“She’s lovely isn’t she?” Prat let off as both we’re descending down the hill along the dirt path. “I mean she must be the most popular girl in town, who’d thought she turned out a beauty seeing how his pappy looked and her mum isn’t really the dawn blossom type.” He let Aria’s face hang in his mind, the sharp angle of her cheeks, high eyebrows, tiny lips and her overflowing golden hair, as he placed a hand over Edwin. “Bet you all the boys are already eyeing to ask her out for the Spring Festival.”
“Knock it off! No need to say such things about her parents, Thadeus was in the army and from the battles he fought, the scars he obtained might not be pretty, yet they are still badges of honour for a veteran like him. I heard he led the charge at Bretling Pass, even as the Draconians outnumbered them by more than half and he and the few survivors of his company held the Pass until the Lord Protector could send in reinforcements. All would have been lost if the battle had gone any other way,” Edwin flicked his pal’s hand off, more angry at his friend for the truthful fact he told about Aria having many admirers, knowing Edwin too wanted so much to ask her himself but couldn’t really pluck up the courage to do so, than at his tasteless joking about her parents’ looks. “Also Aria’s mother isn’t so bad in looks, she’s pretty comely for someone that works the forge with her husband, casting molten ore and shaping the cart wheels and shod iron shoes for the horses.”
“So, are you asking her to the Festival?” Prat said, knowing what Ed’s reply would be because they had this conversation so many times that his responses were no longer a mystery to him. If needed and if anyone asks, Prat could practically recite the exact response in verbatim.
Edwin’s looks grew a bit down and the sliver of a frown started to form, but he quickly banished it and gave a smile to Prat. “Me? Why I’m just a poor farm boy. How can I compare to the townies who could present her with fresh cut flowers, sweets from Mr. Schwattz’s Sweet Shoppie or gifts of gems and perfumed scent bought from the exotic traders. I’m sure Aria wouldn’t even bat an eye towards me, with all the others all lining up to ask her out, forget it okay, I’m fine,” Edwin said, trying to sound convincing more for himself than to persuade Prat. “Besides, I’m not keen to go to the Festival this year with all the new planting of the crops, I’d be too busy to make it, else I’d drop off in the middle from sheer exhaustion.” He made his walking pace a bit faster, trying both to keep Prat from spouting more jibes on the matter but also because secretly he wanted to reach the market faster, in the hopes of catching sight of Aria at her stall.
Before Prat could reply anything, for he needed to sprint a bit to catch up with Edwin, who had walked a fair bit of a distance in his haste, Edwin came about the town entrance. The Moon Gate marks the entrance into T’san, a huge construct of oak carved with intricate designs. Everyone passing through and wanting to enter or leave the town of T’san had to pass through the gate as it was the only entrance available, no matter where they came from. Twin pillars extended upward, the base firmly rooted deep into the ground, each pillar is carved with verses in a language no one knew about, most probably a native tongue of the traveling priests who took refuge here long ago due to war in their lands and erected the gate in the name of the Gods and as a token of friendship to the town that accepted and gave safe haven to them.
Glancing up to the whole 10 feet, both pillars thinned out and bent inwards to form an archway resembling a semicircular moon, hence the name. Carved figurines of mythical beasts adorn the wooden panels and roofing. At the base stood guard two beasts of which no one could point out their origin or a real world counterpart, massive scaled draconic beings with elongated snouts, horned heads, swirling tail and hooves on their extremities. No one in the town, not even the Elder who had lived many lifetimes more than most, knew what they were, most wrote it off as artistic fancy by the sculptor for even in the Yenla, dragons were last seen eons ago and given up for dead, remaining only in legends and tales told to children to entertain them.
Edwin always stopped to look at the Moon Gate, now merely a figurehead for the town, nothing more, its makers long ago made their way from this world. In his haste today and in his anger, he found himself standing in front of it and for a moment mesmerized at the intricate words, though they made no sense to him, he put his hands on them and felt the engravings, each pit and fold caressing his hands and he felt a comfort flowing over him and was almost lost in them. Edwin can’t really say why but it felt like meeting an old friend, someone you knew well and just only got reacquainted again after a long spell of being apart. Each time he touched the smoothened red pillars, it always seem that he was on a verge of remembering something, a tingling feeling at the edge of the brain, like recalling a dream, knowing you had dreamt it the previous night but can’t fully recall the details, just a muddle of colours, images and emotions.
“Hey, you all right Ed?” a worried look sneaked up onto Prat’s face as he finally caught up with Edwin. “You’re not feeling all wrong in the head from the knock are you?” Beads of sweat started to snake their way down his cheeks and he let off pants of heavy breath from the exertion of the chase. “Or are you still mad about me chiding you on Aria? If so I apologize, it’s a mean thing to say though I still think all this hesitating about revealing your true feelings for her is not right,” he said while putting a hand on Edwin’s shoulder and giving him a shake.
As sudden as his near charmed state, Edwin snapped back to reality.
“Eh, why are you trying to do? Snap my neck in two?” he glared.
“What? You were like in another world and all I did was to try and get your attention.” Prat’s face changed from the worried look he had a moment ago back to his normal indifferent composure. “Seriously what’s so interesting about the Moon Gate anyway, we pass here almost every other day and it’s still the same old thing. The stone sculptures though are another thing, they give me the shivers now and then, I’m always reminded of the time when I was 5 years of age and my brother made fun of me by saying that they’ll leap up and chomp my head off when I walk near them, what a stinker.” He went to one and raped his knuckles on the stone head and nothing came about it. “See nothing special, just plain old stone.”
“Nothing, just that it fascinates me that’s all and a bit of skill craft was put into the making of it, nothing like it elsewhere in the entire town, as if it was plucked and deposited here, only everyone forgot why,” Edwin said, eyes still fixated at the gateway and its silent guardians. “Anyway, let’s go, Market Street is just up ahead and I can see a crowd already forming.
Shrugging his shoulder, Prat soon followed Edwin, “Wait up, one minute you’re out of it and now you’re moving like a viper on hot sand.”
“You’re going to be the death of me one day,” he said in jest.
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