Twins of the Hourglass

Two twins traveling in the desert search for a home. When they get to a village a seller gives them an hourglass that must never be separated.

 

A long time ago, in more ancient times, lived two twins of the desert. The twins traveled often, for they had no home of their own, and traveled on every type of terrain. But of all the terrain the twins had traveled on the sands of the deserts was their favorite. Perhaps it was because the sand was similar to their relationship. Maybe it was the way the sand sifted through their feet but never seemed to separate completely from its brethren. Or how it always stayed together, like a close knit family, and no matter where the sand blew it was always with its siblings. The twins themselves always held hands where ever they went and were never seen far apart from one another. They had been that way since they were born.

One day the twins were walking through a large clay village. Many of the houses were wedged inside the mountain side and surrounded the little fragile town below. It was a normal town and had nothing too special about it. However, what made this village so different was that in the middle of the village sat a large golden hourglass. The hourglass was bigger than the mountains with the little houses in them and had so much sand in it that it never seemed to end. The large hourglass just happened to be in the middle of a shopping district and both the twins were having a good time looking at what each shop had. But what captivated them the most was that huge hourglass nested in the very center of the bazaar. The sister and brother both looked in aw at the magnificent golden hourglass. "Who built this?" the sister said to herself. " No one really knows that answer young one." answered a voice. This startled the sister and she quickly turned around. A thin dark thin man with a cart of goods stood before her and her brother. "Hello! Sorry to startle you but would you be interested in an hourglass of your own? Its much smaller but just as good!" The man then showed the twins a few hourglasses. "Sorry but we don’t have much money." said the brother looking up at the large hourglass. " Oh that’s fine! My hourglasses are very cheap!" "Please brother can we get one?" said the sister. " Mmmm Ok fine! We can get one." answered the brother in a monotone voice. "Yay thank you brother!" The sister hugged the brother and then went to chose which hourglass she wanted. She looked and looked and finally found the perfect one. It was golden just like the large hourglass but the smaller one had seashells on one rim and black gems on the other. " Brother can I have this one?" said the sister shyly. Seeing this the seller also added," That one is very nice isn’t it and its also one of my cheapest!" The brother looked at the sellers brightened face and then to his sisters anxious face and finally let out a sigh. "Ok that one is fine. We can just break it in the middle so that we will each have a piece." Hearing the last part of what the brother said horrified the seller so much that he quickly snatched the hourglass from the girl. " Do you even know what hourglasses are for child? They are for telling time!" The seller then pointed at the top of the hourglass with the dark jewels imbedded into it. "This is the future!" He then pointed to the bottom of the hourglass with the seashells on it. "And this is the past!" Finally he pointed to the middle of the hourglass. " But this is the most important one! This is the present! If you break apart the present then the future and the past will be separated! Do you understand now?" Both the children nodded but neither understood his message fully. The brother paid the man and as the twins were leaving the seller shouted "Whatever you do don’t ever break apart that hourglass! If you do then you both shall be separated from one another!" Neither of the twins heard that last message from the seller for the wind had knocked out all sound in that one instant. The twins didn’t stay too much longer in the town since it wasn’t horribly interesting and there was nothing else to see in it. They soon came to a neighboring town not too far away from the hourglass town. This town was very rich and had a beautiful ivory and golden palace hovering over it in the background of the wealthy town. The towns beauty instantly captivated both twins and they quickly ran inside. The twins skipped the bazaar, for they had no money to spend, and went straight to the palace. Before they could enter the palace a boy about their age stopped them. "For what reason are you going into the palace?" asked the boy in a sad voice. "Well, we are both going in to see if there is any housing for us in this beautiful town." said the brother in a happy tone ignoring the sadness in the boys voice. The sister turned to the brother in a smiley expression, "Yes, we’ve finally found the perfect home for us haven’t we brother!" Even though both the twins were very excited and happy to have finally found a home the boy remained as melancholic as ever. The girl twin saw this and quickly tried to comfort the boy. " What is the matter? Do you need a hug or a shoulder to cry on?" "No" answered the boy sternly. " I need no comforting for no one can comfort my sorrows. You see I am an orphaned prince and now have no one to take care of me. I am alone." " Well, orphaned prince you can live with us when we purchase a home here!", said the brother as he put an arm over the melancholic prince. But the prince just looked down and asked the one question that shattered the twins hope for a home in the beautiful and wealthy town. " But do you have money to buy such a lavish house here." The twins had been so excited that they had forgotten that they were broke. Both of them just slumped to