Along For The Ride: And Other Stories

by Martin Alvarez

Brinn stood amidst a vast ocean of silver sand. All around him was ink-black darkness, perpetual night, regardless of time or position of the sun. Earth stared over his shoulder, small and silent in the distance.

     He held in his hand the Talon, a curved sword made from a phoenix’s claw and steel from an asteroid, forged in the fires of the Sun. Wielding it, he planned to terminate the Moon.

     Opposite Brinn was Lunin, the keeper and soul of the Moon. It was he that kept it revolving around Earth so that farmers would know when to seed, and when to sow; so that the tides of the oceans would rise and fall when the time was right. So that the eyes of lovers and jewels of thieves may be discovered for the way they sparkled in the night.

     Lunin looked how one would expect the Moon to look; his skin was gray like ashes the morning after a bonfire, his head was bald and he wore a flowing, white robe. Only his eyes showed any sign of color. His irises were glowing amber like the early-morning sun shining through fresh dripping pine sap.

     They stared at each other for a long moment and it was Lunin who broke the silence. “Who are you? Why have you come?”

     Brinn adjusted his grip on the Talon and then answered. “My name is Brinn, and I have come to kill you.”

     It seemed as if an even greater silence fell upon the desolate rock on which they stood. As if the other planets had placed their focus on what was unfolding on the Moon; and perhaps they had. War and hardships, attacks and murders all had come to the planets and even the Sun itself, but never the Moon.

     Once, war had raged between Mars and the Dark Entities that ascended from the deeps of the asteroid belt. During a short intermission in the fighting, Mars capitally punished one of his own generals for merely setting foot upon Lunin’s home.

     The Moon was a protected jewel in the sky, watched over by the planets. Lunin was a peaceful soul. Murdering him is akin to slicing the throat of a Buddhist monk.

     Again, it was Lunin who broke the silence. “What have I done to deserve death?”

     "You blinded me in my time of need. You murdered my family!“ Brinn’s body was trembling with anger, his muscles pulsating as he fought the urge to plunge the Talon into Lunin’s heart.

     "Surely you are mistaken, Human. To ruin you or any other is no interest of mine.” Lunin began to think this man was mad. Surely he must be to accuse him of such a barbaric and human thing.

     Brinn was pacing around Lunin now, like a wolf observing its prey before the feast. “I was crossing through the Amazon jungle, my wife and son were suffering from poisoning of the blood, and it was I who had to find a cure. I know very little of such things, so I sought out help from the only medicine man I know.

     "He lives on the western horizon, exactly where and when the Sun and Earth meet. Some even say it is he that is the bond, the fabric that binds the two.

     "The journey there and back should have taken five days. Though halfway back I decided to continue on through the night instead of rest, and became lost.”

     "Perhaps your nerves-“ Lunin began, but was interrupted by Brinn’s fury.

     "No! Not my nerves. You hid that night like a coward when I needed your guidance most. I returned after eight days, but it was too late. Whether it was madness brought on by the illness or that she couldn’t bare the pain any longer, I’ll never know. When I entered our home I found them in each others’ arms on our bed, the blood drained from their bodies through incisions of the wrists.

     "The blood was slightly moist. I had missed them by only a day at the most. Due to your laziness, or cowardice. So now I must avenge them!”

     Lunin began to say that Brinn’s accusations were misplaced, but no words came out. Only an outward raspy breath. He felt as if fire ants were eating his stomach.

     It was then that Lunin noticed the Talon at Brinn’s feet. It was plunged into the ground, a column of smoke was rising from the point of entry. The ground around the Talon was turning to lava, and was spreading in veins across the surface of the Moon. At the same time, as if he had been shot with a molten-tipped arrow, the same hot-orange veins spread across Lunin’s body from a point in the middle of his forehead. From deep inside the chest outward, he was turning black until he was an ash statue, slightly glowing on the inside like the coals of a bonfire that were left alone to die out.

     Brinn stood staring and waiting until the glow completely faded from his slain enemy before pulling the Talon from the ground. When he did so, a soft lunar breeze like a mother’s sigh came and whisped the ashes away.

     The glowing veins which ran across the floor like red lightning faded and left scars.

     Brinn felt a strange motion sickness in his stomach and turned to see the Earth begin to shrink-the Moon was slowing down and the distance between the two was increasing.

     He also realized at that moment that he was being watched. He tightened his grip on the Talon and spun around. He was startled to find ten people standing a few yards from him.

     "Be wise of your next actions, human. You can neither harm nor frighten us.“ The man from the group who spoke had wings on his sandals. He held a staff which was wrapped with two snakes and had wings.

     "Who are you?” Brinn retorted.

     This time a different man answered, He was holding a bloody spear and cast not one, but three shadows; his own, one of a wolf, and one of a vulture. “We needn’t answer to you, vermin! Coward! I’ll slay you as you-”

     "Easy, Mars, not quite yet. You, one who yields the Talon, what is your name?“ This man donned a great white beard and lightning danced across his robe.

     "Brinn.”

