Unending Moonlight

 

 

Chapter 2

Small leaves were falling from the trees. Upon further, closer inspection, one could see they were brown. Even in eternal night, the seasons still changed.

It was one of the few ways that anyone could tell time was actually still passing, since the sun had not shown itself nor had the moon moved in over 1,000 years. The thing was, it was all an enchantment. The entire sky, no matter where you went, always had the full moon shining directly down. Some said that the moon had been enchanted to follow everyone, others said that it was an illusion that was part of the spell. No one knew who or what cast the spell, but what was known was that it had been done, and that things were different now.

The endless night still had ways of telling that time had passed. For example, the temperature would still rise and fall as if the earth was still spinning, the seasons would come and go, and life would still begin, grow old, and die.

This was where the similarities ended. Everything that had once ruled the night, or certain nights, now ruled all of the time. Vampires, Lycans, Witches, Demons and all manner of undead or evil things now called the shots. And despite humanity’s best attempts to thwart whatever it had thrown at it, more often than not humanity would fail and was thus reduced to only a few pockets of life outside of their last stronghold, the great City of Light.

To David Rothfield though, these were just the fairytales he had grown up with. All he knew was that he had to grow his food, and fight against whatever came out of the woods to keep himself and his village alive. Old tales of the Sun, days, fast-growing food, and safety were just things that he figured were invented put young children to sleep.

David kicked a rock that was in front of him, and he adjusted his grip on his scythe. Though it was normally just a simple farm tool, it could easily become a deadly weapon in a pinch. The scythe had belonged to his father, but he had died during a recent vampire attack. Or at least, it was hoped that he was dead.

There were tales that vampires, werewolves, and other creatures were once human, and that they had been turned into the creatures they are now because of a bite to the neck, or something similar. It was also told that sometimes these creatures fought within themselves, and sometimes to boost their numbers they would kidnap humans and force them to turn instead of kill them for food.

David’s father had not been found among the living when the last attack had happened, and neither was he found among the dead. It was assumed that he was carried off. David had reasoned with himself and his mother that the real reason why they sometimes took people was because they wanted reserve food so that they need not always attack a human settlement, because they do sometimes lose numbers when they attack a village. While this hadn’t really comforted his mother too much, it assured David enough that he could stand in his father’s place among the town watch and not have the fear of possibly running into his father as an undead.

David looked up at the moon. He didn’t love it, but he didn’t hate it. It was all he’d known throughout his life. Looking out across the fields to the edge of the forest, he wondered to himself what, if anything, would come out this time. Despite there being a lack of a skyward clock, everyone still became tired about the same time, and this was usually when an attack, if it came, would occur.

Hearing some movement behind some bushes, David grabbed a torch and walked over to the noise. The bushes were small and were inside of the village, and were some decorative ones that lined the front of a house, and the noise was coming from the corner of the bushes. If something had snuck in without the town watch seeing it, then it must have been very small.

As he walked toward the bushes cautiously, David heard a muffled giggle. His tension relaxed when he heard a young child whose voice he recognized whisper. “Shh! Be quiet. He might not see us yet.”

Another voice answered the first. “Then why is he walking over here? There isn’t anything over here!”

A third voice chimed in. “Maybe he needs to… you know.”

The first and second voice went silent, but then the second voice spoke up. “You don’t think he’ll do it on us, do you?!”

The three voices began chattering with even more noise than before, and David weighed his options. These three weren’t supposed to be out this late, so he needed to somehow get them to go home. He could walk over and pretend to relieve himself, hoping maybe they would jump out of their hiding spot and reveal themselves. Or he could just walk over and tell them to go home.

David knew though that neither of those would do the trick to keep them at home, because once he left them alone at their houses they would probably just sneak out again the same way they had done the first time. Instead, he devised another plan…

In a loud enough voice that the three children could hear him, David spoke. “Ah, looks like it was nothing. I’ll just go back over here now.”

Promptly, David turned around and walked back to the spot where he’d been standing, then he rounded the corner of a house that was across the one with the bushes so that they couldn’t see him and continued walking.

Six little eyes peered through the bush and looked at the light from the torch disappear as its holder walked away. Feeling safe, the three young children fell back on to the ground and leaned up against the building that the bush was in front of.

The first one to speak was a particularly short one, who had a helmet made of an old rusted pot, just like his two friends. “I told you we had to be more quiet! He almost saw us!”

The next to speak was another young boy, this one being of above average height for his age, and he was gripping a large wooden ladle like a club. “You were the one who tripped! Sarah and I were like mice.”

