The Monotone Tear
by Mason Dodds
Arizona State University
Mason is a non binary junior at ASU who is working on their Creative Writing Major. They enjoy the thrill of crafting worlds and stories. They would often tell stories or write down things that happen in their dreams. Mason often cites their dreams as inspirations for most of their stories. Mason has now been published twice on their campus with different writing pieces and has a poem published in a magazine during their time at Glendale Community College. Mason hopes to keep on writing and reaching everyone to experience the worlds that go on in their dreams.
The world is so colorful and bright, unlike most.
I can feel my body fade as it disperses in the air. My monotonous cloak has finally torn. Time to set out for Him.
The boat to my side is ready to sail along the crimson sea, with the sand crushing with every step. The boat, donning a deep sapphire hue, stood out from my surroundings' harsh, warm colors. I grabbed the cool wood and pushed it through the sand, causing the parting of the grainy terrain. This boat wasn't always as heavy; my time limit has started now. But I know He will be there to correct this. The boat floats along the shore, with me climbing inside. The ocean waves rock against the boat as I row toward the desert.
For a long time, the boat just wades through the waters without an issue. Along the way, I peered over to gaze at the ocean; the clear red waters reflected the sunlight like a mirror. My dark complexion reflects back to me as I reach down and touch the water. My hand gave off a slight gaseous appearance that wards off the birds in the ocean from myself. To think I am alone out here in the sea; not much has changed in a few thousand years except not having you around me.
The sound of the waves brings me back to when you were here. The time when we sat beside the ocean and took in the scenery, being there for years, never changed the awe-inspiring sunset that we could not get enough of. The calming sound of the ocean was the same for years. One day, however, the feeling in the pit of my stomach and the aching of my head was caused by the crash of thunder over the ocean. We sat inside, staring out the water, swallowing the moon itself. Then, the crack of the thunder from the bloodshot clouds destroyed our home. All that was left from the rubble of our home was your own cloak split into two with different bolt markings. Your sigil remained pristine, but you never came back. You vanished and left me here alone. But He has to be able to put you back together.
A crack of thunder caught my attention as the all-too-familiar clouds rolled overhead. The water in the sea crashes against the boat, throwing me around. The waves brushed me along in different directions, and the waves before me were taller than the moon. Before I knew it, the waves crashed down and knocked me from my boat and into the water. The dark gas emanating from myself spread through the ocean. My cloak, soaked and heavy, weighs me down before looking for my boat. The boat, now in pieces, surrounds me. I look up from the wreckage and cannot see anything but a wall of red as it smashes down on me once more. Under the roaring waves, the pressure keeps me under. The tear in my cloak slightly spreads as my form wears away faster. A piece of the boat is the last thing I see in my line of sight before everything goes dark.
My eyes struggle to stay open. The waves crashing close by do not sound as harsh as before. I stand up as the sand below me is an ochre tone, much different than the peach-like color of my home's sand. The sun beats down as the sand grows hotter by the second. I look towards the ocean, and then behind me, the desert is here. Time to keep moving before it gets worse. The tear in the cloak on the front spreads longer than when my journey started; my hopes for Him to be there will answer my questions. And hopefully, bring you back. I pull out the same singed pieces of your cloak, your sigil still intact. I'll have to tell you about my journey when you are here.
The sand burns my feet as I walk through the desert, for as far as the eye can see, just sand dunes of varying shades of orange that reflect the sun. The sounds of the ocean fade with every step. The top of the sand dune creates a way of sliding down faster without walking through it all. I jump up and down onto the slope, sliding through the sand quickly. The waves of sand fly past me, nearing the end of the hill; the sand swirls into a whirlpool just below me. I look for ways to stop but cannot prevent myself from succumbing to the vortex of Goldenrod sand. The sand pulls me in and sucks me below the surface; the sight is nothing but darkness. The cloak I don now starts to rip further as my form struggles, holding a solid state.
The sand above me opens as I accept what has become of me. Or so it seems. There is a pressure below me, shoving me upwards toward the light. With a burst of sand around me, I look down and see a One-Eyed Sand Frog. The creature begins leaping further and further forward. My hands clutch the rough skin of the frog before I could be sent off the beast.
The frog jumps higher and higher, and not too long after, an army of frogs jumps with us. The creatures seem not to mind my presence and seem to know where I will be going. Savannah is next; I wonder if they will join me on my journey to Him. The jumping of the frogs and the brush of death seem to have worn me out for the day; hopefully, tomorrow will bring me further to fixing me. And you.
