The Dusk of Dawn

Chapter Three- The Lost Islet

Fluffy•D•Alæbeke grew up in a small islet he still might get lost in even after his fourteen years of living there. He’d been taught about the danger of the world outside his islet and had no intentions of going further outside anyway. He could read about all the information he needed, and the only thing that he wanted and already had from the outside world was a good router so that he could access the internet.

Their house was large and they were the only ones living on this islet surrounded by hundreds of miles of sea that stretched far beyond the horizon. He lived with his parents and an older brother, which was all he needed except for the internet. Which is everything, in a way.

He was now in his room. With the sea breeze blowing gently from the grand windows beside him, the white silk curtains waved softly along with the sound of the sea washing up and pulling away down at their golden beach.

He typed rapidly, with earphones suited and a book opened beside him. He made both simple and complex 3D models on his computer. He had made a few of the islet he lived on already, and another few about automatic bridges that would carry him down to their kitchen instead of stumbling down there every day.

There was a reason he didn’t like moving too much or doing dangerous things that would require him to use his physical energy. He had a condition he was born with. Dyslexia. It surely did not affect his thinking— his brain was perfect. It’s just that he couldn’t read and write things easily or move accurately, making it extremely dangerous if he wanted to explore the steep islet.

His models were detailed and perfect in every perspective, he made sure of that. At thirteen years old, he sent a few copies of his designs to larger communities and they were being used as bases for important buildings already. Something everyone sees every day, but never knew whose hand it came from. Even he had only seen pictures of his designs. And they were magnificent.

Popular and memorial architectures like the Great Wave of the Ling City— a building covered in glass and shaped like a twisting water spiral set in the centre of the most advanced city. Upside-Down in the Dynasty of Garavia, a marble palace stood on its tip, leaning beside a large snow mountain, with every detail inside considered to be perfectly parallel. Emperor Velinzhag himself lived in that place.

In the Land of Sky in Luana, he designed houses supported by transparent poles that held them up above the sea, for the flooding and cyclone season. From a distance, it looked like the houses floated on top of the sea’s surface. He’d even designed a few white-based-with-purple-dots inflammable, completely wire-made but silk-covered blankets for Shelly the Dragon so it wouldn’t scrub her scales when she slept on her gold. (At least that’s what it was intended for; Shelly the Dragon wore it as a dress instead and sent him a heavy bag of jewels as thank you. The sack of gold crash-landed into their pool on a peaceful Sunday night. Fluffy supposed that Shelly had flung it across the sea).

But the four rulers (Jeremy, Queen Kumira, Emperor Velinzhag, and the Pope) knew about him. Therefore, to everyone else, he was the Founder of the Great Four.

He sighed and shut his book, saving his programs and getting up, rubbing his eyes. His sole question is why architecture was called buildings if they were already built— shouldn’t they be called builts?

So he designed a lot of famous ‘builts’. and he didn’t know if he was going to spend his entire life doing so. There were no interesting things about his life on the islet anyway.

Or at least, until the night a boat appeared at their beach.

Fluffy yawned beneath a coconut tree, taking notes of built ideas until the sound of sea waves became different and rippling noises appeared.

The night breeze of the ocean was cold and smelled strongly of brine. Fluffy looked up, his expression blank. His whole body froze.

The shadowy figure of a dinghy slowly came ashore and banked in the light cast by their mansion above, where the rest of his family still worked on their business (playing chess or video games, discussing ‘adult’ stuff, watching television, or listening to the news).

Fluffy tried to stand up as quietly as he could, but that person’s head still snapped around.

For a brief second Fluffy thought he was blinded, but the second looked, he noticed that the stranger’s eyes were just small, not exactly closed. His hair was black and short, almost a buzzcut. His shoulder looked badly wounded but poorly tended to and he had more scratches around his knees and legs.

Fluffy stayed quiet. He’d never spoken to anyone for his entire life except for his family.

“Hi,” The stranger began.

Fluffy didn’t reply.

“Um, so…” He carried on. “I’ve been sent to find a person called… Fluffy?”

“That’s me.”

“Oh,” The stranger realized, then started scratching his head, soothing the expression on his face.  “Uh… A friend of mine… I guess? Asked me to find you and she wants you to make her something.”

“Who?”

“Shelly the Dragon— do you know her?” The stranger asked.

Fluffy swallowed. Surely it can’t be her? How could this human come back alive after meeting that monster? And bringing a message?

“Yes,” Fluffy replied.

“Oh. Great,” The stranger coughed awkwardly. “So… Hi again? My name is Jackson.”

Fluffy nodded. He wasn’t too sure of what to answer.

“Do you have a boat?” He asked. “I need a boat, I have to escape from Shelly the Dragon.”

“You have one,” Fluffy said, nodding at the little boat behind Jackson that drifted discreetly back into the sea during their conversation.

