Tsuki ✔️COMPLETE

Chapter 1: The Family

Kajitsu - Independent State

Year 1319 月水 (Gessui Calendar)

Many moons ago, the land was vividly green on the beautiful continent of rainforests. Every shade imaginable was strewn out like a patchwork quilt. Rows of crops, flowers and orchards buzzed with harvest activities almost as far as the eye could see. Short hedge rows crisscrossed and formed relaxed borders between the fields. These were good times. Good omens had finally come and for the first time in his life, Kaito Sei Tsuki was looking to the future with optimism.

He was a tall, slim man with sharp aqua eyes and mahogany hair that curled near his ears. Most people around these parts looked quite similar, so similar in fact their home was referred to by the human traders as the 'Tsuki Town'. His clan were easily identifiable first and foremost by the single blue streak of paint they wore on their cheekbones, proudly displaying themselves as Tsuki.

In this deeply forested continent, there could be a hundred miles between settlements and his people above most enjoyed their own secluded way of life. The Tsuki clan, after all, were not human. This lush rainforest provided a protective ring around their paradise, protection from the squabbles of the humans that surrounded them.

His hand stroked the smooth stone pillar he sat in front of in the soft grass. Pillars like these were graves. This was the one grave that made a difference to him. Ten years ago, a difficult labour and a once in a millenium storm had taken his firstborn before she had even drawn breath.

The river that nourished the town burst with a flood that ripped trees from their roots. Thousands of miles away the ocean waves beat the cliffs until they crumbled. Torrential rain and biting wind tore through roofs. Storms like this one, storms the size of continents, were the kind told by holy books and shamans. Stranded in their time of need, everything they had been warned about seemed to be coming true. He had protected them that day from the disaster surrounding them, but was unable to tend to his wife and save all three lives at the same time.

Kaito and Yomi had been cautioned many times by the Tsuki Elders, a collective of their most insightful minds who lived a way apart on a nearby hillside. Their strange contraptions and secret readings materials told them bad things were following his family like a dark cloud. War was written in the night sky, some of them said.

Death was in the river's omens, they all agreed.

Word spread quickly through the community. The family line of the Sei Tsuki had to stop or their first born would bring ruin to their home. The young couple had been headstrong and in some ways justified to dismiss the Elder's omens. Divining the future was a haphazard task. Kaito for one did not believe in long, convoluted prophecies, let alone one surrounding his altruistic family. Their wedding had gone on without the blessing of the Elders.

At the time, it seemed like the omens had taken their victim. The curse was over and the waters drained away but it was only now that Kaito and Yomi believed the omens to be true. True, but over. The funeral was held on the furthest edge of the hill where he sat today and the whispers among the Elders faded. All those who believed in the Sei Tsuki's curse seemed satisfied in the knowledge Kaito and Yomi would grow old together, as any couple should do, and the war torn future had been prevented. One death to prevent countless, like some kind of barbaric blood sacrifice no one could fight.

However, just as they had accepted their lonely fate, they found they were expecting again. Yomi suggested they run away and start anew away from the eyes that would turn their way again. She could leave her family behind if they would try to vilify her loved ones again. As Lord of the Tsuki people, Kaito refused and he stood his ground with the Elders. The curse was satiated and he had a duty to this town. He was responsible for all the agriculture in the region, as his parents had been before him. After the storms, he threw himself into his restoration work and with dedication he had created the years of plenty they enjoyed now.