Tribal Twins

Jason and Jacob are very powerful twins who must work together to defeat the ogres which seem to have appeared overnight. Jacob gets consumed by jealous which causes a chain of reactions.

Jason was not what most people would call normal at all. In fact, he was the most unique and atypical kid in the world. His favorite things to do were homework and chores; however, he also enjoyed reading and writing. Jason believed in magic, strongly. He had brown hair with red highlights. His twin brother Jacob was his exact opposite; he loved playing sports and video games. Jacob had blond hair with blue highlights. Jacob was one of the most popular kids in their middle school. The majority of the student body, however, did not notice Jason. Both Jason and Jacob had unique red eyes that shined brightly when they were happy. When they were angry, even the bravest of heroes would cower under their gaze. Jason and Jacob never used their eyes to scare others, mainly because both of them agreed that they should only use their “talent” to help people, not hurt them.

Jason and Jacob were spending a typical day at their local park practicing their skateboarding when suddenly; Jason heard a strange growling noise in the distance. Using Morse code, he told Jacob what he heard; still Jacob remained unaware of the situation. That was until a massive beast launched himself towards them. They quickly moved out of the way and speedily started throwing pebbles at the monster. One pebble hit the beast directly in the eye; the monster winced, yet it did not seem badly harmed. Jacob took his small pocketknife that he carried in case of emergencies and charged towards the beast. He only managed to distract the monster for a couple seconds before the monster leaped over him and staggered towards Jason. Jason took a different approach, instead of trying to stab the beast he simply raised his hand in the direction of the monster and glared at him as if he was the bane of his existence. Surprisingly, a row of fire shot out of his hand towards the monster. The beast exploded into dust; leaving them to wonder what happened.

“Woah,” Jacob said flabbergasted; possible explanations were running through his head like cars on a racetrack. None of them made much sense, but then again none of this made much sense to him. Jason, on the other hand thought this made perfect sense, which to him it did. Magic was a million times easier to understand than emotions. Jason knew that the monster they just faced was an ogre; however, he did not know why it attacked them. Jason and Jacob both agreed that their strange encounter was extremely bizarre and creepy. They also agreed that they should tell their parents about it. They left the park they were at and started walking home. When they arrived home, they told their parents about the ogre. Their parents shared a look before turning to them with a more serious expression than they had ever seen before.  Their father got up and started closing the windows and doors.

“What we are about to tell you must be kept secret from the rest of the world, okay?” Their mother said somewhat sadly, they knew that whatever their parents were going to tell them was important. Their parents then started to explain everything about their unique family history. It went something like this: One thousand years ago today there were two tribes. The tribes only had one enemy, the ogres. Ogres were not very smart, but they were very strong and powerful. After years of hunting the ogres, the tribes managed to cast the ogres into a different realm. Both tribes had special powers; one could control ice and the other could control fire.  Jason you are part of the fire tribe like me. Jacob you are part of the ice tribe like your father. Both of you are very powerful .Now, the ogres have found a way into our world and if we do not stop them they might not only end our tribes existence, but everyone else too.  After she finished explaining things, she ordered the boys to start packing. 10 minutes later, they started on their quest to get rid of the ogres for good.

Jacob was starting to feel his ice magic stirring inside him, in spite of this he decided to ask his father more about it. His father explained to him the differences between the two tribes. According to him, the ice users were very open and friendly people, unlike the fire users. They were very mysterious and quiet. In addition, the ice users were usually more creative and rebellious. He also told him that all he needed to control ice was to have a good reason to use the magic. For example, when Jason used his magic he wanted to keep you safe. With that in mind, he asked his father what his reason to use his magic was. His father simply looked at him and said “You and Jason.” Jacob smiled and got up to leave; he now knew his reason to fight, his family. No ogre was going to take that away from him. He could not believe he almost forgot that. Jacob ran to Jason and they talked for hours. Everyone was happy; or so it seemed. Unbeknownst to the others, three ogres were making their way towards them.

Ten minutes later, the ogres arrived. Jason glared at one of them so hard he exploded into flames. Jacob did the same with another ogre, but this time into ice instead of fire.  The other ogre started to bolt, but Jason glared at him before he could escape. If all of the ogres were this easy to defeat Jason knew they would not have much of a problem defeating them. Their parents were both impressed and surprised by their children’s abilities; they knew they were powerful, but they had no idea Jason and Jacob could do that. They, themselves could not even do that and they had years of training. Jacob was also amazed with their abilities; he knew Jason was powerful, but he did not know he was as well. If they were that powerful alone Jacob wondered how powerful they would be with proper training. However, getting that training was very unlikely because there was no time with the ogres’ reappearance. That night Jason went to bed in a tent he shared with Jacob. The dream he had was a million times more interesting than anything he had ever dreamt before.

