The Kingdoms of the Suns and Moons: The Arrival

“Hey Chris! Earth to Chris!” the voice came and shattered him from a living dream.
“Wha?” said Chris dazed from his latest daydream, although he kept getting the nagging feeling that these were more than just daydreams.
“C’mon man! You know Mr Wilson will kick your ass if you’re late for PE again”, Marc said. “Shift it sleeping beauty cause there’s no way I’m taking the blame”. Chris checked his watch and saw it was nearly 11:15am and his English class had already ended about 5 minuets ago.

“Shit, if we run through the science block we should make it” Chris said as he grabbed his stuff and chucked it into his bag and hurrying out the door.
“Should? You really have been slacking at practice if you’re not sure we can run that fast” Marc said running behind him.

Mr Wilson apparently had been late himself and not noticed them sneaking into the changing rooms to get into their sports gear. Chris was 17 turning 18 in tomorrow. Marc was already 18 and even though he wasn’t as bright as Chris felt the need to try and guide him, borderline boss him around. Despite that they had been friends since they were in primary school. Marc was a little heavier than Chris, he was more of the brawn than brains time. Marc was muscled all over, Chris often wished he was muscled like him, but he realised he was getting straight A’s in every class and was good at all sports where as Marc’s muscle meant all he was good at was things like weightlifting and heavy weight boxing to which he was the star of the school for. Chris was good at Baseball, Basketball, Hockey, Football and was surprisingly natural at Archery. Marc was about 5ft 11 with black hair and blue eyes. Chris was 6ft 1, athletic, blonde and had brown eyes.

All the class wore the same thing, Chris and Marc often wanted to go to a different sixth form college because of this, they all wore white t-shirts with a small college logo on the right side chest area and black shorts. Whilst the girls look good cause it showed of there bodies well, the guys felt a little embarrassed as the shorts were like rugby player shorts, a little to short and few worried they might ‘fall out’. Chris was a little happier though to find they were playing Baseball today. He let out a small cheeky smile. Marc noticed immediately.

“Oh shut up” Marc said annoyed. Marc was hopping for something a little more rough like boxing. Chris just continued smiling. Mr Wilson made Chris and Marc team captains and picked their teams for them alphabetically. Chris was a little annoyed because the competitive side of him saw that Marc had more stronger players. Marc was annoyed that nearly had all the girls on Chris’ side.

They played a good game and surprisingly Chris’ team won; it seemed the girls were much better today. Either that or the guys were put off their swings by Kari’s breast as she had gone through a recent growth spurt and forgotten her sport’s bra. Marc kept cursing Chris’ good luck in the changing room. Chris was silent.

“Oi Chris don’t go off into that brain of yours, cause I’m not waiting for you after the bell rings. I’ve got a half day and I’m going straight home” he said as he went to shove Chris. Chris instantly grabbed his wrist and stopped him. His grip was very strong to the point it was hurting a little. “Whoa, Chris let go will ya?” Chris shock out of his trance, he turned slowly to Marc and looked at his him. His eyes looked still glazed over. He blinked and was out of his trance and let go of Marc’s hand. Marc stood staring at him. “What the hell was that about?” Chris realised what he had done and ran out the showers and got dressed. Marc slowly followed after trying not to slip. He grabbed Chris before he managed to pick up his bag. “What’s going on with you lately? What was that about back there?” He said shaking Chris gaze remained looking down, like he couldn’t look Marc in the face. The locker room was empty and seemed more silent in the midst of Chris’ lack of response. “Are you still in love with me?” Marc asked quietly. Chris looked straight up at him eye’s wide and then began to laugh. Marc let go of him.

“You are so full of yourself” Chris said between of gasps for air from laughing to hard.
“Hey desperate times call for desperate measures” Marc said.
“You’d know a lot about that wouldn’t you, how much did you pay that last girl?” Chris said still laughing.
“Shut up you monkey cum sucker!” Marc replied and began to get changed.
“I’ll wait outside man” Chris said and walked out laughing a little. When he got outside he leant against the wall and replayed Marc’s idiocy in his head. When he recalled those moments he recalled the moment in the shower too. He didn’t know what was going on again. He then started to hear the sound again. It was like some flute tune that he had never heard. A hand landed on his shoulder and shook him out of it.