the ground. The sister ,depressed and in anguish, started to sob uncontrollably. " B-but we had finally found a home. Not just a home but the perfect home!" The brother, in just as much anguish as the sister, looked down at the lush grass underneath him. " Yes I know sister. Where we came from lush grass could never grow and happy faces were nowhere to be seen. It was such a depressing place but here all the people have such happy expressions." The orphaned prince feeling horrible that he made the twins so depressed finally blurted out, "Y-you can c-come with me if you want. Im done with my errands here" Both the twins looked up happily and hugged the prince tightly. "Where do you live orphaned prince? Is it as beautiful and lush as this kingdom?" asked the sister in bouncy manner. "Yes I believe it is very beautiful." With both twins pleased and the orphaned prince no longer lonely or sad they set off on a very long dirt pathway. They traveled many many days before reaching a resting spot. Finally when all three were very tired and thirsty an oasis appeared before them. While the brother went away to fill up all three of their canteens the sister and the orphaned prince went to rest under the shade of the palm trees. The sister then took out the hourglass and admired it. The orphaned prince saw her beautifully looking at it and started to blush. For the first time he noticed how pretty she was. The sister saw this and the orphaned prince quickly turned away. However, the sister was not as shy and got closer to the prince. "Isn’t this hourglass beautiful! I wish that I had two more to share with brother and you." She looked at the hourglass and then shifted her gaze to the orphaned prince and smiled sweetly at him. He bashfully looked down when he saw her smile at him. "W-why don’t we just split it up. You can have the past, I can have the present and your brother can have the future?" The sister knowing he would say that fell right into her trap. "Tehe no we can’t do that! If we did that we’d all be separated! I really wouldn’t like to be separated from you." The girl leaned in and gave the orphaned prince a kiss on the cheek. "I really like you" said the girl whispering into the prince’s ear gently. She then placed the hourglass behind a tree and started to climb up the tree opposite to it. " Little prince come join me up here! The view of the sunset descending upon the sands of the desert is simply magnificent!" As this was going on a jealous monster, who had been watching the two from behind a wall of sand, began grinding its horrible teeth together. It was in love with the orphaned prince and had been following the three travelers since they departed from the wealthy town. By this point the monster could not contain its rage any longer. It quickly seized up the hourglass and broke it into three parts. It then took the present and threw it at the girl before the orphaned prince could climb up the palm tree. The girl fell into quick sand as the monster dispelled the broken hourglass by the prince who stood in shock. The prince rushed to the brother who had just finished filling up the canteens. "Come quickly! Come quickly! Your sister is sinking!" The brother and the prince ran over to where she had been sinking but she was no longer there. The brother, in so much shock, fell to the ground and saw the broken hourglass beside him. "You! You broke the hourglass and separated her from me didn’t you!" the brother shouted angrily at the prince. "What! N-no I didn’t break it! I swear I didn’t break the hourglass!" sobbed the prince. The brother grabbed the orphaned prince by his clothes and was about to punch him when they heard a voice. It was the pathway. "Children please stop fighting! I saw the whole thing and I know the answers you seek. The prince did not break apart the hourglass. It was the jealous monster who did it!" Both the orphaned prince and the brother were very surprised. The brother then let go of the prince upon hearing about this. " Please go on pathway! Did you see what happened to my sister?" "Yes I saw exactly what happened to her. Thankfully she did not sink but the monsters father dragged her away to Renda Rista town. " But that’s my kingdom! Why would the monster and its father be there?" said the orphaned prince in shock. " It was originally the monsters territory first. They just took over your kingdom while you were away. However, you must hurry! There is no telling what they will do to the girl!" Both the orphaned prince and the brother quickly mobilized, taking the broken hourglass with them, and left. Since neither had a camel or horse to make the trip go faster, the prince’s camel had died when he arrived at the wealthy town and had no money for a new one, it would take at least 2 years for them to get to Renda Rista. After a year of traveling together both were separated in a sand storm. The prince had to move on without the brother and made it to Renda Rista a year later. However, the orphaned prince was captured and imprisoned for 10 years in his own dungeon. After the brother had gotten separated he wandered the desert for 11 years looking for Renda Rista. It was a horribly difficult task since the brother had no map and had depended on the orphaned prince for guidance. After 11 years had passed, the brother was now in his late teens, he found the orphaned prince’s palace but found that the town had been abandoned. Figuring that the prince had found Renda Rista long before he himself had he went straight toward the crumbling palace to where he thought the prince and his sister were. When the prince got close enough to the palace he heard a familiar voice. "*cough* P-please he-help the girl trapped in the *cough* p-palace! Whoever you are! Just please help her!" I-I know that voice! Thought the