["I'm the child of the Sun and the Moon,
Made from everything with love, yet I was feared, hated and shunned.
I arrive each day, like clockwork, without fail,
But some see me as a dark omen, others greet me without wail.
I'm a time of change, when day turns to night,
A fleeting moment that many see as a blight.
What am I?" asked the Harlequin as he gave a sly grin to the merchant in front of him.
The merchant is covered with sweat, tears and a bloody stench of his headless Noble comrade beside him as a result of wrong answer to the Jolly Harlequin's riddles. But fear not, he will spare you or reward you for the correct answer, depending on his mood.
Despite knowing the answer, fear choked the merchant's neck like a noose made from the thickest rope made by a master craftsman. It seems like he would not last, judging by his silent ceaseless sobbing and quivering lips.
"Judging by your silence, it seems like you want to join your friend after all. Lucky for you, I know just the trick. A quick lop-off! Allow me the honors..." the Harlequin chuckled with twisted delight as he brandished his scythe and swung down with full force when a voice bellowed.
"IT'S DUSK!!! It's Dusk, I swear... It's Dusk, isn't it?" The merchant finally uttered his answer and continued sobbing and wallowing for his life. The scythe's blade was inches away from his nape and just nicked his skin, drawing droplets of dark red blood. The Harlequin stopped grinning, squinted his eyes closed and said: "This is why I hate smart guys... they always have answers at the ready."
The merchant's heart was filled with a breeze of peace as he realised that he is out of danger. The tension in the atmosphere has lessened and gave him some room to breathe.
With his stoic face resting on one hand, the Harlequin continued: "With a mind such as yours, I bet your parents must be real proud of you, huh?"
The merchant replied: "Yes, uhm... I agree! In fact, my father does not waste a single moment in bragging about my intellect. If I may, shall I share you something?"
The Harlequin looked with intrigue: "Go ahead...", he said, as he inched a bit closer to listen to the merchant's idea.
" If you spare my life, I'll discuss with my father and ask him to support you in every way possible. I'll make sure to get your demands complied and wishes granted. My family will serve you forever!", he said while keeping his head bowed down. Although the pleading sounded genuine, the Harlequin does not seem to be moved.
"Then I suppose I must bring a gift with equal value, wouldn't you agree?" the Harlequin asked.
"It's alright, sir! For a figure such as yourself, any gift is fine! I'll even accept it on behalf of my father!", the merchant's face shone brightly.
"Alright, how about your head?" the Harlequin suggested with a playful grin.
"Of cour--- pardon?!", the merchant could not believe what he heard. The Harlequin was preening and sharpening his scythe with his finger with a menacing grin that grew as he slowly turned towards the noble. The implication is pretty obvious.
Fear yanked him away like a puppeteer and put him on a scurrying frenzy on all fours in a desperate attempt to escape. The merchant threw his hand out to reach the door knob but another hand grabbed his ankle. Before he understood what's happening, he finds himself outside the building. Falling. Until his back met the earth with a loud thud.
The night sky overlooks the final moments of the merchant who lie broken, damp with his blood underneath, the whites of his eyes reddening and gasping for air while his lungs are filling up with blood. Truly, it is a gruesome sight to behold for the faint-hearted but not the Harlequin.
With the look of the betrayed, the noble feebly asked: "Why...? Why am I... dying? I gave you the answer.
The Harlequin said, " Well, it's pretty obvious. The answer is wrong and thus, you're lying on the ground. Dying."
"No... no matter what, the answer to your riddle should be Dusk. It must be dusk. What did I do... to deserve this...?"
The Harlequin's face started to grow a frown with seething rage: "Don't play dumb, you slaver mongrel. You and your friends grew rich by selling people in the black market and treat them as exotic animals and toys and you have the audacity to feign innocence?!"
"But... you're nothing but a ghost... A phantom... Why would you meddle in these matters? Unless... you're searching for--- Oh... is it about those babes?"
The Harlequin's eyes widened: "So you do know what I want. Now, where... are they...?" He could barely control the fury that's on the brim of his soul.
The merchant simply looked at him... and chuckled. The chuckle turned into giggle, which soon turned into a manic laughter which he did not stop, even if he's convulsing in pain. Even the gargling blood within his throat does not seem to stop him from the Harlequin.
