Chapter 21: Legends, Part 1: Dark Moon

"You could have saved yourself," Lantorn said as she stared at Mosor. Mosor stared up at her, drained as the vines entered her.

None of the tree pierced her flesh, as much as it was like when the Tree of Knowledge did it. It went in, and wrapped around her soul and drained the Empathy out of her. Her body faded in color, turning to a sick gray color. The other four with her seemed the same, except Lilu, Kyofi, and Rosod never had powers.

The Firefly Diary itself was wrapped around in the vines. All that surrounded them was the purple platforms and the tree itself.

Mosor tried crawling along the walkway, and the vines would stretch. Still, they kept her tethered, and she asked, "Why are you doing this?"

Arber stared at the five, and looked at the tree itself. Lantorn stood over Mosor. "I am doing this because I will be feared."

"Why do you need to be feared? You could have friends. You could have it all," Mosor said. "You could become a god."

"You are right, I can become a god, and I will." Mosor's eyes widened, and Lantorn said, "This is the final stage in the program. Too bad that dumb yellow one has decided to join up with the entire army. Now they have each inch of kingdom scrubbed down."

Mosor said, "Leave Vanos alone. Do the right thing."

Lantorn said, "The right thing? I lost track of that. I'm doing what it will take for me to make right. You can believe there is a right and wrong like a light and dark. There's not. The darkness may fade from light, but good and evil mixes. It's more like white and black. You fuse white and black and you will get gray."

Mosor collapsed. Lantorn looked at Arber. The others seemed to be unconscious. "This has drained all of their powers." Lantorn affixed her own book to the tree, and the tree flowed the powers into it. She had one last hour before the eclipse came, and she had to take it all.

Arber said, "Rhed and Blhu better come with that wolf soon." Lantorn nodded in agreement. Arber stared at the tree, and said, "After this, we cut it down."

Lantorn raised an eyebrow at him. "I never said that. We are keeping the tree." She stared back at it. "This Tree of Emotions is needed. It sucks all dry."

Arber felt a shiver up his spine as he stared at the tree, thinking about the beings trapped inside, much less the beings in front of him now. He asked, "I thought you felt like you had lived in fear. Now you're allowing that to happen to others?"

"Why are you fighting this now?" Lantorn asked. "Lhyna and I have provided you food, and water. You will be rich after this." She threw down a purse, and it revealed hundreds of Drakold. "Rich. You will be a king's hand."

Arber said, "I have done questionable things to save myself. I know what I was doing, but this is awful to watch." He gestured to the grays, and said, "If I had known this is where we were headed, I would have stopped."

Lantorn growled. "We are at the precipice of godhood, and once we take that final part of the sword, Lhyna will unlock the Eater of Planets. Once unlocked, we will feast. For once, I will have control."

Arber watched Lantorn collapse and stare down to the abyss. All anger he had washed away and he sat down next to her.

Lantorn said, "Lhyna is simply using me, and I know I have no friends, no one. I am alone, and I am afraid. I will never be afraid again."

"What are you afraid of?" Arber asked, as he listened to her. "I never thought of you as afraid." He heard her talking about fear.

Lantorn shook her head, and told him, "It won't matter. I will absorb the three powers, become powerful enough to unlock the chamber, use the sword of winds to rule over Lightning itself, and I will use the Eater of Planet to take the kingdom."

Arber said, "I will arrange for Lhyna to be at the gate. Make sure you keep that book charged." He walked away, and Lantorn waved him goodbye.

Lantorn stared down at Mosor. A rare, raw feeling fell over her as she stared at Mosor. "I think you suffer. You live in fear, and I do too. We are more alike than you think." Lantorn laughed. "Difference being that I won."

***

Vanos and Mynt worked at the ice cream shop, with Wasting washing dishes. They all kept track of time, each one knowing the eclipse was coming. No use hiding, they were in plain sight.

They watched a violat and crimson approach. Vanos placed the goblet down on the table, and waited for them to come in.

The violat opened the door, and Vanos came around from behind the counter. The crimson also came up, and the three nodded at each other.

All four vines glowed, and Mynt hopped onto the counter. They all prepared, as Wasting turned on the kitchen sink.

Mynt jumped off the counter onto the violat. Blhu grabbed her, and slid back as the momentum of her landing pushed him back. He threw her up, then slammed her down onto the ground.

Vanos ran at Rhed, but Rhed sidestepped and pushed him into the glass door. It shattered as she flung him over. Still, Wasting came over and slapped Rhed across the face. Rhed fell down, and Blhu ran at Wasting. Blhu jumped up, and smashed his knee into Wasting' snout, knocking him back.

