Meteors: Prologue - The Ahldenic Lad

Credited to Honney Artkongharn on Unsplash

This is the story of a family. I guess most stories are about families, but this on – well, it’s probably not that different. There’s a mother, who was terrified to love, but slowly learnt that not everyone is out to hurt you, and some rare few make it their mission to love you, truly. There’s a father, an optimistic Ahldenic lad who saw that shipwreck of a woman and fell fast and hard for her, and yet they were kept apart by – you’ll find out what by. He carries that with him always. And lastly, there’s their daughter, her favourite character is the Creature in Frankenstein. Do with that what you will.

I’m not quite sure when this happened, just where. There’s this island in the east ocean, off the coast of the large continent of Kailix. It’s split in two, a story the children there learn in their history books, that “In seventeen-seventy-one, Ahlden split into Ahl and On” – not the best rhyme, but it helps. Ahlden is the southern half.

Our lad grew up there, not his future wife though. She moved around a lot. He grew up near Onden’s border, a little town called Sobetween. It’s a difficult town to find, and for some reason is near impossible to point out on a map. People just end up there, unless, like our Ahldenic lad, they grew up there.

There’s this blue house, it serves as a town hall, at one point a school, always a church, or a theatre, or a market. It’s a building of many uses, but its lower floor has always been living quarters. Rumour is, it used to belong to one family but now is more akin to an apartment building. Owain, the lad in question, grew up in that blue building, and lived there with his parents, when he wasn’t at work. He knew everyone, after all, there were rarely any newcomers. He had been to every Christmas fair since he was born, gone to primary and secondary and college with the same people, gone fishing in that same lake with his dad every Saturday. People had left to pursue careers, or families, or just to see more of Ahlden, or more of the world, but Owain was content with his life.

He had just accepted his first proper job offer from Salmon Eddie, whose actual name was Frank, but not many people remembered that. He was to be at Water’s Edge Pier by six that morning for his first fishing trip. He had prepared everything the night before. The flat cap keeping his long-ish hair under some form of control had been picked out weeks away by his mum, his uniform and boots had been his dad’s when he worked in the fishing industry, hardy, patched, and well-worn, he had insisted that these were the best things for the lad to wear, and Owain had to admit that he felt a prickling of pride, taking up his father’s role after so many years of his being retired. He’d packed his food and equipment himself, ship-shape as he could. He knew no one would see him this early in the morning, but if they did, he hoped they would see a fisherman worthy of his place.

It was raining, as per usual. Puddles were rising across the roads, but Owain believed that it was just a shower, not a storm. Umbrellas were useless in this town, new-comers, when they had them, would learn this within a week, and roughly three inside-out umbrellas.

What he could not believe, was that as he neared the pier, there was no boat there.

Read Chapter One here.