“Magôra is a special world, closest to Ancestral Earth as we'll ever get. It has one-too-many moons, and so the tides are skewed, but Earth-things dwell there—grasses and animals...green things and walking things as you'll never see on any other world.” Maelin remembers those words, and the promise they foretold. It has been a year since he has spoken them, a year since Hlan’s visit. And now, Hlan is back on board the ship that claims his attention. And Maelin is here. Alone. On Magôra. Where the last of the great wars ended. Where two moons grace the sky. Far, on the other side of the planet, lie the chimneys: enormous sculptures that haunt the night with their songs. Here, there are no wind chimneys, no cryptic, monumental structures to mark some event, now forgotten. But here, is where Maelin was born, and so, as he promised Hlan, he has returned. To make what closure life demands. There are worlds enough to give him what he wants, places easier to his temperament, and during Hlan’s last visit—when the ship came in from far, far away—he whispered the quietest of promises. He had been alone with Hlan, in the dark. No one saw what they did or heard their languorous, sated voices afterward. Hlan had been the only one to hear Maelin’s promise, the only one to draw it from deep inside. “You’d leave this world?” Hlan asked, tinged pale in the light of the larger moon. “I’d leave.” “When?” “Next year.” “Where would you go?” “To Héla.” “My world?” “Your world.” He remembers Hlan’s smile. He remembers what came afterward. And now, a year after a soft and frail promise found his voice, he stands in the park-lands just north of Compound 78. C78 is the city of his birth, and home to the world’s largest spaceport. There is continual traffic from this hemisphere: ships blasting from landing pit to orbital rendezvous with the Lagrange stations. Tomorrow, he will ride such a vessel, and board a carrier outbound. To Héla: a world he has never seen. But now…as promised…he stands in the central park of his home city, looking at the daytime moons for what he hopes will be the last time in his life. There are other moons to see. Other parks to explore. Out there. With Hlan. On Héla. **** This is my 300th post, and so I decided to return to something I'd started in Prague...an improvational science fictional tale that began with a strangely lit, hyper-modern bar in Wenceslas Square. It found further expression in a park within walking distance from Prague Castle. And now...a world away, it receives a third installment. This time, the image is from Chicago, scant weeks after my return. I met Corey that day, and we went to the zoo to take pictures. I took this one, moments before walking into the zoo with Corey and meeting a bored lion, a flamboyant seal, and an infinitely charming axolotl. As always, thank you for viewing, reading, and commenting! Thank you to everyone who made my first 300 posts so much fun to capture, compose, and show. Now to go and figure out what my 301st post will be! **The moons are the only photomanipulation here, those were added with photoshop and the use of a friend's computer. I got deliciously strange looks when he saw what I was doing.