Journeys on the Crimson Moon

I had a strange dream last night.

Actually for four nights in a row, I had strange dreams after another.

I was in the point of view of my dad. He was running around in an army outfit in some war. He looked like he was swallowed up by the heavy uniform and was the slowest one out of the other men. He ducked into a fox hole and loaded his gun. His expression was beyond terrified, but he knew that he had to keep it together to get to safety. He waited and then started to run again. But this time he actually was shot.

I could feel the pain he felt when he fell to the ground, but this pain was different, it was as if the pain was eating away his body. He tore open his uniform and I could see green lines as poison flooded through his blood stream. He cried in agony but before he could die on the battle field. The ground beneath him seemed to fade till there was only a hole. He fell and suddenly was caught in the arms by someone flying.

He opened a eye in the pain and saw a woman with a sharp dangerous look. She had dragon like wings on the back and he stirred seeing her red sharp eyes and fangs. She yelled at him in her language but he couldn’t understand. She placed him on the ground and he saw her teeth grow long like a vampire's.

He felt her bite his shoulder but in the pain of the poison he blacked out. He awoke suddenly in a bed. He was dressed in something different and he saw a patch on his shoulder. He then heard a harsh voice and a woman’s hand pushed him back down on the bed he was sleeping on.

“You need to sleep!” she growled.

He looked up and saw the woman from before. She had the same hard look and he asked if he was dead. She laughed and placed her hands on her hips. I could feel my dad’s heart rate rise in panic and his young hormones flying about seeing the beautiful woman. She told him that she saved him from the poison in his body.

“At least you could be grateful!”

Someone else’s voice called from the side where it was very dark and told her to leave him alone. There was another and it sounded loud and proud for fighting in the war. There were now three males including my dad and this strange woman. She rolled her eyes and said that of all the people in some world, they had to get my dad.

“He may be young, but he has a lion’s heart,” the proud voice called.

“He’s stupid child.”

Dad corrected them saying that he was twenty, but she ignored him. The ground around them started to shake violently and the woman and the other people fell to the floor. Dad held on for dear life and I felt myself get pulled from the dream. I slammed my head on the back of the built in bunker as I woke.

The boat around me was rocking violently back and forth that the table fell over with a loud “bang”. I searched around me and didn’t see any of the others. My gut told me to stay in bed and wait for this to pass, but I needed to know what happened to them. I wobbled myself all the way to the door easily till another jerk sent me falling to the ground. I looked up to see the items from the desk that we moved into the corner of the room. They were shoved out of the corner and now were rolling around towards me. I forced myself up and threw the door open.

I thought that I was going to see walls of water thrusting themselves onto the deck, but this time I saw cannons firing off and people fighting on deck. The boat dipped again and I noticed Mr. Bald man choking two men on the other side of the deck. I looked up quickly and saw that no one was taking the wheel. I ran with all my might up the deck and took the wheel in my hands.

It was heavier than the metal ones from my boat, but I was able to get a good grip on it. I turned my head as I felt the boat creak back on course when I saw another boat next to us. The flag had a scull and cross bones and angry pirates thrusting their cannons onto the beautiful Crimson Moon. I screamed as someone finally spotted me. They slashed their sword around me trying to make me let go of the large wheel. I ducked and placed my hands over my head.

Then the next second I saw them on the ground with broken necks. I barley looked up and saw Daimon with blood filled claws and blood dripping from his mouth. He looked like a monster whose senses were awakened at the wake of war. He had dilated eyes and didn’t acknowledge that I was standing beneath him. He then turned and jumped down to the deck below. My hands shook in fear as I saw the men on the ground; I didn’t know what else to do besides grab the wheel.

Suddenly the fighting turned into retreating. The other pirates that were still alive ran back to their ship. Mr. Bald man was holding back Daimon so that he wouldn’t go after them. In that man’s strange way, he was telling Daimon to let them go. Though I knew that something was wrong. Something was terribly wrong. Pirates would not let their enemy’s just leave. They would come for treasure, raid the ship, and then destroy it.

“Guys!” I yelled down, “Where’s Arlen?!”

The pirate ship then made a strange noise. I saw that it was now yards away and a man on the ship had a strange looking weapon in his hands. He fired it and its bullet flew over in a path of green smoke. We didn’t have enough time to think, the bullet not only exploded in impact, but the smoke it released from it gave off a type of acid which was starting to melt anything it saw in sight.

