Blood Moon

Chapter 6 - The town of Kaljulinn

Chapter 6  

The town of Kaljulinn

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Ariel POV

   I grab his hand and head to the door. First we go to the marketplace, where traders from near and far now have finished setting up their stalls away from the suns harmful rays. It's a nosy place with sellers shouting over each other trying to lure customers closer.

   We passed a group of men bickering over the price of a flurelite lamp. Flurelite is a rock that can only be mined just outside our village. It is special as when charged it emits a bright, gentle light for about a week, after that the light fades. Placing it direct sunlight for a day can recharge it. No one knows how it glows but on a world where many must live underground or in caves to escape the punishing heat, flurelite is very expensive.

    "Come beautiful la-dy, come look at this craftsmanship, this quality. Come you try, you love.”

     The overzealous vender thrusts the item into my hands. I see and unsettling flash of him with a woman who I doubt is his wife, before I can break contact. Shuddering slightly I look down and see the most beautiful pair of lace gloves.

    “How much?” Jarad asks.

     “For such a pretty lady, eight coins.” The vender rubbed his hands with greed.

    “I’ll give you five.” He says as he reaches into his coin bag.

    “No Jarad, it’s too expensive.” I say even as I unconsciously hugging the pair tighter.

     “You want them, I can see it in your eyes.”

     “Yes, but I will pay for them, I don’t need you too.” I put the gloves down and reach for my purse.

   Handing them back to me he says, “This will be my way of saying thank you for showing me around.”

   “Thank you,” I say as I slip them on, holding my hand out in front of me so I can admire them.

   “That’s my line,” He smiles and all I can do is stare.

   “Come one come all, this beautiful lady knows good work, come see, come see.” The vendors booming voice broke the spell and I decided it was time to leave.

     Leading him off to the left we entered the low mouth of a cave. It was dim at first with only a weak blue glow from a fading flurelite to light the way. But as we continue forward a green glow begins to fill the tunnel. The eerily light dances across the ceilings and walls till at last we reach the hidden spring.

  ”That’s amazing, how does it glow like that?”

  ”No one knows, this is one of two spring in the valley. The other is further up and used only for the making of beer. This is the town’s water supply. We have used it for hundreds of years and it has never run dry.”

   Looking over I see him begin to take off his belt and lift his shirt. I stare at his six pack, dazed; my hand itching to reach out and touch. My wish is granted when I stop him from stepping forward.

 ”Wh....” Oh, God he feels so good. Darts of static ran up my arm again. “What are you doing?” I question.

 ”Going for a swim, unless you didn’t notice it’s hot here.”

It’s not, not in this room. No matter how hot is became in summer this room will always stay cool.

  "You can’t swim here, no one can. This is the only source of water for the whole town. And no one wants to be drinking your sweat.”  

    Dipping a cup I take a sip before passing it over, the liquid still keeping some of it’s glow. It tasted cold and sweet on my tongue.

 "That’s delicious,” wiping his mouth.

 “And it will only stay that way if the water stays clean."

 "How do you bathe then?"

  "Do you see that pipe off to the side there?" pointing to a hole the size of my arm off to the side of the spring just below the water line. He walks closer to get a better look and nods.

   "That leads off to the bath house. Every one goes there to bath and to the pool to cool off. The water is then cleaned and filtered then used to clean clothes and water plants."

 "Impressive." He nods.

   Laughing, I take his hand dragging him to the next place. We visit the bathhouse, the meeting rooms and the school; not that he will be attending as he finished last year.

  We walked towards the giant carved gates everyone must come through to come or go from here. Turning we got the full view is the town of Kaljulinn, with the market place now crowded with people living their lives. The many levels of houses carved into the rock face all along the basin walls with the stone stairs and walkways connecting them all.

 We could see how the valley walls protectively curved up toward the top, always shading at least some part of the ground below except for when the sun was directly overhead.

  I wave to the guards as we go out the gates and start to lead him up the stairs just beyond.

   A guard steps forward to stop us, “No entry.”

 "I’m sure uncle won’t mind if we only go far enough up to see the mine? Only as far as the first plateau, I promise. You can come too to make sure if you want." I plea.

 "No one is allowed up there, you know the rules,” Anthony grunts before stepping back into place.

  Technically he is right, no one is allowed up here between ceremonies. Not even the council members go up, as they fear the Tyreii.

    Legend has it that many generations ago the Tyreii's came to our land. At first no one realized they were any different; they looked, walked and talked like us, but they had strange collars around their necks that sometimes spoke by themselves. The Tyrii was shown our ways; how we make beer, the flurelite and the mines were it comes from. The Tyrii showed us many great things in return; all was good until strange creature arrived.

   Its skin was as red as the sun, it’s blue hair fell in clumps framing it angular face. Its voice screeched when it spoke in a language no one understood; its forked tongue wiped out with ever other word.

   As soon as the people of the village saw this creature they grabbed whatever weapon they could and attacked trying to kill the beast. The Tyrii were furious, and ran to the fallen foe. In the blink of an eye they all disappeared.

 All the new technology were destroyed, and we have been on guard against the Tyrii ever since. It is said that they still roam the top of our ridges waiting for those who venture forth to exact their revenge. The only night it is safe to go up is on the night of the full red moon.

   Personally, I think it’s rubbish; I mean really, what would the red moon protect us from that the yellow moon cannot? But beliefs are what they are and no one is allowed up there. There is nothing left to do but return through the gates.

 "You can go to the mine tomorrow if you like, I’ll introduce you to Griffin and he can take you."

"Hey wait up!"

   Turning can see Griff running ahead of a very tired group, "Speak of the devil. This moron is Griffin, smooth moves the other night, lover boy."

  "I’m so sorry about what happened. I can’t explain it, I just saw red." Head bent he kicks at the pebbles.

   Butting his shoulder playfully with mine I tell him "You know Lei and Sofi hatching some epic revenge plans."

"Nah, Lei likes me to much to do that," he says throwing his arm around my shoulder, "And you like me just enough to tell me what they have planned."

"I don’t know about that. " Shrugging his arm off with a laugh, "And I think Lei promised Sofi to get her to stop her crying, so you’re pretty much screwed."

  “Sofi was crying? Oh man…”

  Jarad asked what happened so I spent the rest of the walk back explaining.