Chapter 2: CHAPTER 2
"C'mon, it's way past midnight. We need to go back. You have your scarf with you?" Isabella roused her sister who was leaning heavily on her.
"Hn." Serraphina sat up so slow that Isabella was tempted to push her twin down the tree.
But she didn't. Because she's the 'good girl' in their relationship. She couldn't help but let out a derisive snort and wave away Serraphina's inquiry gaze. They both jumped down the tree and donned the scarf on their heads, making sure that all their hairs were covered up. Isabella drags a sluggish Serraphina through the forest. They hid behind bushes when they saw Old Man's Francis's well, waiting for Serraphina to sense for anyone before they made it through. They sneak behind his house and around his small old shack that he uses as a smithing workshop before ducking behind the bush by their bedroom window.
Serraphina tug Isabella hand signaling for her to stay down. They stilled themselves when they heard the chattering and footsteps of knights walking past by their house. Serraphina moves to their window to open it. It's a little bit tricky. Lucia thought that the window had been stuck for a long time and didn't bother to repair it as it made it easier for her to lock the twins anytime she wanted; all the time by the way. Isabella figured out how to open the window a couple of months before their 4th birthday and they decided that Lucia didn't need to know about that. The window needed to be pulled, lifted and pushed to the left before letting it go slowly, and voila! Freedom!
Serraphina held on the windowsill and used a parkour trick that she had been obsessed with during her previous life, and lucky for her, her agility stuck with her on this 2nd lifetime too! She climbed swiftly through their bedroom window. Isabella waits for Serraphina to wrap one of her hands around her middle while her other one holds tightly on the windowsill and pulls her through the window. She hates to admit it, but between the 2 of them; Serraphina is the athletic one and strong enough to haul anything that trice her weight. Secretly, she thinks that's also one of her twins' secret powers. Except that Serraphina had also been freakishly strong before.
They got into their nightly ritual silently; changing their clothes, hiding their shoes, and making sure that their window stuck properly again, before climbing into their thin mattress together. They shared a single thin worn out mattress. They shared everything actually but don't really mind about it as they'd already used to sharing things before. Serraphina thinks that they were even born on that mattress, she just hopes that they weren't made on it. Isabella made a disgusted face on that statement. Serraphina had been forced to help her twin to wash and dry the mattress at least a thousand times (less than 10 times actually) before Isabella let them sleep on it. And even then, they (Isabella) had to cover it with a sheet that they (again; Isabella) begged off from Grandma Millia. There's no hope in begging Lucia for a new mattress as Serraphina's pretty sure that the witch would snatch away their mattress if they asked for a new one just to spite them. Serraphina didn't want them to have hump before they reached the age 15 from sleeping on the floor, so they just had to make use of the mattress and let herself be slaved away by her sister for a week of hysterical cleaning.
"Sleep yet?" Isabella murmured softly.
"Uhn." Her twin grunted before turn and curled around her, holding her protectively.
Isabella hid her face on Serraphina's chest and slept engulfed the twins for the rest of the night.
....
The twins did some light work in the villages as they had to take care of themselves. Lucia put a roof above their head and holds the title of their guardians as she is their aunt but she has never been kind towards them. They learnt to look for food for themselves as soon as they learnt how to walk. And as someone who retained their memories from the past, they did learn to walk faster than other children and had to push themselves to root for children-friendly food around the house. For the early 3 years of their life, plain water and stale bread soaked in water are their daily nutrient; making them severely malnourished. Lucky for them, Grandma Millia found them when they sneaked out of the house for the first time and fed them while nagging and interrogating them. Simply put, they'd been locked by Lucia who was furious when Grandma Millia confronted her. That witch had to release them when Grandma Millia kept asking about them. That angelic old woman had volunteered to feed them and taught them everything, appointing herself as their honorary Grandmother and doted on them.
Some people greet them with pity and pay them with some clothes, food or (rarely) coins in exchange for the twins to do some light work for them. Usually they do the laundry, tend their garden's, help tend the farm animals, and do other odd jobs. Grandma Millia was reluctant at first to let them do all the oddjobs. But they begged for weeks because they refused to be indebted, especially when she'd already given them a lot. They learnt to hide their money from Lucia after the witch took away their money claiming it as her payment for giving them the roof for them to stay. Although they did sacrifice a couple of coins to her to avoid suspicion. Some of the villagers don't like them and there's several people who look at them with disgust and sneer. Those are the looks that they usually got from the people that live in the heart of the village, most of them have higher social status; the nobles. Those reactions are all due to their status; both as lowly peasants and/or as children who were born out of wedlock. Meh… they didn't like being in the middle of the village anyway, too crowded and noisy. So they didn't really cross paths with those nobles. They just took odd jobs from the people near their home. They learnt to distinguish which people are safe and those that they need to avoid like a plague (that witch Lucia's friend).