"No wonder you sounded familiar! You're that smartass peasant from that circus. Hey clown, I got to thank you for rearing those fine bunnies. They are simply exquisite! I wish I could keep one or two myself but many 'patrons' of mine just couldn't resist their urges, hahaha! I made a ton of fortune, thanks to you! Even though you masquerade yourself as the Angel of Death, you're still nothing! My associates, patrons and even agents of the law will chase you to the ends of Earth for the havoc you wreaked against us these few months! Mark my words, peasant for you will---"
The fine flick of the Harlequin's wrist snatched away the merchant's tongue, his mouth gushing with blood like a fountain. He raised his scythe high in the air and imbued his power through it. Violet wisps of aura dance around the blade. Tears of blood flows from the Harlequin's masked face out of sorrow and fury. "May Hades prepare you to be the finest toy of the Titans. To Tartarus!" he screamed and swung down his scythe and hdkdjd---]
"How many times..." a teen boy grumbled as he wiped his wet neck. "What part of 'No cold cans on neck' don't you understand, old woman?! I almost dropped my phone and lost everything!" he shouted. Then he promptly saved the draft in his mobile and kept in his pocket.
"Sorry, bad habits." The woman gave a half-hearted apologetic smile to him. Clearly, she has no intention of changing her habits. Not in this lifetime anyway. "Besides, you can write from the start if the draft got messed up, right?"
"Hmm... let me answer with another question. How do you feel when your sinuses get clogged up?"
The woman pressed her forehead in frustration: "Why do you need to do that? Personally, it's dreadful. Worse, you can't smell or taste and wobble around like a filthy zombie. I'd do anything to avoid getting sick like that."
"I feel like that too. And that thing's called Writer's block. It's basically Author's flu. You get it, you're stuck with it for months. Worst-case scenario, years."
"So... long story short, when you get disturbed in the zone, you lose that idea forever. Right?"
The boy snapped his finger: "Bingo! You're smarter than I thought, Auntie. Kudos!" he teased.
"What do you mean by that?" his aunt asked in a low voice.
"Well... granted you're tall and brawny, I thought you don't get enough oxygen to think. I doubted you have the capacity to do even a simple 1+1.", the boy started to giggle.
"Why you little---" his aunt snapped and grabbed the boy, tickling him on his weak spots. The giggling boy started to laugh like a maniac in response. After some time, she let him go and continued sulking, still clinging onto the teasing. The boy is struggling to regain his composure but the combined effect of the thought and the tickling made him wheeze harder and his sides hurt more. Still, he couldn't stop giggling.
"Enough, I say!" said the woman. "Kids have no respect these days. They think they can get away with everything, I swear...", she slouched and grumbled away.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
"Okay, I'll stop. Just give me a few seconds though." the boy breathed in and out and regained his composure but he kept on smiling at the funny situation unfolded in front of him.
"How's Ringara doing nowadays?" his aunt asked with casual curiosity.
"You mean Uncle? He's doing great. Unless you want to see him mad by sitting on his face." This comment earned him a loud, hard slap on his back, setting the skin on fire. The force alone made him fling off of the swing and fell down on all fours.
"You don't say that in public places, you crazy punk!" his aunt shouted, her face burning pink out of embarassment. "Where did you learn that?! Who taught you that?!"
"What's the big idea, Auntie?! Isn't that how you greet him when you were a couple back in the day?"
"Hell no, we don't!! We slammed each other against the walls while giving each other big sloppy French ki-AAAHHH!!!" the woman realised she dug her grave further and sunk down in shame, her face burning red by the second. But the boy kept on slapping the floor, laughing like there's no tomorrow and tears trickle down his cheeks.
"You're so evil! How could you do that to your poor Auntie? First of all, how could you say that, huh?!" the woman is on the verge of shedding tears, which made the boy realised that he took things too far.
"Ahem! My bad, I crossed the line here. Sorry again..." the boy surrendered and apologized which made his aunt sigh: 'Man, this is getting nowhere.' She looked up to the evening sky and gazed at the faint moon with a sort of yearning. The boy, then opened his mouth: "Auntie, although you're his ex-girlfriend, you're still pining for him to this day. Not to mention, you're almost 50. I believe you're wasting your affections on a lost cause."
"You're right. Maybe I'm just wasting my time trying to mend our broken relationship. Maybe I'm just dumb salvaging what's left in our friendship. But remember this, one doesn't just forget their first love. Especially when they are at an arm's length away. In the end, it's all worth it." the woman smiled gently which made her look beautiful under the purpling sky.
This made the boy's eyes open wide and began to see his aunt in a new light. "Well, I'll be rooting for you. Hope you reconcile with him." the boy smiled.
