The Sand Plague Returns
The curtain rises on a quaint village nestled deep within the Russian steppe. The season is mid-Autumn. The skies are tinted with a hazy hue of yellows, reds, oranges, and browns. Pollen travels on the breeze; the musky scent of twyre and blood and Earth. The sounds of village life are ever present at this time of day. The braying of cattle and the joyful screams of children. The barking of dogs and mewling of cats. The birds that have not quite begun their pilgrimage to warmer climates hang around in tall black trees full of colorful, dying leaves. It's still warm. The turning point from late sunshine to early moonlight has yet to transpire.
A cargo train chugs along the track that connects the village to the city over hundreds and thousands of miles away. It takes five days to ride from there to here, and the train only comes every two weeks on top of that. There are very few human passengers seated among the goods. This isn’t a train meant for people, and as the vehicle travels further and further into rural territory, the ride becomes rockier and less pleasant. Two men are sitting on a wooden crate as they talk about why their lives have led them to this quiet town. The older man is here to deliver an order from the city. He works for a company that handcarves chairs and tables, and he’s here to bring them to the customer. The younger man, a doctor in his late twenties, is here for a very personal reason. Though he does not share the full details with his companion, the story is such:
Twenty something years ago, Sano Kojima; now a surgeon working for a prestigious hospital in the city's capitol, was then living in a cabin in the woods with his parents; Jun and Kiku, a farming couple, and his younger twin brother Akira. Living a humble life such as theirs meant that, while they were comfortable enough living in their cozy accommodations and being self-sufficient, there weren't that many opportunities for personal growth. Sano had dreams of becoming a doctor, having learned first aid for the benefit of his family and few friends. Without enough money to support his schooling, however, his dreams were doomed to remain a childhood flight of fancy.
One day, at the age of fourteen, an opportunity came to the Kojima’s doorstep. A recruiter for the army had found them, asking for a bit of time and if they would be so kind as to provide him with a bit of dinner. They obliged. The man, a ‘General Nikolai’, entertained the family with many adventures from his past in the military. He eventually explained that he was traveling through their country to recruit at least one son from each family for the army. Sensing their hesitation, he explained the benefits to them. While it was true that they wouldn’t see their son for months or years at a time, he would obviously be allowed to write to them often. The family would be receiving a stipend to help recover the loss of their child, and of course, their son would be properly compensated for serving their country. They were given the night to mull it over, while their guest slept on their couch. Though initially expecting to send the man off in the morning, Sano had been surprised when his brother came forward with his idea.
“I’ll go with him!” Akira had said while they washed up for bed.
“Wh-What? Why?”
“Because if I go, I can get stronger, and I can send you back money so you can go to school. It’s perfect!”
“But I don’t want you to go...” Sano had protested, his dream dancing teasingly at the edges of his fingertips. Akira was offering him the world, and yet, to take it would mean to risk losing his best friend forever. Akira beamed, wrapping an arm around Sano’s shoulder.
“It won’t be forever~ And besides, I’ll come back whenever they let me, and you can patch up whatever wounds I come back with.” Though Sano hadn’t appreciated the joke, he eventually found himself swayed by Akira’s lofty goals for their family. In the morning, their parents packed Akira’s suitcase with precious memories along with necessities. Sano stubbornly clung to Akira until the last possible second.
“You have to write often. Promise?”
“I promise~”
And the promise was kept. It had taken some time for Akira to travel to, and then become settled in at his new training facility, but a few weeks after they’d parted ways, the first letter came. It was fairly long, with Akira talking at length about traveling, and all the sights he’d seen so far. Along with his letter, he sent along half of his pay, to be put towards Sano’s schooling. Reading the letter, their mother cried, and it took everything in Sano to not do the same. He kept a strong facade; appearing cool and calm, playing it off as his confidence in Akira shining through. They sent separate reply letters in the same envelope.
The twins wouldn’t see each other again in person for the next two years. Once enough money had been saved up, Sano had started attending school in the city, which was an adventure of its own. Between training and studying, the boys simply weren’t free at the same time. Finally, they met again at sixteen, both having grown substantially, both mentally and physically. The two weeks Akira spent at home seemed to fly by; not being nearly enough after such a long time apart. More time passed, more letters were shared; at least one a month. Akira rose in rank, while Sano rose to the top of his class. When Sano graduated college, he was surprised with another visit from his brother, who had pulled strings and favors to be able to attend the ceremony.
