Two Moons

Chapter 2 ~ The Red Day (part 1)

Chapter 2 ~The Red Day

Ona was moving into the line of Seline, Aurora was sliding behind the smaller moon. The Red Day was approaching. Hugo had bought board on a ship at Mother’s Mouth to cross the Gulf of Timon to Nylo. After crossing the Gulf of Timon, he still had to circle the leg of Onan that separated the gulf from the Wild Isles. The Wild Isles were broken lands that sat between Rinciel and Onanciel. They were separate from the Main lands, they were of their own. Different from the Nomad islands; north of Onanciel, south of Rinciel and Auroselin - the Three main islands that were once one, separated by time and gods’ wills. The Wild Isles were overrun by thieves and cannibals – depending on where you went.

Nylo was a barren land. Vegetation grew sparsely, livestock was dwindling and weak. The rest of the animals were poisonous. Hugo had been here before. He felt comfort with his feet on earth. However, he remembered the hollow-eyed children, the human bones that were strewn along the dust roads. Six months, yes, six months since he had been here. Six months of pushing the images of cannibalistic corpses in the back of his mind. Burying them, the glowing blood that looked as deadly as the moon. Hugo turned his head to the sky, something he was reluctant to do. The sky was slowly being absorbed by the inky crimson of Seline.

Welcome home.

Echoes of what Nylo had been danced in the fading sunlight. Houses by the port were falling apart and the stores that had supplied travellers with equipment and good were fading into shadows of civilisation. The people were aging and tired, like the greying earth at their feet.

He pushed himself towards the tavern door, one of the few frequented places left. It was less of a tavern, more a room with three, thick, wooden tables and aging yet durable chairs. There was a long table, stretched across the width of the tavern, with wooden barrels behind it. There was a doorway that led to the storeroom. Men sat around a small box, on small stools, pipes in their mouths and pieces to some game in their hands and on the box. Their eyes peered with apathetic suspicion at Hugo’s entrance – they were strangers. An old man with a dirt apron wrapped around his small frame, leant against the long bar-table. He was picking at his teeth, moved his eyes slowly towards to doorway where Hugo stood. A moment passed with held breaths.

“Hugo-shi...” It was more an utterance than a statement.

“Grandpa...” Hugo uttered in reply, a warm smile curled his lips. He took three long steps across the floor, jumped over the table and embraced his grandfather. After a long, loving hug, his grandfather pulled away and held Hugo’s face in a long thin hand, with long winding fingers.

“Your hair had grown, we should cut it, you look like your father, and you should see Arae, Have you eaten? Have a drink, come and meet the men, you need sleep, you look horrible, how are you? Have you seen El?” He babbled then cut off. El...

“Someone has, she’s been passing through the Wild Isles,” Hugo replied, his smile didn’t waver. He was happy to see the old man still sturdy and filled with vitality. “How’s the old woman?”

His grandfather shook his head and tutted, “If she ever heard you call her that, she’d string you up for the canners!” He then produced a throaty laugh. His face then became solemn. “She’s been tired, real tired, I don’t know shi, maybe it’ll pass, maybe it...”

“It’ll pass, she’ll be whacking the snakes and frying them up for dinner in no time,” Hugo patted his grandfather’s shoulder. “You look well, skinny but well.”

“Food is like how it has been, but the canners have calmed a bit, not picking the last of us away, some places are getting better, but food, food shi,” Hugo smiled, shi meant child, he liked the way everyone in the smaller islands would suffix it to anyone a day younger than they were, it would become a label that would be branded onto you. Here at Nylo it was a bit of a celebration, to have someone young was a gift.

“You really should visit more,” His grandfather nodded his head solemnly. He guided Hugo into the storeroom.