The Delbwöare twins returned to their residence after a dreary day from school, dreary for one of them at least while one of the twins fished out the key to open the door. Claw couldn't wait to wolf down the next meal as Saw put down the backpack on the couch as Claw zipped to the kitchen as she opened the fridge to take out a lime soda and the cold meat that she chose to reheat as her twin brother scrolled down the phone for any emails.

Two notifications from the school's campus, one from Dbay to promote an offer for a 25% to 45% on their wares, one notification from the teacher and one from the electric company.

Saw walked back to the couch as Claw groaned in annoyance as her brother gingerly unzipped the backpack as he took out a notebook and a pencil. Claw craned her neck to watch over the stove.

When Saw raised the pencil, Claw dashed to the kitchen again, dragging Saw along with her as she turned the knob to lower the fire. As a bicephalic twin has its perks and drawbacks, mostly drawbacks when it comes to clashing personalities.

“Would you slow down?!” Saw shouted while his head reeled in to catch up to her.

“And let my meaty snack burn to a crisp?! No way!” She picked a plate from the drawer and placed it on the countertop. Saw knew that there was no force that could tear her apart when it came to her next meal once she was famished. Saw stretched to the kitchen sink while Claw was focused on the coction of the meat she placed on the frying pan that she unknowingly let her twin brother have dominion on both hands as Saw hummed to himself and scrubbed the dishes as his mind conjured up words and spells, spelling the words rythmically.

Claw squinted derisively at the frying pan when one of Saw's verses earwormed its way into her mind. She didn't know how, but she ended up humming to the tune too. When it dawned on her that she was signing to the words her twin bro was signing to she broke eye contact with the frying pan. “Stop that! Are you trying to lull me away from my food?”

“I'm washing the dishes since I can't do my homework while you're having a staredown with the stove.” Saw wasn't lying for the most part, he did want to stop her from eating the massive chunks of reheated meat that could cause indigestion on his side of the body, though she was the one who was peckish.

“I'M STARVING!” Claw roared nearly letting out a whine on the last syllable.

Saw angrily washed the spatula with a wash cloth. “Here! Take it! Now would you stop doing that?”

Claw took the spatula to flip the fillet, the chicken breast, the pork rind and the steak while Saw flipped the bird when she wasn't looking. As childish it may seem, that's how siblings loved each other.

The twins sat on the living room table as Claw put down the plate while Saw couldn't ignore the way she salivated before she scarfed down on the meat. Be wasn't sure if he was going to get indigestion just by looking at the meat or the way Claw consumed it.

“I think I'm gonna be sick.” Saw spoke groggily as his face changed to a sickly green hue while Claw added barbecue sauce before she comped down on the steak.

Saw laid his head on the table while Claw bit the bone of the steak, then resumed eating the meat followed by the scrumptious pork rinds. A half hour later she ate the chicken breast and fillet, Saw heard Claw belch as an indicator that she finished eating as he saw her chug on the lime soda.

“You're insufferable.” Saw snarled.

“And you're a wuss,” Claw countered before she lightly burped at his face, “Besides, the insufferable one was Ghana. Acting like a know-it-all and couldn't spell the word right.”

“Vociferate.” Saw recalled, he had been waiting weeks for this. Someone to reach his intellect, if only Claw would grasp the concept of patience and proper planning.

The teacher has called their classmate to spell a 14 letter word.

"Accomplishment." The teacher mentioned. Then my classmate spelled the word with precision.

"Saw, it's your turn to spell a 15 letter word."

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

"A-C-K-N-O-W-L-E-D-G-E-M-E-N-T." He spelled the word before Claw groaned.

"Claw, it's your turn to spell a 16 letter word." The teacher said.

"I'm not a dictionary!" Claw protested. This is stupid! I don't know any 16-letter-word. Saw tried to whisper something to her ear before the teacher warned him not to.

"You can do it Claw. One word, sixteen letters." 

This. Is. Asinine. Claw thought as she snorted out two puffs of smoke out of her nostrils.

"I don't know, Mrs. Villegas." Claw admitted.

"Fellas." The teacher gave the cue to make me feel more annoyed than I already am.

"Absentmindedness." One intellect mentioned.

"Bioprecipitation." Another nerd added.

"Cantankerousness." The third student spoke.

"Denaturalization." Ghana hinted as an indirect insult to you-know-who.

"Extradimensional." Saw concluded while Claw rolled her eyes.

Claw watched as one of the nerds, by the name of Ghana, walk up to the podium with a smug look expressed across his face. The menacing orange scaled dragon desperately wanted to wipe that grin off his face, to rip him from limb to limb. To teach him a lesson, that he clearly never learnt. 

The lesson that No one is perfect. 

