It Is Said (Mathias Bootmaker and the Keepers of the Sandbox) by Edward Medina Page A

missing or unrecognizable.
    On his way to the rock Mathias had walked past a fruit bearing vine, without really thinking about it, he had picked one of its deep purple treats. He didn’t recognize it. He wasn’t familiar with its oval shape or its pleasant texture, or if it even had a pleasant texture at all, but somehow he knew that it did.
    At the moment the mind of Mathias Bootmaker was at odds with itself. His practical knowledge was, for the most part, just fine. He could function even in a world he did not recognize. His memory however was in shambles.
    He had a piece of fruit in his hand. He understood that. But he had no idea why he should know that. He was hungry. That was a fact. But he was not sure if the object in his hand was even safe to eat. He knew he had seen and experienced it before, but he did not know when or where it had happened. When he picked it, he had acted instinctively. His next act would require a leap of faith.
    Eating a piece of fruit is such a simple thing. Everything is simple when you know it. It’s when the doubt takes root that the questioning begins. It’s when a piece of fruit becomes a life and death decision that you begin questioning your sanity. The instinct not to starve won out over the concerns of a tasty death and Mathias took a bite.
    The fruit was sweet and its texture was lovely. He was experiencing the taste for the first time, again. With each bite, Mathias wished that he could remember the very first time he tasted this treasure. His hunger was abating as he ate, but the doubts were still very present. Sandbox Harbor, and this place in particular, were idyllic.
    Almost too idyllic.
    Mathias looked down at the pond and at his reflection upon it. He wondered what his father looked like. He wondered what features on his face were his. He could see his mother in his eyes. That made him smile. That smile was hers too. What he couldn’t see was the reflection of the man that protected him when he was a child. He was trying so hard to see the man that had taken him in his arms and called him son. Frustrated, Mathias threw the pit of the devoured mystery fruit into the water and his image rippled away.
    There was a flash on the surface of the water.
    Mathias was blinded by a wall of white. At its brightest point he could hear a name and a voice. As the light faded, so did the memory with it. When his eyes adjusted and the surface of the water became smooth as glass, Mathias could see the reflection of the castle in the sky on the edge of the pond.
    When Mathias looked up towards the ever present citadel he understood why he thought it was floating. The structure rose up and out of the top of a mountainous rock tower. Clouds were drawn to its base and they crashed against it like waves on a shoreline. The peaks of the castle’s towers reached up into the sky to a seemingly infinite altitude, and at the very top of the tallest tower there was the crystal flame and the all knowing light.
    There was movement inside the flame. Mathias could see several panes of glass of different sizes snaking in and around each other. Some remained still as they moved, others spun around, and a select few seemed to melt right through their well rehearsed brethren. All of them individually reflected the light from the sun and all the other celestial bodies in the sky.
    Because of this, the beacon did not emit just one large burst of light at a time. It emitted hundreds, if not thousands, of smaller ones constantly and when all those panels found the same point, at the same time, it would erupt with light. Mathias surmised that when the sun set, the flame reflected the colorful night sky, and that if the sky ever went dark, the all knowing light would rest.
    Mathias was looking directly at the crystal flame when the panels stopped moving. Time seemed to slow as they started to glow with light. The edges of each glass sheet became brilliant first. That energy then began to move towards the middle of