Vanos watched the brawling still going on inside. He knew not to focus on it all. They came for the treasure, not him. Now time to enact the final part of the plan.

Vanos ran back in, and onto the counter. Blhu jumped up, reached it first. Blhu snatched the goblet, but Vanos fit his head between Blhu's legs.

Blhu placed cautious hands on the sides of Vanos' head as Vanos carried him outside. Blhu rained down punches. Vanos got on two legs into the electric chair position. Mynt jumped onto the counter.

Vanos flashed, as did the other three who were linked to Lhyna's books. They flashed onto the moon, for a second, and Mynt did a massive jump with the lack of gravitational pull. Then Vanos kicked the power on again to flash them back to the front of the shop.

Mynt fell from thirty feet. She fell onto Blhu and both crashed into the pavement. Blhu lost all his wind and dropped the goblet.

Rhed's ran around behind the counter. Wasting chased her in circles, and she grabbed plates. She threw some, but the water from the sink shot forward and broke all the plates. She backed against a wall as a growling Wasting came at her.

The two were placed in front of a refrigerator. Wasting kept guard of them. "I think you are going to reveal the location of Lhyna and Lantorn, or you two are going to die. Which one will it be?"

Rhed giggled nervously, like a child who was caught ditching school. Or, a college student. She asked Vanos, "You think you will let him kill us?"

Vanos said, "Of course not. I do not agree with such violence." Then he closed his eyes, and said, "I'm not looking, I'm not looking, I'm not looking, I'm not looking."

Wasting grinned and opened his mouth wide, before Rhed put her hands up defensively. "Alright, already, she's up in that temple that's over by the hyenas. You have to go there, and it's in the woods. You can't miss it."

"Thanks," Vanos said.

"But be warned, the entire thing was once floating because Lhyna rigged it to float. It normally floats because of one of the treasures, but since Lhyna had to retrieve that treasure, it only has power when the eclipse starts, and will turn off when it ends."

Mynt told Vanos, "Sounds like we're risking life and limb if we climb aboard. We won't have any way down."

Vanos said, "Think we have an option?" Mynt shrugged, and Vanos told Wasting, "Make sure they are stuck here. If you have to eat them, eat them."

"That won't be needed," Rhed said with a laugh. Blhu stared down, completely defeated. Perhaps. It was hard to read a violat's expression.

Vanos asked Mynt, "Are you ready for our final trip?" He knew he wasn't ready as he thought about finding the temple, at last moment.

Mynt said, "I'm scared." Vanos glanced at the floor, and out the window. He knew this may be the last time he saw this shop again. Or this entire kingdom. If he lost, and saw it again, it would never be the same as it was.

Vanos said, "I am too, Mynt." He knew they didn't have to go. They had the last treasure, but this was the prime time to defeat Lhyna. Or else, something bad would happen, who knew? Lhyna might figure out a different way to take over the kingdom. Or she could wait until the new eclipse, next month.

Vanos told Wasting, "Thanks for what you have done. You will have to deal with your own drinking problems from now on."

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

"No problem," Wasting said with a grin. "We all need support, and you gave me mine. I will be going back to Canida while thinking of you."

Vanos nodded and he and Mynt walked out. The air felt cold that day. Not a nice cold, but like an eerie cold, as storm clouds rolled in. Pink streaks broke into the skies, trying to take them over. The day turned dark, and Mynt navigated.

"Did Lantorn never show you to this floating island?" Vanos asked. Mynt shook her head. "I guess she did keep secrets. Who knows what about, right?" This entire plot was about secrecy, and collusion. Everyone worked with everyone but them.

Mynt said, "Best not to let it get to you, Vanos. For the sake of us all. I already have a portal arranged for us."

Vanos felt dark in mind and body and soul. This was his last journey, he repeated to himself. No tomorrow guaranteed.

***

In the silence of her mind, Mosor felt a presence. She saw herself in a different space, in a pocket dimension. No light, no sound, only the darkness until a pink washed over.

She felt herself get stronger. Her emotions strengthened. She felt the fear building, and building. Her heart raced. She took in a breath. More breaths. Her heart pumped. Fear coursed. Adrenaline took over.

She took a big, long breath, and saw something in the darkness. It was a vague silhouette, until the details filled in.

The being looked like she was made of stardust. Pure white, with a yellow crown shaped like the top of a star. Three points, all spread out. Her body had pink tassels coming down from the star.

"Who are you?" Mosor asked, as she stared at the being.

The being blinked, and tapped herself on the chin. She had a teardrop shaped head. Her body was as long as her head was, and she had the tails, all pink strands. "I think I am Empath? Is that right?"

