Lia woke up, her hand moved to the heavy bandages on her arm. It was real, everything that happened last night was real! That means the plan was in motion, and Lunabelle would help them.
Lia was practically brimming with happiness as she emerged from the sleeping pod. Everyone else was awake and getting breakfast when she came rushing in with a smile plastered all over her face.
“Hey, guys! Maybe we aren't so much in trouble after all!”
“Ughhh Keep it down, working off a hangover.”
“Morning sis. Just let me grab the water rations and I’ll deal with your arm real quick.”
Taking the chance, Lia said she would do it and ran outside, puzzling the others on her motivation to retrieve water.
After almost half an hour, Ariel was about to go and see if Lia had injured herself again when she came back, carrying the day's water supply, a look of happiness and deep thought
Besides the usual chores and hungover dwarf, the captain asked looking at the broken microscope and bloody floor. James was scrubbing the green and red liquids out of the material with a washcloth and cleaner.
“Lia, what happened last night?”
She stopped and remembered the mess she had made, putting thoughts of plans on hold. Lia sheepishly apologized.
“Sorry! Sorry! I’ll get it.”
She moved to take the brush from the beast man's hands but was stopped.
Never mind that, used to scrubbing blood stains out of the floor. Just get your arm stitched up and grab breakfast. Captain has something he wants to say.”
“No, but that's what I have to say. Maybe we don’t have to worry about being strapped with doomsday after all!”
She went into detail about what happened last night after she had cut her arm and the shared dream she had had. She laid out her plan to befriend Lunabelle and ask her to change her mother's law and her plans if she did.
“The quicker we ask her to ask her mothers to repeal her law, the less of a chance there's gonna be doomsday if something should happen.”
“Lia..."
“I know, I know, but this could be our only chance! Agreeing as it has its risks. But if we have her help on our side, we have a chance!”
The crew silently looked at eachother. None of them had wanted to hang Lia out to dry, and felt that this burst of planning from her was because she felt her own life was going to be sacrifsed by them.
In reality, they had all agreed that morning before Lia had woken up to give her a break, as a way to show they were not going to harm her and show their thanks.
“And why would she steam’n help us?”
The voice of negativity came along and pointed out the crutch of the whole argument. Her plan sounded nice and all, but would only work if Lunabelle helped them.
“It’s OK Lia, you don’t have to push yourself.”
To the captain, deities were unpredictable and tangling with one was a one way ticket to getting themselves into trouble, one could almost say he thought of them as loose cannons. Beings with immense power and control with only other beings of similar status able to oppose them if things got out of hand. And as radical as it sounded, he was right, there were seldom few individuals or groups that could stand against an immortal.
“Look, Lia, it's alright. You didn't do anything wrong and your not going to be punished for anything. If anything, its my fault for taking the kid with me when we ran."
A lot had been on the captain's mind, and the situation was deadly. But he wasn't one of those men who would push someone else into the jaws of the dragon to save his own sorry hide.
"*Sigh* I’ve been thinking, about the girl and what to do. I’ll accept the responsibility of taking care of her since humans are in a minority here. However, it doesn't solve the situation.”
Lia’s eyes widened in surprise. Wasn't he going to blame her? She had prepared to quit her job and sacrifice her life and take care of Lunabelle, but why was the captain coming up now?
“But what about me?” she interrupted.
The captain looked over to her in the tight space.
“You're a part of my crew are you not? The actions of my crew are my responsibility to bear."
It left a sour taste in Lia's mouth, though. Like she owed a debt to the mafia and someone else was paying...with their life.
"I’ll take care of everything. I can hide out in the skeleton keys and work from there. At least if they call down divine wrath or anything of the sort, we can divert the potential problems away from any major populations. Actually, it might even be helpful if she did get hurt by accident and bring down-”
“No!”
