The Moonborn’s Touch

Where I come from the water turns muddy when the sun hits the sky,

Undrinkable for any living being and untouchable unless you want to lose a hand.

Where I come from when the silver light of the moon hits the water it turns crystal,

It returns into its freshness and the water sits heavenly under the moonlight. 

The place where I come from there is a woman whose hair carries the silver of the moon, whispers at town dare say she was born from the moon's womb. 

She carries herself with glee and wherever she goes people welcome her with reverie,

for not only does tales and mist surround her being, but she’s the only one who can turn the mud back into its origin.

The place where I come from, a new phenomenon is spreading through town 

People wake up with eyes of golden sun,

They prance as owners of the world and claim to be descendants of the sun,

People cowered under their scrutiny until the descendants of the sun met the moon’s womb, 

and with her touch,

turned into mud. 

Zira didn’t mean to kill that man. She had been meandering around the market at sunlight when she crossed paths with a strange looking man. He was yelling at the seller, for he wanted more buckets of water than those that were permitted for a person, he had anger flashing on his- his eyes… they were one of the most peculiar colors she had ever beheld. Zira was well aware of the ongoing gossip of the towns, of people that had woken up with yellow eyes. Some say they were blessed by the light, others claimed they had been cursed by the moon for being followers of the sun and their treason to nature would now be made evident with their set of sun-eyes. The nature of their eyes is unknown, some fear them, others praise them, nonetheless they are two things of the same coin, even the people who praised them cower as did the ones who fear them.

She made her way through the crowds surrounding the sun-eyed and the water seller. Zira didn’t have to struggle long to make her way inside the crowd. When people recognized Zira they made way, forgetting the scene in front of them and casting their surprised eyes on her. Zira wasn’t hard to spot, with dark night skin and curly long silver hair, so unlike anything anyone, even her, had ever seen. 

“Is that the moon born?”

She stood tall as some stared at her awed by her existence as if Zira had just came out of the swirls of air pouring out of a teller's mouth story.

As Zira reached the scene, the water seller stopped on his words. He recognized her, for she had helped him many times before turning the mud back into water. Only the sun-eyed kept on yelling 

“I want two buckets of water and I will take the two buckets I deserve” the man used his pointing finger aggressively going back and forth between himself and the buckets. 

“Sir, as I have told you before, I can only sell one bucket per family.” The water seller explained exasperated, probably from repeating that same phrase over and over again, losing the hope of the man finally understanding.

“My family and I haven’t showered” the man raised his voice talking over the vendor “I’m one of the blessed by the light”

“EVEN less likely i'll give you one for a shower and even less still with that bloody attitude” the vendor finished talking over the man, his face growing red by the second. 

“Sir” Zira said with a soothing voice to the sun-eyed trying to calm him down as she placed herself between the two of them “if you have a bucket of mud I can turn it into water if you’ll like, but we all want water and no more than a bucket can be given to a family” 

The men locked his golden eyes into Zira's, sending a tremor up her body. “You are that woman?” he got closer to her, his eyes assessing. “You can turn the mud into water huh” 

“Yes” Zira replied simply, there was a weird aura coming out of that man which made her frown and a desire to run away from her wanted to take hold of her, she wanted to step back, to turn around and leave, but she won’t. 

“You are coming with me” he stated and turned to walk away, probably to his house, but he stopped a few steps away to look back at her over his shoulder. “I said you are coming” 

Zira couldn't believe this stranger’s demands, who did he think he was?. 

“I will do, not such thing” she crossed her arms, looking at him with defiance. 

The man scoffed, surprised someone else had refused his desires, he was a man used to getting what he wanted, on demanding more than he needed and wasting all that was left. A man who had no regard for his surroundings but thought only of pleasing his whims. 

He took two long strides to get next to her and grabbed Zira by her forearm, pulling hard to take her by any means necessary. Just before people could get their hands on him to push him away, or even before he could even pull her more than one feet away, he doubled over grabbing hard on his abdomen, his eyes opened wild with panic, he no longer possessed hold of his body as tremors took over the man, he started to throw up. He was throwing up mud, it splashed everywhere on the street stones, brown and slimy. 

People gasped alarmed and pushed away from the man as if scared of his malady being contagious. Mothers and fathers covered their kid’s' eyes and took them far away for them not to see, some started throwing up when beholding the man as he thrashed in the ground, as he fought and filled himself with his own mud. 

