No one's POV

A boy watches the lively village from the high branch of a large tree. His figure is hidden by the thickness of the leaves. The people go on about their day, selling things in the market, farming, children playing games in the clearing, and more. The boy stands up on the branch and jumps far onto the branch on another tree. He repeats this multiple times, jumping from tree to tree across the island forest until he reaches a small one story house in the outskirts of the village.

He jumps down the last tree and lands perfectly on the ground, barely breaking a sweat. He heads inside the house and turns the first corner of the hallway where he is met by a painting larger than he. He uses his knuckle to knock on the painting in a specific rhythm, causing the painting to suddenly split down the middle to reveal a passageway made of high tech walls that have glowing stripes heading all the way down the spiral staircase, lighting it up. The boy descends the staircase and reaches the bottom to be met with a black wall and door. He enters a passcode in the keypad next to it and it opens. He steps inside to find himself in a hidden room that is basically a small one room house.

The room has clean hardwood floors and nice windowless white walls. There is one wall with two doors along it that lead into two separate bedrooms. A low black rectangle table sits in the center of the room. On the other side of the room, across from the bedroom doors, is a workshop with all kinds of unfinished technical projects laying on the tables. Fairy lights are strung all around the room making them the only light source that is currently lighting up the room at the moment. He turns around to close the door. The wall that looks like a regular black wall on the outside is actually a window on the inside so you can see who is outside of the room. After closing the door he turns back around and notices a brunette sitting at the table drawing.  She turns her attention to him and smiles. "Hey Lloyd, I take it you're done tree hopping?"

Lloyd POV

"I wasn't just tree hopping I was patrolling." I say to the girl.  She giggles and nods. "Yeah, sure." she teases, knowing I like to take the time of patrolling to practice my speed and balance in the trees.

This girl, is Katelyn, also known as my fraternal twin sister. She has brown hair that is medium length, pale skin, and beautiful heterochromia eyes; One blue, one brown. She is very pretty. I have neck length platinum blonde hair, pale skin, and Heterochromia eyes as well; One emerald green, one brown.  I'm half a head taller than Katelyn, but still a bit short.  Both of our hair is a little wavy.

My sister and I have no parents, no last name, and no origin. We only have guardians.  Our whole village has had some part in taking care for us throughout the years. The only thing we know about our birth family is that our parents threw us into the ocean because they didn't want us; Or at least, that's our theory.  Why would our parents not want us? What could we have done to have been through into the ocean?

But, one thing Katie and I have had for our entire lives, most likely our parents gave it to us, is a pendant each with our names engraved in red onto it. That's how we got our names. The pendants are small wood chips that are cut into two halves in the form of the yin yang. I have the yin pendent and Katie has the yang pendant.

We were washed up onto the shores of the island when we were around 1 years old.  Some villagers who were passing by found us and saved us.  I'm honestly very surprised we survived nearly being drowned as babies.  We were brought into a village that is known for it's secrets.  It looks normal on the surface, but below it are secret basements that hold high tech bunkers and living spaces.  Well, it's high tech for us anyway.  We keep our technology advances a secret because we're afraid of the Overlord taking over our village like he did the others. 

The Overlord is the 'ruler' of the island, and he has destroyed many villages to prove to everyone on the island that he is in charge.  Luckily for us, to him we're just a normal village, nothing special about us.  Plus, technology isn't exactly common on the Dark Island so we try to keep hushed about that.  I've heard stories about an island unlike ours that uses technology constantly, and they live nothing like how we live, different language and all, but such a place doesn't exist.

Katelyn snaps me out of my thoughts when she stands up to stretch. "Well, I'm done here. Let's head through the market to the seashore. Normally."

I turn to her. "Huh?  What's that suppose to mean?"

"I love tree hopping as much as you do, but you need to learn how to travel on the ground for once." She laughs.

"Oh is that so?" I playfully grab her and wrestle her to the ground. She laughs and fights me back. We like fighting with each other and testing our strengths. Sometimes we box against each other, wrestle, tree hop, hand to hand combat, fight with our weapons, or tree glide. Yes, tree glide.

There is something very different about Katie and I. Because of it, everyone knows that we are definitely not from the village. We aren't exactly... human... to say. When Katie and I were around 10, we went through a very big change. Almost over night we had grown fangs in our mouths. Actual sharp fangs!  We thought it was really weird, but we weren't prepared for what would come next. Over the course of the next week, we began to slowly get back pains that got more and more severe as the days went by. The doctors didn't know what was wrong with us. Finally, after days of pain, Katie and I sprouted wings and a tail that are similar to a dragon's.  I know this sounds absolutely insane and made up, but it's true!

At first, everyone was freaked out and thought we were demons, but no one was more freaked out then Katie and I.  We had no idea what the heck was going on.  Eventually though, people grew to accept it because after all, no one knows where we came from as babies, though some people think we were cursed as children, which is why our parents didn't want us. But even today, not everyone is so fine with it, even I'm still a little concerned about it. But, what can I do? 

Tree gliding is what Katie and I like to do when we are in our "dragon" forms. It's basically flying at a fast pace through a bunch of obstacles made by trees. It's pretty fun.

But, not everything is all fun and games. On the Dark Island, it's almost like kill or be killed. There are so many dangers here, including the Overlord's shadow and stone warrior army. The Overlord has taken over and destroyed many villages on the Dark Island, but he will never take ours. Not while Katie, my friends, and I are alive. We just so happen to be the protectors of the village. We are a group formed by one woman, called the Silent Soarers.