"Thank you!" his aunt beamed with joy and hope.
"When pigs fly..." he smirked.
"You PUNK!" the woman screeched with wrath, pulling her godson's hair and lift him off the ground. The boy pleaded profusely to let him go.
Night came and the boy was left alone, dazed with pain while his aunt kept on sulking. "I just said the truth though. I know Uncle and if he's best at one thing, it's stubbornness. This begs me the question: why is he so mad at you, even though you love him? What did you do?"
"It's what I didn't do. Unable to do..." his aunt's voice was filled his regret and helplessness. "That day when your parents died, or rather their disappearance, I was there and I was in a deadlock with the culprits. By the time he got there, it was already too late. When Ringara heard about it later, he yelled, cursed, cried, hurled everything at me. I just stood there like a mountain, I couldn't even comfort him. It's safe to say that I lost the privilege of doing so, seeing as how distant we are." the woman struggled to control from crying while wiping her tears subtly.
"That's why I'm here..." she continued, "... to guide you to your father. Or at least, the leads showing to where he might be." the woman said with a stoic voice while searching for the info in her totem.
"Is there anything I could do?" the boy asked his aunt.
"Of course! One could say this path is made only for you." the woman beamed before keeping the hand on her godson's head. "You just have to play this."
Before he could realize what happened, a multitude of sensations flooded inside his head. Like the Pillar of Fire descending, the overwhelming amount of data chaotically swirled in his mind for awhile. Slowly but surely, the data organized and stabilized perfectly. Although the process is completed, the aftermath made the boy groggy. He knew what he was coming and rushed towards the nearest bush. With no time to brace, he vomited suddenly and badly. The dizziness hit him as well. It is overwhelming, at the least.
"Uh oh... should've done this on an empty stomach. Sorry, kid. Really sorry." his aunt rubbed on his back to ease his retching.
"You should've given me a heads-up... What did you do to me?" he asked feebly as his consciousness faded in and out.
"I downloaded the game in your Totem. You can check it out now."
The boy tapped his totem, swiped and pressed the Holo-screen, searching for the game until he saw an icon that features a silhouette of a animal in its battle stance. Under that, it read Wildborn.
"Hey, Auntie... isn't this the game everybody's playing right now?" he asked, as confusion starts to seep in.
"That's right! You must play this game. Simple and easy, isn't it?" she smiled playfully.
"How does this game relates to my missing father? Do I look like a joke to you?!" he raised his voice with an annoyed frown on his face.
"Of course not! See, *******-"
"AAHHH!" the boy shouted and winced away from his aunt, which startled her. The concerned woman asked him: "What happened?! Are you okay? Say something!"
"I... I'm fine. Just a second." the boy assured her and massaged his head. "What were you saying?"
"I said *******-"
"AAAAHHHH!!!" the pain got a bit more excruciating. "Make it stop! Make it STOP!"
The woman held her godson's head and sent some pulses through him. The pulses gradually subsided the pain and gave him relief.The boy drew long breaths in peace. Upon seeing the condition first-hand, dread came up over her. 'Zakari... what have you done? How can you be so cruel?', she thought.
"Jun, what was that? How long did you have this... condition?", her voice trembled as she asked the question.
"Well, I think it's been like this since my seventh birthday. The accident, to be exact. The aftermath is that I am unable to recognise my parents. Their faces, voices and even their names- they are all distorted. The more I tried to remember, the more the headaches, like now, happens. Man, I stopped doing this when I was 10. Worse, the face blurring started to spread on others too. It's because of this I couldn't recognise at the beginning. I wasn't rude at all, hahaha." Jun chuckled sheepishly at this.
The woman hugged and comforted him, while tears flowed from her eyes. She felt devastated that he had to endure such a cruel handicap, but she feels a bit of pride that he has a strong heart and mind. But she could not bring herself to tell more.
"Auntie, I'm fine. It's alright now.", Jun assured his aunt. "So, what can I do now? What should I do?"
He looked straight into his aunt's eyes. She could see the glimmer of hope, the flame of resolve within him. 'Haha, like father, like son. I shouldn't be surprised at this point.' she though to herself.
With a clear, stern voice, she spoke: "Jun, listen to me carefully. What you're going to do will put you in danger. Your friends and family will be dragged into this. Once you start this, there's no going back. Still, I'll support you in every way possible. I'll help you reach your parents, if it's the last thing I do. Are you ready for this?"