“Ghana, your word is Vociferate.” Mrs. Villegas states, addressing this self-centred nerd. 

Ghana begins to sweat and I take satisfaction in his loss of confidence. 

“Can I have the definition, please”

“Of course. It’s a noun. Shout, complain, or argue loudly or vehemently.”

“Vociferate. V-O-C-I-V-E-R-A-T-E.”

A buzzer sounds and while all the other nerds' neutrality contain themselves, Claw couldn’t help but burst out laughing.   

Slap!

That was the sound of Saw's face palming against his hand. Claw was going to embarrass him and ruin his reputation and all he could do was sit back and do nothing. Watching as she dug herself into a deep hole of trouble.

“Would you like to share with the rest of us, what’s so funny Ms. Delbwöare?” Mrs. Villegas asked with a stern, stoic look expressed across her face. 

Now, most would be embarrassed to admit they had been rude. Most. But, not my sister.  

"What's so funny is that she spelled the word wrong!" I snorted. “Vociverate.” 

Ghana fumed. Ha! As if I care.

“If you find this so amusing, Mrs. Delbwöare, perhaps you can spell the following word: Zounderkite.” The teacher stated while some of the nerds sniggered. Saw knew what that word meant. It was a Victorian word for idiot.

A complete idiot who constantly makes clumsy and awkward mistakes.

This perfectly defined the situation he was in relating to his sister.

Saw awkwardly hissed at his sister to not make a fool of herself, but it was too late.

“Zee-ohh-yuu-an-dee-ee-ar-ay-aee-tee-ee. Zounderkite.”

Flabbergasted, Ghana's mouth was agape while the teacher raised her eyebrows in bewilderment, impressed that Claw managed to spell the word correctly.

Saw opened his eye in surprise.

“Correct.” Mrs. Villegas stated as she revealed the flashcard. “It seems that Saw has rubbed off on you.”

Neither of the bicephalic twins expected this. Claw solely spelled it out by chance, instinct spite, and how she recalled how the teacher pronounced the word while Saw expected the spelling bee to be ruined and suffer from second hand embatrassment and bury what would remained of his social life in the caverns of the den.

“At least I learned a new insult during the spelling bee: Zounderkite!” Claw chuckled, snorting small puffs of smoke out of her nostrils. The moment of sweet victory was dampened by Claw's snort emissions as it spread like a fog machine then billowed to trigger the smoke alarms.

Claw managed to simultaneously rained on their parade both figuritively and literally. Kudos to her for sticking up and rubbing it in Ghana's face. “Zounderkite!” And to top it off Mrs. Villegas's classroom was a small valley of smoke and gas.

Saw had to shake his head, neck and fur like a wet dog since his fur is usually a light platinum sheen but due to Claw's muffler-like nostrils, Saw's fur was coated with a smoky shade of grey. Claw snorted most when she was laughing or her nostrils flared with indignation when she was furious.

As much as he wanted to finish his assignment, he couldn't read nor write with the fog of smoke blocking his vision and the airways while Claw breathed down on his neck. “I'm getting some fresh air.” Saw stood from the table and closed his notebook.

There was no point in going anywhere if the root of the problem would follow you at all times. Dragons are resistant to smoke and heat, but having a conjoined twin exhaling like an active chimney was a problem if he want some fresh air. They were both outside of their dwelling, Saw swatted away the smoke, then took initiative to pinch Claw's nose shut, sealing the nostrils and the smoke emissions temporarily.

Claw furrowed her scaly orange arcs that would've been her eyebrows as her crimson eyes gave a menacing glint, glaring daggers at Saw. He released Claw's nose and she snorted smoke again.

“Would you stop that?” Saw requested just as Claw inhaled the snort emission, she curled her upper lip with a pout.

“Fine.” Just as she looked at the corner of her eye, she saw the lid of the mailbox partially open. “Is that new mail?”

Saw glanced at the mailbox and snagged at the edge of the envelope. “Sure looks like it.”

They approached the faded mailbox, opening the lid, Saw picked up the mail and Claw took out a package before closing the mailbox with a flick of their tail.

Pitch black darkness within was being exposed by the tendrils of sunlight when Claw opened the package with a slash of her elongated, curved claw.

A drone.

Of course it would be something Saw ordered on dbay.

A box that contained a drone with an offer to join the Drones & Dragons club. It's like Dungeons and Dragons but with the option to video chat and record the drone wirelessly while roleplaying.

Claw groaned in annoyance over whatever book, dictionary or encyclopedia he ordered online. Saw would read the mail, if it were mail, taxes, bills, or anything important. Saw would keep it. If it was junk mail, he would give it to Claw to shred at her leisure.

"Electric bill." Saw kept the letter.

"Monthly subscription of Goons & Dragons Gazette." Saw gave the letter for Claw to shred.

