Upon the evening... Prologue

Preface
Upon the evening a king turned older, weaker

"Tell it again!" Quince insisted, snuggled up against a pile of pillows, hugging an extra-plush one with both sets of arms. In the background was the distorted, yet identifiable hint of a live musical band somewhere some rooms away from the sanctuary of the boy prince's quarters.

The veiled human by his bed sighed; "Child, It's a tale too long." Pushing back the garment that hid his face, the effeminate man held his own forehead as if it were about to separate from the rest of his face.

"But it's father's birthday! I wanna hear the story again 'bout how everything was built!"

"Alright, but then this is the final time… Until your father's very old, prince?"

"Okay, Promises over my heart and hands!" The pledge accented by all four palms extended, wiggling to show their willingness to be put on the line.

The avid hunter and holy man, Joe-mum, was known for many things. Storytelling, the short kind, was among these talents. But he paused with a pained expression as this tale would require more memory then the average fable; "It was no less than 25 years to this day, on your father's very birthday that it happened."

Snuggled up with a pillow and another cushion once more, Quince's face lit up with excitement. Tiny fingers, all eighteen, drummed against upholstery fabric.

"See, and… Near everyone, we were criminals of one sort or more. We were in status and lined all along this ship, what you might call a penal colony ship. It was awful, but no one was complaining yet. Couldn't, really. We were passing through this system, but no one knew. We had no idea where we were in the greater scheme of things, and the security would never wake us to say of course. It was only when the ship veered to a sharp starboard did we knew something was wrong."

"How would you know something was wrong, if you're in those status—er, if your asleep in pods?"

"It's an emergency safeguard, when something goes very wrong, to activate the awakening process. As soon as most of us woke, the gravity kicked in. We were certain death was near."

"Why?" Quince asked, with wide eyes that already knew the answer, perhaps, but felt inclined to draw out the tale as long as possible.

"Re-entry to anyplace, unintentionally, is a death sentence in it of itself, Quince.  Simply because the momentum your vessel gains is far too fierce. I've nay known a person to admit they remember exactly what happened next, but the ship hit and it hit hard. We woke with many thrown from their pods and most of them were dead and dismembered."

"Were the vines already eating them?" Came the macabre inquiry from an innocent's throat. Joe-mum shut one eye and glared at Quince, as if daring him to ask that a second time. The boy's face remained dead-pan, waiting for some sort of detailed, gross description.

" Yes." The shaman said, leaving it at that before adding; "Maybe, I could say, a third or less of us made it through impact. The next few hours, more of us passed away from injury. What we found of ourselves left were few and none of the prison staff to offer even a suggestion of law and order."

"Weren't you all friends?" The prince squeaked inquisitively.

"No, actually… Prisoners locked in status, kept asleep, have no awareness of the world around them… We all met right there, in the burning wreckage. But that is when the heavens parted and your father stood collected. He at first only ordered some of us around, and only some of those listened. But everyone under Jaycub's leadership seemed to be better off, so we all fell in line."

"Because Daddy's the smartest."

The shaman shrugged, neither confirming nor disagreeing with the adoring son's statement; " I remember it was some days, before we figured out the planet didn't like us much at all. We learned the caves should be avoided and provided no true shelter. By the time a week or more passed, we were approached by Ohwanna."

"That's the lady-maker! Ohrock's momma." The sheer notion that he could remember her name and relations seemed to endow a sense of accomplishment within the boy. But perhaps it was granted, few could tell those giant floating monsters apart.

Joe-mum snickered; "She told us she wanted salvage from our wreckage and in exchange she and the other Makers would help to mend the survivors."

"Why don't they ever hug?" The topic shift was accompanied by a head tilt, Quince more than certain that the shaman would know, as he seemed to know everything this boy ever wanted to know.

"Because they live in their minds, boy." Joe tapped an index finger to his own temple; "Ohwanna and all of them… Don't concern themselves with physical things like we do."

"…When did Nahzin come by?"

Another topic shift and the storyteller could at least be glad it had a bit more to do with the tale in question; "Sometime after Ohwanna and The Three. She didn't seem too interested in helping us. Nahzin had already been on world for awhile. I… Don't know how, but she had managed to survive up until then. Me and her started working together, she knew the layout of the land, I was… An… avid hunter."

Joe nodded with a twitch of annoyance, trying to stay on the story; "We started to have meat every night then. It took a while to discern what was safe to---"

"When did you guys build th' town?!"

He blinked, startled; "Okay! Okay, I'll skip ahead. We did build a home for ourselves once, but the planet took it back. The swamps, took it, actually."

"Cause it's creepy like that!"

"…We were looking for some place, we were sending people out any which way to find a good place, and this is what got found. That wall of rock, the mountain range between us 'n the inland is a natural fence. Plants don't even grow on the rock."

"And then Ohrock was born!"

"And his twin sister, yes." Joe-mum paused, to see if Quince had any shout out questions regarding that topic, but the child stayed quiet for once, waiting intently for the tale to continue.

"It took a long time to get all of the stuff out of the junk yards we needed, but once we got some buildings up, we focused on securing some farmland." Steadily as it went on, the boy's eyelids grew heavy.

"But it took many, many years to secure land beyond the range. We had to make that ash barrier. And it still fails sometimes, you know?" Silence filled what once would have been a chirpy response.

Quince had stopped interrupting, bringing a smirk to the shaman's face as he quietly tucked in the pampered child.

Standing, Joe-mum scanned the room of hand-crafted toys, carved or stuffed and sewn with care. He picked out a soft doll of rag from a shelf and gently tucked it into bed with Quince before stealthily sneaking out.

Sliding the boy's thin door shut, the hunter found himself caught off guard by Vill as she leaned against the wall behind him.

Dulled brown eyes locked with the shaman's as the woman in a blue suit parted her bland lips; "It's an interesting mystery…" Chilled whispers mused; "How suddenly this world accepted this township. Humanoids have been trying to live here throughout time and nothing seems to work. Even the terraforming machinery gets overrun."

Joe kept his ground, subconsciously blocking the prince's room, the metaphoric vulture circling; "Well, perhaps the planet recognizes how much hell we've already been through and it decided to give us a break?"

"Stop speaking about it as if a planet could consciously decide on who it wants to be colonized by and not. The truth lies in something you did, something the initial survivors or even Jaycub himself did." Gaze narrowed, expecting words to resonate in the storyteller.

"And that's why you're here, Vill." Joe-mum smirked as he pulled his veil up over cap-covered hair; "I am certain you plan to uncover something, something that will gain you a promotion and let the Terra Arms start a new military outpost.." hands held out to either side, showing his open palms with no surprise or magic to be seen; "… But it isn't that simple."

"And why?" She hissed, leaning forward to almost meet nose tip to nose tip in the tight hallway. Frustration could be felt boiling under blacken, cooled lava-surface of her pupils.

"Because… This world doesn't like you." The shaman smiled and turned, simply wandering back to the sounds of the party. Hips swaying to the musical beat, he left the vulture to glare laser beams into the back of his skull.

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©2011 Amy E. Erwin, Please do not claim it as your own. Please don't rip it off.