The moon meets a new friend, and Barris wakes up.
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Episode 8
The kids in Meridian assumed that James was the luckiest kid around. He had lived a life of excitement, true. He had been placed as a hand on his mother’s airship when her crew had either died with his father in a pirate attack, or died when they had escaped the firey fall of Dauphin.
The escape from Dauphin had been very exciting, true. Terrifying, as well. What the other kids didn’t know was that when they had fled in his mother’s signature airship, The Sheridan, two gods had stowed away aboard, taking control of the ship and ordering his mother, Alicia, to take them to Meridian, where his father had died.
James had had further adventure when he was appointed guide to the god Daniel when he visited Lathe for the first time and had to save him from the enraged goddess Fabrique. And then, as if that wasn’t enough, he accompanied the gods into the Dark to fight air pirates.
And he was only ten.
James was lucky to call the god Daniel a friend. He was lucky to have the god’s blessing on him as a reward for saving him. And he was lucky to be an able crewman to his mother’s airship.
But the times when he missed his father, he didn’t feel so lucky. And the times when he missed his home in Dauphin, and his friends.
And the times when his stupid big sister, Connie, tried to pull rank on him.
Connie had done so this night. He had wanted to go into Meridian; he’d been so bored staying on The Sheridan, waiting for the gods to need transport somewhere. But Connie said that they needed an able crew member to be alert at all times, and tonight was his night. She got to go into the city with their mother to check on, oh he didn’t know. Or care. Supplies. Find out what the gods were up to. What did it matter?
The Sheridan docked at a tower in Meridian close to the central temple, but still had to be on the outskirts of the floating city. If he looked over one side, he could look into the city. The city glittered in the twilight as people began turning their lights on. The gondolas and lifts ferried people home to their gleaming tower apartments, or took them to restaurants and theaters. They went about their lives, living in the sky, with no idea what was going on around them, without realizing the gods were among them.
James didn’t like looking over the city. He preferred to turn his back to it and stare over the barren land below, into the hills and the Dark. He hoped if he looked far enough into the dark, he would see where the moon had run off to and he could find her and convince her to come back.
Being able to watch the skies had been his favorite part about flying. He had spent his allowance on books about the heavens, learning about the constellations of Fenrir, the Diving Mother, the Big Rock Candy Mountain, and Kate’s Heart. He had been amazed to meet Barris, the sun god, and was disappointed to say the least.
He still hoped that they would meet Cotton, the moon goddess, and wondered why the moon had been gone these many days. The ground had rumbled when it had left, something he’d heard instead of felt, as he’d been in the air when it happened. The hint of ocean he could see to the west did not gleam as it once did, as the tides had ceased. He wondered how the animals were faring.
The moon had been his favorite, and he missed her terribly. She had waxed and waned like him – crushing blows and huge excitements, being treated like a kid and being given airship crewman responsibilities, getting to meet the gods who created you and then learning they had as many flaws – maybe more – than you did.
James sighed, longing for the moon, and stared into the Dark as night fell. A large, soot-smudged bird landed on the railing a couple of feet from him. It looked like a crow, only it was white. He frowned at it.
“Hi,” he said. “What are you doing here?”
The crow opened its wicked beak and cawed once, loudly. James winced at the sound.
“You wont find any food here. My sister would kill me if she found me feeding the chicken gun ammo to a crow. Go away.” He waved his hand half-heartedly at the bird.
The bird didn’t spook, but just hopped about six inches toward him on the railing and cawed again.
James squinted at it. The bird cocked its head and ruffled its feathers. It fixed its eye on him, and he was astonished to see it wasn’t beady and black, but white and luminous. Its eyes actually glowed in the shadows.
“What…?” asked James, still staring at the eye and relaxing against the airship railing.
The bird took another hop closer.
#
The boy was gorgeous. Morrigan had not had much experience with men – she knew the sun was male, and had longed to meet him, as she was the sole person who could see his true form at night, and reflect that beauty back onto the world. But she had never met him.
The lost souls in the underworld had flavors of male or female, but none had become a companion, a friend, or lover. The loneliness of captivity had been stifling to the goddess, but now that she had her freedom, the barriers raised by her disfigurement were maddening.
This boy, however, looked at her with curiosity. Interest. His eyes were a warm brown, bright and intelligent. His face was round, innocent, and complimented by a beautiful mouth. His skin was a dark brown that you commonly found in Dauphin, not Meridian, and she wondered where he had come from. Why he lived on an airship, and why he seemed to hold himself with more confidence than other boys she’d seen.
This boy would understand her. This boy would listen. He would curl up in her lap during the day, and be her servant and right hand man at night. When he became a man, he would be her lover.
But first, to join her in her new home, he would have to die.
Morrigan let him watch her, captivated, for a moment more, and then she took flight, spiraling up and up, ignoring his pleas for her to return.
#
As the sun dipped low, the rare rays touching the glass and metal buildings of Lathe, a voice groaned from behind inside a rubbish bin tethered to the rear of a grocer.
Sewer and trash issues were not discussed in Meridian and Lathe. Meridian residents paid a great amount of taxes that went toward the creation of machines to transport or transform their trash, and a year of tax revenue had gone toward the huge water cleansing building, where all waste water from the city ran through for purification. The waste collected was also transformed by some of the better tinkers. The upper class snobs of Meridian joked that the waste was transformed into bricks that Lathe residents used to build, but no one really knew.
Barris knew, but he wasn’t going to tell anyone. Secrets were all he had.
Well, secrets and a massive idea hangover.
He was planning on using one idea to take the edge off, and save the rest in case Daniel and Kate wanted to drag him off on another ridiculous rescue.
Unfortunately the second bad idea was, “To fully experience something it is best to consume all you can at once.” That one blew his mind to the extent that he stumbled for the nearest place to hide to consume the other three ideas, and was out for the day. Now, with the great fireball that was the focus of all his power ebbing, he stood shakily in the bin, rotten vegetables dropping off him. He clutched his head, too full of ideas to comprehend any of them, and wondered what day it was.
The sun slipped below the horizon at that moment, and Barris transformed.
[BARRIS AND THE MOON FIGHT] [/private]