After Selene excused herself from the others, she first took Lunabelle to the bath and washed away the blood that had congealed in her hair, brushing the shoulder length silver strands back into perfection. Afterward, she dressed her in her favorite fluffy pajamas and took her back to her room within the Crystal Spire.
In here, pictures of various puzzles Lunabelle had solved decorated the room. Photos of her with each and every one of her mommies surrounded a grand bed that could only be described as a pink cloud. Playing in the tide pools at a beach Selene had made, exploring with Mora in a forest specially made for her, making a book fort with Astenna. Years and years of good times framed to remember. Fake windows projected a beautiful meadow of flowers of all colors and up on the high ceiling, a real time 3D image of a galaxy acted as a lamp, illuminating the room in a soft blue light.
As she walked in carrying the girl, little animals with clear crystal bodies ran out of the cover of the furniture and instantly surrounded the mother and child. There were 6 of them each with their own color crystal body. The three mothers had seen a similar human tradition where they would give their young small stuffed animals to cuddle when in bed. They had copied this tradition and used live rabbits instead, on the argument that they would be much more cuddly and thus make Lunabelle smile even more.
“Oh for star's sake! Where's Zora?”
The bear companion should have gotten her message earlier. Someone needed to be by her side at all times! She would do it herself but she needed to get back to Mora and Astenna. They were probably waiting in the conference room, Astenna had been eager to discuss something.
She set Lunabelle down on the bed and put her favorite cuddle slime next to her. Mora may not be the most creative when it comes to giving presents, but giving Little Luna a slime to hug while she slept was a brilliant idea.
*Click*
“YAY! Cute picture of Little Luna while she's sleeping number 21701 acquired!” she quietly exclaimed while holding a crystal orb.
A while back, Astenna had come up with the brilliant idea to document Little Luna’s achievements by creating an orb that could recreate the scene in a holographic 3D picture. Unfortunately, she would later regret making them single use when Selene kept using up hers all on random moments like when Lunabelle was sleeping, playing with Zora, or chasing a butterfly.
“Moments like that MUST be documented though!” she said adamantly.
Astenna...Why had she stopped her from killing those mortals? They had defied tried to steal her most precious away from her! Only death awaited those who dared to try and steal away Lunabelle from her. If any of them protested then she would reaffirm in their minds just who was on top.
And that insufferable elf who dared to challenge her authority and question her methods! She could exterminate the entire elven race if she wanted to, that petty nature goddess of theirs wasn’t strong enough to challenge her, and yet she still dared to talk back.
“Failed as a mother…”
She hadn’t shown it, but those words had hurt her deeply. She had devoted her life to being her mother after all, how could they not hurt her. All the energy and time she had spent playing and being with her, even going out of her way to reshape the nature of her celestial body.
She had given everything to her, and that girl had told her she had failed.
The goddess closed her eyes and remembered the first moment she had ever set eyes on the girl.
_____________________________________
“No...No...”
Their stupid headstrong older sister had gotten her younger sibling, not including the youngest 3, to crash their celestial bodies into the Tiny planet. And to make matters worse, it would seem they had been planning on not telling them, the three youngest.
“Why! Stupid! Idiot! ” tears streaming down a young Astenna’s face.
“Big sister…gone...” came a shocked Mora.
Selene said nothing as she watched the impact moment over and over in her head. It had to be a trick. One of Triana’s illusions. Any second now they were going to jump out and scream “PSYCH!”. Mora would chase Triana with her spear, Asta would hit the twins over the head and lecture them on how they were the older and had to act more responsible, and Selene was going to get a hug from Zima.
“Triana...Come out now. You got us...please come out...Mora doesn’t like it when you play mean tricks on her...Morgan...Ava...Where are you? If you apologize now maybe Asta won’t hit you…Zima...”
“Shut up! Just shut up!”
Mora lashed out at Selene and screamed at her. Her spear missed by a long shot but her words hurt Selene more.
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“They're Gone! OK! They're dead!” Mora screamed while wailing.
Astenna wasn’t even conscious of what Mora was saying, much less in any able to stop her from saying such things. The normally logical and calm girl was curled up in a ball, muttering over and over how they could have found another way, how they WOULD have found another way.
There was an enormous flash of light as the surface of the planet turned molten and the moon broke apart. And that was the final straw, reality seemed to hit Selene all at once and she woke up from her trance. Heartbroken and in turmoil, she fled back to her celestial body crying.
She cried and cried and cried, praying, hoping, pleading with any force in the universe to return her family to her. But no one came, and there she sat feeling that life couldn’t go on without big sisters.
This pain she felt...death would be better than this.
Everything was silent. A deathly sorrow covered the moon.
Just as she was about to rip out her celestial soul, a small little *Bump* broke the silence.
“*Sniff Sniff* What…?”
She looked out of the cave over her celestial body and spotted a little object resting on the tippy tip of a new mountain she had wanted to surprise Zima with.
