The Cracks to the Moon

"I see," Lee mumbled out, looking down out towards the town.

He now knew the story behind the people. He knew what had happened to them, and their story, but that did not explain what had happened to the town.

The markings on the wood of the buildings on shore now made sense, with the unnatural, almost divine, whether leaning towards death or towards life unknown, water.

"What happened to the buildings, though?" Lee asked Zhang Yuan, looking towards him now, his face old and tired, the scar on his neck shining silver and wide.

"Wait and you will see, when the moon is at its highest point. It is the night of the full moon." Zhang Yuan declared boldly, his head rising up to look over the lake, to look through the swirling pillar of light, and towards the buildings on the other side.

They looked exactly the same as all the ones on the side of the lake that Lee sat on.

They stood on their stilts, with some dangling over the sides of the lake, partway submerged within where the water used to be.

Lee blinked over at them, unsure of what he was supposed to be looking.

He blinked again and stood up, bowing to the old man as thanks for his information and the knowledge that he had gained.

It would be best for him to walk over to the other side to see what would happen over there, Lee thought to himself. He glanced up to see the moon and saw that it was still climbing the sky in its journey through the night.

If he ran now, he would certainly arrive early on the other side, but he would definitely be tiring himself out. However, if he walked, then Lee may find himself arriving on time on the other side of the river.

Lee looked down into the underwater town and scanned it to try and find the God of Strength once more. The deity had completed his distribution of the sand bags and was now walking towards the hotel, the ladies on the balcony with their faces decorated and given colour by makeup calling out to him, singing their praises, with one of them acquiring a guqin to pluck out deep, riveting songs in the God's honour.

The God smiled up to them, marching unimpeded by the crowd around him that fanned out and bowed down to the deity.

He was obviously well loved by the townspeople, with those who he had passed cheering him on as he walked into the towering, red building.

Lee's eyes turned down to his feet as he walked away to the other lake shore, attempting to walk away and stamp out his desire to follow the God inside, to try and see what was so significant about the building and to satiate his curiosity to know more and learn more.

The hotel was becoming the next river rock of the field in his life: another mystery that he would be left unable to solve by those around him.

He was a mortal, and the man who was paraded below was a God.

There was no real choice of his own.

Lee kept walking to the other side of the lake, taking the streets that those ghostly individuals took.

The area here was made up of sparse homes, with the lake inching closer to the water front to leech off from the lake.

There was only a single, wide road, which Lee walked upon, passing by various women and men carrying their goods and messages from one side of the river to the manor's side.

Looking between the two, it was obvious that where the manor stood, the town was obviously wealthier with larger buildings and homes, the streets set up with all their stalls and where the majority of the business took place, with the other side of the lake resembling a large cluster of squares, stacked upon each other tightly, looking to have all been squished up.

From a distance, they all looked as if they were a group of stacked, heavy crates, and Lee dimly realised that this was where the people lived if they were not as wealthy, hastily tucked away from the almost magical front of the manor and the market.

Lee looked out further behind the settlement, his eyes locking on a series of rolling hills and now empty pastures, knowing that the area there was all once farmland, left abandoned and unplanted, leaving the earth perfect for fields of grass to grow back.

He was sure that if he was able to press down on the earth and to examine it, he would be able to make the not quite flattened grooves where tills were one dragged and where the seeds of the crops would be planted.

The farmers had lived in the settlement.

Lee had to stop and close his eyes for a moment, groaning and sighing.

He opened his eyes once more and was immediately met with the face of a boy.

He was obviously younger than Lee, his limbs long and lanky, the proportions of his body decidedly undecided.

"Hey, do you want to play ball?" he asked, his voice happy and light.

The sores and callouses on his hands obvious and mirrored the ones on Lee's hands, the marks of handling scythes, hoes and pitchforks.

"Er... no," Lee awkwardly replied back to him, looking awkwardly over to the side.

He wasn't about to play a game that he didn't know the rules of, and he needed to get to the other side.

"So, why're ya goin' to the village?" he asked Lee, while all the other children his age bounded up behind him to get closer to hear their conversation.

"I was told... that something was going to happen, later," Lee answered out to him, pulling himself inwards tighter and began tiptoeing around him, brushing around the edges of the lake.

"Oh cool! I can take ya!"