The Strongest Bond

Chapter 2

"Kaden!" I sat up like I had been shocked, and a million questions formed in my head. What had happened? Were Kaden and my Grandfather ok? I looked around and took in my surroundings. I was sitting in a beautiful green field, surrounded by the most beautiful flowers I had ever seen. There were so many colours, violet, turquoise, magenta, scarlet, amber, and lime green, just to name a few. I leaned down and picked up a deep crimson one. It had five large round petals and had a beautiful gradient of light red to dark. I lifted it up to my to nose and took a deep breath in. The smell enveloped me making me just want to lie down and sleep forever.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." I jumped snapping out of my reverie.

"Who do you think you are scaring me..." I trailed off once I saw who had spoken to me. It was a boy my height with exactly the same auburn hair colour, and vibrant green eyes as me. His nose was a bit longer than mine, his face was more chiseled than my slender one, and he had a bigger build than me, but other than that we were the same height. We could have been twins, in fact he looked exactly like my twin.

"Kaden." I whispered. I felt a sob clawing its way through my throat."Where am I?"

" You are in Arcadia." The boy gave me a weird look as if he thought I was joking. Suddenly, his eyebrows scrunched together and his smile faltered.

"Are you not from around here?"

"Look, I don't have a clue about where I am, I need to get back to the real world so I can save my brother, and I didn't want any of this to ever happen!" I yelled this, but instantly wished I could take it back. He looked hurt now, but just as quickly as his face had faltered, it lit up with a big smile. It looked exactly like Kaden's, which calmed me down.

"Well then, I believe introductions are in order. My name is Kadrin." He finished it off with a dramatic bow. His name was so close to Kaden's, I couldn't help but give a small smile. I returned his bow with a curtsey.

"My name's Lillian." He smiled.

"Well Lillian, as I was saying before, you really should be careful to not touch everything you see. That flower happened to be a Reliqua. One whiff is enough to put someone to sleep for days. You're lucky I came up here today. Normally you don't see anyone around here."

"Arcadia." The name felt familiar on my tongue, but foreign at the same time. Kind of like a word that you just can't place your finger on. I started walking down the hill with Kadrin. In a way I was sad to be leaving the hill. It was such a gorgeous day, blue cerulean skies and not a cloud sight. The birds were also singing, but not like the ones back on earth. These birds had bright, vibrant colours and chirped out complex songs.

"It's so beautiful here!" I closed my eyes and turned my face up to the sky, letting the sun warm face. When I opened them again Kadrin was staring at me, smiling. I racked my brain trying to come with a logical explanation of how I got here and where here was, but came up short.

"There is a way out right?" Desperation now filled my voice. Being in this breathtaking place had made me forget about my Grandpa and brother.

"Well, we could try going to Reynes castle but..." I did not let him finish, instead I grabbed his arm.

"Take me there, please. It could be a matter of life and death!"

"Wow, life or death, isn't that a bit dramatic? I can take you there but it will take a day to get there." He looked like he was having a hard time believing what I was saying. I realized that I would have to explain how I got here.

"Ok, I will explain as much as I can, but you must take me to the castle as I explain."

"You've got yourself a deal." His gentle smile had returned. I continued following Kadrin to the castle that was supposedly going to take me home.

"My brother and I were at a party for one of our friends. He is moving away so we had a surprise farewell party for him. It was great. We talked with friends, played games, ate food, and before we knew it, it was midnight. Kaden and I decided to go home because we had to get up early the next day. The only problem was that there was a huge storm happening. The rain was coming so down hard that there was almost no visibility. Our ride home said that he didn't want to drive, and both Kaden and I weren't going to take our chances. We checked the weather online and realized the storm was only supposed to get worse. Our grandparents only lived 10 minutes away, and since my parents were out of town on business for a month we were staying with them. Kaden called our Grandpa and he said he would give us a lift." I trailed off thinking about how stupid it was to make our Grandpa come and get us in the middle of a raging storm.

"You ok?" Kadrin had stopped and was looking at me, concern etched on his face.

"Yeah." I gave a reassuring smile. "I was just thinking about how things could have gone different, but I guess there's no point in living in the past." We continued walking, the beautiful hill already far behind us.

"Anyway, as I was saying before our grandfather picked us up from the party. We were about 5 minutes away from home when it happened. Another car came out of nowhere and smashed into the right side of our car. Lucky for me and my grandfather, we were on the left so we were ok, but Kaden got the brunt of it. I got out of the car to see if he was all right and for a moment I thought he was..." I couldn't bring myself to say the word.

"Oh, I see." He replied. I was glad that Kadrin understood and I didn't have to say it out loud. I know it's childish and all but for some weird reason saying it out loud just makes it feel real.

"I don't know what I would do if I lost him. I guess I would lose the will to live."

"Wow, you two must be close. Are you close in age?"

"We're twins, identical twins. We have been inseparable since birth, and Kaden was always there for me. You see, I was always the kid who never really had that many friends, and the friends that I did have I always seemed to push away, but not Kaden. Even though he was the popular one and the one who was always making new friends, he would never be afraid to stand up for me, or cancel his plans to hang out with me if I had a bad day." I explained.

"He sounds like an awesome guy. I wish I could meet him." Kadrin responded. I could tell by looking at Kadrin's eyes that he was sincere, and not just trying to make me feel better.

"You remind me of him in many ways. For one you look a lot like him and your smile is identical to the one he would always give me. You also act the same way as him, friendly, outgoing, and thinking of other people before yourself. Which reminds me, thanks for taking me to this castle. I hope it gets me back to my world."

"For your sake and Kaden's, I hope you make it there too."