Dyn Twodd

Chapter Three

Meg didn’t forget about Dyn. In fact, it seemed like I was spending more time with my sister now than I ever had before. Each time I turned around, she was there. Each time I whistled for Dyn, she was there. I took some undignified pleasure in the idea that whenever I whistled she came running like a dog, but it wasn’t good enough for me to forgive her for following me around and trying to steal my dog.

And she did, too. Dyn followed her around as much as he did me, leaping to his feet with his tail swirling around behind him like a garden fan each time she walked by or came towards him.

“Now, Wallace,” my father had said when I had complained about her taking Dyn, “it’s a good thing that he loves both of you. He will protect you, and we never have to worry about him biting either of you. That’s a very good thing. You have to be patient with your sister. You know, you are the elder brother. Try and be someone she can look up to.”

I grumbled to myself moodily and wrapped my arms around my knees. The shingles of the roof felt like sandpaper on my feet as I scooted a little further up towards the peak.

Clouds swirled in the sky overhead, the usually starry blanket that flowed over the old house hidden mostly from sight. A few dim flashes had started to blink in the far distance, lightning and thunder soon to be on their way.

I curled my toes under me as a gentle breeze swept across the roof, smelling of rain.

“So, how is Dyn?”

I quickly looked to my right and saw Nos. He was sitting beside me as though he had been there all the while, his balloon bouncing gently in his hand, and his other hand resting on his knee. He was staring up at the sky, same as me.

“Don’t you already know?” I asked him bitterly.

He nodded. “Mm. Yeah. I’m sorry about that, it’s tough. But you know what they say about little sisters.”

I stared at him, waiting for him to finish what he had been saying.

He glanced at me, his crimson eyes widening. “Oh, I really thought you knew. Sorry.”

I blinked. “Well, tell me!”

He shook his head. “Nope. Ain’t allowed to tell you if you don’t already know. Sorry.”

I wasn’t particularly in the mood for Nos this evening.

Another breeze blew over the roof, this one quite a bit stronger than the last, and smelling wet and cold. A flash of lightning carved the sky, followed a few seconds later by the rattle of heavy thunder.

“It’s going to rain,” Nos said simply.

“Yup.”

We sat in silence, watching a few more streaks of lightning dance in the gloom above us.

“Do you know where lightning comes from?” Nos asked suddenly, looking over at me.

I shrugged. “Papa says it comes from clouds bumping into each other,” I said. “My teacher at school says it's from weird particles in the clouds mixing and causing a reaction or something. I think they’re both sort of the same thing.”

“Yeah, they are,” Nos said cheerfully. “But they’re both wrong, you know.”

I looked at him quickly. He squinted up at the clouds above, holding his hand in front of him and measuring the streaks of lightning with his fingers. “What do you mean?” I asked. I understood how my teacher could be wrong, but there was no way papa was wrong. He knew pretty much everything.

“I mean it how I said it,” Nos answered matter-of-factly. He continued to stare at the sky through his fingers. “They’re wrong. Lightning and thunder doesn’t come from either of those things. It comes from Beet Whales.”

“Ugh, I hate beets,” I said shortly. My stomach flipped just at the idea of eating my mother's beets, slathered in mayonnaise and pepper. “What is a Beet Whale?”

Nos lowered his hand. “They are whales that carry beets.”

I frowned at him, and hoped he was getting the impression that I was rather dubious. “But...whales live in the ocean. How can they make lightning from the ocean?”

Nos stood up. “You know, it would probably be easier if I just showed you. What do you think?”

I didn’t move. “Show me whales?”

“Beet Whales.”

“Beets grow in the ocean?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Nos chuckled. “They grow on the moon.”

I shifted uncomfortably. “I don’t know. I’m not supposed to go anywhere with strangers.”

“Oh, come on,” Nos said, rolling his eyes. “We aren’t strangers! I know practically everything there is to know about you.”

I frowned. “I-I think that’s worse,” I said. “I don’t think mama and papa would like it...”

“How can you be sure?” Nos asked shiftily. “Have they told you not to go to the moon before?”

“No,” I said shortly. “I just…”

“What?” Nos pressed. “You just...what?”

Nos was somehow irritating me even more than usual. “It’s the sort of thing they wouldn’t like, that’s all.”

Nos shrugged. “Okay. Whatever you think.” He abruptly dropped the topic and stared back up at the starry sky.