My eyes opened lazily before looking around at the desert that moved faster than usual past me. With every leap of the frog, I grow more awake. I look down to see my hands dissipating more and more of my form, and I have grown a bit smaller with my cloak's hood slouching more than usual. The gash on my cloak spreads longer, and now it gets more expansive with my form seeping through. I look over to the frogs still jumping and see that the moon is already starting to set as the sun is just now rising from the North. I must have been asleep all day and night, and the frogs did not notice my ride. Savannah should not be as far from here; these frogs cut my traveling time significantly. Thankfully, I will have to repay them on our journey back.
The frogs abruptly stop in their tracks. The sheer size of the beasts causes a tidal wave of sand to be sent forward. The force knocks me forward, but not off the frog. I look forward and see a group of opposing Three-eyed Salamanders. The colors match the sand around them, as the frogs seem lighter than the other amphibians. The herd of salamanders locks eyes with the army of frogs. The two stared for a while before the two sides leaped at one another, causing me to be thrown off and into the sand. My body sinks into the sand as waves flurry through the air with every leap and clash of the two groups.
My mind wanders a bit, dazed from falling from such a high place. The conflict between the groups rings inside my head, the violence, anger, the death. The Oro were just the same all those years ago. The two sides of my people were locked in a disagreement. One that led to many cloaks being torn and many others losing their way and veering off from Him. It has been so long that I do not even remember our issue with one another, but the conflict had led me to rip a cloak. Afterward, you and I lived on the beach for so long; that way was better.
The frogs had slammed one of the salamanders beside me, causing the vibrations of the sand to ripple, making my tears bigger. I stand up and look at the salamander; the eye filled with water seems half my size. I need to leave before anything more happens, and I witness my tears grow longer.
While the amphibians are occupied, I make the escape away from all of the chaos. The sand sinks me a bit with every step. I can feel my feet disperse into the ground. My time limit is going faster than expected. Once I climb up a large sand dune, the Savannah is in my sight. The sand rises as an older frog and salamander emerge from the ground. They seem to be holding hands, with tears in their eyes, watching the two sides fight in the distance. The salamander looks upwards and sees me standing on the frog's head. The salamander grabs me gently and places me on the Savannah plot of land; the bright honey color of the grass and trees before me instantly catches my attention. The land leads upwards in an incline. I look back to the amphibians, who nod to me and then turn back towards the fighting; they seem to be lower than I am but not staring. My time is running out.
This time, I wasted no time and started running. My form airing out behind me leaves a trail of darkness in the air. The trees I pass grow more and more of a jade color, along with the grass; the colors start shifting. The incline up the Savannah seems more difficult the further I run. I can feel myself growing smaller; my scarf brushes the floor the more I run.
The last time I ran in this fashion was when we first came into existence. He welcomed us with a big smile; the feeling of cold air flew past all of us. We were delighted to see the sun when we entered the lavender snow. He told us that this world was ours and to enjoy the life He had given us. We all knew what He meant, and we started our decline down the mountain and toward our new home. Only stopping once we saw everything.
Before I know it, something knocks me in my torso, and I fall backward; the cut spreads. I look up and see the Penguins rolling around and leaping towards trees. I pull myself up, but without realizing it, my scarf has been punctured by a tree branch. I grab onto the scarf and pull; my hands resemble clouds shaped like hands. The tree branch will not let go, and my scarf rips and sends me backward. My eyes shut tight as my form shrinks some more.
I am getting careless. Of course, He can fix this, but I'm growing overzealous. I grab my scarf piece and start walking forward. The penguins, lemon in color, walk alongside me as I pass them. These creatures seem fascinated with me; when I return, I will have to show you them. You will find them amusing, just like I do.
The trees show up less and less until I see grass and chartreuse Fish in the air. The Grasslands, I'm getting close. The fish fly around; they come in many sizes and shapes, and no two seem alike. The penguins that followed snapped in the air, trying to catch the fish that came close. I walk over to the penguin, grab a fish from the air, and stare at its thirty eyes for a few seconds before trying to hand it over to the penguin. The penguins roll around joyfully as I approach them; my hand, however, turns more intangible, and the fish starts swimming through my appendage. I try to grab the fish, but it eats a hole in the back of my cloak near my sigil before I can.
This forces me to my knees, and I start to get disoriented. My vision seems blurry; the light emitting from my eyes fades. I stand up and stumble towards the forest in the distance. The grass in front of me had hints of turquoise. The Grasslands were not as long as the other places I had visited, and I am thankful for that. My feet seem heavy, but I still walk through the grass, keeping my eyes on the navy Forest.
The fish swim through the air around me; everyone passing by hisses and bares their fangs at me. The unnerving sight of these reminds me of the first time we ran through here. When we all ran here searching for a home, the fishes were much more abundant here. The fishes, however, keep their tendencies. The fishes that spotted us started swimming faster toward us and eating into some of Oro's cloaks. A horrific sight to behold. There was no trace left of the cloaks or our friends. We steered clear of this place for thousands of years for that reason. And here I am, walking through the schools of fish.