Send her to the Sunshine keys? Forget it! How could you be so cruel to a child! The sunshine keys were infested with pirates, smugglers, and every other character of shady nature. It was a constant war zone between the rival sea gangs and the cartels. And don’t forget the nearby warring states that were an actual war zone.
Certainly, the captain's argument made a lot of sense. The Sunshine keys had tens of thousands of islands. With the captain taking care of her, hiding in the secrecy and mystery of the Keys would keep her out of any political agendas, but Lia still rejected the idea.
She was responsible here, no matter what the captain said. Letting him take the fall and letting Lunabelle have that kind of a life was not something she could live with, she refused to live with it.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“She doesn't deserve to live in the Keys just because were afraid of gods blasting down fiery wrath on everyone. And you shouldn't try to claim my mistakes as your own. I agreed to this and set everything up, and it’s my responsibility to see it through to the end.”
“Lia please,” The captain shouted. “And what do you mean by-”
Before he could finish, the space bent and the next thing they knew, they were all flat on their backs. Looking up, a high ceiling with stars that looked real enough to touch twinkled.
“Well, I see you're all here.”
Turning to see the source of the voice, the goddess in gray was once more looking down on them as they lay on the ground. They were back in the clearing they had been in when they first landed. The uprooted trees and landslide had been fixed and everything was back to perfection.
“That...That is what I meant”
“Come, There is much to say and do, and I am afraid this is the last chance we and you may have.”
__________________
As soon as Lunabelle had woken up this morning, she was greeted by a familiar warm embrace.
“Mommy!”
She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and twisted around in her bed. Sure enough, there Selene was, clinging to her precious daughter.
“Mommy! Wake up! Wake up! Your back!”
She got up and started shaking her mother awake. Her eyes blearily peeked open and recognized her daughter's form.
“Good morning to you too my little angel. Can I have a good morning kiss?”
Lunabelle hugged her mother tight and kissed her on the cheek. She had been gone for 3 days and hadn’t told her anything. Lunabelle was really scared and was happy she was finally back.
Then she thought back to last night and remembered that she had to do all the things that the nice lady had told her to do to save her mommies.
“Mommy! We need to go see the nice lady who said she can help you! Let's go! Let's go!”
Unfortunately, Lia hadn't taken into account how honest and incapable of lying Lunabelle was and ended up almost ruining the plan because she didn't know how to keep something a secret.
“5 more minutes.” Selene teased.
“No! We go see the nice lady and help you get better!”
Lunabelle pouted and the goddess secretly took out another crystal orb and took another picture. Moments like this truly must be preserved!
She vaguely wondered who this nice lady was? Maybe a Lunabelle had made an imaginary friend keep herself company these last few days she was away. She was thankful however that Lunabelle didn’t seem frightened because she stepped out of a moment.
Of course, it didn't occur to her until she was halfway through her trip that a moment for her would equal 3 days for Lunabelle.
She wanted to go back, but the job had to be done and it hurt more than anything not too. But the mission she was on would allow her to keep Lunabelle by her side no matter how badly their follower count counted down. And in the end, the trip had proven its worth.
To make it up to her daughter for leaving her, she would go along with her games and go see this imaginary friend of hers, make the day special as a sort of apology. Maybe they were playing veterinarian and played with all the animals! She would join them and do everything she could to make Lunabelles day amazing.
'A morning playing doctor with Lunabelle, really, there was no better way to start the day.' Selene thought.
“OK sweetie, let's get breakfast first and go see your friend.”
After a quick meal of scrambled eggs and toast, Lunabelle was literally tugging Selene by the hand as they marched out the front gate of the palace. The green and blue superstructure behind them disappeared and a clearing the size of several coliseums opened up, fresh flowers blooming in their wake.
Once again, the little girl was running ahead tugging her mother along in a familiar scene. Over the gorge and through the river, they walked. Downhill and into a vast clearing, where Selene suddenly realized something.
Selene suddenly looked around and stiffened. They were back in the dreadful place that things had all started in. The gray dirt, the presence of mortal men coming to take her child, all came rushing back. They were back at where that metal vessel of theirs had landed.