Curiosity stopped her and she went over to look.
A child? Sitting in a cradle was the dead body of a human child. The tiny soul that was supposed to have gone to the underworld as soon as it died did not. Instead, by some instinct, it clung to the cold body and shivered.
She looked around, unable to see who had brought this thing to her doorstep. Her first thought was “How dare they invade my realm!” but before she could bellow the words she stopped. In a sense, the child was like her. Abandon, lonely, lifeless. She knew what the lost little soul was going through and couldn’t help but pity the infant. With a wave of her hand, the heart of the infant restarted, its lungs filled with life. As she did so, she could not help but lament how she could return this child to life but was powerless to restore the life of her sisters.
The cry of a newborn filled the mountains, banishing the gloom that had loomed over all.
Suddenly, Selene felt lighter, happier. Even though her sisters had died, this new life had been born from the ashes. She held the little girl in her arms and rocked her back and forth. Technically she had just been born, or reborn however you wanted to count it. What were human women supposed to do after giving birth? Her own mother had given her a ball of supercharged mana to suck on until she grew old enough to eat out of the Ether. Oh, how delicious it had been.
In years to come, Astenna would pound her head into the wall whenever the subject of how Lunabelle was supposed to fed was raised.
“Alright! Supercharged mana ball it is! Let's make it strawberry flavor!”
A pink ball of mana the size of a marble appeared in her hands. She popped it in the mouth of the little child and rocked her back and forth. The child shook and wriggled cried.
Selene panicked. What was she supposed to do! She had never done that when she ate supercharged mana! She had even made sure to add extra light mana for beauty purposes. Just as she was about to run and get Astenna, the baby in her hands let out a big *BURP*.
“Phew! Stinky!”
She patted the back of the little girl and laughed. The little girl yawned and cuddled closer to Selene.
“She's tired? She needs a blankie!”
Her own mother had given her a fluffy little blanket woven from Stardust. She didn’t have stardust, but she had Moondust!
She floated closer to the ground and gathered up a handful of the ambient dust. She carefully wove a sheet of shiny silver Moondust and Ether, taking extra care to make it soft and silky.
When she was done, she wrapped the girl in it and put her back in the cradle, shifting the cloth that was already inside to form a soft pad underneath the infant.
She flew back to her cave and watched over the child as she slept. She wondered where she had come from. Obviously, she had come from the tiny planet, but who brought her here? What was her name?
“Well, you can’t go without a name. Hmm…Uuughhh!”
What do humans name their children? Jane? Marry? NO! These plain old names wouldn’t do! If she was serious about raising this child as her own, she needed an amazing name!
She grabbed the cradle, careful not to disturb the sleeping child and flew out into the atmosphere. As she reached high into the atmosphere, she made sure to shield the child in her own personal atmosphere and magnetic shield to keep her safe from the vacuum and radiation.
“Hmmmm….names….names…”
She gazed around at the emptiness and vastness of space. Being up here had always helped her think. Some people thought it was dark and cold, but to her, a celestial being, it whispered of mystery and adventure, of opportunity and beauty.
“Beauty...A human like you could never have had a chance to view a spectacle like this. Even if those pompous, gas balls over in the Aldameada galaxy say stars are the best, my sisters and I would always choose moons.”
Every celestial being has a choice when they create their celestial body, most chose to have stars as their celestial body and shine in the sky while inflating their egos, thinking themselves as magnificent and majestic. However, stars are as abundant in the universe as there are grains of sand in a desert. Not everyone can outshine the other.
When it was her and her sisters turn to create their celestial bodies, their mother had told them something.
“A star shines brightly from afar, grand and lonely. Like little diamonds on dark velvet. Pretty to look at, but unapproachable as a fiery hell and for such a price, tis not even the brightest thing in the sky. I don’t want you to all be separated from each other or forgotten” their mother had said gathering their bodiless souls around her.
“I want you to shine and live happily together.” were her last words to them.
So when it was their turn to find a place to belong in the cosmos, it was Zima who had found the tiny planet.
“Let us be sister moons on this tiny planet!” she had exclaimed.
Thus, each and every one of them had created a beautiful moon. Shining in the sky over the tiny world.
“Beautiful moon...Perfect! Your name is Lunabelle, a Beautiful moon!”
___________________________________________
Selene snapped back to reality. Wiping away a few tears, she looked at the crystal clock on the wall and realized she had kept the others waiting for a while now.
She picked up the orb and hurried out of the room, heading towards the conference room. She couldn’t wait to show them the cute picture of Lunabelle she took. They were going to love it!
After running through crystal encrusted walls, and passing more of Lunabelle’s favorite pets, she finally made it to the conference room. She walking about to apologize for her lateness when she heard what the others had been saying before she entered.
“I propose we send Lunabelle to the planet alone and have her act as-.”
*CRASH*
No, No, NO! Not again! Please don’t take another person she cares about!