The grass that I had been stepping on switched from a jade color to a cerulean color. The grass turned darker and darker as I kept my focus on the ground. I then look up at the trees, the color matching the boat I had used earlier in the year.
I made my way through the forest that had dark blue trees one after the other. The sky was filled with fish that swam in schools. These ones seemed to be calmer. The temperature dropped in the air the further I went up the forest. In the distance, a clearing in the forest is what I really need. I approached the clearing and looked at the big stone slab in the middle. The lapis stone reflected the moonlight just overhead. The forest can make you lose track of time more than you could ever understand. The stone seemed to be safe as I sat down. I pulled out the ripped cloak before seeing a butterfly approach the side of me and stare me in the eyes. The butterfly had rivaled my size easily, and the left wing was ripped. The beauty of the butterfly has been tainted by whoever or whatever caused this. It is not itself with the tear in it, just like myself.
My tear was brought on by my lying beside our wrecked home. It must have been a day or two after the storm. I drifted off before feeling hurt. I looked up, and there seemed to be a mantis chewing into my cloak. I immediately grabbed my wooden spear and had to attack the mantis. The impact of the puncture seemed to freeze up the mantis, and it shattered when the waves smacked into it from the ocean. I had to build the boat from home and make my way here.
It seemed like I had drifted thinking about that day. I had to rub my head and eyes before seeing that my hands had vanished after I rubbed my eyes. My legs vanished as well, only leaving me with stumps. I fell over into the grass and closed my eyes. This really is my time, isn't it? My eyes watered up and dripped a drop of light onto the ground.
The ground shook slightly before full-on rumbling occurred, and trees started to knock over around me. I felt myself rising as a whale the color of my cloak flew out of the ground with me on top. The whale loudly cried and started singing the song whales sing. I was in the sky, heading toward the mountain, and the air grew increasingly chilled. The moon was so large, and the stars were so close I could almost touch it. I know you won't believe it when you hear about this; maybe my new whale friend will give us a ride back, and we both can touch the sky.
My eyes opened again, and the moon was much lower in the south. The familiar lavender snow was on my face and on top of the whale. I raised myself as the tip of the mountain was before me. The whale is now in the ground with only its head still out. The whale adopted the lilac color with its eyes now shut.
I rolled myself over and off the whale. The snow was safe to land in, and His doorstep was before me. I fell into the snow, and I began crawling my way towards the door. The snow was filling up my cloak, and with each drag of my body, the more and more the tear worsened. The door was in front of my head, and I nudged it open with my head.
I am finally here; He can finally fix me. The room was a dark royal purple. Too dark to see anything. I crawled further into the room until my cloak was almost ripped. The sun rose and revealed the skylight on the roof. The light illuminated nothing in the room. Nothing but a workbench and a skeleton lying on it.
This can't be it; He was supposed to be here so we can return to normal. I can't accept this - - but I am too tired to care. The light shines bright on me. My body fades. This doesn't feel as bad as I thought it would. Before I could close my eyes, a bright light emitted from my chest. My darkness faded, only leaving a white light form. I started to float as my cloak slid off my body. I looked around before setting my eyes on everyone that we lost. They all waited for me and were shrouded in this new white light, much like me. They did not have their cloaks either. Then you walked over and hugged me with tears in your eyes.
I am home.
Interview with the Author
1. What inspired you to write this piece? What was your thought process throughout?
What inspired me to write this piece was a grey blanket I had at the time and it was ripped and kept tearing throughout the month I noticed it was ripped. During this time, I had a dream about a colorful island. One that looked like a radial rainbow, with the outskirts red and the middle being purple. I decided to combine the two and thought about a creature who exists as a piece of cloth essentially. And the journey they would take to fix it.
2. What do you hope readers will take away from your piece? What effects do you want the piece to have on the person, community, or society?
I hope that readers will take away the value of relationships with people. To see the significance and impact people have on you before they are gone and it’s too late. This is somewhat of a goodbye piece that I wrote for my cousin who had recently passed at the time of writing.
3. What is your favorite piece of fiction (short story, novel, flash fiction, etc.) that you’ve ever read? Why?
My favorite piece of fiction I have read is the Hilda graphic novel series by Luke Pearson. It has the most influence on my writing style and the way I want to convey stories. I want to replicate the same feel I had when reading his work for my readers.
4. If you plan on continuing to write, what are some goals/plans you may have for your future?
My goals for the future is to be a showrunner. I want to write and illustrate my own graphic novels! I primarily will stick with the kids and YA genre, but I do want to verge into the horror scene as well.