“Sorry I took so long” he said, and then he noticed how shocked Chris was. “Are you ok?” he asked. Chris looked at him and smiled.
“I’m fine, let’s go man. I’ve got home work from science to do” Chris said warmly and they walked off. Marc quietly watched Chris. He was getting very worried about him, these incidents were happening more often.

On their way home they talked about junk as usual. The latest song they heard on MTV, the baseball game this weekend that Chris was in. Everything. Then Chris began to hear the ghostly tune of the flute again. Marc continued walking with his bike talking when he realised that Chris had stopped. Marc turned to see Chris with his glazed eyes stood in the middle of the road. A red Toyota Civic was speeding towards Chris. Marc dropped his bike and ran at Chris. The car was only inches away when Marc jumped Chris and pushed him and himself out of the way. They rolled on to the pathway. Chris was immediately out of his trance again. Breathing hard and looking to see the Toyota just continue driving, Marc looked down to then check if Chris was hurt. Chris looked at him blankly.

“Marc…. What are you doing?” He asked quietly.
“What am I doing??” He said shocked. “What the hell are you doing?!” He raised his voice to Chris. “You just stood there and nearly let that car turn you into road kill!”
“I did?” Chris said puzzled.
“Yes, now what the hell is going on with you?” Marc shouted at him. Chris pushed him off and ran away. Marc looked on; he didn’t know what else to do. Whatever was happening Chris wasn’t going to tell him. Marc felt a pinch in his heart.

Chris couldn’t concentrate on his work. His mind kept thinking about these strange dreams and how he ran off. Chris went down stairs to get some food. He looked into the fridge and couldn’t decide what he wanted. He then saw the brown package that had been delivered earlier today. He knew who it was from. It was from his Uncle Graham, he had looked after Chris since he was 10 when his parents died. But for next year he was away on an excavation. He closed the fridge and went over to the package and opened it. In it there was a wooden box and a note. He read the note:

To Chris,
I hope you’re doing well. Sorry about not being there but this excavation has just taken on some new light. Anyway I won’t bore you with the facts. I hope you’re doing well at school and eating well. I know you’re doing me proud on the sport field. I got you a present, it’s in the box and I really hope you like it. I bought it in this flea market over here. Strangely enough it’s Celtic, no idea how it got to Egypt. Anyway if I’m right it’s worth ten times more than what it’s worth. The man who sold it to me seemed insistent for me to have it. It was like he knew I was getting it for you. He said that “this will give him his wings”, I thought it was some saying I didn’t know of. Apparently no one on the camp knows what it means and I can’t find the stall I bought it from. Maybe he thought you were in the air force or I was. It’s all really weird, maybe you can make it into a story in English and get some extra credit. But nevertheless I think it’s really nice and I hope you like. Happy Birthday.

Love,
Uncle Graham

Chris smiled, he didn’t care what it was. His Uncle had done so much for him the past that he would have been happy with just a card. He opened the wooden box. Inside was a leather wrist band, it had three clear stones set in a triangle formation with a gap in the middle. In the middle was a symbol that looked like the moon partially eclipsed but the part that was showing was the bottom part like something moved to cover it from above. Surrounding the stones and flowing out to the straps were Celtic spirals and knots. There were leather strands to fasten it dangling of the end of the straps. Chris pulled it out the box. “Cool!” he said and fastened it to his right hand. He smiled and thought how well his uncle knew him. His smile soon faded as he remembered the birthdays he spent with his parents, then with his uncle. Now he was going to spend this one alone. He went to get some beers from the fridge. Luckily everyone thought he was 18 since his 17th birthday so he was easily able to buy beer. He put them in a bag with his mobile. He realised that marc had tried to call him 4 times, but Chris had left it on silent to avoid talking to him. Chris decided if he was going be alone for his birthday he’d go to the place where he was the most happiest. The playground his parents took him on his 10th Birthday before dying a month later.

