“Ah! This feels nice.” Blaire made a circle in the water as she concealed her body from prying eyes. Tundra was stripping her dress off on the other side of the lake.

“These things called clothes are so troublesome. How the humans stand them?” Tundra asked.

“It’s because they don’t know what it’s like to be free. But we do. It’s our secret weapon.” Blaire winked.

“I wish they would learn about it.”

“They just aren’t very comfortable with it, that’s all. And anyway, it’s not really our concern. We just do what we want. We’re not bugging them now, so what does it matter?”

“I feel a bit sorry for them, ya know?”

“Not really. But now, aren’t you thirsty at all? I mean, you haven’t gotten thirsty since that first time at the birthplace. It’s been over a day at least.”

“I guess I’m just not as potent as you are. Heh.” She shrugged. Then she ran and jumped into the lake; feeling even more relaxed as the warm water began to warm her cold body. The jump had made a very big splash.

“Hey!” A splashing war soon followed as they chased each other around in the large lake.

“Okay! Okay, you win,” Blaire said giggling.

“Ha! Ow. Huh? That was weird...”

“Something the matter?” Blaire asked. She stared at her sister.

“No, I think I-ow!! M-my chest hurts.... Really bad!!!! Uhn...” Tundra clutched at her chest trying to ease the pain. But in doing that, she started to sink. Good thing they could breathe underwater.

“Tundra!” Blaire submerged herself and scowered the dark depths. Finally she saw something glint, and it turned out to be Tundra’s chest. It was glowing a silvery white light. “Oh!” She sped down towards where Tundra was sinking and grabbed her arm, pulling her over her back. Kicking her legs, she sped up towards the surface of the water and looked at her. Tundra’s eyes were closed, and she was shivering as if she had a fever.

“Oh, I hope Mathis can help... He’s really smart. That’s it then. We should go back to the birthplace. Mathis will know what to do.” Blaire looked at Tundra’s sweaty face. “Yes, he’ll know what to do.”

* * * *


When they got back they were naked again. Great. I’ll bet they forgot their clothes when they were playing, Mathis thought.

“Um.. Can I h-” He stopped mid-sentence. Something didn’t look right. Blaire was carrying Tundra in her arms and looking around the room like a spaz. “What’s wrong?”

“Do you have medicine?” She looked at him pleadingly. “Tundra randomly got sick when we were swimming and-” Tundra groaned something unintelligible, it sounded like ‘Go get something cool.’ Mathis turned towards the direction of his refrigerator and opened the freezer. He scowered the dark for an ice pack that was used long ago.

“Ah ha! Here it is...” He reached in to grab it and shut the freezer door. He hurried over to the place where Tundra lay on the floor. “Here. Does this help at all?” Mathis asked. He placed it on her bare chest and she seemed to calm down a little. “Come with me. I have a hospital bed in the back and an old X-ray machine that still works. Let’s see what’s going on with your sister.”

They hurried to the back room, which was one of many small chambers that opened out into his expansive back yard. But for now they were looking for the emergency hospital room. He opened the door and switched on a dusty light. Wow, he thought, I haven’t been back here in ages... Let’s see if I can remember where every thing is here.... Looking around he found the blank, black screen and the power source for it. He flipped it on.

“Tundra seems to be returning to normal Mr. Mathis. Tundra? Tundra, are you all right?”

“Hm? Y-yeah, I think I’m fine now...” she replied, propping herself up on her elbows. “That was so weird. I can barely remember what was going on. Hm? What’s that thing?” Tundra was pointing to the X-ray machine that Mathis was setting up.

“It’s gonna be able to look through your skin and see your heart. Then we’ll be able to see what’s wrong with you.”

“Hey! There’s nothing wrong with me. I’m perfectly normal, thank you very much.” Tundra harrumphed and put her hands on her hips; looking away from Blaire.

“I mean your health. You know, what’s going on with your heart. It made your eyes go all clear like and you were sweating.”

“Really? All I felt was that my chest was burning up. I couldn’t really see or hear anything. It was all just blank except for the burning,” she shivered, “Is he ready yet?” Tundra asked, looking over her sister.

“Yes yes, I’m almost ready. It’s been ages since I’ve used one of these though...” he replied. He was messing around with some cords and he finally had it figured it out. But he wasn’t really thinking, and when he went to stand up, he rammed his head really hard into the machine. “Ouch! it...Uh. It hurts.”

“Are you okay?” Tundra exclaimed.