I frowned. “That’s it?”

He looked at me innocently. “Whatever do you mean?”

I waved my arms around my head. “You-you just give up that easily?”

Nos tilted his head. “You want me to bother you about it?”

“Well, no, I guess…” I trailed off, not sure of what to say. “I guess I just thought that if it was that important, you wouldn’t have given up so easily.”

“Well, it’s not terribly important, first of all. And besides,” he yawned, “It looks to me like you would rather stay here and wait to have a turn petting Meg’s dog.” He covered his mouth with his hand, his eyes wide with feigned shock. “I’m so sorry; your dog.”

I glared at him.

He was right though. I was getting tired of slaving away for his food and water and baths and then having to go to school while Meg got to stay behind and play with him. It wasn’t fair, Meg didn’t have school. She never had to go anywhere, and so she was always with Dyn.

I stood up. “Okay,” I said stoutly. I ignored my knees threatening to rattle together, and stared at Nos’s hand, stretched out toward me. “Is-is it dangerous?”

“Not if you stay with me,” Nos said cheerfully. “As long as you do, it’s completely safe.

I didn’t ask what he meant by that; I was afraid that if I did, I would change my mind. I wanted to hear that yes, everything was wonderfully safe. Now, I knew it wasn’t. But as long as that was all that I knew, and I didn’t know why…

“Okay,” I said. I shifted uncomfortably. “Now what?”

“Take my hand,” Nos said, “and hold on tight, you know. I don’t want to let you slip.”

“Slip where?” I asked, as I stepped forward and took his cold, clammy hand.

“Into Ysbryd,” Nos said simply. He stepped over to the edge of the roof, pulling me with him. My toes dangled over the rim of the rain gutter, hovering above their leafy, slime-filled insides. “Now, it might get bumpy, so don’t be surprised if it does. And don’t worry about it, it’s totally normal.”

“Wait, what is Ysbryd?” I asked quickly.

I was too late. My feet left the coarse shingles of the roof, a gentle breeze blowing under them as we lifted into the air. My pajamas fluttered around my ankles and wrists as we gained speed, the house shrinking away into nothingness and darkness growing around us in a velvet orb.

“What’s happening?” I asked, surprised at how small my voice sounded in the heavy silence of the black sphere.

“We need protection from Ysbryd,” Nos explained calmly, which explained nothing.

Dots of white appeared in the orb around us, like specks of paint flicked off a brush onto a midnight canvas. Moments later, they blurred, becoming white streaks that zipped around us like loosed sparks. Shifting images appeared outside the lines and darkness, some white, and some a glowing blue. They dashed towards our little sanctuary, before floating away. Some flew close enough that I could make out faces, or hands, defining what might have been people, or something like them. The wind stopped blowing through my pajamas and died out altogether, to be replaced by a fluttering humming noise, vibrating faster and faster in my ears like rumble strips on a car.

I looked at Nos, beginning to regret my decision. He stared straight upwards, not seeming to be concerned in the slightest.

Whispers trickled in from the specters outside, hisses and moans of words I couldn’t understand. They grew louder each moment, the ethereal faces flashing and whirling outside our orb. My heart thundered in my chest, sweat grew on my brow, and I was fairly certain the hand that held Nos’s was beginning to melt. I was terrified, sure that each of the strange ghosts that dashed towards us would be the last.

Just as I opened my mouth to say that I couldn’t take it anymore, that I wanted to be done, and I just wanted to be set back down on my roof, everything stopped. The ghosts vanished, the humming stopped, the white lines stopped, and finally, we stopped. The velvet black orb vanished, melting away into nothing.

I squinted as bright light shone down on us suddenly, the entire world suddenly white and radiant. The air was warm, and every bit as soft as out little black sphere. Star shone overhead, seeming closer than before. Maybe they were.

Nos let go of my hand and stepped forward. “Well?” he said, turning back to face me. “Don’t just stand there. We only have all night.”

I took a step forward and froze, staring down at the ground. White and grey dust was covering my feet in a dull blanket, rising up between my toes and nearly burying them from sight.

I looked back up at Nos. “We’re really on the moon, aren’t we?”

He didn’t say anything, but pointed to something behind me.

I turned around and stared in disbelief. A blue and green sphere hovered in the inky sky above, streaked with white mist.

It was earth.