     "Brinn, you’ve committed murder and thus must be punished.“ The man with the beard was the one talking. He now turned to the first man who spoke, "Mercury, set up the boundary.”

     Mercury pierced the ground with his staff. As he did so, a great shockwave burst out from the point where the staff met the ground like a blast from a soundless bomb. No one but Brinn flinched.

     An almost invisible dome surrounded them; more like the moving, almost living skin of a soap bubble than the hard, lifeless glass of a window.

     Another man, older yet than the man with the electric robe, walked slowly over to the staff and placed one hand on it and raised one hand in the air.

     As he was doing this, the entire cosmos seemed to magnify to the semi-invisible threshold as if being viewed through a telescope.

     A Pale man with sunken eyes who, though he appeared frail for his emaciated and short frame, emanated a strange sort of dark strength, noticed Brinn’s wonderment at the movement of the galaxies across the dome and stepped forward. His cold breath was visible as he spoke.

     "What you see playing across the Window of Khonsu are the births and… deaths,“ he smiled at the word and took a few seconds to savor it on his tongue before continuing, "of the stars, galaxies, the Universe itself playing forward and in reverse. For within this dome we stand outside of time.”

     Brinn was starting to learn who he was amongst. He had already heard two of the men identified as Mercury and Mars. He assumed the man with the electric robe and beard to be Jupiter, and figured the man who’s aura swam with death to be Pluto.

     He had never personally met the planets(few had), but his father would often watch the heavenly bodies and converse with them as one would sit and talk with old friends.

     Brinn’s father would often try to teach him to learn from them, though he was never interested. He did, however, remember their names and personalities as his father had described.

     The old man who set up the barrier walked over to Brinn. Brinn attempted to raise the Talon but found he could not move it.

     The old man spoke. “This barrier is important for two reasons; it gives us an impenetrable area in which to judge you uninterrupted, and so that when we are done we m
ay return to the very second we began so no time will have been wasted on… you.” During the pause in his explanation, the old man eyed Brinn up and down as someone would look at a dead, decaying animal hanging from a tree.

     He walked back over to the rest of the group and began speaking again. “You may or may not have realized by now who you are amongst. We are the souls of the planets. Lunin was our brother.”

     "He was my twin,“ began a man who was at least a head taller than the rest of the group. His skin had a luminescent quality like a firefly, and around his head was a glowing aura which gave off light that shined pure and more beautiful than any other found on Earth. "He was my twin. We were opposites, yet the same. Like Yin and Yang. It was I that made him shine, but if we crossed paths he could blot out my light like a pale hand in front of a candle. I am only half of a whole now that he is gone.”

     This man was Solis, the spirit of the Sun.

     Jupiter had a great sadness in his eyes as Solis spoke. Once the Sun had finished what he had to say, Jupiter spoke, his voice louder and firm this time. “Let the council begin and do what we came to do. Brinn the accused, kneel.”

     Brinn let a smile cross his face as he began to defy his orders. “I kneel before no-”

     "Kneel! On your knees and bow your head. You will look none of us in the eyes as your judgement is passed!“

     He didn’t know if it was out of fear, respect, surprise, or if some unknown force made him do it, but when Jupiter yelled Brinn fell to his knees and dropped his head.

     Mars walked to where Brinn kneeled, pulled a sword from the sheath at his side and rested it lightly on Brinn’s shoulder. Blood dripped from the spot where blade met skin. "I’ll make sure he doesn’t attempt to make his punishment worse.”

     Solis stepped forward, “First judgments, all who wish to-”

     "Death!“ Mars interrupted as he spat the words out through his teeth like venom.

     "you’ve made your opinion known, interrupt me no more.”

     Mars only stared, his face contorted by anger verging on the edge of lunacy. He truly was the embodiment of war.

     "Death would not be punishment enough.“ A new member of this cosmic council spoke for the first time; a woman, one of only two present. It was Earth, and her words were soft and gentle, though she was not feeble.

     "What, then, do you propose to be adequate punishment?” Jupiter asked her.

     She walked over to Brinn, her long, brown-and-blue dress flowing over her leather sandals. Her hair was long-almost to her knees-and alive. Brinn thought it seemed to be a silk-soft tree bark(with green leaves and various flowers in a band around her head like a crown and scattered throughout the rest of her hair) more than it did actual hair.

     She looked down at Brinn, her green eyes speckled with fiery gold-and sorrow. Sorrow for the loss of Lunin and sorrow for the loss of humanity in her child, Brinn. “He must feel what we feel.”

     "Feel what you feel?“ The question was so quiet it seemed as though the darkness of space itself had whispered it. It came from the ground where Brinn kneeled. "I have already as you call it, ‘felt’ as you have felt. Because of your beloved Lun-” his words were interrupted by his own grunts of pain as Mars sliced a millimeter deeper with the sword.

     "Let him speak.“ Someone said from the crowd, so he was allowed.

