A Wrinkled Tale: From Delta, To River. ✔

Prologue

Draining the colours from the surroundings to grey, a cold blanket of mist had fallen over the night. The half-moon was too dull to seep through the resting, dense fog. A kind of night where you do not particularly feel cold, but get engulfed in the lack of warmth.

Midnights always came with a restless feeling for Iresh. When he got out of the house, the air was still and heavy and he felt himself unreel from the stiffness of his bones. His steps were soft and soundless despite being at a safe distance from his house. 

He memorized this pathway to the sea-shore like a hymn, though he never put effort into memorizing the actual hymns as per his Mother's concerns. He had walked on this path since he was a little kid while holding his Mother's hand, on every other day till now, only alone.

Ripples rumpled the stillness as the faint wind brushed over the water surface, under the blotted out moon, the sea glistened regardless. 

He allowed his thoughts to unfold like a map of some routes with no purpose as he walked barefoot on the cold and dry sand, looking at his feet leaving ill-defined footmarks on the sand with each step.

He was not aware of how long he had been walking, but when he stopped, a sudden smile stretched on his lips as his eyes fell on three abandoned boats at a short distance and the Boy, who was standing on one of them at the moment, shuffling through something in the boat that was once rowed by his father. 

His coppery hair swayed in the rhythm of his every movement. The sleeves of his oversized shirt were rolled up to his arm, his skin looked tanned under the dirt from too much time under the sun. He was pensive and hardworking under the dirty appearance, who would show up to work in the morning, looking sharp enough as always.

The Boy was Nile.

Despite the dull moonlight and the mist hiding the night sky beyond, it was still a bright night. Even if it was useless- his first thought was to run into the pine tree grove and not get caught, but it was too late now.

Nile stared back at him, startled, with a gaze that told him he was not expecting Iresh either. His face showed that he could do several things like- run or attack or just stay still, right where he stood and by the looks of it, he preferred the latter.

His lips barely moved as his eyes darted upward and he stood up straight, looking around the empty shore, suspiciously. Bringing Nile's attention back on himself, "No one is around," Iresh said, softly with a vacuous smile.

With narrowed eyes, "What are you doing here?" He asked as if Iresh could pull out a weapon at any moment.
 
"N-nothing!" He said and both of them winced at his voice, which came out sounding higher than he intended to and when Nile stayed quiet, he decided to continue, "I was not expecting to see you here, at this time."

"Stole the words out of my mouth." The Boy lacked the disgusting art of pretending. He never hid the fact that Iresh- most definitely did not come under the list of his favourite people.

Meanwhile, Iresh, who was filled with the guile and sham, felt himself fall quiet. Part of him wanted to walk back right away, but the other part of him wanted to say something to decrease the bitterness he was sensing from the Boy in front of him. But nothing came out. 

After that frozen moment of silence, when neither of them breathed. Iresh felt some kind of spell break when he finally stumbled back a little from his still state as he heard Nile grunt and kicked something in the boat.

He jumped down then sprinted towards him only to stop beside and lowered his face to Iresh's ear. "You stay away from-'' Nile paused for a split second and at that Iresh bite his tongue to suppress a smile at his attempt to sound harsh. 

"Keep your mouth shut about this and-"

"I was not planning to tell anyone-"

"-And I would try not to tell about your mid-night wander. As far as I can tell, this is not the first time." Nile may not know how to pretend, but he can be cunning. 

Nile continued, "Oh, how would he feel about this? How his precious son comes to this cursed area-"

His fists clenched, it was enough to boil annoyance within him and he could tell that Nile was well aware of it. He let out a short breath and spoke up, interrupting Nile. "I had no intention to, but you dare to open your mouth about me to my father and I would not hesitate to go there and pull out whatever you were hiding." He said with an irritating smile, indicating towards the boat.

He heard Nile chuckle, the breath hitting his ear before the Boy stepped away from him. He nodded and said, "deal then," brushing his shoulder with Iresh as he walked past him.

Iresh called, loud enough for him to hear. "Deal with our newfound friendship?" Even though it was nothing new, but something yet to be found.

"Go home!" Nile called back.

With that, the irritation of his had slipped away, he quickly rubbed his face to get rid of the foolish grin that had now taken over his features instead. Iresh looked back at Nile walking away till he disappeared behind the pine groves.

He let his eyes avert to the boats, damaged thoroughly by the passing time. But once,  half-a-year ago, they were gaily colour coated, they were thirsty to be out on the sea, salt overlaid and breaking the waves. Looked graceful when they rowed out before the sunrise.
 
But, on one unfortunate cold night, the rain fell like stones with the thundering lightning, the wind howled and the normally peaceful sea broke hail. It was a miscalculation, an accident, a misfortune. The sea gulped the boats before spitting them out of themselves on the shore, like fallen leaves.

And because of the sudden grievous blow of the lost lives, the area earned itself the name of the cursed land. But it wasn't the land's fault?

The storm was small scale, it started in the sea and ended before stepping over the land. The land was only surrounded by the heavy velvet clouds with loud raindrops, strong enough to scrape the skin and at that particular day, in that particular moment, Nile had his lips pressed against Iresh's.