alien
Zandara and Zaul
126
On Dionas, where females outnumber males one hundred to one, every male is expected to marry at least forty wives to keep the population growing. The only males who get any sympathy are twins. Male twins are considered a sacred blessing from the ancestors. Tradition declares they share everything—homes, responsibilities, desserts, and, most importantly, wives. Marrying one twin means marrying both. Nobody questions the ancestors.
Then Zandara arrived.
The delivery room fell silent as the first baby emerged.
“Congratulations! It’s a… girl?”
Two minutes later, her twin brother Zaul was born.
The midwife fainted. The doctor announced an immediate retirement. Their father stared into space for a full minute before quietly asking where the nearest divorce attorney was. Somewhere, the ancestors collectively muttered, “We did not authorize this.”
Growing up, Zandara and Zaul ignored centuries of tradition and acted exactly like every other pair of Dionasian twins. They shared birthdays, hobbies, meals, terrible jokes, and an unhealthy talent for causing family reunions to end early.
Unfortunately for Dionas, Zaul was one of the planet’s most eligible bachelors.
Every hopeful bride received the same cheerful answer.
“Sure! I’d love to marry you. But twins share everything, so you’ll have to marry my sister too.”
The proposal usually ended right there.
For the rare determined woman who replied, “Fine,” Zandara would casually step forward, crack her knuckles, rest a suspiciously oversized weapon on her shoulder, and ask, “Excellent. Which side of the bed am I getting?”
Miraculously, every single engagement collapsed within seconds.
The government called them a demographic crisis.
Their parents called them exhausting.
Zandara and Zaul simply called it the perfect system.
After all, being happily single was much easier when your twin was the world’s most effective anti-marriage strategy.
Twins
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