“Oh... Right. That one. I mean, one that could carry me as far as the Luana islands,” He clarified, pulling the boat back up to the sand. “It’s the furthest place from the Dark Island.”

“I don’t know where that is,” Fluffy said, sitting back down and picking up a fallen coconut, trying to make it stand on its tip. “I have never been to other places.”

Jackson scrunched his nose and formed a weird, twisted look with his face for a second. The night was really getting cold, and quiet. As if ghosts were creeping out from thin air and Fluffy just wanted to go back to his room.

“Are you a prisoner?” Jackson asked finally.

“No,” Fluffy bristled. “I live here.” He pointed to the house above and Jackson looked surprised.

“But don’t you want to see other places?” He insisted. “Have you ever seen snow? Or mountains? Or jungles?”

“No,” Fluffy replied. …But a little, I guess. Though it’s not my fault my body can’t stand it.

“Here— why don’t you see if you could find me a boat, and I can take you to see just the coral?” He offered. “Have you seen those?”

Fluffy shook his head. “I’m not supposed to go out far.”

“It’s not,” Jackson went on. “It’s just about a few meters from the coast. Maybe even just here.” He said, pointing a short distance away. “I saw them when I was coming ashore.”

Fluffy hesitated. “Alright,” He agreed. “But I’m not going past the horizon.”

“That’s right,” Jackson said with a strange smile that made Fluffy feel really uncomfortable. “I’ll make sure of that.”

Fluffy went back to his house. Jackson waited for him under a rocky cliff, he came to get his bottle of water, a waterproof notebook to jot down built ideas he might get from seeing the ‘coral’, and some bandages for Jackson’s shoulder.

His brother was in his room with his door shut and his parents were watching the evening news. Everything was so peaceful until he opened the door, and the night breeze rushed in. He walked down the stone stairs studded to the side of their house that was built on a cliffside. The wind whipped past his hair. Just like his name, his hair was really fluffy. His light brown skin shone in a silvery colour under the moonlight as he entered the cave beneath their cliff.

There was a lagoon, its ripples echoed clearly around the cave, and silver the reflection of the water was cast all around the walls.

A white sailboat was floating in the lagoon, with soft waves beating against its hull. Jackson’s shadow could be seen pacing around the boat, trying to figure out how to get it working.

“Have you ever sailed?” Jackson asked as Fluffy ascended the stairs of the boat and arrived on the deck.

“No,” Fluffy shook his head. “I thought you did.”

“Yeah, I… Sort of do,” Jackson made an odd look with his face again. “I’ve seen papers about them when I was working with Zac.”

“Oh.” Fluffy raised his brows and settled himself down on the head of the hull. Neither helping nor interfering Jackson as he made a hundred more odd looks while clicking around in the control room.

Then the smell of burning fuel reached Fluffy. He looked up to see if Jackson burnt anything, but seconds later a low rumbling emitted from the engine, with Jackson pulling the rope that was tied to the cave wall free. He then rushed back into the control room and the boat moved slowly out, with water dripping on their heads as they passed the mouth of the cave. After the boat arrived onto the open sea, Jackson pulled up the mainsail and let down the smaller one, allowing the main one to edge towards the wind. The boat moved across the sea smoothly under the night’s clear moonlight.

Fluffy poked his head outside the rails and the salty waves beneath splashed onto his head. He looked up, the large rippling reflections of the crescent moon shimmered brightly at the horizon as the boat proceeded. He took out his notebook, already gaining a few new awesome built ideas.

The wind was fast and every single breath was fresh, his fingertips and nose tip were cold. He lied down and looked up to the sky, where dark blue clouds swirled beside the glowing moon. Some distance away, there was a sky full of stars twinkling against each other’s light.

“You never see stars in the Ling City,” Jackson said, arriving beside Fluffy and waving his hand up at the sky. “Although I’ve never seen any other places as advanced as Ling ever since I left it.”

“Is that where you came from?” Fluffy asked.

“No,” Jackson shrugged. “I wasn’t born in any one of the four territories. Not sure where I was from. I just had a feeling it’s Garavia, that’s one of the first few places I have a memory of.”

“You don’t sound like Garavia people,” Fluffy said. But quickly stopped himself. Although it was too late as Jackson made an odd look again.

“You’ve seen any Garavia people?” He asked. “Did they come to this islet?” 

“No,” Fluffy said quickly. “I’ve just… Heard of them.” Talked to them through thousands of emails and letters when I built Emperor Velinzhag his upside-down palace. But that is not how I’d like to introduce myself; as the Founder of the Great Four.

Jackson looked doubtful but didn’t carry on with the conversation. He shifted his gaze back to the stars instead.

“If you stare at one bright star for a long time,” He began. “You’ll notice a lot of little dim stars beside it.”

Fluffy tried it, and it did work. He focused on a bright red star. After a few seconds, he found other stars with weaker light twinkling beside it. The uncanny thing was that when he shifted his gaze onto the small stars they became invisible again.

