Today would be the best day. He woke with such a start the well past aging dog which had previously been sleeping beside his pad , bolted out the door of his home. Erde already had a million thoughts racing through his mind, but one stood out among all the others. Today was the day.  On this day the elders would return from the Meeting, as they have every time a red moon comes about .  Any villager who was able to make the journey to the Circle would do so. They would bring along the largest crabs in their stores with hopes of winning the favor of one of the elders. Once the elders chose the largest crab and crowned a victor, their wives would prepare the largest feast he had ever seen. Every time the elders returned from a meeting a feast was thrown, each larger than the last. Erde thought about this day every day since the last feast. While every other residents' home lay beside the Water, Erde's home, inherited from his father, put him closer to the middle of the Land  than to the Water. Erde's home revolved around his orchard, the small hut sat beneath the towering fruit tree his fathers ancestors had planted centruies ago. His father had once grown the sweetest and sourest fruits in the Land, a single fruit could go for up to three crabs at the market. Now Erde grew the fruits his father had once laboured over, though Erde did not share his fathers passion. Erdes living situation left him unable to readily gather crabs. This left Erde with a choice, take the voyage to town and trade his fruits for some crab, or simply eat his fruits. An easy choice it may seem, but the journey to town is a grueling trek which at best would take an entire day, at worst he would be killed by one of the creatures in the woods. And his fruits did not have the flavor of those grown near the Water, so either choice would not leave him satisfied. So Erde stayed home, alone but for his dog and his fruits. He was not one to choose a rocky road when a smooth path lay a few steps away. So he stayed content with his fruits throughout his days, waiting for the feast. The feast gave him a reason to take up the journey to the town. On this day he could eat as much crab as he could, and not have to trade a single fruit. 
 His parents had taken him to his first feast when he was too young to remember. It was on his eighteenth feast that his parents did not return home. The last time he saw them his parents had agreed to let Erde stay in the town for a few more days... actually his father allowed it, his mother was against it but Erde had stayed anyway. Erde had not had a better day in his life, the other feasters his age all went to the Dark Sands that night. He had his first taste of fermented coconut. All the girls ran into the water, throwing off their clothes as they hit the water. Erde and the other boys chased after them. He had his first kiss that night. In the morning before anyone else had awoke he knew something was wrong. He stole off from the group and ran to the trail home, stopping at the entrance. This would be his first time journeying home alone, he had done it a hundred times with his father as they brought their fruits to the markey. But alone it was another story, he had never ran into a woods creature with his father, but what if he did now? He would never get an answer to that question as he arrived home late that night, unscaved but for the wear of the woods. As he began to search his home and the orchards for his parents, that dreaded feeling returned. His parents had never returned home and would never be seen again. 
Today would be the best day ever. Today was Erde's twenty third feast, and this one would be bigger than his twenty second. He had not eaten the night before and would not eat today, until he arrived at the Circle and the feast commensed. He had already fastend his cloth around his waist, he took up his spear, never traveling the trail without it, and called out for his dog. They set off for the town each with high hopes for Erde was kind to his only friend, and dog could expect his own helping of crab meat. The first few hours of the journey they walked quickly through the dense trees. At the halfway mark the trees parted to reveal the vast swaths of grass, swaying tall and brown. Dog loved to run run through them, bouncing up every so often to keep an eye on Erde. Today though the once brown grass had been replaced with ash, floating through the air, the smell of burnt grass lingered. Neither he nor dog had ever passed by the fields and seen anything other than the familiar  moving grass. He wondered if any other villagers had known about this, he did not get many visitors to his home and this path was not used for any other purposes. Maybe the elders would not why this happened. He and dog kept on walking, side by side as the sun begun to set. He knew he was close as he could hear the waves of the Water.