Jun has merely patted her shoulder and gave her his thumbs-up with a grin of his face. In an instant, she felt immense assurance and started to smile widely.
"Now that I know you're good to go, how are you going to deal with Ringara?" his aunt worried.
"Simple. I'll tell everything as it is and ask him to help me. It's fine if he didn't want to. Worst-case scenario, we'll have to fight for my freedom."
The woman gasped: "Hey! I'm telling you to convince him, not throw hands!"
"Well, you can't negotiate with a bear, can you? If he's bruised, he brought it on himself. That's all."
"Don't you dare hurt him... you'll be in a world of pain when that happens..." his aunt threatened menacingly, her royal aura emanating.
'I can't bear to look at my aunt. How she is acting cute, despite being old is beyond me.' Jun thought to himself with disbelief and amusement when his aunt, a habitually violent woman, is advocating peace and defending for his uncle. He just couldn't hold it anymore: "Jeez, why don't you just make up and make out already?"
"Hey, what are you even saying?! Are you out of your mind?!" his aunt got flustered in an instant. "Even Dan said the same thing!"
"Looks like my brother did a good job. It's high time he did that. You have no idea how much he's been yapping at the idea of Uncle's remarriage with you."
"Really?!" she was shocked at this revelation.
Jun nodded with a soft smug look on his face.
"Oh come on! Stop teasing me like that, you brats! I don't think it's true!" she is growing bright red, her thinking capacity shrinking as she's dreaming about her possible life with Ringara.
"At this rate, I may become your nephew soon. Hehehe"
"Enough!" No sooner did she shouted than her face flashed a bright light at Jun's face. The light startled him so badly that he jolted in his seat. 'What in the world happened?', he thought to himself when he saw the window right next to him, showing a wide bay below and a bright blue sky above. He realizes now that he was sleeping all this time during his journey in the air.
Just then, an excited voice greeted him: "Good morning! Have some water. I bet you'll feel pretty thirsty now." He turned left to see a blonde, chubby man offering him a water bottle. He accepted the bottle: "Thanks, Dan. You're a lifesaver!"
"Don't mention it, bro!" Dan smiled brighter than the morning sun itself. "Almost forgot... we'll land there in half an hour. So, you can take a nap if you want."
"Nah, I am wide awake now. It's useless to take a nap." Jun said while gulping down the water. "The Parched will find that the water is sweeter than honey."
"Oh, is that a new opening dialogue for something?"
"No... just a relatable thought, is all."
"I see... by the way, what were you murmuring in your sleep? Any problem?" Dan worried for him.
"Nothing like that. Unlike your serenading escapades with your idol, if you know what I mean." Jun shot a mean smirk at Dan, which got him red with embarassment and anger.
"Hey, it's not like that! I may have a crush on Lady Sandstone but I'm not obsessed with her! It's just that her songs are that amazing and catchy!" he desperately explained logically over his one-sided crush for Christina Sandstone, a famously active idol and diva.
Jun patted his back with a pitiful look, half-heartedly rooting for his brother's crush, who's way out of league for him. But little did he know that his underestimation would come to bite him back badly in the future. "Don't give me that look!" Dan swatted his hand away with a bummed-out look.
"Alright... I just remembered Auntie Hibana. It was regarding my parents. Nothing more." Jun finally replied.
"I see... It's been four years since we last saw her in person. Do you think we'll meet again?" Dan hoped for it.
"Sure, once she retires from her company. I'm pretty sure she misses all of us. Especially Uncle."
"Hahaha, you're right about that!" Dan beamed with enthusiasm. "I hope they get together after this. It's about time Dad has some company in his age."
Jun nodded in agreement.
Just then, a voice from PA system spoke: "You'll be arriving at Clover Harbor shortly. We thank you for choosing Skyslither Express. You can submit the review showing on your screen so that your traveling experience will be improved further next time. Thank you again!"
Jun and Dan looked out from the window to see the figure of a landmass far away, their destination. Jun spoke: "Ready for an adventure, pal?"
Dan smirked: "You bet I do!"
They bumped fists with each other, barely containing their excitement as their journey slowly comes to an end.
Just then, another announcement relayed. "Good morning passengers, we regret to inform you that our arrival will be delayed by detour as a storm warning has been established. Buckle up in your seats as turbulence may come in our way. Thank you for your listening and patience."
'Aw, man! This sucks!' Jun and Dan thought with frosty disappointment, cupping their heads with their hands, resting on the seat trays.
[To be continued]