Part One

 

Ovnik Nekiota Royoha

Chapter 1

The Glowing Island of the Moon

 

The land of plenty, that’s what his mother called it.

 

“My little Koita, you don’t know how good you have it here on Lushina” she would say often. “out there in the world there is only death and pain, famine and monsters. People kill each other for food and for other covetous reasons.  I will not even say what else, for my little Koita, I wish to hide you from that life.

 

“here on the island, the blessed Shiny Ones have given us everything that we need. We don’t cultivate or hunt, the land grows and gives to us.  It is the land of plenty.”

 

words.  Nekoita new words, he practically knew every word in the vulgar language and even knew how to read and write Remin.  But words hold very little meaning without an antecedent; a true life example.  So plenty was defined as “having much of something” and hunger meant “not having enough food to eat” and death was “when the body dies and the soul moves on.”  sure, he could understand the words in some sense, but did not truly know the meaning of what they meant.  He had plenty, he knew that, but never felt hunger or seen death.  These things did not exist on the island.

 

He truly did not and could not understand how good he had it when he did.

 

Kiota was a boy, if you could call him that.  He was coming up on his 31st birthday but appeared no older than a boy just coming into his adolescence.  The holy island had kept him in a state of perpetual prepubescence. 

 

And he was sheltered in his little world.  The island was not large, a full circle of land like a tiny country unto itself.  He lived in one of the cottages with his mother. His neighbors were scarce. (who else on the island? Only a handful of people) and than there was Jack, the closest thing he had to an actual friend.  Jack was a half man half donkey that lived in the Claire Forest.  He could not even read a single  letter and was called an Ass by everyone.  Jack would laugh like a wild horse at that and at almost anything else.  Koita thought of him as simple or even stupid as he understood the words, but not maliciously for he had little malice in his heart.

 

He would go to the forest to see Jack sometimes in his little glen where he had some sorta house, but only it was like a house that was cut in the middle and opened up like a walnut.  It had no roof, made of just walls.  For the sake of others who had a pair of legs as opposed to four, he had a soiled blotchy red couch sitting on the lawn.  Koita looked at the couch with disgust as did the other humans and always told Jack when he insisted on sitting, “i do not want to be rude since you cannot sit, I shall stand also.”

 

it would be a matter of minutes before Jack became unbearable for he was just such an fool in every sense of the word and Kiota would walk away right while he was going on in his rambling tomfoolery.  He used to feel bad for Jack, but soon he came to realize Jack was just an Ass and could not even recognize other peoples discomfort.  He was completely devoid of empathy.  Yet he was harmless, so the others allowed him to subsist upon the isle

 

Milton Rock was a small town of several buildings.  But the buildings were  empty and the town steward, apparently employed by the Shiny Ones themselves, kept them and the town square in a pristine state. (name of steward, fuckit Horace is his name) Horace was an overweight jolly man who loved every part of his work.  He loved drinking wine even more.  His face was a mass of puffy biscuits always tinged with a pink blush.  He would go up and down the streets singing songs from old with his broom.

He wasn’t the only steward left on the island.  In fact, everyone with the exception of Kiota, Elerina his mother, and Jack, the only other five people were in fact the stewards on Lushina tasked with the work of keeping the island.  They were their for longer than Koita was alive.  It is said that they were the last of the stewards appointed by the Shimeru, the Shiny Ones, before they departed back to the Forge, back to the stars.

 

Apart from Horace, the other stewards seemed to do nothing but dance naked and drink fermented juice from the Sommegrape orchards.  Kiota sneaked out one night and saw them dancing naked wildly under the light of Luz, grinding on top of each other in some sort of struggle.  But pain was not on their faces, only ecstasy.

 

His mother found him out that night many many years ago and, with a grip on his ear so hard he could feel it tearing off, she slapped him and dragged him back home.

 

“never go there again! I forbid you from seeing such things.  YOUR POOR EYES!” she slapped than kissed him. “my poor little Koita, your innocence.” and Koita was about to say something, about to ask the question when she stopped him dead. “And don’t you dare ask! It is forbidden to you.”

