Zo-Writes· Section 1
"You're going to be late! Go to school now!" Yelled Timothy's mom. Timothy hurried out the door only to realize he forgot his jacket. Midwinter. 20 degrees. If Timothy went back, his mother would be furious, but he couldn't walk to school with a t-shirt. There! A jacket left on the parks stonewall. Timothy gladly put it on without a second thought. He started warming up and continued on his way to school. What Timothy didn't realize is the odd symbols on the jacket.
"What the-" he said in confusion. The world was becoming a blur, and he tried to take the jacket off. It didn't work, and everything went dark.
ChappIO· Section 2
Timothy woke up face-down in sand the colour of orange peel. Two suns hung in a green sky, one big and lazy, one small and sharp. Tall glass reeds grew in clumps around him, chiming softly when the wind moved through them. The jacket was still on. He tugged the zipper. It didn't budge.
A creature waded out of the reeds, roughly the shape of a heron if a heron were four feet tall and wore what appeared to be a postman's bag. It looked at Timothy, then at the jacket, and clicked its beak. "You have arrived," it said. "Where am I?" Timothy asked. The creature straightened with obvious pride. "You stand in the Chimewastes of Vell, third moon of the Broken Crown, where the reed-glass sings and the twin suns quarrel over the sky, and none may pass without..." Timothy had stopped listening around "Chimewastes." The sand was getting in his shoes. His shoes were new. His mom had said, very specifically, do not ruin these before spring.
"That's great," Timothy said, shaking out one sneaker. "Do you have a phone? I'm supposed to be at school, and if my mom finds out I'm on a moon, I'm dead."
Zo-Writes· Section 3
"Phone…?" The Heron-like creature croaked. "That word I do not know." The Heron continued to ramble about something else.
"Wait. What were you saying about none may pass?" Timothy interrupted again.
"Oh yes!" The heron looked excited to be of use. "None may pass unless they have a travelers token, which is quite hard to get, in fact-"
"Is there anyway else?" Timothy asked.
"Yup! And the ancient artifacts of the Blood-Moon Witch! Anyways, I'm Kuramnjistujpenpistsupenongu, but you can call me Kuramnji, but my friends call me Croaker. A more formal title is-" Timothy sighed and interrupted again.
"Nice, nice I'm Timothy." He responded. "Can you tell me more about the Artifacts?"
"Did I tell you that jacket is one of the Blood-Moon artifacts? Basically it chooses random beings from across the universe and they go through this thing, and they can't remove the artifacts blah blah blah." Timothy rolled his eyes, wondering why the one thing he wanted to know, Croaker wouldn't tell.
"Can you tell me more?" Asked Timothy, taking all his self control to not scream.
"Not my job! I'm just supposed to bring you and the others to the palace."
ChappIO· Section 4
They came over the dune and Croaker stopped talking mid-sentence. Another heron was coming the other way. Not one that looked like Croaker. The same heron. Same feathers, same postman's bag, same bent left knee. Next to it walked a boy about Timothy's age, hands in his pockets, wearing a wool cap. The cap had symbols stitched around the brim. Timothy checked his sleeve. Same symbols.
"Hey," said the boy. "Timothy," said Timothy. "Marco." They didn't get further than that. Croaker stuck a wing between them and started pushing Timothy along, going on about schedules and how the palace was expecting them. The other heron was doing the same thing to Marco. Same flapping, same words, same voice, at the same time. And the whole time, neither bird looked at the other one. Two identical creatures meeting on an empty dune, both acting like the other wasn't there.
Marco got marched one way, Timothy the other. They kept looking back at each other until the dunes got in the way. Marco tapped his cap, pointed at Timothy's jacket, and held up three fingers. Timothy didn't get it. He nodded anyway. "Friend of yours?" he asked Croaker. "Never seen him before in my life," said Croaker, and walked faster.
Zo-Writes· Section 5
Once Timothy crossed the dune, he saw a towering palace surrounded by city. He also saw Marco and a girl wearing gloves with the same symbols on it walking in the same direction, the same heron with the same everything was leading.
"Dude, it's hot!" Exclaimed Marco once they were in earshot.
"First of all, it's not hot. Second of all, who even says dude anymore!" Replied Timothy, he hadn't even noticed the temperature. The girl was looking at them two like they were crazy.
"Everyone says du-" The herons were pushing them away before Marco could respond. As they entered through the city gates, everyone immediately turned to stare. Everyone looked different. They had basic human form, but many odd features. Some had feathers, some had tails, some just looked like humans. There were a couple of animal looking ones, who seemed serving was their only purpose, and had specific accessories that was meant to imply their job, like the herons.
"Welcome, Bloodmoon Artifacts."
ChappIO· Section 6
They were led through the palace to a hall where a long table was already set. Three chairs. Three plates. The man at the head of the table stood up with his arms wide, dressed in gold and grinning like they were old friends arriving late to his party. "Timothy! Marco! And Sena, of course. Come in, sit, sit." Nobody had told him their names. Nobody had told Timothy the girl's name either. He filed that away.
The man called himself The Custodian, and he was exhausting. He wanted to know everything: what music they liked, what food, whether they preferred pool or garden, because they simply had to see both, and the aviary, and the games hall, obviously the games hall. Every question about going home slid right off him. "Home, yes, absolutely, all in good time. First, you rest! You've had such a journey." He said it warmly. He said everything warmly. Timothy noticed that when a servant brought drinks, he got his favourite without asking.
There were other kids in the hall, further down the table, wearing artifacts of their own. A boot. A scarf. A single earring. Most of them ate quietly and didn't look up. But when The Custodian swept off to argue with a servant, the boy with the scarf leaned toward Timothy. "Say no to the tour," he said quietly. "There is no pool. He's not welcoming you. He's running out the clock." Timothy frowned. "Until what?" The boy checked that The Custodian was still turned away. "It already happened. He just wants to prevent it this time." Timothy blinked. Is this kid alright?
"Sena!" The Custodian was back, beaming. "You'll love the aviary. You always do."
Zo-Writes· Section 7
"Do you three want to do the tour? I know you probably don't remember me, but I've met you before!" His gave darkened after saying that, but the beaming smile was still there. "We have a pool you can go in all you want!"
Timothy thought about what the boy had said. "No thank you, we are all pretty hungry." The Custodian stopped smiling, but left anyways.
"Dude, this is freaky!" Marco said after a silence.
"No one says dude!" Shot Timothy angrily, not at Marco but at the whole situation.
"Yes they do...? Anyways have you watched Jackass? I'm almost done with 10 episodes!"
"Wait a minute…? What year do you think it is?"
"I was wondering when you were going to figure that out!" The boy said. "Everyone is from different times! Most people fall in between 1960-2060. See those 2 girls, the one with the bonnet and the one with the high-tech glasses? That's Anne and Keira. One is from 1878 and the other is from 3009. They hang out with each other because they can't relate with anyone else. I'm Justin by the way, left Earth in 2019." There was a moment of silence between the 3 kids.
"So your saying I'm the only one from 2025?"
"2025! I'm from 2005!" Yelled Marco.
"I'm from 2030…" Admitted Sena.
"You might not be the only one. Josh and Greg both from 2013, and Sophia and Anna are from 2024." Replied Justin. "We all are 16. There have been a couple of bleaches in the system though. Fred is 17, and one kid is 14, and some tiny kid, Jimmy, I think was 8. He got sent back immediately."