Now that Sano had successfully graduated, there was technically nothing stopping Akira from retiring once he reached the end of his current contract. Both men separated in high spirits, but Sano’s heart nearly fell out of his chest when he heard news that their country had been pulled into a war.
A letter was delivered to his apartment, warning him to be prepared for a draft at any time. The more experienced doctors were drafted first, leaving Sano behind in the city to gain experience at a far more rapid rate than he’d ever anticipated. A year into the war, Sano was finally drafted. He was put to work caring for injured soldiers; working grueling hours day after day. Three months before the war finally reached its end, Sano reunited with Akira once more.
“I’m not happy you’re here, but it’s great to see you again~” His arm was injured, though nothing life altering. The brothers took the opportunity to talk to each other. Akira had seen some terrible things out on the battlefield. He’d taken many lives already, and each of them tended to linger in his mind. Sano listened quietly, thinking of the lives he’d saved, and the ones he hadn’t been able to save... Akira had only been able to stay in the medical tent for two days, but getting to see Sano again had cheered them both up.
Despite being released from his mandatory service several months later, Sano didn’t hear from his brother again.
A full two years had passed without a hint of Akira being confirmed alive or dead. Currently listed as ‘Missing In Action’, Sano had stubbornly refused to entertain the idea that something as pathetic as a bullet could have taken Akira out. Even as he continued to live his life, the life Akira’s initial sacrifice had afforded him, Sano did whatever he could to try and catch even a hint to his brother’s location.
And that brings us to today, mere months before Sano’s wedding to the beautiful opera singer he’d met while treating patients in the hospital. A knock on the door revealed Sano’s investigator, a talented detective that greeted his client with a big grin and a folder full of information.
“Take the A-BX train out of Nizhny, it’s the only route with just one proper stop. It’ll take you to a ghostly little backwater town. Nothing but bulls and weird natives I hear. Strange folk. But~ I’ve heard good talk from my sources that a man fitting your brother’s description is there, living with the locals.”
Getting a ticket had been an arduous task. With the war still going on, the usual passenger and cargo trains that made the trip to the Steppe were being used to direct supplies elsewhere. There was one train going to the town this month, with the departing train not being planned until the next. Unfortunately, the only ‘seat’ available was in the back of a cargo train.
The conductor, a deaf and mute man named Gugong, was large and sort of shuffled as he walked. He had his face covered up in bandages, and further hidden by a tall collar and hooded coat. Even with all of that, Sano could tell that the man’s face had some sort of swelling going on, or perhaps some sort of medical deformity... He hadn’t had the chance to ask, as the man barely acknowledged Sano at all, except when it came time to stop the train for a maintenance check, during which he would give Sano his rations for the day. No matter how Sano presented himself to the other man, Gugong would simply lift and slide a crate into Sano’s train car and then shut the door, letting the eerie silence hover between them. Had it not been for his woodworking companions, Sano might have gone a bit stir crazy....
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Stepping off of the train and onto solid ground, our leading man takes his first inhale of countryside air. It’s fresh, if a little heavy with herbs and dirt. His stomach is empty after eating nothing but scraps for a few days, and his legs are a bit shaky from the less than stellar sleep he’d gotten riding on that blasted train. But nonetheless. He had arrived here, in the so-called ‘Town on Gorkhon’, so nicknamed for being built around the Gorkhon river. Once he’d gotten his bearings, Sano got right to work. The Train Station was seemingly devoid of adults, save of course for Sano himself. There were a handful of children playing kick the can, or otherwise chatting amongst themselves. None of them spoke English, unfortunately, but one of the older ones figured out that he was looking for someone to talk to, and was kind enough to lead Sano further into the town proper.
Through a number of half-understood conversations in half-broken English or Russian, Sano got his hands on some important information. Firstly, this town didn’t have much in terms of lodgings. There was exactly one ‘inn’, a building in an area of the town called ‘The Stillwater’, where the caretaker allowed guests to sleep in a room upstairs. It made sense fiscally, as the only people who tended to visit this far off little settlement were family members of the residents, or people with temporary business in the town. With that in mind...If Sano couldn’t find Akira before nightfall, he was going to have to find his way to Stillwater and try to make arrangements to stay there for a while.
“Ishchu muzhchinu pokhozhego na menya. Moy brat.” (I am looking for a man that looks like me. My brother.)
He was handed off from person to person, until finally he lucked out and someone seemed to think he looked sort of familiar. They kindly led him through the village, towards a monstrously large building complex they called ‘The Termitary’.
“Vy idete sami. My ne zakhodim vnutr'. Tol'ko Kin i ikh khozyayeva.” (You go by yourself. We don’t go inside. Just the Kin and their masters.) To this, Sano raised a curious brow, but nodded. He thanked his helper and stepped forward, looking for an entrance. The Termitary was a housing complex for the people who worked in the local factories and cared for the local livestock. It seemed as though everyone living inside the Termitary belonged to the same caste of people, an Indigenous group that called themselves Kinfolk, or ‘The Kin’. The doors to the Termitary were wide open, with people coming and going as they pleased. Stepping inside, Sano was immediately met with the smell of Earth, leather, coal, and burning incense. The interior was largely made of stone and brick, with rugs lining the floor for comfort. Beautifully handcrafted tapestries decorated the walls, depicting artistic interpretations of what Sano could only assume was the local folklore. In between the tapestries, the wall was covered in paintings of runes, hieroglyphs, handprints, and thousands upon thousands, probably millions of individual pictures, each painted by one of the residents of the Termitary over the years. It was as rustic as it was stunning.
Aesthetics aside, Sano was almost immediately aware of the strange...’Vibe’, the building gave off. Or...Was it the people themselves? The people in this ‘Termitary’ came in all skin tones, offering a bigger variety than those outside in the town. Their eyes caught the light of their lanterns, or the sunlight beaming in from the windows, and seemed to shimmer unnaturally...But only for a moment...Which meant it was probably just a trick of the light...Right? They looked over at Sano with quiet curiosity, seemingly not too bothered by the unfamiliar face, almost as if knowing he wasn’t a being that would bring them danger.
Sano was now standing in the center of what looked to be a large common area. There were a number of couches, chairs, and stools strewn about the area, surrounding a large fire pit that is currently unlit. There were a few areas that seem to have been claimed by children. In one of these areas is a fortress made of crates, blankets, and pillows, with arts and crafts in various stages of completion being worked on. A circle of women were chatting amongst themselves as they knit, stitch, or crochet. Occasionally, one of the Kin glanced over at him, but only one of them took the initiative to approach him. A small girl, no older than ten, stepped over to him, looking up at him with curious eyes.
“Privet!” (Hello!) Though it was certainly a challenge, the two of them managed to get it across that Sano was looking for a man that looked like himself. The little girl thought it over, before her eyes lit up with realization and she beckoned him to follow her. “Vam nuzhen nash byk! To zhe litso~” (It is our ox man you want! Same face~) Sano is taken from the main chamber into a separate, much larger area of the building. Here, looking up, Sano might be able to put it together that this is where a great number of the Kin lived. This area is a massive stone tower with walls similarly decorated with paint and tapestries. There are seven floors, connected by stone staircases and open hallways that lead you up towards the top via a square spiral shape. It’s no easy feat climbing from one floor to the next, let alone the three floors Sano is made to climb. The child hums to herself, quite used to this workout, occasionally stopping to wave and greet her neighbors. After what seems like forever, they approach a large and thick pair of double doors. The child gets Sano to use the bull themed door knocker to announce their presence, and then boldly lets herself in before being told to come in. "Byk! Tebe yest' kogo uvidet'!" (Bull! You have someone to see!)
Sano’s view of the apartment was limited to what could be seen from the hallway. From around the corner, a deep and familiar voice met his ears, shocking him to the bone and making his heart tremble with hope. Could it be?
"Ey, ey! Chto ya tebe govoril o vtorzhenii! Chto, yesli so mnoy budet zhenshchina?" (Oi! Oi! What did I tell you about barging in like that!? What if I had a woman with me??) A tall, handsome, strong looking man comes into view, slipping his shirt on while lecturing the child. When their eyes met, for a moment, the world seemed to stop turning. The man that simply had to be Akira looked at him shocked with awe, stepping forward as if in a daze. By the time he was in front of Sano, he was offering his hand for a shake, a big smile plastered on his face.
“Sorry about her. She’s too bold fer her own good. Name’s Vincent Metzger. Ty govorish' po angliyskiy? Or just Russian?" (You speak English?)