Lastly, a young girl, Sarah, spoke up. She was holding some rocks. “Tim’s right, Lucas. You were the one who tripped.”

Lucas looked at his two comrades with contempt. “Yeah well… at least he didn’t see us. We can’t finish our mission if we get caught!” He swung a large stick in the air like a sword. “And what is our mission?”

All three spoke at once, holding their weapons up in the air. “To protect our village!”

Having been waiting for just such a moment, David rounded the corner and growled at the three would-be guardians. He was met with two screams and a cry, followed by a face full of stick, ladle, and pebbles. All three of the children fell down on the ground and began to wail, and even David began to feel bad.

He knelt over and picked up the one closest to him, which was young Timothy. David stood him on his feet, dusted him off, and looked him in the eye. By now, Tim had stopped crying, but the realization that it wasn’t a huge monster that had scared him but an adult who could get him into trouble with other adults made him cry once again.

David held his head in his hand and had the other on Tim’s shoulder as Tim continued to cry. A group of men with sharpened farm tools and torches ran over to investigate the screams. David cringed on the inside. He hadn’t considered the fact that the kids might have screamed and thus alerted the town watch of trouble. Now he was going to have to explain what he’d done.

The man in front of the group was Alton Drimstead. He was one of the oldest men in the town and was also its mayor. He was a man of weight and strength, and had a scraggly but long white beard. Being the one in front of the group, he was the first to recognize David and the children.

“David! What’s going on here? Why are these children not at home and out here crying? Was there an attack?”

David put his hands up and opened his mouth to speak, but the words did not come out. He wasn’t sure where to start–with his side of the story, or what he gathered to be the children’s side.

He didn’t have to speak though, as Lucas stood up and ran over to Alton. “Grandpa! David scared us! We were out, er, doing nothing and he jumped out and scared us!”

Alton put his hand on Lucas’ head as Lucas hugged what he could of his grandfather’s belly. He looked at David, who had a look that was a mixture of a grin and hateful stare, the latter of which was directed towards Lucas. He guessed that his grandson wasn’t quite lying, but wasn’t telling the whole truth.

Pushing Lucas to the side, Alton turned to face the group of armed men. “Since it looks like there was no attack, we all don’t need to be here. Go back to your posts and keep watching. I can handle this problem here.”

The group of farmers began to disperse, some grumbling and others just being quiet. Alton looked at Lucas and told him to stand in the middle between himself and David, and he told Sarah and Timothy to do the same. Looking at David, he began to speak.

“David, perhaps you can explain to me what happened without lying.” He gave Lucas a hard look, who in turn began to look dejected.

David was glad to be able to speak without having to explain to a whole group of armed, angry men who had come looking for a fight. “Well, you see, I was patrolling this area just like I was told to do. I heard a noise in these bushes and came to investigate. At first, I thought maybe some goblins had snuck in without anyone seeing, but then I heard the three of them talking.” As he was speaking, David’s gaze shifted from Alton to the three children, who began pinching each other when he said he heard them speak. “I decided that just telling them to go home wasn’t going to be enough to keep them home, so I decided to sneak around and surprise them so that hopefully they would realize that they shouldn’t be out at this time.”

Alton was eyeing David and the three children with an equally suspicious eye. David continued to speak. “Before I scared them however, I heard them talking about how they were out and about at this time because they wanted to help protect this village.” He bent over and picked up the ladle, stick, and pebbles and showed them to Alton. “They had these in their hands that they used to hit me with, and judging from the pots on their heads and the rough burlap sacks they have on over their clothes, I’d say that they thought that they were actually ready to fight something.”

Alton looked at all of the evidence and thought for a moment. A thunderous belly laugh roared out from him. He looked at the three children’s expressions and knew without a doubt that David was telling the truth.

“Alright, alright. I see that David here is more trustworthy than my own bloodline?” Alton waved his beefy finger at Lucas. “If that is the case, then my bloodline must be punished until it can be trustworthy.” He looked over towards Sarah and Tim. “And no doubt the friends of my bloodline will be dealt with as well.”

Lucas’ face went from sad to angry. “Hey! We were the ones who got scared, and we have to get punished?! How come David isn’t going to be punished?”

“Because David was doing what he was supposed to be doing and didn’t lie to me.” Alton looked down at his grandson without moving his head. “Now, I want the three of you to head home now. You know the way, and since your houses are in the center of the village, you don’t need anyone to make sure you’ll get there safely.” Alton cleared his throat and paused, so as to add weight to his next statement. “However! If you should stray from going home and actually stay out even though you’ve been told to stay in, then you will be punished severely.”