The dream went like this: Jacob and Jason were in a dark ally, out of nowhere, five ogres appeared. One ogre jumped on Jacob and using one of its claws, it scratched him across the face; Jacob screamed in agony. Now, Jason with his rage in mind used his fire magic to summon a huge flame sword the size of a door. With that sword, he chopped all five ogres in half. Jason looked at his brother and put his hand over the scratch. He applied a little heat and before he knew it, the wound was gone. Jason and Jacob were both amazed and surprised. Unfortunately, Jacob was extremely jealous of his brother’s new found power. Jason asked Jacob if he was all right. Jacob just looked at him bitterly and said I did not need your help. When Jason woke up, he decided to sit by the fire so he could think.  When he arrived there, he saw his mother already sitting by the fire.  He sat by her and started telling her about his dream. When he finished his mother surprised him by telling him she had the same dream. She also told him that fire users had the gift of occasionally seeing the future. He asked her if there was a way to prevent his dream from coming true.

“The only way I can think of is for us to split up,” she said. “If you and I hunted ogres alone we would be quicker,” she said before adding, “I could also start your fire training.”  Jason thought it over for a minute before asking about dad and Jacob. She assured him that if dad and Jacob hunted ogres alone, Jacob could get some training too. With that in mind, Jason agreed as long as his dad and Jacob would agree also. His mother happily told him to get some sleep; their adventure would start in the morning.  He did and luckily, this time he did not have any dreams. The next morning, Jason and his mother told the others their idea; they reluctantly agreed. Two hours later, they said goodbye and parted ways. Jason had a bad feeling about this, but he did not say anything. After a few hours, they stumbled across a group of eight ogres. Jason, with his dream in mind, summoned a giant flame sword and sliced all of them in half with one long and mighty swing.

His mother shocked by her sons’ power; he was probably the most powerful fire user in history.  No wonder Jacob was jealous; she was actually starting to become jealous, and Jason was her son! Even though that worried her a bit she was determined to attempt to train him to the best of her abilities. Jason could tell his mother was deep in thought, so he quietly set up camp without bothering her. Jason started exploring nearby caves, trying to locate more ogres. He found them, 15 of them to be exact. Jason glared at three of them before summoning another flame sword and destroying the others.  After that, he decided to call it a night and get some sleep, mainly because summoning flame swords was extremely exhausting. Meanwhile, far away from there, Jacob and his father were in the middle of battling six ogres. They were losing; that was until Jacob somehow summoned a giant spear of ice. With one mighty throw, Jacob had destroyed all six ogres; after that, he was so tired he passed out. His dad chuckled. They decided to set up camp and rest for the night.

Jason was very excited about his fire training; they were going to start at sunrise when all fire users were at their most powerful. In the meantime, Jason started looking for more ogres to get rid of; he found them, lots of them. There were so many ogres he could not even count them. They gathered around a fire pit in the forest near his camp. Jason was spying at them from behind a large oak tree. He took a step back, but he accidentally stepped on a twig; now the ogres were aware of his presence. Now, the ogres were running towards him with their clubs and spears in hand. Jason summoned a flame sword and started hacking away at them until there was only one left. The last ogre let out a high-pitched squeak before running away. Jason glared at it from behind until it exploded into flames. He had defeated them all without even receiving a bruise. When he arrived back at camp, he told his mother what had happened; saying she was proud was the understatement of the century. Jason was officially the most powerful fire user dead or alive. Anyone who said otherwise was lying through his or her teeth.

Jacob on the other hand, was dreading his ice training. It was so much work; he wished he could go back in time before he knew of all this insane magic. Before, he at least was in control at home and at school; here, he never knew what was going to happen next. That frightened him more than he would like to admit. His dad interrupted his thoughts by shouting his name over the noise of the blizzard that had suddenly appeared. Because they were both ice users, they were not cold at all. They packed up camp and started heading towards an area they knew to have ogres. There were about 70 ogres, so Jacob summoned another ice spear and started destroying them. Within minutes, they were all gone. His father was in awe; he had never thought his son would be more powerful than he was, yet he had just seen his son defeat 70 ogres without training! If he had to fight that many ogres without training, he would probably be dead. Jacob and his father both agreed that they should try to find a safer place to sleep for the night. After stumbling around for a few hours, they found an uninhabited cave and went to bed.