 

either way, Koita did not understand and more importantly did not know what the big deal was.  Either way he loved his mother with such vehemence that he obeyed her every order and locked to his room at night.

 

Anyway, since a babe, Koita read the books from the library at Milton Rock at the epicenter of the grand institute of philosophy.  He would go there with his mother, for she forbid him from going alone almost anywhere, and chose this book and that one until he could not carry anymore.  Than his mother would take this one and that from his hands expressing “these books are not for you, read these instead.”

 

oh sure there were many books Koita was allowed to read, but there were tenfold more that he was forbidden to.  His mother was a glorious teacher in the old and new tongue which she taught him when he was only one year on earth.  She even knew the sacred language of the Shimeru, but did not teach him such things for fear he might cast an uncontrollable spell as it was the language of magik. 

 

So for many years, since he was but an infant, Koita read voraciously the books he was allowed to read and only dreamed about the ones he couldn’t. His roomed was piled with different texts for he did not return them, but read them again and again. He would even try to guess at the parts his mother redacted from the text with her black paintbrush.

 

The tales of heroes defeating monsters and marrying princesses. Of magical creatures, of fairies.  Of how the Shiny Ones defeated the dark monsters of the Abyss and burned their bodies to dust with angelfire.  He loved the stories he read and learned all the authors and poets names.  In the tales, there were mention of many professions but the one he wished most to be was a bard, the poet.

 

Yet every time he took to his pen and ink to write his mind stalled.  He knew the stories to be true.  Fantasy was not a word that existed in his imagination, for all the words must be true.  Yet when he started to write all he could write about was his life on the island.  If the fairytales were based on the actual world events than what could he write about other than what was real.  But his life was not a fairytale, it was a boring world of the mundane.

 

So he dreamed about going on his own journey, a hero’s odyssey to fight Demke and monsters with sword and shield to find a fair maiden to marry.  It was all so wonderful a thought and it lingered within his mind for decades as nothing of interest happened on the moon island of Lushina.

 

 

Umbra

 

Kiota considered Jack his friend and one of his only ones.  Sure, Horace and the other stewards were friends too, but they were old and acted like adults and a barrier existed between them.  Also, they were weird and acted weird.  Kiota new the word queer, and they were very queer indeed.

 

But Jack wasn’t Kiota’s only friend or even his best friend.  Kiota had another friend, the grayskinned Umbra.  At times, Kiota would look at his reflection in the Garden Lake or in the seawater at the shore and see Umbra.  At first he did not understand that he was seeing his reflection because Umbra looked just like the reflection.  However Umbra was not made of colors.  He wore clothes like Kiota and looked like an exact clone with the exception that he was all shades of gray.

 

Nobody could see Umbra, not even his mother, and so people said, rather impolitely, that Kiota had an imaginary friend, or what they actually said was “Kiota is delusional.”  He even heard whispers “His damn overbearing mother is driving him into insanity. Poor boy.”

 

He spoke of and to Umbra as early as he could speak and Umbra spoke back.  And although the small township of Lushina knew something was off about Kiota, they could not really say what it was.  His mother was hiding something, that was certain, for why did she sail back to the island after ten years of being absent?  When all the other Ashim’s had long gone, she decided to come back to the island.

 

So when Kiota started talking to his imaginary friend, it became a little clearer why.  Perhaps his father was mad, and Elerina knew that the child would also be mad and being a good mother, she chose to protect him no matter what.  Her family was Royohan, an old name going back to the old kingdoms.  She might even be ashimahura, even though she did not show signs.  Either way, she was welcome and no matter how mad her kid was, he was welcome to.  As long as he didn’t fornk the donkey’s, as we all know what happened when a man laid down with a donkey.  It rhymes with lack, as in lacking all sense.

