I'm in the process of writing a book actually..here's what I have so far.

“Why can’t I remember anything?” the young traveler thought to herself. “Nothing, nothing at all seems to make sense anymore. I need some answers, but where am I to get them?”

Scarlet had been thinking on these questions for many days, but her brother, Zepher, did not like to talk of the past. She knew that if she asked him that she would get nowhere.

As she rode along in silence, all she could do was think on was what she could remember. A sharp pain, blood, and violence. That is all that she could remember ever since the incident… Nothing seemed real anymore. It all seemed like a big long nightmare that she just wished to end. All of her family was gone, except, the only brother that she had, her twin brother Zepher.

Sighing, she turned her attention to the scenery around her, the forest. The forest was always black with small holes in the tangle of leaves that would let little strips of light stream down and light the ground before them. There were all sorts of streams, glistening with clear, cool, fresh, clean water. The water flowed in the bed on which it rested, trickling and slooshing down the river toward an unknown destination. All of it was beautiful, the light glistening down, the streams, and even the trees that had dying leaves on them were beautiful with their multicolored-ness.

"Sis, its going to get dark soon, we'll need to make camp, we won't be able to travel in this forest at night. Besides, I think that we have earned a good nights rest, don't you?"

"Huh? What? Oh....yeah, I guess so, I'll go gather firewood." Scarlet replied, her brother had interrupted her thoughts about the scenery and about the recent events in the world.

With the response he was looking for Zepher stopped his horse and Scarlet followed him and did the same. They tied their horses to a tree that way they wouldn't run away and then proceeded to clear a section of the forest floor and lay down old wool blankets to sleep on.

"OK, now that we have set up camp, we need the firewood for the fire that way we can cook our supper later," Zepher stated looking around, "I wonder who is going to go get it..."

"Alright, fine, I'll go get the firewood, I'll be back within the hour, besides in case you weren't listening I already said I would," she blurted before walking off into the woods.

As Zepher watched his sister go into the sea of trees, he couldn't help but wonder what was had been on her mind, and still was. She never zoned out like that, not even when they were sitting around the camp fire at night sometimes. Nothing, could ever make him understand his sister though, maybe he would never understand her, or just women in general.

After standing there staring after his sister until she had been out of sight for some time, he finally moved and sat down on a stump that was nearby and pulled out his pipe that he always carried with him in his pocket.

Scarlet had never liked his smoking habit but had grown accustomed to it over the years. Although, he couldn't ever remember her voicing her dislikes about it, but the face she made and the coughing fits and the glares she sent him whenever he smoked while they were on the rode was all the evidence he needed to know that she disliked it.

***************

Scarlet couldn't believe that she had zoned out like that again, that was the second time today that she had zoned and not even realized what was going on around her. Just earlier she had almost ran over Zepher and his horse Charcoal because she didn't realize they had stopped on the trail to wait on her and Mystic.

What was wrong with her? Well, maybe there was nothing wrong with her but what was it that could be so horrible that her mind would chose to block it out and lock it, not to be viewed even by herself?

The only memory that she could recall before the incident wasn't really a full blown memory but just a snipit of one.

It was of an old man on a horse looking down at her and smiling, and as he looked down at her he began to speak in a kind and gentle voice, one that was soothing and would send shivers down her spine sometimes on a cold night and even fill her with warmth.

She couldn't remember the mans name or what his connection to her and her brother had been or still was. She just knew that the image was there and that she wanted desperately to know what had happened to him and what the connection to him was and why she felt so close to him. The fact that she felt like she should remember him kept nagging at her and sometimes made her feel bad about not being able to.

Soon after walking for what seemed ages she came across a dead tree that had fallen over from what looked like natural causes, beavers.

The beavers were nowhere in sight so she decided that some of the branches and limbs would do nicely for some firewood, at least she wouldn't have to pick up small twigs that were on the ground in random places or saw some fresh wood off of a tree near camp.

While she worked on getting the limbs and small branches in a bundle to take back to camp her mind began to wander again.

"Hmmm....wait a moment, aren't those the mountains of Shiganantu?" Scarlet asked herself aloud as her memory stopped playing the event for her. "Yes, they are. I remember now...his name was Archey and he was the one that always took care of Zeph and I when we were little, but why though?"

As she pondered over her thoughts she looked up at the sky and noticed that the sun was almost completely set.

"Looks like I better get back to camp..." she sighed

***************

As Scarlet made it back to camp, Zepher was just finishing his second pipe. She had always pretended to hate his pipe but in secret she had always really loved it and actually liked the smell of the tobacco smoke from a pipe.

"Ah, I see your back from your walk in the woods. Did you find any good wood for the fire?" Zepher asked as he finished his last puff on his pipe for the evening.

"In case the wood in my arms is of no indication to you, yes, I did find some wood but I'm not going to be the one to start the fire. It was enough that I was the one that had to go get it, but you will not make me do all the work around here!" she yelled, she was always quick to anger when it came to her brother. She had always assumed it was for this reason that he always managed to hit every single last one of her buttons, like he was doing it on purpose just so he could make her mad.

"Honestly, I don't know what you are talking about," he put the pipe back in his mouth even though there was nothing left smoking in it, "I do more than you do."

"Well, if that is the case then why is it that I always have to get the firewood, make the fire, cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and have to clean the horses whenever we find a good town to rest in that has a stable hmm?" Her temper at this point nearing breaking point and she was about to start a scuffle.