Jason was up and ready at 4 am the next morning. He waited until his mother got up, and then he started jumping around like a little kid at Christmas time. He asked if they could start training now; she yawned, but agreed anyway. Jason started cheering loudly until his mother shushed him. For the next 4 hours, Jason trained non-stop; when he finished Jason had managed to heal 15 cuts. Jason also learned how to change the size of his giant flame sword, so it could transform into a dagger and he learned how to summon flame clouds, which according to his mom was her favorite firepower to use. His mother was once again amazed with Jason’s abilities; she wondered if Jacob was as powerful as Jason was. She doubted it; however, she did not want to rule out the possibility. Jason set up camp, while his mom collected some firewood. That night they had a big bonfire filled with stories and s’mores. They both agreed that it was the most fun they had ever had together.                          

Half way across the country Jason was almost finished with his very intense first training session. He had learned how to summon portals, which according to his father was the extremely difficult to do. Summoning portals was also one of the most tiring things known to ice users. His dad was so proud he decided to give Jacob the most important and precious thing he owned. It was a black ring made out of obsidian; his grandfather had given him the ring on his 10^th birthday.  The gift honored Jacob, so put it on immediately.  His father decided to call it a night and try to get some sleep, before he could finish his sentence Jacob passed out.  His father set up camp and dragged Jacob to bed. Later that night, when Jacob and his father were asleep, a pack of wolves started circling the camp. In order to escape, Jacob quickly summoned a portal, which unfortunately ended up being faulty. They found themselves in a dark cave where they were quickly overrun by ogres. Jacob’s elbow was grazed on the rough ground as he was tied up. They were both frightened tremendously; they screamed until their throats felt ready to explode.

Jason decided to go looking for more ogres to battle; he found some in a sinister looking cave. He defeated them easily with a few powerful swings; suddenly he heard a loud scream coming from a deeper part of the cave. Jason uneasily walked toward it; once there he saw his brother and father tied up with a huge ogre watching over them. Jacob had a small cut on his arm, but he was otherwise unharmed.  Jason summoned another flame sword and quickly chopped the ogre in half.  Jason transformed his flame sword into a small dagger and cut the ropes; then he applied a bit of heat on Jacob’s cut, which healed immediately.  His father was so surprised with Jason’s abilities; Jacob had to scream in his ear to get him out of his trance. Jacob glared at Jason bitterly, before storming away without even as much as a thank you.  Jason’s dream had come true, just in a different way than expected. Jason was determined to fix this; there was no way he would let Jacob get away from him that easily.  For the next couple of hours Jason searched for Jacob, until his dad finally reminded him that ice users could open portals.

Jacob had opened a portal to home, once there he went to the tree house he and Jason used to play in. Inside the treehouse, Jacob found a couple pictures, toys, and books; they brought back both happy and sad memories. Jacob sensed a freezing presence beneath him; he cautiously went to check it out. Upon seeing it, he noticed, a giant man with blue hair and eyes; Jacob somehow knew the mysterious man was one of the original ice tribe members. The man looked friendly enough, so Jacob approached him somewhat uneasily.  The extremely tall ice user rushed forward with a big grin and gave Jacob a small hug; before he produced a wooden whistle from inside a small satchel like thing. When he blew into it, an earsplitting noise pierced the chilly night air. Jacob hastily covered his ears in a fruitless attempt to block out the noise. Suddenly, five other ice users that looked identical to the ice user in front of them appeared out of nowhere and started running towards him. Scared, Jacob summoned an ice spear and pointed it at the nearest ice user.  One ice user stepped toward him and bowed; within seconds, the other ice users were bowing as well. Jacob was extremely confused; he subtly turned around to see if there was someone behind him, but he saw no one.

Jason and his parents were extremely worried, especially Jason. He could not help but believe it was his fault, even though his mother tried to convince him otherwise.  Jason and his mother both summoned flame clouds and started searching for Jacob. Two hours later, they were still searching; it was getting dark so Jason’s father opened a portal home. When they arrived there, they saw something so bizarre and crazy they almost passed out. Sitting on a makeshift thrown, there sat, Jacob with a cold expression on his face; nothing like the friendly and caring expression, they were familiar with at all. They were so busy staring at Jacob; they did not notice the six ice users circling them. Suddenly, one ice user whistled loudly before summoning an ice spear and pointing it towards Jason. Jason quickly summoned a flame sword and with one mighty swing chopped the ice spear in half. The other ice users looked at him in shock; as far as they were aware, no one could break their leader’s ice spear. “My name is Airbed the strong, and this territory belongs to Lord Jacob the cunning,” Airbed said in a deep voice. Airbed then continued in a harsher voice “If you stay, we will be forced to take immediate action, which I know you won’t like.”