“He's the devil” a woman's wail ringed in Zira's ears. 

Zira stood in her place, shocked, all around her people were moving, stepping aside, some were yelling orders she could not comprehend, she felt trapped inside a bubble where sound could barely penetrate its walls but where inside time stood still. All she could do was stare blankly seeing how the man’s skin started to turn into mud as well. His screams soon turned into choking and gurgling sounds as he tried desperately to catch some air to breathe, his eyes traveled around the place frantically begging for help as his lungs started to fill with mud and the sunlight vanished from his eyes. All was in vain. He died choking on mud and became the mud he choked on. She had killed him. 

“The moonborn, she has saved us” a man's yelling brought her back to her senses. Zira's eyes shone bright with guilt but also with the confusion of what had happened and the hope it had been a bad dream.

“The sun, it has come, it will take us all one by one” a man embraced his son on his arms.

“Our sins, the moon is punishing us for dwelling with the sun-eyed” a woman pointed at the mud, her face red and angry, full of regret. 

Voices all around her, Zira could feel their panic, but most of all she could feel them all staring at her, waiting for her to do something, but all she could do was stare at the puddle of mud at her feet. She had ended him. 

Voices.

“It's not real, it's all a made up story for the rich to scare us all” 

Voices all.

“Are you crazy? Can you not see the water turn to mud?”

Voices all around.

“The seas are burning up only a blind man could not see what's standing in front of them, but he could clearly feel it, the sun is taking over, our days are counted for” 

“We are doomed” A man's voice rose from all others, hushing them all. “It doesn't matter what we do, how much we try to clean the water, there is nothing we can do. It's all their fault, those sun-eyed” he spat on the ground repulsed “its them, and their fabrics and fancy trains. They are filling our land with mud, they are the ones feeding the god of the sun, feeding the evil so it grows more powerful. ”

“It's true,” another woman's voice agreed with the man. “I can feel it, each year the god grows stronger, each year…” 

The woman kept on going but Zira was no longer listening to her, a movement to her side had caught her attention, a man was squeezing his way out of the crowd, his face was down as if trying to hide himself from everyone in the surroundings. 

“Zira! Zira!” she felt a hand on her shoulder that startled her “are you alright?” Zira faced the woman talking, she stared into her sister's eyes and crumbled immediately at her shoulder, shaking as tears traveled down her cheeks. “hey hey, it's not your fault” Kyrah helped her stand up with soothing hands and a calm voice. 

“No, you can't go” the man's voice who claimed humanity's doom shushed everyone around. Zira froze on her spot, turning around expecting to see the man making his way towards her, to stop her. But she only turned to see a commotion forming on the side, for the man who Zira had seen earlier trying to drift unnoticed from the crowd had been caught. Screams and pleas were forming in his mouth as people dragged him all the way back to an open space at the crowd, where the man who cried doom awaited him, with a knife at his hand. The man was forced to kneel on the pavement and the doomed pulled the hair of the man forcing his face to look up from the ground and everyone to see his golden yellow eyes. The doomed man took a better hold of his knife. 

“No, stop!” Zira managed to yell as she got free from her sister's arms who were trying to pull her out of the scene. Zira was thankful for the attention the tales had given her, she was sure that if it weren't for the stories her voice would have been ignored and drowned in the waves of the crowd. “You can't kill him” 

The doomed man turned his attention to her “oh but you can?” he spoke, his eyes and voice full of venom, a venom that stung her eyes bringing back the tears. 

“Who are you to do as you please?” he pointed at her with the knife and everyone seemed to hold their breath together. Who was this man? How dare he question her? More people had made their way to the market, curious and wandering minds who fed from the gossip of the town. 

“You, who walk around as if you owned the place, as if you are better than us” he was no longer talking to her, but turning around as he brought on his monologue, making eye contact with everyone around him trying to lure them in with his gaze, some nodded in agreement holding on to his gaze, while others unsure cast their eyes away from his. 

“This is not good” Kyrah whispered into Zira's ear, taking a hold of her hand and trying to take her away. But Zira stood still, she was not going anywhere. People knew she helped them, they would help her too.