Originally, our group had no name, but after Katelyn and I became "half dragon" as some would say, our master named our group the Silent Soarers. The Silent Soarers is made up of our master and her four students. The four of us have been training since we were around 6 years old and we're pretty much family since we were orphans together.  That's one of the reasons why we were chosen to be the village protectors in the first place. Because of this, we have quite the experience in fighting and working together.

Katelyn and I stop fighting each other, because she wins, and we get ready to head out. She wears a light blue shirt with lilac purple stripes running down the sides and black shorts. I wear a green shirt and long brown shorts. We both wear our pendants, we never take them off, and we head through the glass door and upstairs. We then head out the front door and begin to walk towards our training grounds.

It doesn't take long before we reach the village market. People rush by from stand to stand looking for food, tools, anything they may need. People wave to us as we walk by and say hello because, as I said before, the whole village had some part in raising us, therefore we are very well known. People refer to us by either our names or as just "the twins" because we're the only twins in the village. But right now, we're just two reckless yet responsible sixteen-year-olds who are so how part dragon.

We walk through the market and into the forest. After a little while more, we finally break through the tree line and onto the sandy sea shore.  The waves crash down onto the bank and the wind lightly howls as the seagulls fly overhead. "Ready to start training?" Katelyn asks. 

I look at her.  "Splenda isn't here, noir is Ash or Haru.  We shouldn't start without them." I say in return.

"Oh come on!  We don't need Splenda.  We can train just fine without her. Ash and Haru will show up eventually." I shoot her a look telling her it's not going to happen.  Splenda is the one who taught us everything we know about survival and fighting.  She taught us everything we know about battle, stealth, navigation, you name it, she taught it.

Katelyn huffs and takes out what looks like a black leather handle to a bow from a strap on the side of her shorts.  She pushes a small button on the handle and it quickly unfolds into a fully functional bow.  The sleek black figure of the bow is high tech and very useful for storage.  A while back Katelyn and I wanted to make weapons that could be foldable to make carrying and hiding them easier.  We ended up making a bow for her, a sword for me, a whip for Ash, and a kwando for Haru.  Let's just say they love it as much as we love ours. We all have straps that we can attach to our legs, waist, or arm that holds the weapon. Katie and I went all out when designing these beauties.

She sits down on a rock and begins to polish her arrows as we wait.  I stretch my muscles and after not too long of waiting, Splenda, Ash, and Haru emerge from the forest and greet us. "Hello Splenda."  I say to her. She nods in greeting to the two of us.

Katelyn pops up next to me so fast she startles me. "What are we learning today?" She eagerly asks.

Splenda places her hands on her hips and looks at us with determination. "Today we will be testing your skills.  You will take turns fighting against each other."

Katelyn almost jumped with joy.  She loves fighting a little too much.  Ash comes over to Katelyn and joins her excitement.  Ash, full name Ashley, has beautiful chocolate brown skin and long flowing black hair.  She has beautiful violet eyes that shimmer in the sunlight.  She wears a purple t-shirt with black leggings that have holes in them near her knees.

Haru goes to Ashley and wraps his arm around her waist, giving her a kiss on the forehead.  Haru has tan skin with red hair, blue eyes, and freckles.  He wears an orange T-shirt and brown cargo pants. He is also Ashley's boyfriend of two years.

Splenda walks over to a cluster of large boulders and stands on top of them, facing us.  She has long gray hair with many silver strands in it weaved back into a single french braid that falls onto her shoulder.  She has ocean blue eyes that distract you from the wrinkles that have taken form on her face from over the years.  Her eyes can be soothing yet very intimidating depending on her mood.  She is someone you don't want to mess with.

"Listen carefully," she starts, suddenly becoming very serious. "I'm going to get serious with you all for a moment." We quiet down and give her our full attention.  When Splenda gets serious, you'd better listen to her.

"I have trained you all since you all were just little children, and I've always trained you in the same way, but not this time. You four have been chosen to be the protectors of our village not just because of the dangers of the island or because we just thought you would be good at it, but because you four are very special."

We all look at each other.  "What do you mean Splenda?" Haru asks raising an eyebrow.

She opens her mouth to say something but she closes it and stays silent for another minute. "You all know of the Overlord...". We look at each other and nod. She sighs and puts her hands behind her back. "Since a very young age, you four have been training to become the protectors of this village... but I think it is about time I told you that you may have to do far more than that."

"Do what?" Katelyn asks.

She sighs again and suddenly her face turns from unsure to determination. "The Overlord is an evil being that must be stopped. And because you are the only ones who stand a chance, you four have been chosen by destiny to fight the Overlord and put a stop to his evil reign."

We all explode into questions.

"What?!" Haru yells.

"Fight the Overlord?! Are you serious?!" I ask.

"We can't fight the Overlord! We're not that good at fighting!" Says Katelyn.

"There is absolutely no way we can do that!" Ash agrees.

Splenda raises her hand to silence us, and we do so. She looks us over one by one, giving us a stern look. Then, her face softens and she tells us.  "I know how you all feel. You feel you are not ready, you feel scared. But I can ensure you, you will be ready. There will come a time when you will start special training, but only when destiny decides you are."

"What special training?" Katelyn asks.

"You will soon find out, Katelyn. You all will soon find out."

We look at each other with confused looks. Splenda snaps our attention back to her when she claps her hands together. "Allright then!"
She says with an uplifted voice. "Let's get to training now shall we?"

We all give her a slight bow while putting our hands together. "Yes Splenda." We say in unison.

"Good.  Now, combat training.  Katelyn vs Haru and Lloyd vs Ashley.  Use your weapons.  You're out if your weapon is knocked out of your hands or taken from you. You may begin when you are ready." I move to take my place a few yards from Ash.  Even as the fight goes on, I still can shake the thought: Why were we chosen to fight the Overlord? What's so special about us?