 Jason said, “Try me.” With all the ogres he had faced, he was certain he could defeat six measly ice users. Instead of using his fire sword, Jason quickly glared at them harder than he ever glared before. The ice users cowered extremely frightened; Jacob shouted at them to start fighting. Instead of listening, the six ice users ran away quickly, which made Jacob so angry he started shouting insults at their retreating figures. Jacob summoned an ice spear; he then walked toward them slowly. His mother rushed forward to hug him, but Jacob using his ice spear scratched her lightly across her arm. His mother looked at him in shock never having expected her own son to hurt her; Jacob then laughed a cold and cruel laugh that sent shivers down both Jason and his parents’ spines. Jason was so angry that he summoned another fire sword and ran towards Jacob. When he got there, they both started viciously attacking each other with a lot of complicated stabs and swings. It did not take long for Jason to disarm Jacob; Jason tied him to a tree after making sure he had no other weapons on him. Jason wanted nothing more than to kill him for hurting his mom; however, Jason and Jacob both knew that he was too kind to kill his own brother.  Jason ran to his mother, healed her arm, and then gave her a quick hug. He was happy she was okay.

 Jason then turned to Jacob expecting him to have a defeated or depressed expression on his face, but instead he looked strangely satisfied. The look on his face worried him to no end; however, Jason could not figure out why Jacob looked as triumphant as he did. A couple seconds later Jason found his answer, unbeknownst to Jason and his parents, Airbed had sneaked up behind them and was preparing to attack. Before Airbed got the chance, Jason whirled around while summoning another flame sword. He quickly disarmed Airbed, looked him in the eyes, and said, “Be gone Airbed or you’ll have to pay the price.” Airbed cowered in fear before he opened a portal and left. Jason remembered thinking about Jacob one day at school. It had surprised him how much Jacob and him were different. Jason snapped out of his daze and looked at Jacob. Jacob was shocked; he never expected Airbed to abandon him, but then again he did not expect that he would hurt his own mother either. “Jason!” Jacob thought, “This is his entire fault. If he was gone, mom and dad would finally realize I am a million times more powerful than he is.”  While Jacob was thinking, Jason had walked over him, looking at him with a mixture of regret and disbelief; he could not help but believe Jacob’s behavior was his own fault. If Jason had done a better job of keeping away from him, he might still be the friendly and outgoing boy he used to be; however, he also knew  that there was no way to change the past. 

There was only one person that Jason knew of that could help him return Jacob to normal and defeat the ogres, but he refused to even think about going to her for help.  Her name was Amelia Smith, and she was the smartest kid in his class, which made him extremely jealous. Even though he knew what jealously could do to a person he was sure Amelia would help him on his mission. Mainly because she knew more about magic then him, however it also had to do with the fact that she was the only student in our school that had not become close friends with Jacob. Amelia had been in his class ever since preschool and every year, she continued to get both smarter and weirder in some cases. She was very shy and reserved, yet she was usually happy. The only time he had ever seen her sad was she dropped her favorite book in the mud, even though he did not like her that much, he could not help but pick it up and wipe the mud of it for her. Amelia and Jacob never got along, which surprised Jason a lot mainly because Amelia was practically invisible to the entire student body. Jason decided he should visit Amelia in order to offer her to join his quest; however, Jason knew he had to do something with Jacob before he could leave. Jason looked up from the flower he had been staring at only to see Jacob jump through a portal he must have summoned when Jason was distracted. Jason looked back to see both of his parents closed to tears, he realized that they should be his number one priority.

 Jason and his parents went inside and decided to watch a movie, unfortunately watching a movie ended up being the worst mistake of their life. As soon as his father turned off the lights and sat down a mysterious vapor filled the air, which immediately made Jason’s parents fall into a deep slumber. Jason seemed to be immune to the smoke. “Who are you?” he yelled into the darkness trying to stay calm. Instead of answering, whoever launched the smoke started laughing a sinister cackle, before he or she started making its way toward him. Judging by the loud thumps of its feet hitting the ground, it was not human. Jason presumed that could only mean it was simply an ordinary ogre; however, he was mistaken. The monster that Jason mistook, as an ordinary ogre was actually twenty times smarter and sneakier than an average one. This ogre belong to the Northern branch, unlike the ones Jason’s dad had dealt with before. He summoned a flame sword expecting this to be a breeze; however, Jason was surprised to find out that the ogre was able to dodge all of his attacks.  Jason getting slightly tired attempted to glare at the monster but to no avail.  After fighting with the ogre for another thirty minutes, Jason realized he could not defeat the ogre by himself; he needed help. However, the only people close to him were lying on the floor sleeping thanks to the smoke.