Mosor opened her mouth, and stared at the darkness. She waved her paws around, and touched only air. "Why are you here, Empath?"

"I feel drained," she said. "I see you are troubled. To think the tree I was born from, and now, part of it is trying to eat me and swallow me up," Empath said. She looked down. "Will you stay with me, Mosor? Are you having fun?"

Mosor felt the pink vines wrap around her body again. Her pink vines were the same color as Empathy's tassels. "I lacked feeling for a bit. This tree, it's sucking our power."

The being of Empathy said, "You know as well as I do that Lhyna is sucking us up."

Mosor said, "I think this is my fault. My sister, my cousin, her friends, are only caught because I kept trying to fight Lantorn. If Lantorn won, she would have got the treasures." Mosor felt sadness wash over her, to be replaced by emptiness. "Lantorn was right."

The being floated around, and swam around Mosor. "This tree can only drain part of my power. I keep creating it. You seem to need some assistance, and I will have to sacrifice for you."

Mosor's eyes widened. "Sacrifice, as in, you will give your power up?" That devastated her, if someone had to die to give her the energy to continue the fight. "I ask you not to do that."

The being said, "I may die if I do that. Still, it is only the right thing to do. I was made to protect the sword, and I managed to mess that up. I think the only right thing to do, is for us to fill you back up with the power, and the book too."

Mosor said, "This tree drained your power, and filled it into the book." She realized how this was all working. The tree of knowledge needed something to focus on that knowledge, and the tree of emotion drained to give something away. It was a type of funnel, without the fun.

Then Empath said, "How about we do it, guys?" Two other beings appeared before Mosor, with a blue and yellow light filled in. She saw the four other friends she had.

Ahmond asked, "What is going on?" Mosor considered how this decision impacted them. This would be on their consciences too. They would all become gods with her? Or was it only her, and what about the other power? None of them had Willpower. Would it go to a random one of them?

The two beings looked the same as Empath, only one had blue tassels, and the other had yellow tassels. They only other difference was the colors of their tails.

"Will, Depend, let us give them the power they need." The three beings locked in hands. "From now on, I promote you, Mosor, to the power of a goddess." The lights merged into a white light. And Mosor closed her eyes.

"No, you should fight on. I am not worth dying for!" Mosor said. "I would have used the power to become a goddess."

"You already are one," was the last voice she heard in an echo. On the outside, the tree of emotion glowed, and the branches withered and fell. The two books fell down, Lantorn's and Mosor's, side by side, as Arber watched.

Arber backed up, and saw the tree fall down into the abyss of its own pocket dimension. The air rippled, like it was in summer heat. Arber noticed a new being, one of pure white, and he shook his head. He saw what happened to Mosor.

A white light filled the area, and destroyed it all. The dimension itself broke down and was erased as the tree that inhabited fell apart.

Far away, the Tree of Knowledge felt a ripple in his soul, and understood that his sister, the Tree of Emotion, died. He said, "I know not why you are dead, but may you rest." He began divining from the air, and summoned the reason.

"May you exist again. Or may you rest for good." He felt an aura wash over him as he realized what was happening. He was becoming both Tree of Knowledge, and Tree of Emotion.

Afterwards, he became the most powerful tree in the world. Back at home, Mosor knew she became a powerful being of some kind.

Arber opened his mouth, but the vines his body had fell off of him. He tried to grab his glowing vines, but they flowed around to Mosor. He only saw the beast she had become, and he opened his mouth. Then he shook his head.

The area that made the operation float, he remembered that. He went over to the control panel, and pushed random buttons, until the fans moved. The area rumbled. Mosor stared at him, and asked him, "Where is Lantorn?"

Arber took a deep breath, and told her, "Lantorn is off in a fight. It is the last minute before the eclipse happens. Lantorn is killing Lhyna."

***

This was the final fight. Vanos and Mynt stood with their family behind them. With the army of hyenas behind them. With crimsons behind them. With violats behind them.

The entire kingdom behind them. At least a hundred representatives of them. They marched into the ruins of the castle that was supposed to float.

All Vanos saw was a collection of buildings almost like he castle. He stood on a pathway that ringed around the entire structure, then connected each building to each other. Vines covered each building, making them seem as decrepit as their stony gray, and flaked paint look made them.

"This better not be a dead place," Vanos said. "I have no time for mind games from somebody else right now." Then again, did Lhyna?

The biggest building had a flight of a hundred stairs. Atop that building, no one saw the shine, until it became brighter.

A white wolf stood. The ascended of the moon, Lhyna. She grinned down at them, and called out in a voice loud enough for all to hear, "Are you my greeting?"

