Aquila and Melody's Cryptic Quest

In a solar system far away, there lived an aqua-eyed girl who went by the name of Aquila. Her parents named her such, because they thought she had the eyes of an eagle and wings like that of a vulture.

Aquila was beautiful as a child. She grew up in a village whose people lived by fishing and hunting. The ocean was their livelihood and the mountains were their home. According to some folklore, the mountains were once covered by trees that bore the fruit of immortality, but then the sun began to burn them down and now only rocks remained.

They say one day, someone will climb up those rocks and find himself at the gates of heaven—or so they said.

Aquila never believed in those stories, though. It was just another tale told to keep young children from wandering off into the woods. Her father told her that when he was little, his grandmother used to tell him about how one day she would grow wings and fly across the sky with her grandsons on her back, but no one ever did it. Everyone died without wings or feathers.

One night, when Aquila was sixteen years old, she woke up suddenly in her room which was lit by small fireflies dancing on top of her dresser. Her parents were sleeping soundly on their bed while she sat up and walked towards the door leading to the rocky stairs outside her hut. The door creaked as she pushed it open slowly and stepped out onto the ground. She put on her robe and opened the window to let some fresh air in before going down to meet Melo, as they called each other since they were children, who was also sitting on her doorstep with a torch in hand and looking through a pair of binoculars at something far off in the distance.

"What are you doing here?" Melo asked without turning around to face Aquila who sat next to him quietly for a minute before replying: "I heard you get up...what are you looking at anyway?"

Melo turned towards Aquila, who smiled at him mischievously under his gaze; he smiled back briefly before turning his attention back to what he had been looking at all this time: "Look over there," he pointed with his finger at a dark figure moving vaguely against a distant mountain, "do you see it? What is that thing?"

"I can't see anything," Aquila replied shrugging her shoulders at how sharp Melo's eyes were; despite being eighteen years younger than him, he could still spot things that Aquila couldn't even see when she looked through binoculars or telescopes—and they were both made out of wood! She looked again with squinted eyes as Melo handed her the binoculars; after adjusting them so they fit perfectly over her eyes she realized what it was: it was just a silhouette of a man walking across the horizon towards them!

"Isn't it strange? I've been watching it for like an hour." Melo stated matter-of-factly as Aquila continued to watch it move closer until eventually walking into their village with its inhabitants asleep in their houses under blankets of stars. The mysterious man walked close enough for Aquila and Melo to finally see his face clearly: he had long hair covering half his face and his skin was dark from not being exposed to sun light for too long—it felt strange for Aquila to look at someone like him because everyone in their village had skin as white as snow after spending all day under the sun fishing for their livelihood but this man walked alone through darkness towards them without any fear whatsoever! She felt herself shiver under his gaze as he stood still in front of where they were sitting while staring blankly at everything around him before suddenly asking: "Where am I?" His voice sounded odd...like a whisper echoing in an empty cave filled with water!

Aquila didn't know what to say—how could this stranger be standing right in front of them looking like someone from another world? He wasn't dressed like anyone else in their village either: he wore black clothes similar to what farmers wear when working under the sun instead of bright orange robes like everyone else wore during fishing or hunting season! Then suddenly, before either Aquila or Melo could answer anything, gunshots rang out behind them and several guards ran towards them pointing guns at the mysterious man while shouting: "Surrender!"

But then suddenly everything went quiet...the man closed his eyes shut tightly while tensing every muscle in his body so hard that it felt like even his bones were trying to break out of his skin...his whole body glowed brightly blue before turning black almost immediately afterwards; then suddenly all hell broke loose as everyone around screamed frantically while running away from him rapidly even though he hadn't moved an inch from where he stood earlier!

* * *

"What happened?" Aquila asked Melo later that evening while staring into space from her doorstep thinking about how much more exciting life used to be when they were kids—how boring everything seemed all of a sudden! No one talked about anything anymore except for gossip about strangers who visited their village every now and then; most times these strangers came from faraway places which meant nothing good would happen if anyone got involved with them! Just yesterday three men from afar had visited their village offering food that would make people immortal if they ate it—but then again no one ate what these strangers offered because everyone knew better than getting involved with people who brought something like immortality along with them! But surely among all these bad people there must have been some good people who came along too right? Well...until now all strangers brought death along with them or so everybody said! But still...just today someone arrived whom nobody knew about; everyone feared this mysterious stranger immensely even though he did nothing wrong other than walking into their village wearing black clothes and saying: "Where am I?" How could people become so afraid so quickly? And why did this man seem so familiar? Wasn't he just like Aquila? Why wouldn't she know if there was somebody else who looked identical to herself living far away somewhere else? After all there weren't many people living here anyways...maybe somebody found another place where there exists hundreds more people just like themselves! But wait...if this stranger is indeed an exact clone of herself then does that mean that somewhere far away there must be another person looking exactly like Melo too?! But wait...if this stranger is indeed an exact clone of herself then does that mean that somewhere far away there must be another person looking exactly like Melo too?! What if this visitor is actually sent here by some evil force? After all nobody would go through all this trouble just because they wanted to take over this village since nobody lives here anyways—so why did this stranger visit here then? Was he sent here by some evil force? Or maybe...some divine power? Maybe God has sent him here to help prevent whatever evil force wants to destroy mankind's existence!