JoKoKo

 7 New in Town     Rian was hot and sweaty by the time he reached the source of the smoke. He had gone from soaked with sea water to sticky and damp from his long walk. He hadn’t felt as though the walk was all that long, but he was warm and his heart was beating strong. He longed to get a change of clothes. He was wearing the same clothes he had on when he and Conny met Kiki, and he couldn’t rightly say how long it had been since then. He hoped his unkempt, disheveled, and perhaps stinky presentation did not offend whomever it was he saw crouched near the small cookfire which was the source of the smoke which had led him away from the sandy place.     Rian wanted to be sure not to startle the person by the fire. Alone in the wood, an approaching stranger could be quite a disconcerting event. He had learned well from Conny that unwelcome surprises could lead to unwelcome injuries. Predators, both human and beast, tended to skirt the shadows before they...

  2 The Moon It was dark, but that was okay. It was always dark. It had always been dark. The dark was the natural state of things. She couldn't even imagine something other than the dark. 'What else could there be? " she wondered, and then, startled, asked, "Who just thought that?" She knew herself. She had memories of the long, dark silence, recollections of the quiet solitude. She did not remember when she became aware though. She had always been, and, at one point she suddenly knew it. Knowing came with a host of questions and feelings.     "Where am I?" "What am I?" "Why?" "How?" "Who am I?"     The Who came easily. She was herself. She was the one who thought and existed and experienced. She knew all of her properties: her mass, her dimensions, her reflective index (though there was nothing to reflect, she reflected) She tried on different properties as well, assuming the affect that suited her best. Was she...