I was born on the biggest pearl the world has ever seen. It's tough being born in a clam. You have to fight your way out or it digests you. There I was, squirming around, checking for a weak spot while learning how to swim. All I know is darkness, and a kind of lesser darkness making a thin line on one side of the enclosure. I imagine that outside has more than just two types of darkness, and I instinctively know that I have to find out. I feel around until my fingers start to dig into a crack right above a thick border, right on the lesser darkness.

Is light and darkness a solid thing? I start to pry open the lips, but am interrupted by a humming sound coming from behind me in the exact center of the dark chamber right where I had started out. There was someone else on top of that pearl! Practically leaping through the glick (thick soupy clam seawater) I find who I assume is my twin sister and bring her to the opening I had found, guiding her hands to force it open with me so that we both might escape. We try with all our willpower, and it isn’t enough. The clam starts to fill with a glick that’s harder to move in, and I feel a tingling sensation wherever it touches me. Me and my sister strain to find a grip as we push and pull The clam opens for a moment, we fall out onto the spongy ground, and are blinded by what we later learned was the not very bright depths of the Farcesian kingdom.

There are large and imposing warriors with many weapons and hard clothing staring intently outward, away from the clam, towards a multitude of darknesses, growing lesser and lesser the further away they go. There's no way we could make it past them without being seen, as they were surrounding the clam on all sides, even the top, where a warrior with a red seaweed sash steadfastly gazed ever upwards towards the least dark thing me and my sister had ever seen. As all sides were guarded by those we didn't trust, the only direction left was down.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Luckily, the ground was soft enough that we could begin digging quietly. Sweating and straining and getting a great workout we continued diligently into the night. After 2 hours or more of fearing discovery and death, we connected with a tunnel. The tunnel went in two directions and even though we had barely exchanged any words with each other having only existed since that morning, we knew it was time to split up.

We sat down in that fork and got to know each other the best we could, communicating with a language that we had been born with. Her name was Amani, and mine... mine was Fantasia. We wanted to represent hopes, dreams, desires, and wonder. We knew we were important, but not much more. I wanted to discover all of the kinds of darknesses and explore every area, and she wanted to stay nearby and interact with all of the people. What we both desired most of all was connection, but being separated seemed to be the smartest thing at the time.

We knew that the next time we saw each other we would have knowledge to share and dreams we could ask the other to help us succeed in. Together, we would be able to do anything, but first would come growth. Today, we were running away with the hope that someday we would run toward our purpose and be able to do whatever we could imagine. Tomorrow, we would be alone with our ear to the waves, listening for destiny to show us the way.