“It’s beautiful,” Emma said as she stared off at the distant brown planet drifting through space.

Zoe nodded. In a way, it was. But it was also surreal in its own way to see Abyllan from the moon. Pictures of her home planet were so ingrained in her head, photos taken from satellites or unmanned missions to space. Or even the odd manned mission where somebody took a picture with their phone.

And the image of her planet was so familiar, so recognizable. The blue planet, covered in somewhat opaque white clouds and floating through the pitch blackness of space. Any hope of the stars shining through from behind lost to the sheer amount of light radiating off the planet’s surface.

But here? Standing on the moon herself and looking back at Abyllan, it was so different. She’d flown to space before, and looked down at the dry planet. But it almost looked wrong from the moon, a firm reminder that she wasn’t truly home. Something that happened less and less often with each year that passed, and she considered herself more a part of this world than her home.

It was beautiful in its own way. And so very lonely. Nothing around for hundreds of thousands of kilometers, possibly even millions. Being stranded in the ocean with no land in sight was already a terrifying experience. Out here, there was land in sight but it was so far away it may as well not exist.

“Okay so what do we wanna do here?" Emma asked as she hopped up and down in the moon’s much lower gravity.

“Well you want to bring some stones back, right?" Zoe asked.

Emma nodded. “I already stored away a bunch of moon rock. Cat toys and some gifts. Maybe we could bring back a whole bunch and sell it to people. I bet we could get the statue remade in moon rock. That would be pretty cool.”

Zoe laughed. “No, no statues. We already have one and I hate it. I just want to live a quiet life, alright?"

“How’d the enchantment work out for you anyway?" Emma asked.

“Better than I thought, but I’m not sure I really like it. I liked not being recognized, but it also restricted me from just doing whatever I want without revealing myself. I dunno. There’s maybe a line to be drawn somewhere, but I don’t know where it is.” Zoe answered.

Emma nodded. “I kinda figured. Was it fun at least?"

“Yeah. Lots of fun. I learned lots, I was forced to try and minimize my mana usage and think of different ways to use it more efficiently. It was a good experience, overall.” Zoe said.

“You gonna do it again?" Emma asked.

“I mean probably, yeah. I don’t think for as long, though. I think my biggest mistake was settling in with a single group to travel with for months on end. I had to maintain the façade the entire time and it just kinda felt a little, mmm. Boring, maybe? Dishonest? I mean I was being dishonest. People died, and if I was honest I think it could’ve been avoided.” Zoe said.

Emma nodded. “Well you gave it a shot and learned something at least, right?"

“Yeah, I guess.” Zoe said.

“You think anything’s alive here?” Emma asked.

“On the moon? I doubt it. Maybe some space bacteria or something, but like a whole civilization? I doubt it.” Zoe answered.

“We should look. When are we gonna head back?" Emma asked.

“I was thinking we spend about a dayish here and then head back? Hard to tell the time up here anyway since you know, we’re outside observers. We could try and pick a spot on Abyllan and go back when we see it again?” Zoe suggested.

“Works for me. You see that big snowy bit near the top right?" Emma pointed, as though Zoe would be able to follow where she was pointing to several hundred thousand kilometers away.

“I think so, yeah. When it gets back to around there, we go back?" Zoe asked.

Emma nodded. “And if we’re stupid and it takes way longer than we though, we just head back earlier. I don’t wanna leave the cats alone for too long. Joe said he’d take care of them, but I kinda expected this to be a day trip, to be honest.”

“It’s the moon, Emma. It’s really far away.” Zoe said.

“Yeah I know that, now.” Emma rolled her eyes.

“Well I’d suggest we split up, but then you’d die.” Zoe chuckled.

“Would I? Or can we breathe here anyway?” Emma asked.

“Uh, probably not. But maybe?" Zoe answered.

“Lemme try.” Emma said and stepped outside the bubble of air Zoe was maintaining, and then immediately back in. “Nope, nope. Can’t breathe.”