He needed assistance and fast; however, the odds of that happening were near impossible. Jason took a running leap through the opened window making the most noise possible in order to get the ogre to follow him. He succeeded, but unfortunately, the ogre managed to scratch him across the chest. Now helpless and wounded Jason decided to take a drastic approach; he quickly ran across the yard and headed to where he knew Amelia lived. Fortunately, he only had to go a few blocks before he literally ran into her. “Amelia,” he screeched before he quickly gave her a short summary that explained very little, luckily she still understood the basics and immediately asked what she could do to help. Her question was answered when the ogre let out a mighty growl and started heading towards them. Her intense blue eyes widened in horror as she stared up at the beast, strangely, she looked more surprised than scared. Quicker than what Jason thought was humanly possible; Amelia transformed into a dragon four times larger than the ogre was. Jason jumped on Amelia’s back and together the two heroes defeated the ogre with ease. After Amelia turn back into her human form, Jason stared at her with wide eyes, he had not expected Amelia to be able to do that. Amelia looked around as if she expected more ogres to appear; however, they seemed to be safe for the moment.

 Jason remembered his parents’ sleeping figures and took off running in the direction of his house, Amelia followed.  Unfortunately, Jason found his parents lying on the floor, sleeping, when he got home. Amelia immediately knelt by their side and started to chant some ancient poem of sorts. His parents instantly awoke, much to Jason’s surprise, and started looking around the room in shock. When their eyes landed on Amelia, they scrambled to their feet and bowed down faster than you could say the word thanks. Amelia looked startled by their outburst, but she smiled nonetheless, leaving Jason to wonder why his parents would bow down to a person, they had never seen before. Shortly after he thought this, his mother said “Hello your majesty it is an honor to be in your presence.” Confused, he turned to Amelia for an explanation; however, she refused to meet his eyes. His mother noticed the cut across his chest and together the two of them managed to heal it. Without warning, Jason’s father cried out in pain as if he had been shot; however, the alternative was much worse. Standing behind his father were at least twenty Northern ogres with large clubs. One had manage to knock his father in the head, not hard enough to kill him, but Jason knew the hit would leave a sizable bump on his head.

Amelia and Jason shared a look before charging the ogres side-by-side. They moved as one with Jason slashing and swinging using his flame sword and Amelia clawing and piercing in her dragon form. Soon all of that was left of the ogres were sizable piles of dust and clubs. Jason's parents were nowhere to be seen, unfortunately. Amelia and Jason left the destroyed house in the search for his parents only to stop a minute later to rest. While they were resting, Jason started asking Amelia questions about her powers. She replied in a quiet voice as if she was ashamed of her amazing abilities. “My family is part of the secret race of people known as The Redeemers. We were sent to different places across the world in order to rid this planet of ogres. Every member of The Redeemers have the same abilities. For example, we can turn into dragons as you saw me do a couple hours ago. We can also heal practically anything. When she finished her explanation, Jason stared at her in surprised. He had expected her to say she fell into a case of toxic waste or something, like some superhero, but he never imagined that she would be from a powerful group of super humans nor did he imagine there would be more people like her. “Um…okay” Jason said uncomprehendingly.

After a couple minutes, Jason and Amelia set of again. Amelia gave Jason a weird look before saying “You are a lot different than how I originally imagined.” Jason sent her a confused look, but he decided against asking questions because he had thought she would be different, too. A few hours later they found there first clue to his parent’s location, which was fortunate because Jason was going crazy from worrying so much. The clue was a poorly written note that seemed to have been written by a child. “If you want your precious family, you will have to defeat all of us. When you fail, we will eat you, your parents, and your brother. Yes, you read that right; we have Jacob, as well. You have exactly four hours to come to the cave where my brothers first captured Jacob and your father.

Author's Note

Please, ignore any grammar problems, I am only in 5th grade.

Reviews

[mikael owusu]

Julie, I love your work!...and you are only ten...woow...u r awesome and I love the flow and sequence of events in it...kudos!