Suddenly, something that felt like a rock being hurled against their hull thudded through the boat, sending Fluffy rolling off the benches and Jackson sat straight up.

“What was that?” Fluffy stood up, looking over the rail, there wasn’t anything.

Except for weird twisting waves.

“A whirlpool,” Jackson whispered. He pulled down the mainsail and returned to the control room as the boat now started spiralling.

“What’s that?” Fluffy asked, following in. “What’s happening?”

“I don’t know,” Jackson replied. “I just know it… Sorts of pulls you in.”

Fluffy did not like the thought of being pulled into the dark black sea at all.

“What are we supposed to do now?” He urged. “Jump over the boat or something?”

“That would probably get you drowned quicker,” Jackson pointed out and pulled on a lever. The motor roared louder than ever and the boat thudded painfully on the oncoming waves as Fluffy was knocked over his feet and crashed onto the control room’s wall when the boat spiralled faster and seawater flowed in from the window. 

He was thrown around the room as the lights outside got dimmer, midnight black was replaced by navy blue and he thought he heard Jackson yelling something about grabbing hold. He waved his arm and managed to grasp onto an iron pole, but his condition worked up, muscles around his arm shivered and he let go against his will.

Then there was a lot of banging against his head with salty water stinging his eyes and forcefully gulping down his throat, spiralling water surrounding his whole field of vision, and the taste of blood pooled in his mouth.

And dark… Darker… Darker… And…

Nothing.

*

Fluffy blinked, brushing sand and ants off his face as he sat up.

With Jackson (the beginning of this whole mess) lying flat beside him, he looked up and saw white seagulls gliding ahead, coconut trees, so many coconut trees wavering from the sandy grounds, and a plain blue sky without a single cloud on it.

The sea was blue— light yellow near the shore, green and turquoise a little further off, and a deep blue around the horizon. He was not on the shore of his islet, his island didn’t even have any shores with white sand so pure covering the entire area. The sun was high and bright, but fortunately, they were resting under the shades of the bushes by the sea. Apparently, someone found them and pulled them away from the sun.

Suddenly, something cold and hard-edged itself onto Fluffy’s neck and pressed down hard. He froze.

“Don’t move.” A voice warned… Or threatened?

His muscles tensed, and he glanced backwards a little, but all he caught was a veil of dark, wavy hair tipped with red.

“Who are you?” The voice continued, cold and firm. But unmistakably a girl.

“Fluffy • D • Alæbeke,” he replied.

“Why are you here?” She asked.

“I was blown ashore by a whirlpool,” Fluffy said. “It was him.” He pointed down at Jackson.

The girl behind didn’t say anything. It took Fluffy a few seconds to realize the blade on his neck was gone. He gasped and turned around, standing up.

There was no one to be seen in the shadows of the forest behind. But suddenly, an arrow shot out of nowhere and aimed narrowly past his face, lightly brushing the tip of his ear as it went by.

And then he saw her— a girl with eyes in shades of dark, chocolate brown so warm that it almost began to redden at the edges of her irises. Or was that a figment of his imagination? Her black hair was long, and glistened brown in the sunlight, reaching her waist and had tints of purple mixed with maroon covering the tips of her hair, reaching up above like flames blazing in the shadows.

She was dressed in black with mainly dark red leather pants, which somewhat marbled with black. On her forearms, she had cuffs (which Fluffy assumed was a type of armour) laced with black strings crisscrossing each other. She had a short, convenient cloak behind her which extended to her knees. Fluffy spotted several knives of different sizes and shapes tied around her leg. She held a standard, red bow faded black at the edges. 

Across her chest, from her right shoulder to her left waist was a strap that connected to a  black quiver with red-tipped arrows tied to her back. her hood covered just above her eyelids. She squinted at Fluffy for a long, agonizing minute.

“Who are you?” Fluffy managed to ask finally.

“Driya Queen,” She replied coldly. Something about the way she spoke made her seem different somehow… “And I’m the…” She hesitated. “A local dweller of the Chain-Islands of Luana.”

And Fluffy was quite sure she wasn’t.

“Fluffy • D • Alæbeke?” She repeated. “Aren’t you… The founder of the Great Four?”

“How did you know?” Fluffy frowned. He glanced down at Jackson (who seemed to be sleeping) and made sure he wasn’t listening. “But yes, I am.”

She is NOT a local dweller. No local dweller knows so many of these kinds of secrets.

A royal? But wasn’t the royal surname Kumira? She said hers is Queen.

“Some bendans told me,” She said, spinning around nimbly, her cloak whipping behind her and she strode back towards the forest. “Follow me.”

Fluffy wasn’t too sure what exactly ‘bendan’ meant, but he heaved Jackson up and tried to carry him anyway.

“Where are we heading?” He asked.

“The Kumira Palace,” Driya replied, jumping gracefully down a branch and landing onto the ground.