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It was night, and Ash Ketchum was still awake in bed. It was past his bed time, and though he was tired, he couldn’t sleep. He didn’t know the reason.
Maybe he ate something for dinner and it didn’t agree with him. No. He wasn’t feeling “puke-y”, as he would say. It wasn’t the wind rushing outside his window, nor the cold. It must’ve been something else.
His eyes fell to his desk, one which two photos stood upon. One was of his family, his mother, his father, and himself. The other was of the sky, one filled with clouds here and there and a very large one in the center.
Peeking from the large cloud itself was something odd: a floating castle. There was a wall around the said castle, three tiers high. The two bottom layers were of some kind of brown stone and the top most wall was possibly made of marble. Lightning danced from one cloud to another, with one striking the top-most tower.
To Ash, the photo was awe inspiring. But it also contained sadness as well: it was the last photo his father ever took before he ended his life. A tear dropped from the corner of his eye.
Why am I crying, Ash asked himself, sniffling. He wiped his eyes and nose, trying not to get overwhelmed.
There was a creak of the floorboards coming outside his door. His eyes went wide with fear, wondering who or what it could be.
“Ash, are you still up,” his mother asked. Ash breathed out. His body calmed and his fight or flight response was nullified.
“Yeah, mom,” Ash answered. “I couldn’t sleep.”
“My I come in?”
Ash hummed in the affirmative, and his mother entered. He moved his eyes back to the photo.
“So, can you tell me why you’re still— oh.” Her eyes too saw what Ash was seeing. She, too, knew about the photograph, though the aftermath of the photo was even more vivid than Ash’s own.
Ash looked away from his mom. “Yeah.”
“So what do you think would help you sleep?”
Ash pondered. “Maybe a story?”
“Oh? Really? And here I thought my little boy outgrew such stories.” Smiling, she sat on his bed. “What kind of story do you want me to tell you?”
Ash thought about it for a couple of seconds, then grinned. “Maybe… something from the ‘Before Times’.
“Ah,” Delia smiled. “One connected to the Laputa?”
Ash nodded excitedly.
“Well now… where to begin,” Delia asked. She raised her hand to her chin, rubbing it thoughtfully. “Long ago, we humans could only stay on the ground, for it was the ground where we came from and will return to someday.
“But after a while, we humans invented things, giving us more power and freedom to make things we couldn’t do on our own. We harnessed the wind to power sails, giving us the power to pull water from wells, make bread quicker, or with enough heat, melt metals.”
“We built bigger sails, taller buildings, catching more wind to make more power, make more bread, melt more, and resistant metal, and pull water from deeper wells.
“Cities got even bigger, and so more had to be done expand. We started mining deeper than we do now, and with machines instead of hand tools.”
Ash’s eyes went wide. Without hand tools? No picks or shovels?
“But with all the power, it came with a price. The wind became choked with dust and soot with all of the ore being smelted. In order to actually live, people moved away from the cities toward the countryside. Clean air, and all.
“How’d they get there,” Ash asked.
“With airships. Oh, not like the ones we have today, which can be quite big. No, these were smaller, and slower. But time progressed and eventually, they did get bigger. It’s even said some grew to be the size of small towns.”
“Really?"
“Really. Then the sky was filled with airships and airplanes. With motors, wings which flapped, and others which were fixed. It all came to a head when people came together once more to build the grandest thing ever built: Laputa.
“Seeing Laputa, other countries built their own, and so now, the sky was filled castles, ships, planes, and so many others. But you know what was lost?”
“No,” Ash replied.
“Life. So many birds, insects and other creatures were lost, that there were those who wanted to call it ‘The Great Dying’.”
Ash put his hand to his mouth. Could humans go so far to do so much damage to the entire planet?
“Then came ‘The Great War,’ Delia continued. “The nations of the sky clashed, cannon against canon, city against city. Each one fell with their forces, including so many crashes both on the Earth and on other cities. So many died during and after the war that the planet itself cried.
“Rain came down hard, washing away the remnants of these great structures and nations. Thankfully, there were survivors, and all of them left, going forth in all directions to begin anew.”
“We returned to the Earth, just like you said.” Delia nodded.
“Did the story help?”
Ash yawned, “Yeah, but whatever happened to Laputa after the war?”
Delia shook her head. “I don’t know, Ash. Some say it’s just a myth, others say it vanished, flying away from the planet shortly after your father took that photo. And like your father, others say it’s out there, waiting to be rediscovered.”
“What about the people from Laputa?”
Delia shrugged. “Who knows. Maybe there are those out there connected to the flying city in some way or form.”
“Maybe one day,” Ash yawned again, “I’ll even meet one.”
“Maybe. Now get some sleep.” Delia turned off the bedroom light. “Goodnight, Ash.”
“Goodnight, mom.”
What neither of them knew was that high in the air above them was a person connected to the castle, stolen from her land by a secret agent with of plan of his own.