Lucas, ever the trouble maker, had a grin on his face. “And if we’re not caught?”

“Then if there is an attack no one will be able to help you if you need it and you will probably end up dead or worse.” Alton’s voice was serious. He wasn’t just trying to keep them in line, either. It was true that if there had been an attack and David had not found them, then they might be found tomorrow either dead or missing.

Lucas’ smirk disappeared in the blink of an eye. “We only wanted to help…”

Alton lowered his voice and knelt to their level. “And someday you will. But for now you are much too young. Besides that, right now you’re old grandpa couldn’t bare to see you lost, Lucas. Some day, I’ll be dead and you’ll be a grown man. When that happens, you can go on all the watch patrols you like.” He added the last part with a wink.

Lucas’ and his friend’s faces changed from dejected to determined. The three of them all huddled together and whispered something among themselves. They all turned around at once, and Lucas’ put both hands up into the air, clenched in fists.

“OK! We’ll do it, Grandpa! We’ll grow up really fast and then we can fight! I don’t want you to die, but if you have to die in order for us to fight then hurry up and die quickly! Like, once we’re older and stuff! Then we can fight and I’ll make you proud!”

Alton was taken aback by the sudden change in energy, but was relieved to see that it was channeled into doing what he asked. He laughed at the last part of what Lucas said and patted him on the head for it.

“Alright then, get home and get to bed! You can’t grow up if you don’t sleep.”

“Right!” All three children ran as fast as they could to their houses and disappeared around the corner.

Alton watched them go, and turned to look at David. David was smiling at their youthful enthusiasm as much as Alton had been. Alton had always noted that David seemed to have grown up quickly since his father had disappeared, but he still had his childlike moments, and this case was no exception.

Clearing his throat to get David’s attention, Alton began to speak. “David. I want you to understand that you’re not exactly getting out of this without a slap or two on the wrist. While I am grateful that you spotted them, scaring them was a poor decision on your part.”

David glanced at the ground, then back up at Alton. He gave a half-frown. “I know. I should have just called them out, but I wanted them to see that they weren’t really as ready as they thought they were. Hell, I’m twenty-three and I still don’t feel ready for an attack of any kind.”

Alton closed his eyes and nodded. David had a point about being ready. Fighting a supernatural, undead being is something that no man is ever really ready for, regardless of age or experience. Still, someone had to do it, and those that did needed to set an example.

“I understand your problems, David, I really do. Believe it or not I too was once a young man. Nevertheless, please try to keep others from crying wolf, as the old tales say, from now on.”

David nodded in return. “I’ll do my best.”

With that, Alton turned and walked away. As he walked away, he waved good-bye to David, signaling that he was returning to his own patrol.

David let out a long sigh. This was the most eventful watch they’d had in over 3 months, that is, since the last attack. David shifted his gaze to the edge of the forest again. Nothing out of the ordinary could be seen, aside from the fact that he couldn’t see anything. Sometimes David wondered about those old tales of their being sunlight, and that a man could see so far away during the “day” that it was as if the whole sky was on fire and was shining light down on the ground from every angle.

It had been some years ago that a man came into the village, dressed in strange clothing and spoke in a manner that seemed very high end to the people of the village, but was still understandable. David had only been 5 years old at the time, but he still remembered his visit very well. He told tales that were very similar to the ones that already circulated around David’s village, but they were slightly different. He’d brought something called a “flashlight” that produced light and could make things brighter either far away or up close.

He’d said that he came from the City of Light and that there everything was illuminated this way, and that was why it had its name. He told them that he knew the truth of everything: why the moon never set, what the monsters really were and the best ways to kill them, and, according to him most importantly, what sunlight really was.

He had offered a deal to the village during that time. He had said that if the village would supply his city with food, then they would supply the village with light and possibly protection in the form of man power if they could produce enough food.

Initially, the deal was taken. The villagers gave him lots of food that he took back to his city, and then he and other men returned carrying lots of lights and well-made weapons. Soon the village was the brightest it had ever been, and the attacks became fewer and further between, and when they did come they were quickly fended off by the well-trained guardsmen of the city.

Unfortunately, the city kept asking for more and more food. The village was small and therefore was not growing as fast as the city; the farmers couldn’t keep up with the increasing demand. Eventually the aid that came from the city was lessened. Fewer guards were posted and fewer lights were kept on in the village until finally the help the city was giving in exchange for the amount of food it was taking–for the amount of food did not change with the lesser amount of help they were giving–was just outright refused by the village people. The city folk were forced to leave and told never to come back. They had come when David was 5 and left when he was 7.