Chapter 16: Luna

Kutch, O'rmon, and Safo Nur turned and ran. They knew that it wasn't time for a talk. Achraf was shooting like crazy, tears closed his eyes, his aim was screwed up.

"You killed her, you killed her." He couldn't stop crying. "I'll never see her again, my Luna, my daughter. My poor daughter, what did they do to you?!" Achraf gave up a chase and fell on the floor in tears.

"I'm here daddy, catch me if you can." Safo Nur did it again. He turned back and his alter ego turned on once more, in a girly pose he swung his hands, his voice and manner of speech also became girlish. His mockery gave its results, Achraf stood up and mounted his spider, he was determined to punish the murderers.

"Shut up!" O'rmon couldn't take it anymore, it was long after she got acquainted with Achraf but still, she felt pity for him.

"Yeah, not cool, bro. He, clearly, has some mental problems or trauma connected with his daughter. Don't taunt him like that." Kutch never saw this coming from Safo Nur, he didn't seem like a guy who would have done such deeds.

"I'm not doing it, I don't know what's happening. I'm here, they're running away, hurry daddy. Fuc*! What the fuc* is wrong with me?!" Now Safo was really scared, he lost control over himself for a brief second. He spoke and did things he didn't mean to do, and the worst thing - he couldn't stop it. So he ran as fast as he could. A tall metal spider exited the cave, it moved hastily.

Short laser beams of a light blue hue came down on a rock all over the place. Colorful spark scattered after like fireworks.

Kutch stopped running and threw several knives, he only aimed at the legs of the spider, he didn't mean any more harm for the Achraf. Not physical nor mental. But the spider came out to be sturdier than it looked at first. Knives only chipped its surface and flew back to Kutch's hands.

It wasn't a difficult thing to achieve for a spider, to climb and run the unsteady rocks and boulders. Which wasn't true for the escaping trio. They stumbled over the smaller rocks, knocked their limbs, and fell slipping down. For Safo Nur, it was especially hard since he never trained himself for something like that. Matter of fact he barely ever trained.

But at a given time everything was different, no matter how many times he slipped or tripped over he kept running, it was different when his life was on the line. No fatigue nor pain could stay on his way. Safo Nur never felt that way before.

Laser beams continued to rain at a different angle behind him. It was a matter of a minute, a metal spider was faster than they were. It was then when Kutch turned to his sister and just by that she understood his thoughts. She slowed her pace and fell behind them.

With no time to see what was going on back there, Safo Nur ran with burning curiosity. A couple of seconds later he heard a loud noise of a spider's fall, O'rmon came back as quickly as she left.

"I bought us some time, let's move faster and hide somewhere and wait till he comes down" Captain gave an order, rest obliged.

They picked a nice spot to hide and were there for several hours until deep night. Achraf was nowhere to see, they just assumed that he gave up and went back to his cave.

Suddenly, a growl. O'rmon face reddened noticeably even through a hide. The growl wasn't one of a wolf's or dog's it was her stomach.

"Let's go get some of those juicy queens, make a camp, fire, and cook." Kutch suggested.

So they went to the pit, they didn't encounter Achraf along the way. They caught some builder ants and a couple of queens by breaking the pillars. It wasn't that easy as they initially thought. Queen’s guards bite hard. Safo Nur had been sent away to prevent the counterattack of ants colony. For Kutch’s and O'rmon's hide was thick for tiny ants to pierce. Which couldn't be true for Safo nur. Feeling useless again he moved aside towards the safest place.

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An hour later they all sat munching finger-size crispy ants.

"So what the hell was that Safo? Why would you mock that poor guy?" Kutch asked when he got a chance.

"I'm telling you, I don't know. I was almost like I was possessed. Something inside made me speak that awful thing, I feel ashamed because of what I did." For him, it was as if a devil was whispering into his ears those nasty words just to make fun of an unfortunate man.

Safo Nur tried to clean his name but it was so lame for anyone to believe in such excuses. O'rmon avoided eye contact with him since they crashed to this planet, Kutch just spread his arms gesturing that he couldn't understand or sympathize with him.