I heard Robin scream in pain and I felt the side of the ship dip towards the water. The ship was sinking at an alarming rate but that wasn’t the least of my worries. It was the middle of the night, we were in the middle of the ocean, and Arlen was taken by a group of pirates. I then looked up and saw Mr. Bald man. He had Robin in his arms and Daimon over his shoulder. He picked me up and quickly moved to the other side of the ship. He placed us on the life boats and quickly cranked us down into the water.

“Go south from here. We will meet you there.”

“But what about Arlen?!”

“He is safe for now. I will fix the ship. Go before this attracts any sea monsters.”

He then disappeared over the railing and I quickly found the ores. I started to row as hard as I could with the extra weight in the boat and wished that my father was here. He would know what to do. My eyes began to close and the world around me became dark again.

I woke who knows how many hours or days later with a foot in my face and an arm around my waist. I opened my eyes to see a hot sun shining down on me. Robin’s dirty sock was in my face and Daimon was face first in the sand. I thought that Daimon didn’t sleep, but I guessed that being knocked out didn’t count as sleeping. I tickled Robin's foot and kicked Daimon’s side to get him off of me. He picked his head up quickly demanding to know who hurt him and Robin coughed a lot as she got up.

“Ug… where are we?”

I looked around and didn’t see our row boat. We were on a white sandy beach with light colored water in front of us. I looked behind us and saw a few trees. Wherever we were, it wasn’t that big. Robin asked aloud on what was wrong with Daimon. I looked over and he was staring at his blood stained hands as if they weren’t his.

“I… it happened again…” He was freaked out.

“Where’s the ship?!”

“Guys! We were attacked!”

They looked at me and I sighed. I told them that Arlen was taken and Mr. Bald man told us to escape. Robin kicked the sand and grunted something about that that means that he’s dead. I asked what she meant and she snapped at me saying that the captain always goes down with his ship. I shook my head not agreeing with that.

“Robin. He didn’t seem like the captain of the ship. Cameroon seemed more like the captain than he did…”

“Then where is he?!”

She snapped. I lowered my eyes. It had been two weeks since we all came onto the ship and every night Robin would talk to Mr. Bald man. Her goal was to get him to tell her his name, but she ended up just talking with him. Daimon blew his fortune in her face saying that falling in love was meant for her instead. She had a little attachment to the man and now he and the ship were gone.

She fell to the ground not caring that her skirt was getting wet from the tide. I walked over to her.

“Robin.”
“Go away.”
“Robin”
“What?”
“Just think how stupid Daimon looks. That always gets you happy.”

We both turned and saw him trying to get a family of crabs off of him. He probably was hungry but now there were ten crabs pinching him. Robin smiled but turned back to the ocean. I joined her and sat down in the sand hearing Daimon’s cries as he was being chased by several crabs. I rested my head on my hands and I tried to calm her down with the weird dream I had last night.

She mainly ignored me but I told my dream anyway. I only remembered parts of it, but it was still strange none the less. Was my dad really in this world at one time? Or was it just a dream? I didn't know.

I realized though, that the longer we were here, the more I felt that we needed to be here. I wanted to talk to Robin and see if she felt the same, but the words didn't come out of my mouth. I left her alone, sitting in the shallow sandy water, and decided to walk around the small island. Daimon didn't join me. He was still battling against an army of crabs.

I walked alone for a good ten minutes when I tripped over something and fell head first into the scratchy sand. I grumbled aloud giving empty threats to the object that tripped me. I pushed myself off the ground but stopped when I saw the strange object covered in sand. Dusting off the top of the object, I found a hard, seemingly metal object that was painted in army green and rust.

My mind seemed to slow down as I turned my head uphill. The strange dreams from earlier strangely became clearer than just a single room with four people inside. It was a single room of a wooden shack house with the faint sounds of seagulls and a view overlooking waves hitting sandy beaches. In the corner of the house was a door that was only a curtain which fluttered in the salty wind. A flight of steep stone stairs leading up to the unknown house were just beyond the “door” and came into view every time the wind blew.

I let the helmet drop out of my hands, clinking into the ground. A flight of stairs, leading to a torn old curtain and a broken old shack quietly sat above me. Waiting quietly for someone to return.