“I’m fine. Yeah I’m just fine thanks.”

“Oh. All right then.” She watched as he swung the machine over towards her so that her chest was in perfect sight.

“Here we are,” he said rubbing his head. He had a button in his left hand and the screen lit up. It revealed the crystal hidden inside her chest, which was the basis of his creation. But something was out of place. It was a slightly different shape and size then it was when he had put it in their first ‘home.’ Maybe... Could it maybe be growing inside of her? He watched it closely as he inspected her core. She winced and made a little squeal as it grew a centimeter larger.

“What’s happening?” she asked anxiously. Her eyes had a scared look; it made him feel a bit uncomfortable. Mathis looked away from her as he replied; he acted like he was cleaning up.

“I’ve never seen anything like you before. Your heart, or core more like it, seems to be growing bigger inside you. It’s making all your organs function normally, like it should, but it’s it’s own sort of, um, well, body i guess. I would say it had a mind of its own, but I’m not sure I can verify that at the moment.” He took his glasses off and cleaned them. Like everything else in his house, they were dusty.

“Do you think we should be worried?” Blaire asked. “I’d hate it if anything happened to her...” She said that last bit mostly to herself.

“I think so... So, just be a little more careful when you guys are playing. If she says her chest starts to hurt again then bring her back here.” Mathis was just a little uncomfortable telling her that, but if they were in trouble, someone had to help them.

“Why do we make you so uncomfortable?” Tundra asked with sudden curiosity.

“You already know why Tundra. Why are you asking? You’re practically telling him we’re a nuisance.” Blaire said, annoyed. I know we are though. You can see it in his eyes. He doesn’t know what too think of us.

“Because I want to hear it from him. So, why do we make you so uncomfortable?” She leaned over and put her elbows on her knees. He was silent for awhile before answering. Finally after awhile he turned to look at them. They were so tiny.

“I suppose it’s because I don’t know-I don’t know how dangerous you can be. I already know you can climb on walls, but, I-I just don’t know what else to expect.”

“I can see that. But it’s also because we like to be naked a lot, isn’t it?” she was sneering.

“Well-well yes, that as well... But, I uh... See I uh...” He didn’t like it when people screwed with his mind. How was he going to answer now? He put his hand over his face for a moment. “What do you want me to do. The first day you’re out, you’re already killing animals. How do I know what to expect from little girls who kill for pleasure-”

“But we don’t. We don’t kill for the fun of it, though it is great exercise. We only kill because what we get from them is our only source of energy. We can drink blood from anything living, except plants; though we haven’t really tried... But we don’t know our purpose here any more than you do. And you are the one who created us.” Wow. Tundra had really thought this out. He had never been good with words, but now a twelve year old was making stutter.

“Can you do anything more than what you already do?” he asked, sure there was more than just crawling up walls and flashing their sharp teeth at him. Nothing was ever that simple.

“Well, I can play with fire. See?” She made some motions with her hands and a spark of fire appeared. Tundra made it bigger by making a bigger space with her hands. Mathis winced; he was afraid of fire.

“That’s nothing,” Blaire said. “ Check out what I just found out I could do! It’s amazing! Okay, watch.” She closed her eyes and concentrated. The air above her shimmered and he saw a glint of silver in the air.

“Silver Shadow Scythe!” A long curved blade appeared as if it had been suspended there the entire time. It glowed slightly with a silvery luminescence.

“W-what’s that for? I think, I think-”

“Well my best guess is that’s it’s for defense. I don’t know what I would need defense for at this time. I can pretty much kill anything that gets in my way.” Blaire smiled. Her pointed teeth showed just enough. Mathis got another chill. Goodness, he was going to have to get used to a lot around here. Why’d he have this crazy idea anyway? Oh yeah... Come to think of it, wasn’t it Claiya who had this idea?

“Wouldn’t it be great if we could discover how to make life without the reproductive system?” She had asked. “I mean, it’s so, so tedious. What if people wanted to have children, but they were scared to do it themselves? Wouldn’t it be nice if-”

“But isn’t that what adoption’s for? I mean you could just go to an adoption center...”

“Yeah. But that’s time consuming, and it costs a lot of money. Maybe, you could create the perfect son or daughter by getting some equipment or something... Oh. Wow this sounds really bad... Experiments on artificial children... I suppose I only came to you because you’re one of the most important people in my life Mathis. And I know that you’re a scientist as well.”

“N-no, it’s not that but I-”



“Cat got you’re tongue?” Blaire said. She made a short giggle.