Whilst O'rmon stood as a guard, the other two rest, they agreed to try their best to fix their ship first thing in the morning. It was getting dangerous on that planet. They afford to stay longer.

"You need some sleep, tomorrow we will need your help as well." Safo Nur woke up and walked to her.

"Y...yes...I will...help...you...tomorrow...yes." He walked by her and began to run with all his might.

"Where are you going?" O'rmon stood up staring at his back.

"Haha. Do you think I will sleep now? I will never sleep again. Haha. I slept for so long. I’m going to meet my dad." Safo Nur ran with the widest smile on his face as if he never ran in his life before and he was enjoying every second of his experience.

"It's not a time to be silly, come back." O'rmon was annoyed by the fact that she has to babysit him. In her eyes, he was an ungrateful brat who was lucky enough to be born within a royal family.

"He is not here anymore, it is only me now. Haha. You cannot catch me. I'm super fa…" In an instant, O'rmon teleported to him and struck the back of his head with the edge of her palm. Safo's eyes rolled over and went white, he fainted. O'rmon used her speed resource to catch up with him, then she dragged him back and secured him some ropes, Kutch helped her.

"What? Why am I tied up? Let me go guys. Argh, be careful, behind you. Achraf! Huh?" He shut up, Kutch, O'rmon, and Achraf stood together in front of him. Something was off, yesterday Achraf tried to kill them and now they were staring at him like they are going to kill him together. "What is going on?"

"Who are you? We know you're there, come out." Kutch.

"What are you talking ab… Father, it's you! Hi, I'm so happy to see you, you got old. Hihi." Again Safo Nur acted strange as if he was playing a girl character on a stage.

Achraf burst into tears, he fell down and hug Safo Nur.

"Hey, hey, hey, what are you doing man?"

"My daugh… aaa...you queen...argh…" Achraf tried to tell something through sobbing and tears he couldn't properly construct the words.

At the same time, the same happened to Safo Nur, his eyes were crying, but he couldn't know why. He felt perfectly fine, however, he was crying a lake of tears.

After half an hour of sobbing and stuttering, Safo Nur understood the situation. Kutch and O'rmon stood stunned. They didn't fully accept the situation.

Achraf came to their camp with the dawn, he was unarmed and calm. He apologized for his sharp reaction. He said that he knows why Safo Nur was acting strangely and asked them to wake him up.

"Safo can you please go back?" Achraf's voice was pleading.

"I'll try." Pitch black, darkness, nothingness, emptiness. Safo Nur was there and nothing else around, nullifying void. Only with these words could describe the place Safo Nur found himself after agreeing to give away his consciousness.

"Hi, everyone, my name is Lunayrapo. This is my dad. Sorry I made you worry about your friend. It's just so much time pass, I forgot how much fun it was to be alive." Even though they heard Safo Nur’s voice, the tone, timbre, intonation, fluctuations were completely different from usual. It was as if another person possessed his body, which was, in fact, true.

Lunayrapo began to tell her story making Kutch and O'rmon anxious by the end.

"In my wildest dreams, I couldn't imagine this sort of stuff can be real. How? Just how?" Kutch was pale.

"Is this some kind of resource too, similar to the one Psiora people have? O'rmon tried to digest the mind-blowing information.

"Unfortunately, it is real, and she has been living like this for 6 years now. But please don't worry, I have an ant queen with me. We will finish in no time." Achraf reassured everyone.

What Lunayrapo said was that she was already dead. At the age of 16, she died from an inborn illness. But from a very young age, she had amazing spiritual blessing-like abilities. Her body was weak and could maintain 5-10 minutes of upright walks. Then she wasn't able to move any limb for a whole day. The only happiness in her life was her abilities. She was able to leave her body and walk in the form of a spirit. She was able to suppress her body limits with her high spirit condition.

When her body came to its end she unwillingly moved to the body of her pet, taking over its body and life. Since then her father kept her spirit alive by moving her into different animals and insects hoping someday to find a permanent solution. Sadly every and each body was good for only so long, all of them gradually turned into dust, literally.

It was the first time when her spirit entered the body of a living person, not an animal as usual, so it was unknown for how long his body could live along with her spirit.