3 - A NEW START

Luna woke up, feeling refreshed and full of energy. This was one of her two favorite moments of the day, when she could meet with her friend from the sky and hear his stories. She quickly ate her breakfast with her parents and descended the long stairs down the hollow trunk of their treehouse. She then traversed the twenty miles of forest until she reached the first few clearings before the seemingly endless plains that laid afterwards. She leapt down from a tree branch and sprinted all the way to the campsite, eager to find her new friend still asleep. She loved to watch him while he still slept, the few moments when she could see his real face, his real being. And then she would watch him wake up, do all of his strange rituals and then eventually prepare breakfast. It was her second breakfast of the day, but it was nothing like the food she ate with her family. She enjoyed those alien flavours, rich and full. She alway brought back a small piece of chocolate bread, or a cookie to eat later. It reminded her of him during the time she had to spend away from him. Sometimes she ate it in the middle of the night, and the soothing flavor and sensation helped her fall asleep. Or she would eat it during the day, perhaps during one of the boring lessons her mother always put her through in the afternoon. That helped too, because it reminded her that as soon as she was done there, she could go right back to him for supper. She finally saw him, sleeping like a log with his head on a metal plate.

There was something odd about him today. Something was different. The way he was sleeping was different. The look on his face was different. There was a sense of peace he previously lacked, and a sense of inevitability. The impending doom one would read on the face of an elder who was on his deathbed, or on a wounded soldier drawing his last breath. No longer could she sense the strong ironclad will to survive within him, the strength to keep going on despite the odds. No, he was tranquil, and serene. He had made peace with himself and his condition, and had accepted his destiny. And this worried her. She knew what laid beyond the facade he had constructed for her, what laid beyond those stories he always told her. True, she could not understand most of what he was talking about, but she knew that he was describing some idyllic sort of life he wished he had. A sugar coated version of his own memories. And for a while, he was living there, in the past. In his own story. But something was eating away at him from the inside, slow but inevitable.

She hurried the final few paces and wrapped her hands around his neck to support him. She tried to shake him, but he wouldn’t wake up. His breath was uneven and laboured, his pulse weak. She could feel the life force fading away from him, and returning to the endless cycle of the earth. No, this was not how it was supposed to go. He wasn’t supposed to die. He had to live! He had to be there for her, as she would be there for him. She regretted not telling him this, not telling him to fight and fight because he was no longer alone. How could she allow him to lose hope and abandon his hold on life? No, she wouldn’t let him.

She smiled gently at him, while wrapping a thin metal chain around his neck. There was a small jade pendant around it. It was pleasantly cool to the touch.

“Hang in there…” she said, while frantically fidgeting with the small green stone. She put her fingers around it and muttered a few words in high elvish, the ancient language of her people. She held it tightly, and pulled the unconscious man close to her chest. She felt that his body was cool and lifeless, but there was still a flicker of life left in him somewhere. She poured her own power inside the small green jade, and closed her eyes. Not all was lost.

After interminable moments, she felt the space around her warp and change.

“Lunora!” there was her father beside her, and he was very surprised to see her together with an unknown human. He had sensed her activating the emergency transport, and had immediately ran to the transportation room. He couldn't care less about anything he was doing before. If there was an even remote chance that she was in distress, he had to be there for her.

“Father!” She replied, visibly concerned. Preoccupied, he walked closer to inspect the situation. After making sure that his daughter was safe, he turned towards the strange man. He was ghastly pale, and had stopped breathing. Luna was crying over his body, pounding at his chest and yelling at her father to do something.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“What is the meaning of this?” He asked, sternly, why had his daughter brought in a stranger? Even worse, she had used her emergency transport beacon. There had to be a reason for that. She looked momentarily startled, but quickly recovered.

“Please, father! Help him… he’s dying!”

“I can see that. Why would I help him, though? What did he do to you?”

She was not surprised: she expected his reaction. And she knew there was nothing she could do unless she told him the whole truth. Hurriedly, before it was too late, she began to tell the tale. She told him of the falling star, of her meeting and of the stories the man had told her. With a sigh, her father approached the pale man lying on the leaf mat on the floor.

“Alright… go get your mother, then.” Lunora ran outside to fetch her mother, and returned shortly after. As soon as she too was filled in about the whole situation, the two invited their daughter to wait outside. Then the woman put her hands on the man’s chest and began speaking ancient elvish.

Two hours had passed. Finally her parents slowly emerged from the room. The door creaked as it closed behind them. She had been sitting on the floor, leaning onto the wooden wall that separated her from the other room, and had fallen asleep from the tension. The recent events had clearly taken a toll on her. The sound of her parents leaving the room woke her up, and she scrambled back at her feet as quickly as she could. She tried to take a peek inside, but the door closed too fast for her to see. She turned to face her mother, a deep sentiment of hope welled up in her eyes.

“So…” her mother began, smiling warmly at her. But in her voice there was also a sliver of worry, and of disappointment. “This is what you have been doing, sneaking out for days, isn’t it?” She was glaring at her, but was not angry.

“...yes.” replied Lunora, still sitting on the wooden floor. Her gaze shifted towards her mother’s hands, which were soaked in blood. But the man was not bleeding before. Had something happened while they were treating him? She shifted her weight and heard the floor creak under her foot. It was a low, pained sound of old wood under tension. “Is he...?” She asked, concerned. She could take all the scolding in the world from her mother, but that would have to wait. Her priority was her friend. But the words did not even manage to leave her mouth as her mother replied hastily.

“His life is not in danger anymore. He will need more treatment later, but for now he is resting. Come on, get up. You’re in charge of bringing him supper.” She held out her hand for her daughter to take. She knew the repercussions of her action. Since she was the one who brought him here, he was her responsibility from now on. But that was fine, because she now had a reason to spend all her time with him!

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The door creaked. Fenrir had been drifting in and out of consciousness for a while, and had not been able to figure out where in the world he was now. He was not dead, clearly, but he was not at the crash site anymore. What was even more shocking to him, though, was that he felt better. He was still in pain, but it was much milder than it was before. And he felt as if a veil had been lifted from his mind. Ever since he woke up in this world, all he had seen was blood and death. Horror beyond belief, one that would have broken even the strongest of minds. One that had broken him. But now he felt different. Alive, once again.

Someone was coming in from the door. He tried to move his head to face the entrance, and strained his eyes in an attempt to focus. It was incredibly painful, but he was curious as to who had rescued him and had even managed to heal him. It must have been incredibly difficult, certainly only the best of doctors in the most advanced of facilities could have healed him. Perhaps the rescue party had arrived, and he was back on the orbital ring around Earth. That would have been nice.

Finally the figure got close enough for him to see. It was a girl, short and cute. She had pale silver hair, as if blessed by the moon itself. Her face was perfect, her features gentle and refined, and she was smiling warmly at him. She reminded him of her dream goddess he was sure he had met before, except this time she really felt… real. He remembered the only time she had talked, that time when he gave her a little flower. Perhaps she too would remember about it. At the side of her head there were two pointy ears sticking out and moving up and down.

“You… you are real!” He cried of joy, and then moved to embrace her tightly. Ignoring all the pain, he just pulled her close to him, squeezing the small frame of her body between his strong arms for what felt like entire hours. She too sobbed and cried tears of joy together with him, and the two shared their warm embrace for as long as they felt like doing. Neither of them wanted to let the other go, and both desired nothing else than to be in each other’s arms.