1 - Prelude

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The busy cliffside market bustled with activity and the chatter of a crowd. A gentle sea breeze spread salty air that mingled with the smells coming from the various fresh and cooked food booths.
Making their way to the edge of the crowd, admiring the sight of shops carved into the very rock of the cliff, the two children buzzed around with awe as their uncle snapped photos of the wonderus sights with his bulky old camera.

"Oh, would you look at that, kids! A fortune teller!" Uncle Dan chimed as he spotted throgh his lense a quaint RV parked at the edge of the bluff, with a [Fortune Teller] sign propped up in front. "Would you two like to go see our futures~? Could be fun!"

Philip, or 'Pip' as he was more often called, was sceptical of supernatural things and wasn't sure if he believed in 'seeing the future'. That, however, wouldn't stop him from having fun with such things, and he was always up for a chance to learn new things and prove or disprove ideas.
Bonnie (Bon) on the other hand loved things that were magical and mysterious, and believed that things should be considered true or good until proven wrong.

As they stepped inside the well kept mobile home, the smell of fresh brewed tea filled the enclosed area. Long dark hair whirled as a lady, presumably in her late twenties or so, turned to face them. She was decorated with long dangling necklaces and layers of fabric in rather unusual clothes. But then, that really was expected I suppose.
Half way though her slow turn she spoke, "the three of you, sit, I have your tea." And she placed three cups of fresh tea upon the small table.

As the children sat down with excitement and intrigue in their eyes, the crystalline globe in the middle of the table glimmered. The three sipped the delicious herbal concoction as the mysterious lady sat down across from them and pulled the orb over to look more closely at it.
A mysterious and suspenseful atmosphere gathered in the dimly lit room, as she closed her eyes and polished the globe slightly with her hands.
If he didn't know any better, Pip would've thought the ball started to shimmer more. Bon was sure that it did.

She glanced at her clients and back to the ball. A subtle bothered look crossed her face. "Oh... I'm sorry, I think you should—" but her words were covered up by a noisy "BANG" from nearby outside. It sounded like a crashing of metal, mixed with a release of pressure, followed by a soft hiss of steam. The slight smell of burnt something or other popped in for little a visit. The hissing continued with slowly less enthusiasm.

The woman stood up, her hands still on the table. "Oh, my, (too late). If you'll excuse me. Sorry, but I think it's best if you leave now." She said shortly and walked swiftly outside.

"Oh boy, sounds like she's havin' some engine trouble, maybe I can help!" Uncle Dan remarked as he proceeded to followed her.
The two children's curiosity left them not far behind.

Behind the place, rather dangerously near the cliff side one might remark, bright steam rose lazily from a now opened panel on the side of the mobile home. In front of it crouched the lady, reaching her hands inside to fiddle with most likely wires and tubes and things of that nature.
"Hey, need some help there? I won't brag or anything but I have a bit of experience with motor vehicles and maintenance!" Uncle Dan smiled, eager to lend a helping hand.
"Ah! What are you doing here? You need to leave." The lady stood up and faced them, but the steam seemed to get worse and a blinding light flashed from the open square on the side of the home.

Everyone flinched and shielded their eyes out of reflex. But a little too late, for as quickly as it started, it had stoped.
"What was that?" Bon rubbed her eyes and blinked.
Pip squinted. Everything was distorted by pulsing white circles. He felt a little dizzy.

As soon as some amount of vision had returned, the children and their uncle saw the dark glare of the fortune teller standing in front of them. "You. Must. Leave." She stated slowly, for emphasis. "I don't need your help, thank you. You all must go away from here, now, please." But despite her calm and polite words, her voice dripped with anger and sinister threat.

Confused, but not feeling like questions would be a good idea at that time, the three walked away and back into the market area.
"Well that was weird." Bon stated as they walked.
"I know! I was really exited about hearing what she'd say. Maybe it would've just been the typical vague stuff like 'something big will happen in your future' or 'you will be blessed with good fortune'. But maybe it would've been something cool, like, 'you will see a very rare bird tomorrow in the woods', or even 'a dog will lick you if you go to food court.' Who know. Well, not us, now..." Dan rambled
"Yeah, I wish we could've seen at least some future! Even a little!" Bon added.
"But hey, that's alright! I'm sure there's lots of fun stuff to see around here, no need to let this get us down!" Dan said with encouragement.

Bon rubbed her eye, they were still kinda sore. She looked up. 'Man, seeing the future would be so cool..' she thought.

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Thank you for reading! I hope you liked the first chapter so far!
I'm gonna try and write it in smaller parts so hopefully I can update it somewhat more regularly (I hope. I dunno. I lose motivation pretty easily.)
Here's a little bit of info on the family:
"Pip" is the older brother by a a little over a year and a half, at 11. While sweet little Bon is still 9. (Little extra backstory: when the were 2 and 3 their parents separated and Pip went with his mom, who later remarried, while Bon lives with their dad a few towns away. Uncle Dan is their father's brother, who is still on friendly terms with the children's mother. //needless family explanations over//)

**all of the art used, you know like the chapter image things, are drawn by yours truly~! (But some are kinda old, meh)

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