He must have sat out in the dark night on the swings for hours. The night was pretty mild for spring, most springs it had never gotten this mild until it was nearly summer. He must have had gone through 6 beers by himself when he heard a voice.
“Hey, mind if I join ya”, Chris looked up to see Marc.
“How did you…” he said quietly puzzled.
“You told me about this place, remember? Since you weren’t at Home or at the local I thought you had to be here” he said and sat on the swing next to him. “Can I have one?” he said pointing at the beers.
“Like you have to ask” Chris said. Marc helped himself. It was quiet for a long while.
“So you gonna tell me what’s up?” Marc said breaking the silence.
“I don’t know what you mean” Chris said keeping his gaze down to his feet.
“You know what I mean. You’ve been blacking out or something. What is it, Diabetic coma or something?” Marc said looking at his beer. “Cause you know this stuff won’t help”.
“No”
“Then what? I’m really getting worried about you man”
“I just….” He started but trailed off.
“You just?”
“I’ve been having these weird day dreams; they start off with this weird tune. It’s like a flute tune of some sort but I’ve never heard it before”.
“What happens after you hear it?” Marc said looking on at his friend who still looked down at his feet.
“I go off into this world in my mind, I think”.
“You think?” He said worried about where this was going.
“It doesn’t feel like a dream or reality, it’s like something more than déjà vu but more than that”.
“Is it exam stress? I mean they’re only a month away” Marc said trying to rationalise it but quietly worrying that Chris might be losing his grip on reality.
“No… It’s nothing to do with it. Where ever it is it feels like it’s pulling me in”
“Where ever?”
“When I’m there there’s this guy in like armour and with a cape. The place is dark but I see him like light comes from him. But I can never see his face just his gentle smile. He…”
“He?” Marc asked pushing him on
“He takes me by the hand and pulls me to him, we end up dancing to this tune and I feel each time it happens I can’t get away. Like he’s pulling me away from here” He said still staring down at his feet. Chris felt a hand on his leg. He looked up to see Marc knelt in front of him.
“No one’s gonna take you away, I wont let them. I…” Marc said gently but trailing off. A moment of silence followed and seemed like forever until Marc continued. “I care about you too much to let something happen to you”
“What do you mean?” Chris said puzzled.

“I know we always joked about stuff, but I do really care about you. More than you know” Marc said. The silence rolled in again. Chris had always seen Marc as a friend and until now he thought he was straight like himself. Marc always was dating and shagging girls. Chris went out with girls now and again but because he was either studying or playing sports or hanging with the guys he rarely saw it go further than a date or just sex. Marc moved forward and up and kissed him on the lips. Marc’s eyes were shut. His gentle warm lips pushed against Chris’. Chris eyes were open and just watched on. Marc’s hand moved from Chris’ lap to his face, his touch was gentle as he stroked his face. Marc broke the kiss and stood up and looked away.
“Marc… I…” Chris began lost for words. In one instance everything changed, their friendship had changed but how. Chris didn’t know. 

Before he could say anything else he felt something in the air. Like it hummed with energy, Marc’s digital watch began to chime it was midnight but soon broke into a melody. Chris’ heart frozen, it was the flute’s song but monophonic digital version. They could hear a crackle as they turned to pin point where it was there was an explosion a few yards away. It’s was like reality had literally broke, as if it were a cheap background prop. A bright light came out of it. It wasn’t the only thing that came out of it, out of the huge hole came a hideous creature. They heard its snarls and growls long before it came out. I long line of fire shot out from the hole. Chris and Marc jumped to the floor only just in time to let it go over them. When they looked up, there stood a jet black dragon with dark green eyes. It looked down at them and Chris knew what exactly was on its mind. The beast was hungry.

TO BE CONTINUED...