Steph Bennion - Hollow Moon

Beyond the final few shops ahead they saw a park filled with trees of truly gigantic proportions. As they neared the entrance they began to make out the large platforms hanging from the sturdier branches and the wooden walkways crossing from one tree to another, all entwined within an intricate web of wire rigging.

“I know a secret about Fenris,” Endymion confided as they walked.

“He’s really a lizard in disguise?” suggested Ravana.

Endymion laughed. “Not quite. He’s been brain-washing the kidnapped Raja. Ostara said it was all to do with politics and religion and stuff.”

“What?” exclaimed Ravana. “Where did you hear that?”

“I’ll tell you later,” he replied, somewhat infuriatingly. “When we find the others.”

They passed through the park gates and followed a young Indian family across the gravel courtyard beyond. It did not take them long to find the broad moving staircase that led to the tree-house deck above. In a grassy part of the park ahead, a brass band performed to a small crowd and they paused to listen.

“They’re playing Bantoff’s Shennong ,” observed Ravana, recognising the tune.

Endymion looked genuinely surprised. “Is that what it’s supposed to sound like?”

Using the tracker application on his wristpad, he found the signal from his sister’s device on a live satellite map of the market and beckoned to Ravana to follow him onto the escalator. The moving stairway bore them swiftly up into the leafy canopy and onto a wide platform that completely encircled the trunk of the tree. They stepped out into a bustle of people, all idly browsing market stalls that were suddenly everywhere they looked.

The range of goods on offer was incredible. Endymion led her over a footbridge onto the next platform and Ravana stared in wonder at the astonishing displays of food, clothing, jewellery and souvenirs for sale. She was drawn to a stall selling traditional Asian clothing and stared longingly at a saree in emerald green, thinking of the beautiful clothes the Maharani wore, then quickly hurried away when she caught the handsome young stallholder staring at the scar on her face with undisguised disgust.

The posts and wires supporting the platforms were cunningly concealed, though Ravana’s engineering training helped her pick out the clever techniques that resulted in the incredible illusion that the market floated in thin air. When she looked around for Endymion, eager to share her observations, she saw he had gone ahead to where Bellona and Philyra stood by a curious stall piled high with cages of tiny fluttering birds, slumbering reptiles and other strange creatures. As Ravana went to join them, she saw Philyra had failed to resist the temptation to shop for clothes and was wearing a short summer dress in metallic blue that still had a price tag hanging down the back. The dress was extremely low-cut and was making Endymion look at Philyra in a whole new way.

“What do you think of this dress?” Philyra was asking him, flouncing.

Endymion looked nonplussed. “It’s very, err… short.”

“I know!” exclaimed Philyra. She did not seem to mind that he was clearly mesmerized by her exposed cleavage. “Isn’t it fabulous!”

Ravana glanced towards the cages on the nearby stall. She had initially thought that the creatures within were electric pets, but now she saw they were real animals and birds, a fact she found a little disturbing. Looking closer, she was drawn to a large cage in the corner that held a creature quite unlike the rest. Intrigued, she stepped closer.

“Amazing, isn’t it?” said Endymion, coming beside her. “A real alien!”

Most of the captive animals and birds were species unique to Daode, but Ravana knew that was not what Endymion meant. The caged creature was the size of a small ape, grey and entirely hairless, with large almond-shaped eyes staring up out of an angular and vaguely lizard-like face. Like an ape, its legs were short and stocky and its arms long, though its feet had just three toes while its delicate hands each had six dainty fingers. As Ravana bent closer, the creature lifted its head and met her gaze with a frightened stare.

“Poor thing,” she murmured. “It’s just a baby.”

“A baby grey!” exclaimed Endymion. “I knew it!”

“There’s no such thing as greys!” retorted Philyra. “It’s nothing more than a shaven Yuanshi water monkey. One of those scams aimed at gullible tourists!”

Ravana was not convinced. Daode and Yuanshi were teeming with native life when humans first arrived, but it was well known that most higher life-forms died out shortly after large-scale terraforming began. Nevertheless, rumours persisted of secret colonies of intelligent humanoids, reinforced by occasional sightings like her own childhood encounter. There was something about the creature that held her entranced.

“The Dhusarian Church believes in greys,” she remarked, thinking back to the conversation in the carousel on the Platypus . “Fenris told me all about it.”

“Fenris!” exclaimed Endymion. “I knew there was something I meant to tell you all. Ostara, Zotz and I listened in on a holovid call and…”

“Well, well!” came a sudden loud voice. “The terrible trio of Newbrum!”

As one, Ravana and Endymion turned to see two boys and a girl strutting smugly towards them. All three were expensively dressed in Hemakuta fashions and sported the latest model wristpads, though it occurred to Ravana that this was the one thing she had not seen many local people wearing. She was also a little mystified that anyone would recognise them sixteen light years from home but it was clear that Endymion, Bellona and Philyra knew who the three youths were and were not at all pleased to see them.

“Xuthus!” growled Endymion. “How unlucky of us to see you here.”

“And it’s not a trio,” snapped Bellona. “There’s five of us now.”

“Big deal,” Maia retorted, unimpressed. “We have a whole orchestra!”

“They’re from the Bradbury Heights band,” Endymion informed Ravana. “Xuthus, Maia and Lodus. Otherwise known as rich, stuck-up and largely brainless.”

Ravana smiled, not noticing the venomous look Maia gave her.

“So where are you staying?” asked Xuthus. “And how did you get here? I bet you came on some smelly freighter and you’re having to live in a tent on the beach!”

“The Platypus is not smelly!” exclaimed Ravana, seeing Lodus snigger.

“We’re at the Pampa Palace,” declared Endymion. “Beat that!”

“No way!” said Maia in disbelief. “Are you on egg?”

“Better than where you’re staying, is it?” remarked Bellona mockingly.

“You should come and visit,” Philyra suggested to Xuthus, smiling coyly.

Lodus pushed past Ravana and stuck his chubby fingers through the wire mesh on the front of the nearby cage. He responded to her glare with a defiant leer.

“Stop that!” Ravana snapped. “You’ll scare the poor thing!”

“Get lost, scar face,” retorted Lodus. Inside the cage, the grey creature cowered nervously, its child-like gaze transfixed upon the boy’s wriggling digits.

“Yeah!” sneered Maia. “Scabby bitch!”

“Don’t be horrible!” retorted Bellona. “Not everyone can be a glamour queen!”

“There are no words to describe Maia’s own beauty,” Endymion said to Ravana in a mock whisper. “None that can be said in polite company, anyway.”

“Yeah, well who does she think she is, telling Lodus what to do?”

Ravana gave Maia a fierce stare. “My name is Ravana O’Brien,” she said. “And I don’t much care to see small defenceless creatures being bullied by big stupid ones.”

“Big talk from a little girl,” snarled Maia. “Think you’re something, don’t you?”