Zoe laughed. “Yeah I didn’t think so. Maybe if we had a powerful gravity mage who could enchant the moon so it had a larger gravitational field and then somebody like myself to fill that field with breathable air. But then Abyllan would probably be destroyed by the moon’s gravitational field being disrupted anyway.”

“Wait really?" Emma asked. ”If we do the wrong thing here, we could destroy our planet?"

“Well yeah, probably. But like, if we did the super wrong thing. Not just picked up some space rocks and explored, but destroyed the entire moon.” Zoe said.

“So be careful?” Emma asked.

“If you think you could accidentally destroy the moon, then yeah, be super careful.” Zoe said.

Emma took some very deliberate, careful steps with a grin on her face. “Understood. Be super careful.”

“You’re not that incredible, get over yourself.” Zoe said.

Emma laughed. “I beg your pardon? I am Emmlord, destroyer of moons! One wrong step and this flimsy rock will crumble under my immense power!”

“Whatever, lets get to looking around. Anything in particular you want?” Zoe asked.

“I dunno. Never been here before.” Emma said.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Zoe smiled, and the two walked around for the next few hours. Were it not for the excitement of them being on the moon, it would have been one of the most boring walks Zoe had ever taken. Gray stone all around them for as far as the eye could see, covered in tiny little holes from other space rocks impacting the moon over thousands or millions of years. None of which had ever been touched by a person or wind.

The hours passed and the only new thing they saw was a particularly large crater with a large rock set in the middle of it. An asteroid perhaps, that landed on the moon some number of years prior. They walked up to it and checked it out, but it seemed to be mostly made up of iron to the best of Zoe’s ability to tell.

“Why don’t these ever hit Abyllan?” Emma asked.

“They do, but there’s a lot of stuff in the way so they get destroyed before they hit the ground, usually.” Zoe answered.

“Wait really?" Emma asked.

“Yeah. Like all the air and stuff. Also I’m pretty sure that these are where a lot of minerals come from anyway? Or maybe it’s stars exploding. Can’t really remember and maybe it’s different here anyway cause of magic. But lots of stuff comes to the planet from space.” Zoe said.

“Huh. That’s cool.” Emma said as she ran her hand along the asteroid, feeling the sharp edges and small crevices in its side.

Zoe looked around at the crater they were in, covered in even more tiny holes. This mass of iron landed long enough ago for more rocks to slam into the moon since it arrived, but not so long that it had itself been completely ripped apart by the barrage.

Thousands of years? Hundreds? How often did rocks impact the moon anyway? Somebody smarter than her could probably look at this and say with confidence the impact happened six thousand four hundred years ago.

But to Zoe, it was little more than a cool novelty. A shame, she supposed. Maybe she should start up some space program and hire some smarter people to come investigate the moon with her. Try and learn all of its deepest secrets. Maybe she could convince somebody else to do it for her. Maybe Jeffrey would be interested in some space alchemy.

Emma glanced over at Abyllan then back at the asteroid. “I’m surprised at how different it is up here. The dust doesn’t just settle, it doesn’t move. And it keeps clinging to me, too. I feel like every step I take I knock up more of this dusty crap to get stuck to my legs and arms. And it doesn’t wanna come off no matter what I do, either.”

“Static electricity, maybe?” Zoe suggested.

“Maybe? But it’s not shocking me.” Emma said.

“I dunno. It’s not sticky, it’s just… clingy.” Zoe said.

“Maybe it’s trying to infect us.” Emma laughed.

They wandered around on the moon for a few more hours, stumbling into more craters. Most didn’t have the asteroid remaining in the center, though they did find another two that did. Both were made up of similar ferrous minerals as the first, which made some sense to Zoe. Iron was a pretty common resource for just that reason, after all.

“It’s kinda boring, isn’t it?” Emma asked as Zoe teleported them across the surface of the moon.

“Kinda.” Zoe responded.

“Like it’s really cool and all, but after being here for I don’t even know how long, I kinda just wanna the cats again.” Emma said.

