received most of her genes from Mother. They saw the kids already beating up poor Candace. They immediately engaged the enemy.

As the kids surrounded Alexia, she started her attack by swinging the broom around her, knocking the kids to the ground. Sora hurled stones at blinding speeds at the unsuspecting kids, even hitting a few targets square in the head. Kimi silently walked up behind the leader and hit him behind the head with a skillet. Alexia twirled her weapon, weaving to and fro at a fast tempo. The enemies tried to follow her steps at her dance but kept getting tripped up by the broom. A stone dropped the last kid and Sora emerged from her hiding spot among the bushes.
The three heroines rushed to the weak girl’s body. Her labored breaths told them she yet lived.
“Just get it over with…” the white haired girl spoke, her voice weak and wavering.
“We are here to help, Candace.” Alexia smiled at her.
“Yeah right.” She thought. An arm wrapped around her waist and picked her up. She saw a dark haired angel lifting her up. Another arm grabbed hers and she saw the brunette helping her stand. Tears rolled down her bruised face, “Thank you.”
********
Candace sat up in bed, breathing heavily. She noticed the body next to her and grinned. Leaning over, she kissed the brunette’s forehead, “Thank you.” She whispered silently.
“Mmm…” Alexia rolled onto her back, “what for?”
“For being amazing.” Candace complimented.
Alexia wrapped her arms around her lover’s neck and pressed her lips to hers, giving Candace a long, passionate kiss. With Alexia’s tongue in her mouth, Candace could taste her cum that filled that pretty mouth hours earlier.
“I love you.” the brunette admitted.
“I love you more.” Candace replied, giving her another lengthy French kiss.
A knock on the door interrupted them and grabbed their attention.
“It’s me.” Andrew informed them with his deep voice. “We are rolling out in ten minutes. Breakfast is already done.” Before he could say one more thing, the young women flew open the door and shot past him. “This is going to be a long journey.” he groaned.
He shuffled his boots to the loaded wagon. The horses snorted and flipped their tails. “Of course, who is left with the bill? Me.” he complained. The town was nice and all but too remote for his taste. Being out in the desert made Andrew feel way far from his native home of the Frozen Isles. He pressed one of his freshly rolled cigarettes between his lips and lit it up. Already the tobacco calmed his nerves. After checking the wagon for her, he could not locate their fearless leader. He went to ask the girls if they saw her.
“No.” Candace answered. “I haven’t seen her since yesterday.”
“I wonder where my sister could be.” Alexia thought.

The sun lazily rose on the eastern horizon. A westerly wind blew, carrying Kimi’s long black hair past her face. Her crimson eyes absorbed the incoming light. She sat on the ground with her knees up to her small chest and her hands behind her, digging in the cool, red sand. She leaned against her long sword that acted as her bed at nights. A faint smile on her lips as she enjoyed the morning sun waking her.
A golden dagger slept on her lap. She ran her finger on the dragon shaped pummel, down, across the wings that acted as the guard, and over the twisting, tail blade. Its ruby eyes shone as it awoken. In that moment, she felt as if all her dreams could come true, with this key, they would come true.
Morin stood behind her taking in the morning light and her beauty. He wore his usual dark cloak and mask. The cloak flapped lightly in the wind. “You do know that once you open that box all hell is going to break loose, right?” he spoke silently.
A mischievous grin tipped the side of her lips. “I know. That’s what’s going to make this fun.” She tossed the golden blade to the man behind her. “Besides, I’ll be behind you when you open it.”
The smoky haired man deftly caught the blade and grunted at her remark. He watched her bathing in the light captivated by her prowess and beauty.
Kimi got to her feet and dusted the red sand off her leather cuisses. She tugged at the neck of the reinforced leather cuirass, trying to keep it from rubbing against her collar bone. She pulled up the red bandana to try to keep the armor from chaffing her soft skin. “Let’s get going.”
Morin stayed where he was for a moment, watching her leave. He liked the way she clinked around in her light armor and the way her narrow hips swayed side-to-side.
She felt his eyes on her and turned to see him quickly look away. “C’mon.” she called, luring him with her seducing smile.
********
The once beautiful sun changed into the burning noon demon that beat relentlessly on our little gang. The two men sat at the front of the wagon while the women lounged in the back of the cramped wagon. All the canopy succeeded in doing was trapping the heat inside.
“Are you sure this time?” Alexia asked her sister for the fourth time since starting their journey from the capitol.
“Yes!” Kimi snapped.
“The last time we were dragged along one of your crazy excursions half my butt was nearly bit off!” the brunette voiced.
“We all still got out in one piece!” Kimi replied defensively. Candace glared at Kimi and pulled down her grieve to show the bite marks on her calf. “More or less.” she chuckled nervously.
“I don’t mind helping you, Kimi. Just tell me what we are getting into so I can be properly prepared.” Candace said, trying to ease Kimi’s conscience.
Kimi sighed and told them the truth. “I might have found the Tomb of Mystin.”
Alexia burst out laughing, “Ah! You are quite the character, Sis, but seriously, what did you find?”
“The Tomb of Mystin…”
“I know you are crazy, Kimi, but let’s not be stupid and actually open the damn thing.” Candace input.
“Think of all the treasure though!” her crimson eyes grew, just picturing the mounds of gold and precious gems.
“I am thinking more about our lives.” Candace countered. “We still are young and have our entire lives ahead of us.”
“This treasure will let us be able to live free for the rest of our lives!” She turned to her sister, “C’mon, Sis, where’s your sense of adventure?”
“I left it back at the hotel along with my sense of reasoning.” Alexia sighed. “I will always help you, Kimi, you know that.”
As the wagon creaked along the red sandy canyon floor, a massive wave of sand loomed in the distance.
“That doesn’t look good.” Marin spoke.
“Thank you for pointing out the obvious, Marin.” Andrew remarked. He took action and steered the horses into the nearest cave. After hearing commotion from the back, Andrew explained the situation to the passengers, “A huge sandstorm is heading our way and we needed to take shelter or it would have killed us all.”
Kimi crossed her arms and pouted, “I hate sand. It always seems to find all the places it shouldn’t be.”
A horrible roar drew their attention to the cave opening. Andrew finished putting sacks around the horses’ snouts when sand exploded into the cave. After what felt like hours, the roaring and stinging sand subsided.
“Is everyone alright?” Alexia called out, dusting the sand out of her hair.
“Yeah.” Everyone groaned.
Andrew spotted Marin already standing out of the cave. He seemed to be looking at something. When he stepped outside he saw what Marin was fixated on: a bronze, sand dragon. Its scales shimmered in the sun, long claws that dug into the canyon wall, with wide wings that could block out the sun. Unfortunately, her yellow eyes spotted the two men standing out in the open.
“This is not good.”
“No shit!”

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