by Jerry Hart
After Rapatha docked with the Land of Constant Starlight, Astrid had left to return to her cloud palace. Though that strange land was in some weird part of the world no one knew about, it was relatively easy to come and go. Mom did it, splitting her time between Rapatha and Astrid’s home. Everyone else on Rapatha decided to stay there, however. That strange land now experienced regular cycles of day and night and was a much happier place than when Astrid first went there.
She returned to her palace and went up to her father’s study. She missed him so much, and it pained her to not be able to see him and practice weather control like they used to. After finding out he was innocent of most of the crimes Rockne accused him of, Astrid spent as much time with him as possible. Though it hadn’t been much, it had been enough to realize he was a good man and that he loved her very much.
Astrid turned to leave the study when she suddenly remembered something.
When he was alive, her father and Josh had gone to some nexus to talk with past nature demons. Nalke had said only spirits could go there, and at the time, Astrid hadn’t gone through the transformation. But now….
She tried to think. She hadn’t gone through the journals like she was supposed to, so she didn’t quite know everything there was to know about being a nature demon. She grabbed a journal from a table and began reading. She knew nature demons went to a nexus when they died, but she didn’t know how to get there. She didn’t read for too long anything that didn’t mention the nexus.
When she finally found something, she read carefully.
“‘Use the ashes of the previous demon in order to establish a link.’”
She looked at the urn she knew held Nalke’s ashes. She grabbed it and poured a little on the floor, forming a small circle. She set the urn down and stood in the circle. And then she waited.
For a moment, nothing happened. And then the ashes lit up and she was transported.
Her senses were assaulted. She couldn’t see or hear anything around her. She could barely open her eyes due to the blinding brightness, and she heard a loud hum in the air. She pressed her palms to her ears, but that only dulled the sound a little. All of her skin felt really sensitive, so much so that even her clothes felt like they were scraping her.
“Dad?” she called out, though she could barely hear her own voice. A moment later, the sensations died down enough for her to focus. She looked up and saw herself surrounded by thick clouds. She felt like she was in a canyon. “Dad!” she called again, but again she got no response.
Finally, she heard a voice say, “Astrid?”
She smiled and looked up, way, way up, to the very top. A face appeared out of the cloud wall, a face she recognized. “Hey, Dad.”
Epilogue: The Tale of Rapatha Island
“Tell it again, Daddy!” little Victor pleaded.
Joshua, king of Rapatha Island, laughed. “Again?” he asked his five-year-old son. “I’ve already told it a hundred times.”
“No you haven’t.”
Joshua kissed his son’s cheeks, causing the boy to squeal with delight. They sat on a hill behind the palace, overlooking the coast. The sun was just setting.
“How about I just tell you what happened to everyone after the island flew away?” he asked Victor. “Grandma and Grandpa lived happily ever after and died at a very old age. The Rapathians rebuilt the island and lived happily ever after. Everyone was happy.”
“What about Astrid?” the child asked.
“Well, she’s a nature demon, now isn’t she? She continues to control the weather and live in her palace in the sky. Her mother visited her often until she, too, passed away at a very old age.”
“What about Joffey?”
“What about him?”
“Why didn’t anyone see him on the little island?”
“Because he wasn’t there.” Joshua kissed his son’s forehead. “Even though the other people came back from the dead, Joffey didn’t. His father imagined him. Some say it was the man’s conscience, trying to tell him to do the right thing, and that it manifested itself as his son.”
“Neat!”
Joshua laughed. He looked behind him and saw his wife approach from the palace. “Hello, Marla.”
“Hello, Joshua.”
“Daddy?” Victor called. “Did Josh join with Rapatha?”
“Of course he did.”
“Where is he now?”
“Some say he joined the other nature demons in the nexus. Others say he’s still on the island. No one really knows for sure.”
“What about Rapatha? Can’t we visit her?”
“No. Her cavern is closed to us now. But she tells us every now and then that she is well. Once she joined with the Land of Constant Starlight, she became much happier. She makes the flowers grow big and bright.”
“What about the fairies?”
“They come out every few years,” Marla said. “The last time was right before you were born. They’ll come out this year, during the Snow Day. That’s when we wear blue masks and dance and sing. It’s tradition.”
“Yay!” Victor jumped up and down with the unceasing energy of children. Joshua and Marla watched their son play.
“Tell it again, Daddy. Please!”
Joshua sighed. “All right. Just one more time.”
Victor sat between his parents as they faced the setting sun. “There once was a boy named Josh Debelko, who got caught in a tornado…”
Author’s Note
I would be lying if I said this trilogy was planned. Dargo Island was meant to be a single novella, based on a dream I had in 2012. After I wrote that ending, however, I knew I had to write another one. Having Josh turn into an old man after failing to lift Astrid’s curse just seemed downright mean.
So I said, “Just one more.”
Dargo’s Dark Dream, however, had an even crazier ending. I truly planned to end it there, on a happy, if not strange, ending. But then I decided to write yet another one. I even toyed with the idea of writing a lot more novellas. Each one would put the characters in wacky situations (I thought about having a Halloween-themed installment), but I’ve seen how long-running book series degrade over the years as the authors run out of things to say, and I didn’t want to end up like that. I figured, if I do write one more, it’s going to be as final as it can get.
I threw everything in there that I could think of. Nothing was planned beforehand except the meteor. I thought, What would happen if the outside world became aware of Dargo Island? The story snowballed from there.
It took months to write Rapatha. For comparison sake, it only took me a month, each, to write the first two novellas. I started the third one, but had trouble getting past the “meteor crashes on the island” idea, so I took a break and wrote the sci-fi novella Palar. Of course, that took only two weeks.
Then it was back to Rapatha.
By then, I’d forgotten what I’d written, and instead of re-reading it, I just started typing again. After finishing, I read it from beginning to end and saw some plot points I’d forgotten about. At some point, I mentioned Rapatha, the heart of Dargo Island, being tethered to the planet’s core. So, if she died, Earth died with her. The moment after I read that, I deleted it. I’m not sure what I was thinking.
Overall, I’m very happy with this trilogy of novellas. I started out with only a vague idea of the story I wanted to tell in the first, but I knew I wanted each to tell a complete story and stand on its own. None of these stories had to be told, but I’m glad I did it anyway. Otherwise, why would I write at all?
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