Zoe teleported them forward a few hundred meters again and then paused to look at a mark on the ground. It wasn’t a hole, it wasn’t a crater left by an asteroid. It was a track, left by some creature Zoe couldn’t recognize. She got an image of some misshapen minotaur kraken hybrid, perhaps? Her Vampyric Senses wasn’t very clear on what it was.

“What’s up?" Emma asked as she noticed them not Cosmic Stepping forward again.

Zoe pointed down at the track she noticed. “That.”

“Woah.” Emma said. “That’s new.”

“Yeah.” Zoe said and Cosmic Stepped them closer to it. There was one single imprint, perhaps more nearby at one point though they’d been destroyed by the constant battering of rocks smashing into the moon’s surface. What was left was almost a full inch deep into the moon’s regolith and looked reminiscent of a bear’s paw but without the claws digging into the ground in front, and a large circular imprint off to the side. Some kind of thumb, or maybe something to provide additional stability? A cane, maybe?

The asteroids had avoided this one print for the most part, but there were two deep holes carved into the track near the center of the print. Zoe assumed they were asteroids carving their way into the surface, but maybe whatever left these tracks had two extrusions under their feet for some reason?

Emma knelt down next to the imprint and rubbed her finger through the inside of the track. A thin layer of loose dust peeled away, clinging to her index finger. “It’s old. Really old. Covered in dust again, but not old enough to be destroyed by all these asteroid impacts.”

“Twenty years, maybe? I have no idea how long ago this was. Could have been hundreds, really.” Zoe suggested.

Emma nodded. “Maybe we come back in a few years and try to find this again, see how it’s changed.”

“I can do that, how will we find it though?" Zoe asked.

Emma shrugged. “You’re the earth mage. Make a big pillar nearby so we can find it again. It’ll probably be destroyed before we get back though. Maybe make a big pillar nearby and also a valley? But maybe that will damage the moon too much…”

“I can try making a big pillar. I don’t wanna carve out a big hole in the moon though, that just feels wrong, somehow.” Zoe said.

Emma nodded, and Zoe teleported the two a hundred feet away to create a towering pillar of earth. It looked incredibly out of place, a towering pillar of brown dirt among the sea of lifeless gray rock, with a raised bit of dirt poking out to show the direction of the track they’d found.

Zoe teleported them back to the track. “See if there’s anymore nearby maybe?"

Emma nodded, and the two walked around a bit in search of any other signs. After about a half hour, they still hadn’t found anything new.

“What do you think it was?” Emma asked.

“I have no idea. Some kind of humanoid thing with tentacles, maybe? My Vampyric Senses is kinda going haywire on this so I have no real clue.” Zoe said.

“Like John?" Emma asked.

“Mmm. Maybe, but not John. It feels a little different, somehow.” Zoe said.

“Somebody else from the same species?” Emma asked.

“Maybe. Are there others from his species, though?” Zoe asked.

Emma shrugged. “Why not?”

“I guess. Well, I don’t know about you but I am good to start heading back home personally. Finding the track was fun, but it doesn’t seem like we’ll find anything else. Whatever was here, was here a very very long time ago.” Zoe said.

Emma nodded and held out her hand. “Yeah, lets head home.”

Zoe grabbed Emma’s hand and Cosmic Stepped them away from the moon’s surface. In seconds, they were back in space, drifting along without even the reduced gravity of the moon pulling them back down.

“Next time we come back though, try and get some faster teleportation please and thank you.” Emma said as Zoe Cosmic Stepped them through space towards their home planet multiple times every second as her mana regenerated.

“How ‘bout you get some more mana and do the teleporting next time?” Zoe suggested.

“That’s blasphemous. I shall do no such thing.” Emma stuck up her nose.

“Okay, well how ‘bout you at least handle the air and the temperature control for us next time. I’d probably be like ten percent faster if I didn’t have to spend so much mana and mental capacity making sure we don’t suffocate, freeze, or burn to death.” Zoe suggested.

“I can try to do that at least, maybe.” Emma answered.

“You better get started quick, missy. Cause we’re coming back in a few years to check on that track. Hopefully it’s still there by then. But if it isn’t I guess we know that it was probably just a few years old, at least.” Zoe said.