SISTER & BROTHER

The sun shines across a beautiful Island named Venzu, the sandy beach, beautiful sky, and shining on the gentle waves of the sea water which reflects the sunlight on the surface of the sea like little sparkles. Little fishes jump in out of the sea close to shore where several seagulls and baby tortoises walk and crawl on the sandy beach. High up in the sky many seagulls were also flying really high and landing on the shore of the beach, back and forth they did this. Some seagulls landed on the ships that sailed to the beach, some landed on the decks of the ships or the flag of the ships, with huge black nets hanging from both sides of the pole of the flag. On the shore of the beach several kids from the village were playing with the seagulls and tortoises, chasing each other in the shallow waters of the sea, picking up the tortoises and tossing it back and forth like a ball, splashing water on one another under the hot summer sun.

The sounds of giggles and laughter of the playing children echoes throughout the beach and the voices of their parents who were way off in the village as they discuss the affairs of the village.

Just across the shore there were the ships, they were huge ships! The children of the village love seeing the ships. The thick wooden body and beautiful white sails intrigued them every time the ships came. The white sails receive beautifully the winds of the sea making it easy to pilot. It is truly, a magnificent sight worth seeing.

The ships that sail to Venzu carry goods all the way from Neda, which was a country in Neda called Tokishki.

The men and women who watched over these goods were called 'voyagers' by the people of the village, especially the children.

The elders find it rude that the children do that, that is the continuously calling the crew of the ship voyagers and warning the children not to call them that every single time they come to the village.

But kids will be kids-

Although some it is their calling in life to just annoy the elders.

Many of children love the Voyagers and because of that the voyagers replicate the feeling as mutual so most of the time the voyagers spend on the Island they spend it with the children,

The children have their favorite voyagers, the men or women they spend most time with, the crew member that every kid want to be thrown up by or carried on the back. They are voyagers who are willing to skip some of their work to tell them stories of adventures about the land they came from; The land of Neda. Sometimes, the voyagers can be really into the storytelling, that they end up showing the kids some of the pictures of Neda that explain the beautiful landscape, forest, wildlife, market places, fairs and traditions of the country.

This creates a sense of excitement in so many of the kids and many of them end up desiring to follow the voyagers but, the voyagers were always against it.

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Inside of a wooden logged house, a family of seven sit around a rectangle wooden table, with lit touches at the four corners of the dining room, everyone in the room eating their food having a pretty descent meal and small talk from time to time until...

"Mother! Father! Crystal wants to follow the voyagers!"

Tobi, the first son and child of the Okan family shouted at the dinner table.

Everyone at the table were shook, including Crystal herself she couldn't believe that her brother would let out a sensitive secret to the family and at the dinner timer for that matter!

Her head went really low and a deafening silence sounded across the dining table.

Both parents were shocked, Tobi's mother especially, she fearful asks Crystal to affirm Tobi's statement in shaking faint voice

she asks,

"Crystal dear, is this true?"

Crystal was silent, she had her head down not saying a single word.

"Crystal-"

"Leave her mother! She's doesn't have an answer to that question!" Jana, the second son and second child interrupts his mother.

Jana being the rookie of the house speaks up even louder, with his eyes revealing a mocking expression he covers his mouth as if to pity his older sister.

"See~ I told you she's not speaking up, clearly~ she wants to go with them fufu~"

"But dear... Why?-" Tobi's mother asks

but was stopped in an instant.

BANG! Jana slams his hands on the table in anger and yells at the top of his lungs in frustration.

"Cause!.. she's one of them!" Jana sparks

"Can't you see? Are you blind?! she's not one of us. Blonde hair! crystal blue eyes! pink lips! and fair skin! she's one of them! let her go!"

"maybe she'll find her place there" Jana settles back down in his chair.

Crystal still had her face facing under the wooden floor of the dining table, she was shocked at what Jana had said, sure she wants to follow the Voyagers but not for the reasons stated by Jana, instead, she wants to follow them... because she's always had a "strong" urge to do so.

She felt there was a greater life that awaits her outside of the village, like a voice calling her out of the seas stretches across nations.

But she wasn't alone in this.

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"It's bedtime every one" Mrs. Okan informs her kids who were outside playing with the other kids at night in hot weather.

Tesha the youngest of the four boys

turns around and calls for his older brothers, "mama! mama! mama!" He points back at the house to tell his brothers that their mother calls out to them. They leave their separate groups and head for home...

"Tesha!"

"here!" he responds

"Tara!"

"here!" the second to the last child responds

"Jana!"

"here!"

"Tobi!"

"here!"

"Crystal dear?!"

"----"

"Crystal?!" Mrs. Ọkan repeats but Crystal wasn't with the boys, nor was she anywhere nearby, Madam Okan's heart sinks. Fearing the worst might had happened she rushes to get help from the elders and her husband but Tobi stops her.

"Mother, calm down, I'll go look for Crystal " Tobi says in a soft and calming voice and leaves to search for Crystal.

Tobi walks for a long distance into the beach and finally gets to the shore of the sea and calls out her name.

"CRYSTAL! CRYSTAL!"

"Sis! Where are you?!"

"It's bedtime!"

*sigh* Tobi stops in his tracks for and lets out a deep sigh.

"Maybe she's mad at me for telling on her," Tobi says to himself...

"here goes nothing..." Tobi takes in a deep breath and yelled at the top of the lungs "I'M SORRY!" Tobi closes his eyes tightly waiting for an embrassement of life but he hears nothing back.

