The Atreides Twins

Chapter 5

I was awoken that night by Paul who said that we were leaving soon. I got my stuff together and put my stillsuit back on. My mother watched me from a distance and I could tell she wanted to speak to me. Paul had told her to leave me be though so she did not approach. Once everyone was ready we left the sietch and headed further into the desert. I didn't really hear what anyone was saying, still lost in my grief between my father and Duncan, but I managed to do exactly as I was told when we finally mounted a worm for the final stretch to Sietch Tabr. I sat down just in front of Stilgar as we road and watched the landscape zoom by us in the dust cloud raised from the sand. I felt empty and alone at the thought that I would never see Duncan again. Just as the sun was breaking the horizon we dismounted from the worm and began the final walk towards the enormous sietch I now saw before us. Still in a daze I followed the others as Stilgar led us inside stopping only when he stopped to speak to others from another party that had left the previous night and just returned. I didn't hear when it was explained that Dr. Kynes had been found dead and no sign of Duncan had been found either. Stilgar gave me a sad look just before leading us to where we would be given quarters and supplies for our new home. I was given my own space at Paul's request who said he would share between me and our mother so that more rooms wouldn't have to be taken up. Once inside I quickly removed my stilsuit I set it just outside of the door to be collected with the others and shut my door. I climbed into the bed and the moment my head hit the pillow the tears began to flow that I could no longer hold back. Paul and others attempted to speak to me but when I refused to open the door they found locked, they soon left me be. Paul told them he would check on me later to make sure all was well, as he explained to Stilgar what was going through my mind. Days passed and whenever Paul had a moment he would come and try to get me to leave the room to no avail. Everyone was becoming worried and I knew at some point I had to at the very least show my face. I decided I needed quiet from everything so I was going to take a trip into the desert. I knew some would try to stop me but in reality no one would be able to. Once dressed in the stillsuit and cloak that had been returned to me, I began to make my way out into the sietch. Everyone watched me curiously and with sad eyes, but didn't approach me having been instructed by Stilgar to give me the space I needed to grieve. I slipped my way out into the desert without being seen and began to make my way to a rock formation that I knew to be an outpost not far from the sietch. The stars littered the skies above as I walked in silence. I could tell by the sound of the sand that I was not in worm territory so I didn't have to worry as much about my steps. All the same I kept my pace uneven and broken in precaution. After a couple hours I reached the outpost and just as I entered I let out a blood curdling scream unable to contain the emotion I was feeling anymore. I fell to the ground where I stood as the sobs racked my body and for hours I cried releasing everything I had been holding in. Eventually I fell asleep where I lay on the ground with sand stuck to the spots where my tears had run. 

**Back at Sietch Tabr**

"What do you mean she isn't here," Paul nearly screamed when Stil had notified him that no one in the sietch had been able to find me. "Chani went to take her some food and found her door open but she was not within," Stilgar said calmly, understanding Paul's reaction. We have to find her now," he yelled and ran to get his stillsuit but before he could he heard a voice he never thought he would hear again. "Find who," Paul swung around and came face to face with Duncan who had been found by a party that had left earlier to go look for spice. Paul stood stunned but quickly embraced Duncan happy to see him alive and when he pulled back he realized he would have to tell him that I was now missing. Before he could even finish explaining Duncan was already heading back towards the desert. "If she has gone to the desert my friend perhaps she does not wish to be found," Stil said trying to stop him from leaving. "I told you still I will always find her," he said before taking off. Stil ordered some of his men to follow to be prepared for what they may or may not find. 

**Back at the outpost**

I woke just as the sun was breaking through the cracks of the openings in the outpost, feeling the warmth on my face. I sat up and looked around, remembering where I was and why I had come here. New tears fell as I remembered that Duncan was gone, but I rose with a stone face and decided to wait for night fall before heading back to the sietch. I searched around looking for the food I knew would be hear and drank the water that was filling the catch pockets in my stillsuit. I was so engrossed in what I was doing I hadn't heard anyone else enter the area I was so when I felt someone begin to touch me I reacted with a movement from the weirding way, putting myself directly behind my thought to be attacker. "Not exactly what I imagined this would be like," I heard the man say and instantly I let him go recognizing his voice. I stared in shock as I released him and he turned to me. I thought for a moment that I must really still be sleeping and this was a trick of my dreams to torture me. "Duncan," I whispered in a question. I didn't see the other fremen that were with him as they quietly backed out. Duncan moved toward me dropping the smirk from his face when he saw my face streaked with sand and tears. Anger suddenly welled up in me and I began hitting his chest as he tried to wrap me in his arms. "How could you do that, why would you do that," I kept screaming over and over again. My hits became softer as he wrapped me in his arms and I began sobbing again into his chest. "I would give my life for you that is not something new, as long as you lived it didn't matter to me what happned," he said gently as I finally let him hold me. "It matters to me Duncan, I have no life without my heart and you have that forever," I said as I looked up at him now a little calmer. Our faces grew closer as we leaned into each other until finally our lips met. The kiss quickly heated and I jumped up wrapping my legs and arms around him as he walked us into a wall of the sietch. The others left us be as we reunited, but when night finally fell they came searching for us. We were already dressed ready to go when they found us and my cheeks flushed when I realized there had been others there. They said nothing though as we all left to head back to sietch Tabr. On the way back Duncan explained what had happened. Once he had escaped the attack we wandered the desert until a party of fremen found him. They helped him back to Sietch Tabr where he then discovered me gone. 

The trip back to the sietch seemed faster than the trip to the outpost and I soon realized I would have to face my brother who was probably worried sick about me. Duncan snickered when he saw my face as we entered the sietch and I was soon bombarded by a flash as my brother had run to me and embraced me. "Thank you Duncan," he said and Duncan replied with a small nod. My brother looked at me for a second before his face looked between us both with confusion and then realization. He gave me a smirk and I knew he knew exactly what had transpired between us. I bumped him out of my way with a blush on my face as I began to make my way back to my quarters. My mother stopped me though and wouldn't let me pass her as she began to lecture me about the recklessness of my choice to leave the sietch. One look from Paul though as Duncan wrapped an arm around me and she went silent. I led Duncan to my quarters and we removed our stillsuits and set them outside as I had done when we had first arrived. Once we were changed, we both climbed into my bed and fell asleep the moment our heads hit the pillows. I slept peacefully for the first time since that day we thought we had lost Duncan, without a single vision haunting me. When I woke the next day I didn't see Duncan and immediately my brain went to the thought that it had all been a terrible trick of my dreams. Then I saw the note on the bed next to me and breathed a sigh of relief when I saw it was from Duncan. I decided to get up and get ready for the day before making my way outside to join everyone. I found my brother standing with Duncan and Stil as the spoke in hushed voices. I smiled as I remembered the events of the past day that happened between Duncan and I as I watched. Almost as if he felt me staring Duncan turned and spotted me giving me his own small smile in return. As I joined them Stil greeted me along with my brother before continuing their conversation. It was then I found out that we would be taught the ways of the fremen that we did not know and really it was in preparation for the travel to come when we would travel further into the deep desert. I looked to Paul knowingly and knew things were about to change drastically. I just hoped we would be able to stop what I knew we both had seen. 

**Author's Note**

bonus chapter today since i've been a bit behind on posting chapters. I hope you are enjoying the story so far and be on the look out for another new story I will be starting very soon as requested by a follower. Enjoy my lovelies