     "Your beloved Lunin took my family from me. He blinded and prevented me from returning with a cure in time. So I have felt loss. I have become so familiar with it that it has become a part of who I am now. I am no longer a complete man, now I am the man who has lost the most important parts of himself-the good parts. Half a man or less. So pass your judgement as you will, but don’t pass it as if I have not yet felt loss.”

     After Brinn had finished speaking, a silence fell upon the area so that he almost felt as if he had been alone the enitre time and the strange people holding their council had all been in his mind.

     The Universe and Time continued their dance outside of the dome.

     Earth spoke again. “Perhaps you have felt loss, my son, but you are wrong in blaming Lunin for it. You were so blinded by pain that you could no longer see reason. You passed your pain onto another and that was unjust. Your loss may have affected you, but your barbaric acts have change the lives of billions, and that must be corrected.”

     "Ah, yes, undo, replace. Perhaps Brinn should take Lunin’s place here.“ Instant protest from the crowd. The man who had said it was the youngest of the men, though he was still old and wise. He was tall, muscular, and nude. On both sides of his torso, just below the pits of his arms, he had slits that went down to the bottom of his ribs. These were gills. Scales covered his shoulders, abdomen, and calves. he wore on his head a crown of gold and pearls. In his hand was a ten-foot trident, also of solid gold.

     "Are you mad, Neptune?”

     "Why would you suggest such a disrespectful solution?“

     "He would disgrace Lunin to rule his moon!”

     "This rat could never take his place.“

     Neptune only smiled and said nothing while he waited for the others to calm down so that he could speak again.

     After they finished, he explained himself. "Lunin is no more. He can feel neither disgrace nor pain. He is among the stars, one with the very fabric that makes up all we see and breathe. He is one with us like never before. So I ask you, what better punishment than one that can reform a soul? Brinn will have only Time as his companion, as his teacher. He will learn that Lunin hadn’t time to ruin a human’s life. By being in Lunin’s place he will learn patience and humility, and will no longer be able to harm anyone. He will see that there are solutions other than violence, and by passing this as his judgement we will give him his first lesson.”

     The silence that followed was more electric than the clamoring of objections that preambled his words.

     Mercury disrupted the silence. “As the flower forgives the Earth for murdering it with snow and ice in the winter, and again blooms in the spring; so, too, shall time forgive the murder of our brother and let humanity bloom again in the ruins of this man’s soul.”

     After he had finished speaking, outside of the barrier stars were rebuilt from scattered fire and repopulated the sky as the Universe rewound back to the moment when they had arrived on the Moon.

     The membrane vanished and Brinn felt a hot wind blow across him like a mother’s first breath on a newborn baby. He wasn’t sure how long he waited, kneeling with his head down, before he realized he was alone. He raised his head and saw no one, nothing but silver mountains and valleys. He looked all around him before standing up. His legs felt weak, new.

     Brinn wanted to leave. The loneliness of the Moon weighed on his mind and made him uneasy. He tried to go home, but couldn’t remember how he had gotten here in the first place. He ran awkwardly, hoping that his feet would move fast enough to carry him across the void. Something tripped him and his face hit the ground hard.

     Brinn’s foot felt as if a jellyfish had wrapped itself around it and was burning him with poison. He sat up to inspect it when he saw what tripped him. Laying in the sand in multiple pieces was the Talon. The sight of it brought a pang of fear bubbling up in his stomach. He tried to pick it up, but it would have hurt less to grab an iron straight off of the fire.

     "What is this? What is happening to me?!“ Brinn screamed as he punched the ground. "Devils! Come back and fight me! You’re all demons!”

     But no one answered and no one returned to fight. For a long while he sobbed as he realized what happened to him. He was the Moon’s soul now, and the Moon was he.

                                                         #

     Aeons had passed and Brinn had become one with the very thing that was his prison. Though, it was his imprisonment on
the rock that had taught him to be free.

     Currently he was standing atop one of the highest peaks on the Moon’s northern pole. He was watching the Sun and enjoying its warmth on his face when he heard a sound that brought an instant burst of nostalgia for something that he had forgotten to miss, as well as a bit of fear.

     It was the sound of footsteps walking up behind him. He turned and was surprised to see Earth approaching him.

     "I had almost forgotten that I wasn’t alone in the universe. It’s good to see another soul.“

     Earth smiled, and Brinn smiled back. She spoke. "You are never alone. You need not do more than look out, in any direction, to see any one of us. We are here and will be here for eternity.

     "I have watched you through time, child, and I have seen changes in you. Your soul is no longer broken. No longer is it raw from pain and hatred. You are changed and at peace. I have come to return you home.”

     Brinn looked down at his feet and at the silver sand beneath them. He looked at the craters and mountain tops that he had come to know better than the patterns of lines on his palms. The Sun felt warmer on his skin now. “I am home.”

     Earth only smiled, and without another word she was gone. Brinn tried to think back to his time on Earth, so short it was. Short and so long ago that it was as if it had only been a dream of a strange place. And a dream it may have been-his arrival on the moon was his awakening.

     He looked to the Sun, the Earth, and bowed his head before descending the peak with a smile and repeating to himself, “I am home.”