"Coupons for the Monsieur Supermarket." He kept the letter, and Claw called him a cheapskate.

Her retort was met with another eyeroll from her twin before his eyes descended on the following letter.

Saw saw the orange envelope with golden accents. "You have been cordially invited to the Collaboration Colosseum." He read the envelope out loud before giving it to Claw for her to shred. 

"Wait!? What'd you say?" Claw picked up the same envelope he discarded and opened it with a swipe of her claw.

Dear Claw and Saw Delbwöare:

You have been cordially invited to the Collaboration Colosseum. 

Since neither of you had the opportunity to participate in the Gladatorium since your debut. We, the members of the Gladatorium, invite you to make a guest appearance in the Redemption Round as one of the bosses. With your expertise, you can encourage newcomers to test their abilities to the fullest. By accepting this invitation, you are granted free food for the next three nights. (As long as you don't kill anyone of course.)

We would like your input about the Redemption Round, that is, if you both agree to join us this year.

Sincerely, N.S. Santos.

Claw squealed in delight.

“Absolutely not!” Saw stated, knowing that look in her sister's eyes. 

“But why?” she questioned, her voice so hoarsely dry.

“You know why. I mean it. I have just endured a 3 month Warrior Expedition with you and the old turtle guy, so I think I owe it to myself to have a little me time.” Saw rolled my eyes at his sister, making it perfectly clear that there is no way in Zeus’s Rock (the rock in which the very first of their kind had sheltered under) were they going to partake in this tournament. To their kind the Zeus Rock is an Oath and to hereby swear by it, is to account that you will do as you have sworn to, no matter the sought consequence. To go against that oath, is to commit the utmost of sins, punishable only by death. 

“Hey, Grand Master Yamstakui is a saint!” Claw remarked, in response to the comment I had made of her idol.

“If you like him so much, then why don’t you marry him!?” Saw shouted.

“I would, if he wasn’t 7,000 years older than me!”

Saw let out a chuckle, as he turned to her and said, “As if that’s ever stopped you before.”

With that last remark her brother had been referring to when she was 5 (no noughts, just the ripe old age of 5), where she had become enamoured by the Great Merciless General Kästblöarus. He was 7 billion 932 thousand and 57 years old but, despite their huge age difference they had engaged in intercourse (of course at the time Claw thought it was just a game and not a true devolution of love). She would have stayed by his side forever, had he not been the one responsible for her own parents death. 

Claw really wanted to be part of the tournament and although her brother had said ‘no’, she had ways of persuading him otherwise.

“Have you seen who’s hosting?” Claw suggestingly said to her brother, a devious but warming grin upon her face. 

“I have but, it won’t change my mind!” 

“Oh but it’s your girlfriend.”

“She is not my girlfriend!”

“But, you wish she was!”

Saw blushed at this and Claw couldn’t help but make a petty jab, “For a Dragon of confidence, you sure are shy when it comes to the fairer sex.”

“I’m not afraid to ask her out! I’m afraid of what you'll say or do, while I sleep.” He responded, his voice slightly rising in irritation. 

“I don’t know what you're talking about.” I say with a giggle.

“You told my first ever girlfriend, Princess Crȩmele, that I kept children in the basement.”

“It was a joke!”

“And what about Riverseärchi?”

“Oh come on I did you a favour with that one. I mean if a total stranger came up to her and said ‘I have your lover, now jump off that cliff and he shall live’, you know what she’ll do, she would jump off that cliff.”

“You told her I like eating my own poo and she should do it to encourage me.”

“Look, I’m sorry but, how was I supposed to know that she was actually going to eat her own poop!”

“I get it was all just a joke to you but, these were two women in which I planned to devote my life to, what makes you think I could ever trust you with something like that again.”

“This time it’s different because I like your Natalie. She has a bit of both of us inside, my flare and your confidence.”

Her brother was rather taken back by the fact that she had something nice to say about one of his friends, so much so he felt it was not genuine and part of a devious ploy.

So, to check the validity of her statement, he jokingly remarked “If you like her so much, then why don’t you marry her?”

That was Saw’s go to insult, not very insulting, she knew. But, she must admit it’s gotten a few laughs from her.

And with her added response “I would but, I’m in love with the old turtle guy, remember?” It had them both in fits of laughter.

A welcoming delight to their often bickering relationship. 

So, with one last work of her charm, she turned to her brother and asked, “So, what do you say, are you down for the tournament?”

He sighed. “Fine but, you’ll owe me.”

“Yeah, whatever.”

Claw took the invitation and they headed out to the tournament. They just needed to find a stadium within their vicinity find a checkpoint that would lead them to a portal. They didn't know the surprise that was waiting for them this year.