brother. " By any chance are you the orphaned prince from 11 years ago?" The raspy voice grew very silent and then revealed its face to the brother. "Y-you know who I am? Are you the girls brother?" The princes face was even more melancholiac and sunken in than the day they had first met. The brother was completely horrified. " Yo-your face! Hold on let me get you out of there quickly!" Once the Orphaned prince was freed he told the brother of all the horrible things the monster had done to him. The brother saw the personality change in the prince. He was so serious and grumpy now. But that was to be expected due to all the trauma he went through. Once they were well rested and fed they both went together to kill the monster. The monsters father had died a long time ago and now only the monster was left. When the brother and the orphaned prince reached the top tower of the palace they expected to find the sister there. But she was nowhere to be found. " She’s not here anymore. I pushed her into the ocean where she belongs." The prince and the brother quickly turned around to find the jealous monster standing smugly behind them. Heart broken both the brother and the orphaned prince held the monster out of the palace window. But the monster just smiled. "I really do love you little prince. I always have. Haha but I know you well and you wont drop me. You don’t have the guts. Neither of you do!" The prince was very shocked at this blunt statement. " Bu-but how can you love me? You’re the same...." Before the orphaned prince could finish his sentence the brother, who was extremely enraged, strangled the monster to near death and then dropped him. Right before the monster hit the ground the brother shouted in an angry madness, "You say we have no guts to drop you but it is you who will have no guts soon. I can hear your cowardly screams and its music to my ears." Instead of burying the monster the brother and the prince hung the monster up as a flag at the highest point of the palace for all who passed by to see. Seven years passed and the brother and orphaned prince continued to travel together, for they had grown very close through all the despair they had gone through, and ended up at the same village the twins had first bought the hourglass at. When they sat down to eat both noticed that the girl next to them looked exactly like the dead sister. They both asked the girl but she didn’t seem to know either of them. The brother took out the hourglass and sighed a very deep and sad sigh. " She must really be dead. I really should just throw this away. Its too painful to look at." But the prince took the hourglass from the brother. "We can’t do that yet. We still need to put it on her grave. Besides I’ve been meaning to fix it for years and I finally got the money to buy something to hold it together again." The orphaned prince quickly fixed the broken hourglass and, with a melancholic expression, admired its beauty. It looked exactly like it had when the twins had first bought it. " There now past, present and future are connected again." The brother looked sadly at the hourglass, almost ready to cry, and remembered all the memories it contained of his sister. "We never did find a home did we dear sister?" exclaimed the brother, who now had his hand covering his face as he cried. The girl watched as the brother cried sorrowfully and tried to comfort him. When she caught sight of the hourglass the girl nearly fell out of her seat from the shock. "That hourglass! I know it! Brother! Orphaned prince! Is that really you? I-I finally remember you now! " The brother stopped crying and quickly stood up. He hugged the sister tightly and cried even harder. " Sister! Sister! Your alive! Where have you been all this time!" The sister explained that the fall didn’t kill her but it did wash away her memories. She had found a home shortly after she came to the village. It was on the outskirts of the village and wasn’t very far. The prince just as happy as the brother to finally have the sister back walked hand in had with her and with her brother as they went to their camels to go see the house. "Wait!", said the sister, "We have to see the large golden hourglass once more!"All agreed and so they went to see the large hourglass the twins had first laid eyes on as children. The old seller from nearly 18 years ago was still selling hourglasses in the bazaar. He smiled and waved to the now adult twins and they waved and smiled back. However, the orphaned prince just stood in shock. "What’s wrong orphaned prince?" asked the sister who was now the prince’s lover. "That’s my father!"The prince and the seller reunited for the first time since the prince was a year old. The seller explained the reason he had left him and his mother was because he had been too young to help rule the kingdom and had only been a commoner and therefore unqualified to rule. So he left a year after the prince was born. The prince forgave his father for having abandoned him and gave him the newly patched hourglass. With everything well again the prince picked up his lover and together with the brother rode off to see their new home as the sun set over the sands of the desert.

Author's Note

Twins of the Hourglass was about three times as big as my other fairytale The Prince and the Moon so it too much longer. The reason its so long is because this story is for one of the more main characters in Blue Triangle. So it gives a lot more clues and such to a lot of the mysteries in the story. Its also one of the few stories that mentions the jealous monster who otherwise is the villian of the story. I decided to leave the monsters gender concealed because giving it away might have revealed who the monster really is in the story. Well I hope you enjoy this rather long Fairytale of mine!