"huh?"

...

After a short while of searching for Crystal Tobi looks up at the bright blue sky he sees every morning, was now dark, the moon was at its brightest and fullest, the stars shone like diamonds in the sky and the warm wind brushed through his long curly brown hair.

"The Island is sure beautiful...but"

"I don't understand... I don't understand why Crystal wants to go"

"Isn't she happy here?"

Tobi soliloquizes.

Across from where Tobi stood, he notices a figure standing far away and he walked over to see who it was since it was safe at night. Within a few meters apart from the figure he realizes that it was Crystal!

"Crystal!" "Crystal!" Tobi screams, smiling from ear to ear and jumping with joy, he finally reaches where Crystal stood and grabs her by the hand.

"Everyone is worried about you, here..." Tobi grabs her by the hand

"Let's go back home"

Crystal turns around and looks at him, she had a smile on her face...

"You're coming with me," She says

"huh?" Tobi pauses

"You're coming with me hehehe" Crystal says again, she yanks her hands from Tobi's grip and runs away in the opposite direction of where Tobi came from.

Running on the windy beach Crystal laughs at Tobi, the hot breeze blows through her long blonde hair and her bright crystal blue reflected the moon's light, Tobi being confused at her reason for laughter hurriedly runs after her questioning what she meant.

"TO WHERE?!!!" Tobi yells back but Crystal countinues to laugh and run away.

Tobi was frustrated and confused

'what does she mean, I don't want to go anywhere'

'just because she's older than me doesn't mean she should oppress me' Tobi sobs in his thoughts.

Neither Tobi nor Crystal understood where one or the other was coming from, Tobi thinks Crystal's doesn't know what she wants and Crystal thinks Tobi needs a savior and she also thinks he's a coward.

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"Good night sweetie"

"Good night Mother"

Tobi says to his mother as he closes his room door.

"phew, she's gone" Crystal lets out sighs of relief

"Ahhh!" Tobi jolts and jumps back in fear.

"w.. wa..what are you doing behind the door?" Tobi whispers in fear.

Crystal hiding behind the door smiles at Tobi not responding to his fright and walks towards her her mats.

"I'm sleepy..."

As the two got into their separate mats, Crystal looks out the crude floor to ceiling window admiring the beautiful moonlight that she may never see again.

"say... Crystal" Tobi asks

"What is it?"

"Are you really serious about leaving?"

Tobi's voice was audibly fearful.

Crystal has a long pause before saying

"Yeah I am and I'm also serious about taking you with me"

At this point, Tobi was torn between fear and disbelief, he's scared to see Crystal go somewhere else other than in the comfort of the Island and the village. He's also in disbelief when he realizes that Crystal wasn't joking about taking him along.

So, having lost all hope he writes a letter to his beloved family to say farewell to them probably forever.

...

It's the next day and everyone in the village is up and about doing their own thing, making sure each house is in order .

News arrives to the people of the village that the voyagers have returned. The chief greets the white men and treats them with good hospitability while some of the villagers and the crewmen of the ship work together to unload the goods from the ship onto the village's warehouse. This process takes about three days. Close to the ship are two teenagers, Tobi and Crystal are mesmerized by the beauty of the ship. A member of the crew sees this and laughed loudly

at them.

"Hyo hyo hyo!"

"you seem to be interested in this ship aren't ya"

Tobi looks at the man with a cringed expression...

' that's so cringe why is an old man talking to teenagers about cool stuff?' Tobi thought to himself

'that's so cringe tho...' Crystal also thought to herself

' you're so old why don't you do some old grandpa duty' the two thought.

Alfstrat Keintchz, the name of the old man the two teens just thought of, was forty-three years of age he still had his red hair and light green eyes and had no sign of aging at all!

He was also the assistant captain of the ship! Ignoring the mockery of the two teenagers,

"sighs, Anyways kids.."

Alfstrat goes on to explain the beauty of the ship. Tobi was too cringe by the speech of the old man and he left rather soon. Crystal on the other hand stayed back to listen to the wonders of the ship. The more she listened the more motivated she got and the more information she got about the ship and the land it came from.

She was also able to get a good glance at the map of Neda.

' It's beautiful ' She thought to herself.

"This beauty has sailed many times across this treacherous sea," Alfstrat said proudly

beating his chest with confidence.

"Young lady?"

"sir?" Crystal responds

"do you wish to travel someday?"

"yes"

"then you should grow up fast so that you can join my crew and sail across the sea," Alfstrat said whilst patting Crystal's long blonde hair.

Crystal was overjoyed but also cringed by an elderly ma. patting her head.

Now, Tobi was walking on the shore of the beach the sun was as bright as ever his dark skin glowed and his emerald eyes glittered like grasses after dew. He talks to himself

"This is dumb"

"why? I don't get it..."

"why does she want to leave the island so badly?"

Tobi is angry and frustrated, he knows these ships are going to leave within the next three days and even though Crystal had not told him the day she was leaving. He also knew that when she goes, he was going to as well.

The latter made him mad.

Tobi is in a dilemma and he doesn't understand why Crystal wants to take him along.

In his head, there's no reason or logical explanation a person would take another person 'by force' to a strange place.

'she wants to kidnap me'

'There's no other explanation, she has to want to kidnap me!' Tobi concludes.

Crystal doesn't want to kidnap him tho, rather she on her own can't resist the urge to take Tobi with her.

All of this... is not of her own will, she just could not resist the 'calling'.