Vanos said, "This is enough time for games, Lhyna! This is the final fight!" He made out no expressions on the face of the wolf. She hopped down, almost in a moon jump, before she landed hundreds of feet, perhaps a thousand, from her perch to the front of Vanos.

"I think it's time this all becomes good. You came last minute, literally, and I told Arber to make sure we had the right, shall I say, atmosphere for it."

Vanos felt the ground underneath them rumbling. The pathway lifted up, and escaped the ground as it rose into the air.

The guards behind them tried to jump up, but the only three were the ones right behind Vanos and Mynt. Their uncles and aunts, and they got onto the ring.

Choclox said, "This is your last warning, Lhyna. We have the last treasure, but you have decided to go with defeat."

Paynut said, "We all could have had peace, but you chose to instead go with war. For that, your punishment will be swift."

Last, stepped forward Vanos and Mynt's mother, and both stepped behind to give her the respect she deserved. She said, "The last fight."

"Spir, let me handle this," Choclox said, being the biggest. "Then you can join in, looking for the scraps of Lhyna."

Lhyna burst out laughing as the castle kept rising, and as it floated, revealed more structure at the bottom. The bottom glowed, and Lhyna stared down. "Seems like the book is charged up."

Lantorn came out the temple, and ran around down to the tunnel system below, prepared to absorb the power to make her a goddess herself.

Vanos said, "We are here to fight for the pack. You walk with no pack. You only walk with servants who follow you from fear. You are fear." He stepped forward.

Lhyna grinned and said, "I helped you out. I saw Mosor that first day, and knew she was right to help out. She would never be corrupted, or that's what she thought." She conjured water and made a puddle on the ground.

Lhyna stared down into the puddle, at a yellow version of herself. "Why are you doing this? You can stop right now."

White told Yellow, "I could stop, and I could continue on. Guess which I already resigned too." She lifted the puddle of water up into a sphere, before flicking it away.

Vanos asked her, "Why are you trying to do this? What do you gain to accomplish? You are already a goddess."

"That's right," Lhyna said. "As a goddess, I have seen thousands of years. I saw you all destroy yourselves. You aren't wolves, are you?"

Vanos thought about what Wasting said, and stared down. The civilization was, by now, a thousand feet in the air.

Lhyna said, "There is a primal order to things. An order instilled by fear. I made sure we could all proceed down the path towards a better future, if we had three virtues. The Goddess Creator Dragon of the Lightning made three beings to safeguard the sword. I found the sword, and I drained those beings." Lhyna stared down. "You could all have lived well. We thought some of you were perfect. Yellow thought she could get the best of you to save the realm."

Vanos tilted his head, and listened to her talk. Where was she going with this? He had seen the two sides of Lhyna, but now understood why they worked with each other on some parts.

Lhyna said, "I know there is no trusting any of you. The world must be reset to be fixed, and that means I have to inflict nightmares. I have to remind you of the fear you live in, if it causes good. I need to reset it all." Vanos stared at her and shook his head. She laughed.

"You think I'm wrong?" Lhyna asked. "You live in comfort, and eat ice cream. You walk the same streets as other species. You eat cupcakes and all other bad things. You have destroyed nature to do it, right? The wood, the stones?"

Choclox said, "If this is all because someone soiled the land, you could have made some kind of effort to stop that. Instead, you think we all deserve to live in nightmares because you said we should?"

Lhyna said, "I will inflict a fear that brings you back, then a fear that changes you all for the better. You are not suited to live in the world you made for yourself, and that is because of fear."

Lhyna stepped forward, and all five stepped back. "To avoid consequences and pain, you avoid fights with your neighbors. You avoid fights against higher power. You avoid fights against yourself, because you are all in fear. I am fear, and I control it, right? Now you all know a fear that is the greatest, the fear that rules. The Eater of Planets will inflict a greater fear, and you will fear him, and that fear will rule you, and I will rule him, with fear."

Vanos stood guard, as did Mynt. Choclox and Paynut spread out, as Spir ran first at Lhyna, with Lhyna realizing the fight began. Lhyna summoned five beings of light.

They all stood five feet tall, each of them bipedal and they all looked like their opponents. "May I cause you to reflect on yourselves?" The five saw their light double in front of them. None of them had any difference except the two footedness.

"Might be awkward to fight myself," Vanos said. He had never thought it was a literal case of fighting against himself. "I guess excelsior, against us?" They all charged themselves. They prepared against each other.

"Rising"

This is a war

We have to fight

The moon is rising

My hope is drained

We have no choice

My pack will fight

The night will roar

We stand as one

And until sunshine, fight

A shooting star around

Will give the light to us

The moon is rising

We rise to match

We rise to fight