They were currently sunbathing behind Grandma Millia's house, near the clothes that were drying on the wooden clothes hanger that look even older than Lucia. Isabella sat cross leg with Serraphina's head on her lap. Her tiny hand moves expertly weaving flowers together. Flowers that they gathered after washing and drying Grandma Millia's clothes. They had lunch with her as repayment for them helping with her laundry. Isabella had chattered non-stop with Grandma Millia while Serraphina was zoning them out and just focused on her potato chowder, her favourite! Both her twin and Grandma Millia know her quirk really well. She hates interacting with people and they are happy enough to let her be. It took years for Serraphina to even speak to Grandma Millie without Isabella being a messenger pigeon between them. It's not like she had social anxiety or anything, she just thinks of it as a pain in her ass.
"Today are too sunny for me." Serraphina scowling at the bright sky.
"Mhhm."
"The sky is too bright." She squinted her eyes towards the bright sun.
"Mmhhmm."
"You're too cheery for me." She turned her scowled at her far too cheerful twin.
"Yep!" Oh god, the 'p' is popping.
"Haaahhh… why???" Serraphina groaned. She begin to feel dread for the answer when Isabella aimed her brighter than the sun grin towards her.
"Grandma Millia reminds me of our birthday next week! She said she'd baked us cookies! Chocolate chip cookies! She saved some of the chocolate that Matthew brought last time for this!" Isabella couldn't contain her excited squeal and Serraphina can't blame her. It's not chocolate chip per say, but Isabella subtly suggest to Grandma Millia to cut it in a chunky size and mixed it in her already delicious cookie batter. It was devine! Chocolate are delicacies here. And when she says delicacies, she meant pricey as fudge and hard to obtain even for the nobles. And isn't that a surprise. Isabella loves chocolate. It really devastated her when Matthew explain to them about the chocolate; she cried so hard that night. "Oh! She also said that she'd ask Lucia if we could spend the night at hers! I'm so excited!" Isabella's cheerful voice paired with her hand carefully looping the weaved flower into a bracelet on Serraphina's wrist.
She looked at her flower bracelet, hanging it above her face. Huh, purple aster and white yarrow. She likes it.
"Glad you like it!" Isabella chirped cheekily.
"Hn." She flipped herself expertly, pushing Isabella down and crawling on her. Serraphina slump on her twin unceremoniously making Isabella huff out her breath.
"Birthday."
"Ah right! We just need to behave for a whole week in the hope that Lucia would let us stay at Grandma Millias' for a whole day and leave the asking part to Grandma Millia. So we have to keep you away from Lucia in the hope that the ship will sail smoothly." Isabella snicker when Serraphina let out a purr as she rubbed and kneaded her twins' back.
Serraphina used to visit a massage parlor once a week before. It's a surprise that she didn't whine about lack of it. But then again, she rarely whines about anything that she missed having. Isabella knows that her sister still has a nightmare from their accident and waking up in sweat with Isabella's old name on her lips. Serraphina used to have it frequently when they were small… smaller… when the memories are still fresh. Serraphina's protectiveness has increased tenfold since they woke up here. She blamed herself for Isabella's death. She's weird that way. She's not afraid of death, doesn't mean that she looks for it but she'd just accept it. But apparently she feels guilty as she blames herself for Isabellas' death even though Isabella never did blame her.
Not even for a second.
But her words and forgiveness seems to mean nothing to Serraphina as it didn't scrub even a tiny bit of guilt from her stubborn sister.
"Now, promise me you'll behave?" She poked Serras waist.
"Only if that witch leaves us alone…"
"You know that's impossible, right? Come on… for me?" They have a freaking identical face, so why is she weak against that look?!
"...Fine." She growled for Isabella to keep kneading, which she did. Serraphina hides her face on Isabella's neck and takes a nap lulled by her sister's low humming.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone