The Village of the Bright Trees has a new resident. Once he was an Astronaut, now he is Hawk. There is a ceremony. The Tiger Warrior gives him a spear. All people from the Village of the Bright Trees are watching, and afterwards they celebrate. They are eating, drinking, dancing, singing. Everybody has a good time.

“I’ve come a long way” Hawk thinks while the people are swirling around him, their faces filled with joy. He looks toward the stars that are shining especially bright this night. “But now I’ve finally found a new Home.”

He looks at his new friends, amongst them the fierce Tiger Warrior, and Jack the Dog. This is his place. He joins the dance. Men and Women are moving in circles around each other, Jack happily dancing in the middle wagging his scruffy tail. Dancing, singing, while the Stars crawl through the sky, until, far away in the east the first sun rays creep over the horizon.

Tropical Stars

An Dro

Interlude II

Interlude I

Big trees, the canopy of the forest more than a hundred feet high. Sounds of animals, birds maybe. “What strange planet is this?” The astronaut wonders. Is this maybe the Tropical Planet legend told of?

But while he is wondering about these things Jack suddenly barks. The astronaut looks around. Nothing. Why did he… Oh wait, what's that in the distance? RUN!

A cloud of huge flying insects, as big as a grown man’s fist is swarming towards the duo. As fast as they can they run away. Then suddenly they are at the edge of a cliff. There sure are a lot of cliffs on this planet he thinks, just as Jack jumps from the edge into the water, 20 feet beneath them. Without another thought the Astronaut jumps after him in the water.

But the water is wild, they cannot get to the side and are swept along by the current. He grabs onto a floating piece of wood, but when he thinks he is safe he hears a terrible roar. It’s the sound of a waterfall. Before he can do anything, he plunges down the waterfall. Breathing water through every pore - the pressure almost crushing his brain. Just when he fears he’ll probably never come up he is swept on land. But where is Jack? He looks towards the water, but no sign of the dog. He looks towards the land. No Jack. But he is not alone either…

Cosmic Jungle

“Tiger Warrior, Tiger Warrior, Tiger Warrior!” The voices are chanting. Vomiting water, still dizzy, the astronaut tries to stand op. He looks at the group of people. They are a ragged bunch, gathered on the edge of the river. In front of the crowd stands a huge man. Big leather boots, a loincloth made from the skin of some black and yellow striped animal, a huge cloak made from the skin of the same animal, the feline head still attached. The man himself only muscles, and a terrible face, with deep-set coal-black eyes. But the most terrible: striped tattoos all over his face, from ear to cheek to the other ear, just like the animal he skinned to make his cloak. And in his hands, a big spear.

Now he is coming towards the astronaut, the people still cheering: “Tiger Warrior, Tiger Warrior, Tiger Warrior!” The astronaut reaches for his gun but the spear is faster than his hand, the gun is being thrown away. The Warrior thrusts his spear, but the years of training in the astronaut-academy suddenly prove useful. He dodges the attack, and again. And again. The Warrior looks troubled for a moment, but then the astronaut slips. He falls on the ground, completely open to the attack - to the final thrust of the Tiger Warrior, the end of his Tropical Journey. 

The crowd is cheering louder now! “Kill him, kill him, kill him!” Then a smile breaks up the terrible tattooed face, he drops his spear and reaches out a hand. “Stand up man, you’ve fought bravely! You’re not our enemy.”

Tiger Warrior

Night has fallen in the jungle. The Tiger Warrior is leading the Astronaut through the trees on an elevated path. In the distance fires are burning and women are dancing on wooden platforms, while men are playing on drums. “What is this place?” the Astronaut ask.
“Why, this we call Home. Don’t you have one yourself?” He jests, but immediately he reads the truth from the face of the Astronaut. “Where are you from? Not from around here, are you?”
The Astronaut begins to tell his story.

“My home is - was - a planet called Hawk. On the planet Hawk it is always winter. But it was not always like that. My grandmother’s grandmother remembered the sunny days the big lake wasn’t frozen. But it grew colder, each year. Not only the lake froze, but even your breath. Soon we had to wear masks, special clothes. Many got poor. More died. Only a few of us remained. There was talk about the Tropical Stars, where you could breathe the air and even swim in liquid water. Some believed it, some didn’t, like me. But that made no difference. It was our only hope. So people were trained to fly in spaceships, so they could search for the Tropical Stars. When an astronaut would find them he had to go back to Hawk and lead them there in huge spaceships that were being built.”

“And you are one of them, one of the starflyers!” the Tiger Warrior interrupts. Without waiting for an answer he continues. “So now you seem to have found what you are looking for. But even though you must be aware that you can breathe the air and even swim in the water, you look rather gloomy to me. What for, may I ask?”
The astronaut sighs. Closing his eyes for a second. Then he continues:

“Of all astronauts I had the lowest scores, so I had to go first, to see if the spaceship didn’t explode or something. Like a crash dummy. All went as planned though, but when I was in orbit something happened. The planet Hawk finally gave up it’s struggle against the mighty cold. The air had become so cold that even the special suits didn’t hold back the cold. It didn’t take long before no life remained. I was the last man alive, sitting in the last spaceship. And I didn’t even believe in the Tropical Stars. But I knew I had no choice.”
“And now you are here. You have found it, but no one to tell it to. What will you do now?”
“I don’t know…”

The Astronaut looks around him. He sees the joy of these strange forest people. He feels the warmth of their fires on his bare skin. He smells the air - a deep dark scent, unlike anything he ever smelled before. How many smells are there to discover on this world? The thought takes away a little bit of his sadness. A small smile even appears on his face.

“Ah, you seem to like this place?” The Tiger Warrior asks him. “You are most welcome to stay”.
The Astronaut looks at the muscled man. He says nothing, he is just looking. The Warrior smiles at him. “Well?”
Then the astronaut smiles too. “There’s one thing I like to know, though. Where am I?”
“I told you, this is Home. Some call it the Village of the Bright Trees, but we just call it Home.”
“No, not this place. What planet is this?”
The Warrior looks bewildered for a moment, but then laughs. “Haha! Your world has a name also! You are obsessed by it I think. We have no name for our world, we just say what it is made of - Earth!”

Home

The Astronaut is sitting in front of his Spaceship. What should he do? Does he have a future in space? What was he looking for other than a place to live? This place called Earth is as good as any. Maybe this is the only other planet where people live. Even though there aren’t many of them around anymore…

The people from ‘Home’ talked about ruins far away, half drowned by the sea, huge buildings, but all of them abandoned for more than a thousand years.

Overcome by fatigue, the astronaut closes his eyes. He sees the ice-plains of Hawk. he sees his father, his mother, his friends. Images he has seen so often with his mind’s eye. He greets them.

“Hey, how are you? You still miss me? I’ve come to say goodbye.”

The Astronaut drifts off into bittersweet dreams of goodbyes. When he wakes up a tear runs down his cheek. Then he sees a bundle of black furriness lying next to him, softly snoring.

“Jack!” The Astronaut exclaims. “So you’ve made it!” The Astronaut is laughing, cuddling the dog, while the beast is licking the Astronaut’s face. The Dog barks. The Astronaut agrees with him. One last look at his battered down spaceship and he turns away from it.

“Let’s go boy. Let’s go Home!”


Farewell Dreams

Interlude III

The ship glides through the thick cloudy atmosphere. Beneath the clouds he sees lakes, mountains, rivers, fields of flowers, vast forests… A low hanging sun shines on the planet, bathing everything in a warm golden sheen. The astronaut suddenly becomes emotional by this spectacular sight. He remembers his family, his friends, the good people of Hawk.

Ever since he stepped aboard his spacecraft he had been alone. But maybe somewhere deep inside he had the feeling that it was just a bad dream, as long as the only thing around him was the vast blackness of space. But this planet, so full of life reminds him of the truth. He is overcome by melancholy. He cries. But then he realizes he is an Astronaut, trained to find a habitable world. Well, he has found one by the looks of it! Time to land.

Sunset Memories

A motion behind the bushes. His hand already reaching for the lasergun at his side, suddenly a small black shape appears from the shrubbery. Wait, he knows this kind of creature, they also live on Hawk, although this one is black and small - the dogs on Hawk are white and a lot bigger.

It seems like a friendly animal, wagging his tail, walking around him on his short legs, its fur incredibly scruffy. A little bark of happiness, wet tongue lolling from his mouth.

The Astronaut, a moment ago all emotional, finds himself laughing. “I’ll call you Jack” he says to the animal.

Suddenly he realizes this is the first ‘friend’ he has seen in more than tree years. Pain fills his soul when he finally accepts that planet Hawk is really gone. “You’re staying with me Jack!” the Astronaut says to the dog. 

“Bark bark” says Jack, the dog.

My Canine Friend (Jack)

Making music / dreaming cosmic dreams about traveling to the stars / trying to figure out THE TRUTH / failing / definitely not a DJ / DEFINITELY NOT A PRODUCER / pretentious fucker / super talented

DJ Maushaund

Popular tracks