I woke up after what felt like several long hours of sleep to a strange sound outside the hut. It was a low eerie hum, followed by muffled sloshing and repeated squelching. I rubbed my eyes and stretched out my cramped arms before slowly pushing away the sheets and sitting up on edge of the bed, my feet hanging casually over the side. It was odd that I had slept so comfortably in a new place once I had actually fallen asleep, and I assumed that it must be approaching at least the early morning by now.

However, much to my surprise, the sky was pitch dark from the window. I blinked and stepped out of bed to draw closer, and I realized I could hardly see anything from the outside except what was dimly illuminated from moonlight. A strange moonlight it was; I could not see the moon but it seemed the light was shining from overhead and glinting off the darkness on the ground in a mixture of white and red light.

Red light...? I blinked once more, wondering if I was actually still asleep. No, I was sure I felt as wide-awake as ever, and if this was some dream, then it was extremely vivid. Too vivid, even. I rushed to my wardrobe and threw on an outfit casual clothes: a pair of black shorts and a silky, white short-sleeved button-up over my tank top. I quickly styled my short hair with a few waves of my brush and applied my pencil eyeliner to my makeup. I was planning on going outside to investigate, and even though it seemed ridiculously dark out, I still feared of running into someone without anything on. A force of habit, I guess, but I was so used to the routine by now that it only took a few seconds.

The front door creaked slowly as I pulled it open and began to step out onto the porch. The entire time I stepped out, I was peering at the sky alone in a curious fixation. It was black, and stars freckled among the heavy clouds, but what really shocked me was the moon. Or should I say, the moons.

High in the center of the sky was a very large white orb, a moon very much like Earth's but at least four times larger from my viewpoint. It took up most of the sky above, and further to the horizon I could see another smaller orb a third of its size: a blood-red, rust colored planet that appeared to glow just as strong. My mouth was agape as I fixated on the two and stepped off of the porch, but suddenly a cold surge shot up my leg as I found myself stumbling into dark, shallow water. Water!? I cast my gaze down in alarm and scrambled back onto the safety of the porch, my legs and shoes now soaked and dripping all the way up to my knee. The ground... I realized that what I had thought had been the ground was all water, spanning for as far as I could see and even further away in the distance.

Not just water; it was the ocean! The ocean that I had heard from such a far distance had risen and moved all the way up against my hut and the huts of the other scientists. Its tide had seemed to be effected by the size and the amount of moons present.

I looked around in utter shock and confusion. No one had informed me of the behaviors of this planet to much extent. Felisfire had two moons, and this much change in the tides? I wondered in alarm just what this would mean for everything else on the planet. On Earth, everything you knew as a scientist you were taught based around Earth's behavior, but I was starting to realize with anxiety that on this planet, even the basic things I knew from an early age may be irrelevant. Knowledge of tides changed when the moons positioning and size, and amount, were not the same. Knowledge of time, of days, all of this would change due to this one new fact. Suddenly I felt like I didn't know anything about science. I would be coming into this planet with previous knowledge that may not even help me, I would be learning as a complete empty slate.

The low humming sounded again, this time louder, and the sloshing echoed from nearby. I spun around and squinted through the darkness and the moonlit-reflecting waves to try to find the source. At first I saw nothing, but then... I thought I could see ripples enveloping the surface of the water. As I stared closely, a pair of glinting, green cat-like eyes were peering straight at me, sending a chill down my spine. The creature wasn't moving, and all I could see of it were its eyes just above the surface, the rest of it submerged in water. It stared at me for several long seconds, then finally, spun around and submerged completely. The ripples along the surface trailed far away from my hut and then disappeared out of my range of vision.

I released a breath I hadn't known I had been holding in. I had no idea what that creature was, but I hadn't wanted to find out. Something about the way it peered just above water unblinking was enough to unnerve me. Had it been merely watching, or had it been deciding whether to strike? I suddenly was glad that I had retreated back into the porch; who knew what would have happened if that creature had found me in the water? I shuddered, imagining it possibly trying to pull me under, or swimming just around my legs where I had not realized it might be...

My attention snapped upward once more as a bright blue light suddenly drifted into view of my porch, its artificial color rippling in harsh reflections off of the surrounding water. I could see as I squinted that behind the light was the outline of a person, floating on what could only be a boat of some sort. The light was slowly drifting closer and the boat seemed to be approaching.

"Hey!" I shouted out to the stranger and waved my arms above my head in a frantic gesture. It had to be someone from the neighboring huts, and I wondered if they had any idea of what I had just seen or what was going on. At the least, I wanted some of my questions answered about how this planet worked.