During the entire walk, she had been daydreaming and wasn't paying attention to where they were going. Why not? It was her special day and there was nothing on her moon that could ever harm her.
The first step to Lia's plan was getting Selene and Lunabelle out in the open, and Lunabelle had done her job well despite almost giving away everything. The green and blue palace had been the only thing keeping Mora and Astenna from tracing Lunabelles presence, without it, they could find her easily.
Selene realized she had been led by the nose by her own daughter and reacted quickly to steer her somewhere else, but the door swung shut.
A transparent red barrier flashed into existence in the sky and Lunabelle disappeared.
“Sister, we need to talk.”
The goddess in Mora and Astenna flanked Selene's sides. Step two of the plan required acquiring the help of the goddesses, which she had done this morning by finding some of the Red mist wolves in the oasis pavilion they had dined at the previous night.
“RETURN HER TO ME!”
“Peace sister. We only wish-”
She didn’t get to finish as Selene's humanoid form exploded in a flash of divine of light and a crimson bear the size of a siege tower brought its paw smashing down on the two figures.
They quickly blinked out of range and tried to make peace once more.
“Sister please, calm yourself. Lunabelle is fine. She is-”
A small hill the size of fortress came flying over and smashed into the ground and exploded, turning the whole area into a crater. Bit of rock and burning shrubbery rained down from the sky.
Suddenly, the howl of a wolf echoed through the air as a Wolf almost as big as the bear took the field, a pack of smaller, but just as nasty wolves followed in her wake. One look from her was all it took, and the smaller wolves ran forward snapping at the feet of the giant.
One by one, they were quickly slapped into the ground and turned back into red mist. Mora turned giant wolf, dashed forward and climbed up Selene's back, latching onto the fur on the back of her neck.
Selene roared in a blind rage and smashed her back into the mountain and managed to shake Mora off. She bore down on her intention to kill when a Silver Owl of massive size came plummeting out of the sky and used its talons to blind Selene in her right eye.
“Selene! You force my hand!” Astenna communicated over the howls and cries of battle.
“RETURN HER!” Selen replied.
She bashed the wolf away and took up large pieces of stone, just smaller than your village hut, and began launching them in rapid fire at the airborne target. Each one glowed with a deadly light and exploded, destroying anything in its path. Only the crimson barrier prevented the fight from destroying any more of the surroundings.
Meanwhile, outside, Lunabelle was with Lia getting a proper tour of the Shuttle, which had conveniently been bought with all the windows closed. Lia had asked the goddesses to ready the area the confrontation would take place, and set countermeasures such as sound absorbing barrier outside the red one, and finding something to distract Lunabelle from the war going on outside.
The rest of the crew, however, didn’t have a wisp of a clue of what was going on. First, they were warped here in the middle of a serious conversation, then the girl who started all this popped into existence right in front of them. Lia seemed to know everything that was happening but secretly told them to wait until after Lunabelle wasn’t present to explain things.
“And this is where we all sleep.”
Lia was giving Lunabelle a tour around the ship, showing her how the giant shiny metal rock that appeared out of the sky was actually hollow on the inside. She turned on all the lights and made everything as colorful and captivating as possible as to distract from the ugliness going on outside.
“Hey Lia, maybe you could show Lunabelle the cockpit? Just do let her touch the controls, alright?”
Lia had insisted that everyone be friendly and address Lunabelle by name, and make her feel welcome. To the crew, it was harder than said. She was the reason why they had been threatened, their ship trashed and taken prisoner. They knew she wasn’t really to blame, but she was the root cause. It was grinding their nerves to have her around and be nice to her.
But so far, there had been no problems. Everyone was being at least respectful, and Lunabelle hadn’t found out anything yet. Although she hated lying to her. Regrettably, it wouldn't long before the Lunabelle got curious as for where mommy was again. And at that time came, Lia was going to have to lie again.