“You come from the moon right? The moon god works for us, not us for him, its his fault the world its as fucked up as it is. If he's oh so powerful and healing, it means he has failed us. But then you come from the moon, or so they say, and you walk around as the owner of the world. Us, the humans, we are the owners of the world. You were not sent to be worshiped, you were sent as a gift from the god because he has been failing us, but you. You will work for us” 

“Ay!” a woman shouted from somewhere on the river of people, and soon the movement of her shout turned into a wave, people all around were screaming their agreement. “Ay!” more shouted.

Zira was once again thrown off guard, she who had grown up in that town, who knew them all and had helped them whenever they asked for a favor. She provided them with water whenever she could, expecting nothing in return. And now, they were turning on her, her help was not enough. Why couldn't they be grateful? Can't they see all she did for them? Would enough ever be so for humans?

She felt a growing anger inside of her, a small ball of fire and nausea that was forming on her stomach, expanding to her chest and head, making her face redden and her tears to burn as they fell frantically on to the pavement, each drop disappearing like every single deed she had done for them. 

“I have helped ALL of you” Zira made herself be heard. “I have fainted from exhaustion from transforming buckets of mud into water, I have always helped and never asked for anything in return, I-”

“As you should, it is your duty” The doomed interrupted her before she could finish. “So what? We should be grateful you turned some buckets of mud into water?” He took slow steps toward her, completely forgetting the sun-eyed man at his feet, the man who had written in his eyes how he had failed the world. The man took his opportunity and slithered through the crowd too fast for anyone around him to be able to catch him. 

“I, myself alone, cannot fix humanities wrongdoings” Zira said more calmingly. 

“You will” The doomed said simply and Zira could do nothing as someone behind her hit her head with a rock. The last thing she saw was a ray of sun forming in the man's eyes as they turned into gold. Then Zira's world went dark

Zira woke up tied up on a chair, her head was ringing with pain and the sun from the sky made it unbearable to open her eyes. She could feel something hard on her skin, it was blood, dried blood that had runned down from her head and to her neck, leaving a dark and dried coat of red painted on her skin. When her eyes adjusted to the light, Zira saw that she was alone in the room, that she was not outside as first imagined, but inside a small house with open windows and a door left ajar from where she could see a great clearing of dried yellow grass. At the middle rested a big lake all filled with brown and green slimy mud. 

Zira stared at her hands tied loosely to the arms of the chair, she didn't know who had tied her, but whoever it was they had either done a really bad job at tying her or that person wanted her to escape. She couldn't think clearly, everything hurt, her body ached from the outside and from the inside she felt a need to collapse, to give in. She didn't know what was left in the world. If she could escape what would she do, people were going to seek her out until they drained her. Even with her mind clouded she knew she had to get out, Zira thrashed against the ropes which gave in easily after a few minutes.  

“Stop” a voice from inside the house said softly, a voice she recognized immediately. One word, it only took that word for her world to crumble to the ground. 

“Kyrah?” Zira's voice shook filled with dread as she searched for her sister in the room. 

“You need to stop fighting” her sister appeared, coming out from one of the rooms of the house and leaning against the doorframe. “You can really make a change, can you help us?”

Zira closed her eyes, shaking her head from side to side in disbelief. “Why are you doing this? You are my sister”

“I'm not your sister” Kyrah stabbed her with words directly into her heart “you were only a baby that was left at the doorstep of my family's house. I have grown to love you as a sister” her voice trembled at the word love a sob escaped Zira's mouth. “But a sister of mine would help us, you can create a change” 

“Doing what?” Zira freed her legs from the ropes tying them to the chair. 

“You are going to be thrown into the lake” Kyrah explained “so all the lake will be restored into water” 

Zira could not comprehend how Kyrah could do that to her, she knew more than most how even turning buckets of mud into water exhausted her. 

She took a step closer to Kyrah, but she immediately stepped farther away from her as if scared of her. “That could kill me” Zira said, her voice breaking like her heart.

“I know” Kyrah said, meeting Zira's eyes, and when they met Zira felt another stab to her hopes “but it's for a greater good” Kyrah said as a single tear fell from her sun-eyed eyes. 

The place where i come from, people's eyes speak the truths of their souls, 

their deeds or wrongdoings written in their gaze.

The place where i come from people demand more than they can hold,

and feed themselves from nature's soul. 

Where I come from, a woman, the moonborn had saved my life,

while I did nothing but run.

Where I come from, people planted their own seed of doom,

and kept on watering it hoping nature would restore it all.