 

The boy was born on the island, when his pregnant mother made the arcane route, only known to the few, that led to Lushina.  The moon island was the former home to the Shiny Ones, back in the olden times when they lived upon Earth.  The shimmering island or the moon island, hidden in the mystical vales of the far sea; its reflection is seen on Dormalan as a mirage in the sky called the moon.  It circles the round circuit of the world and passes the seven diamond mountains of the Shimeru, each new face another color of the rainbow.  The isle is imbued with sacred magik, a defense against any Demke and other dark forces and hidden in the vale, the blanket of mist in the far sea (3 kilometers?) from the nearest shore.  It travels like a barge of glimmering light and reflects Luz, the white star, back into the sky as color.

 

When she came, the stewards helped her in her birth pains.  The child that was born was queer, but nobody knew exactly how.  He was just...odd.

 

At his birth and subsequently for five years, during the void moon time, a black cat was known to haunt the night.  The cat seemed to have come with Elirina though she was ignorant of it and he only appeared on certain nights.  Than, out of nowhere, the cat disappeared and never came back.  They sometimes still talk about the black cat with a white mark on its chest as the fairy cat.

 

 

Travelers from Dormerlan

Prelude (discarded)

 

I know this place, i’ve seen it before.  The chamberr of the beast.  It is cold and covered in darkness until the huge wooden doors unbolt and fly open as if by a great wind.  A small pretty black haired women enters unfettered  carrying a torch. Her name is Vahina.  I’ve seen her before.

 

I can walk along the floor padding along like a mouse and the shadows are everywhere so I can move almost anywhere.  The chamber is huge with no windows.  There is no gold anywhere and no paintings on the walls, just dark stone and dark wood.  The furnishings are simple, a table and a red rug running toward an elevated place.

 

I can see within the shadows, but my vision is not clear.  But I can see those glowing yellow eyes at the end of the rug, elevated on some sort of dais.

 

She continues to walk along the red rug with her torch.  It is made of a fire that is red.  I know its fire because that is what they call it.  It is almost like the Stars, but not, because it is a deep red, an angry red.

 

As she walks she is talking as if someone were right next to her, but I see nothing but a blur only if I squint my eyes.

 

“i can handle it, it will be done.” the woman is saying.

 

“You can handle it? Do you have wings, my deary? It must be done now!” the blur responding in a quick squeaky voice.

 

“and if I had wings it would be, but I do not.  And you are only a….flying nusiance.  How will you find the land across the sea if you do not know the way? I cannot teach it to you.  It must be a witch.”

 

“Ah yes, a witch.   Privileged with some hidden knowledge.” the blur moves in front of Vihina and I can make out some hideous outline of a thin lanky silhouette.  “i’m a fast learner.”  thin pointed fingers wiggle in the air around the fire as if wanting to grab it.

 

“keep to the shadows Splenda.” She wisps the torch away.  “and keep away, you know what fire does to moths.”

 

It happens so fast that I barely see it, but the lanky silhouette sprouts wings and flies up into the high ceiling where it becomes unseable again as it laughs like (bird).

 

She continues to walk further for the hall is large until she finally stands ten feet from those eyes and kneels.

 

“my lord” she says forcefully and bows her head.

 

“Rise.”  the voice acquiesces like a growl.

 

“i apologize for my absence for so long, I was performing important work.”  she pauses for a moment as she watches the eyes move up and down slowly and continues.  “i have splendid news.  What you seek, I believe I have found it.”

“and the wormy witch won’t say where.”  Splenda says from the rafters, his voice carries like an echo.

 

“That is more complicating...and far too complicating for a true worm!”  She shouts upward in anger. “it is on the glowing phatasm...The Island of Luzina.”

 

Splenda cackles before saying “this witch has gone mad, truly mad.   we’ve searched for such an island, IVE searched personally circling the disc of the world and no such place exists.”

 

“it’s simple really, the island is hidden from us.  But I know how to get to it, I’ve learned of such an art to journey there.  But it can only be me.  i’m certain that what you seek is there and I shall bring it back in one piece...or pieces if you wish.”

 

silence filled the great hall, no cackling except for the fire and cold silence.  Than a simple roar sounding like “GO!”

 

the torch is blown out and darkness and darkness and silence and more darkness.

 

 

Problems: too short, is this dream a representation of Umbra or Koita (Koita is an idiot, but is Umbra a different entity that they share stuff with?  How will that be explained?