The figure seemed to look up and then the boat turned its course toward my hut. I waited as the light began to creep closer and slowly flood everything around me. Soon I could see every little detail around my hut, and the figure began to develop from the shadows as well.

He was an older man, possibly in his 50's or 60's, with short gray hair, a rounded face, and small gray stubble. His eyes were squinted slightly and wrinkles formed at the edges as he examined me in somewhat of confusion and thought. Possibly, he was trying to remember if he had seen me before. I could see that he was wearing a brown plaid jacket with long sleeves and tan pants with what appeared to be fishing boots. In his hand he was holding a lantern, which was clearly the light I had seen from afar, and by his side was a small tool-chest resembling that of a tackle box.

"Yes? Can I help you, er..." The man began in a gruff voice, looking thoughtful once more as he cast a glance at the hut and then back at me.

"Wren Woods. I just arrived and was just assigned to the project yesterday," I explained, clearing the look of confusion on the older man's face.

"Oh, a new one! It's been a while since we had new ones here, and a younger one at that. You arrivals are all getting younger and younger, I tell you. You may as well be children." The man shook his head slowly, "Though we can use all the help we can get, and I suppose you have to start somewhere. Yes, indeed.

My name is Ralph, I've been on this project for quite some time. I spent twenty years on Earth aiding the study and preparations for the space exploration of Felisfire, and then another ten on this planet. I've been moving around for quite some time to different studies and areas, but lately I have been in this stretch of lab studying the fish-like species, as well as the Aquus with your head of research," Ralph nodded, "You could say I'm a regular here, in fact there isn't a lab worker I haven't seen before."

"Oh, that's... wow, that's a long time," I replied, a little taken aback. Thirty years spent on this project? Ten years on Felisfire? To him, I must look really like a scientist with no experience, and I found it very likely that he knew many things that I did not and probably should. There must be a lot of common knowledge around Felisfire, and here I was, with not even an inkling of how this place worked or what was on it! As intimidated as I was though, I was also grateful to have run into someone who knew so much. Perhaps Ralph wouldn't mind helping me out a little, at least to understand some things about this place.

"Hey Ralph, since you are a regular here and know much more than I do, I was wondering, um, about the two moons... and also, I think I just saw a strange creature a few seconds ago in the water?" I ran a hand through my hair awkwardly and then hid both of my hands in my pockets. It was so hard to not sound dumb when asking questions such as these, that I was sure every scientist already knew about. I really hoped I wasn't jeaopardizing my standing views as a scientist to be known as "that girl who doesn't know anything about Felisfire".

"Ah, the two moons, eh? I'm surprised no one has told you yet. Well, things do get busy around here, it's hard to inform every newcomer about every aspect of Felisfire upon arriving. Yes, yes, a pretty unusual sight, now isn't it? Certainly gave me a shock when I first arrived.

That large one up there, the big white one, now that is Titus. It's what we call the 'main moon', as it's so large it does just about all the controlling of the tides and changes them pretty drastically compared to Earth. It's why we had to build our lab so far away from the shoreline, you see. You can imagine that any building close to the ocean line during the day would be underwater by high tide, which is now, in fact. Thankfully we do also have precautions against that; advanced technology and the like, I won't bore you with the mechanics, as I'm sure you'll find out soon.

But that red one over there, that one is called Infernus. The two cycle the planet similarly to that of Earth's moon, but because of them Felisfire's night lasts longer than Earth's does. Infernus though, has some odd heat generating off of it, warming the earth mildly as a sun might do, but not nearly as bright or hot. We are still researching their effects on the planet. Basically, along with a day that runs for- about fifteen hours, you will have a first section of the night, Titus Time, which runs for ten hours. Infernus rises at mid-time but will not set completely until another five hours past Titus' setting. Then, the sun rises.

Felisfire doesn't run on the same 24-hour days as we are used to, it instead runs on 30-hour days. It can be tricky to adjust to, mind you, but many scientists like me have chosen to work some through the night and add sleeping times to better fit the change. Right now, oh we are about past mid-way Titus Time. I would say give it another eight or nine hours before day-break. Hmm... make that seven. I should have brought my watch with me, but I've lost them too many times while boating." He looked up at the sky thoughtfully and then shook his head as he rested his gaze back at me.

"Thirty hour days?!" I repeated with a dazed blink and tried to keep my mouth from opening in disbelief. If the man was correct in that there were still seven hours left of night, I had slept for a full night's sleep on Earth time and it would still not be morning for a long while!