Little Moon Town

"What in the ungodly hell was THAT!?"

I turn my head, snapping back to the present moment. I smile and scratch my head nervously.

"Didn't I mention I was a Magician?" 

Larissa rises up from the ground, looking a little shaky on her feet. "No, you did not!"

"What did you think I needed at the earth shrine?"

She's fuming, I can tell. But she does her best not to let me get a whiff of it.

"Well...good job," she says, crossing her arms. "I'll be taking the corestone back, now."

Oh, right. I look at the corestone in my hand. It, like me, is covered in bird-gristle and blood. I take the blue jewel and chuck it to her. She catches it this time, before looking down at her hand in disgust. Sorry!

"It didn't have a name, that's why you couldn't use it," I say, cocky in my newfound knowledge (even though I got it all from Sola). "So I had to give it one. It's called 'Birdblaster'. You're welcome."

She looks from me, to the jewel, to me again. "This is supposed to be my ticket to nobility, and you name it BIRDBLASTER, you bloody idiot!?"

I laugh nervously and try to change the subject. "So, Larissa. I got your corestone for you. Mind showing me to the earth shrine, now? Or, I dunno. A shower? I have someone I'm trying to catch up with, and it would mean a lot if I could get there quickly."

Larissa walks forward a bit. She looks at me like she's going to yell, but instead just turns red and turns away. "Your too-cool, confident play boy act isn't fooling me!" she shrills. 

Play boy...?

Are all humans this difficult?

"It's not that easy," she states, calming herself down. "I mentioned we were in something of a restricted area, didn't I? To get out of here, we're going to have to sneak past guards. ARMED guards. Several of them."

My eyes widen. "Wait, really?"

"I'm a thief! We've been over this!" she says, shaking in frustration. She holds the corestone up to me and waves it around to get my attention. "We stole this from the royal family! Don't you know what this means? Why we're here? I'm going to use this to become a noble!"

Sola fills in some extra context for me. These corestones are pretty rare, and they're a symbol of status. Lady Amaranda's tomb was being used to generate a corestone. Similar to in death, living Magicians naturally expel mana, so the people closest to them gain some level of magic themselves. So, in possessing the corestone, Larissa thinks that will show she's of noble lineage. How else would she have gotten it? (thankfully it seems grave robbing isn't a popular pastime on earth). 

"Okay," I say, moving on. "How do we get past the guards?"

"You don't have any follow-up questions to what I said?" she blushes. 

"Not really. I think I figured it out."

She gives me a death stare. "Just follow me."

We head to the east for a few minutes and then arrive at a stone wall that circles the perimeter of the area. Thankfully, we haven't seen any other fiends. As we arrive at the wall, Larissa shows me her skill with a grappling hook. She hooks her rope up atop the wall, about twenty feet up, and uses it to scale the wall. She ushers for me to follow, and I do.

I'm taken aback by the view as I reach the top of the wall. From where we were earlier, surrounded by stone walls and trees, I couldn't really get a bearing on my horizons, but...

This planet is beautiful.

A gust of wind hits me as my eyes speckle in awe.

Impossible fields of red brush stretch out as far as the eye can see, ended only by the colossal stone walls that shoot high into the sky, a long, long distance away. A town visible in the distance that must be even bigger than Little Moon Town. Leading down to the town, stretching endlessly into the horizon, is a stone path not far from here.

The view from up here is a spectacle to behold. My eyes dart around in bewilderment. For the first time since arriving on this planet, I feel the gravity of where I am. What this is. The scope. The scale. I'm in another world entirely.

"Larissa," I say, laughing as tears start streaming down my face. "This is your world?"

She looks down toward the sweeping fields of red. The sparkling cerulean rivers and streams that cut up the landscape. The impossibly wide horizon of a pale blue sky. 

And my home. The moon. Hovering over the landscape, dominating a third of the sky. Glowing in rose gold light. Visible even in the clear day. Just as I'd always imagined it'd look from down here.

We've all done it - the Nephilim living on the moon. Snuck out of the barrier to see the earth. Looked down on it, all of its colors, in amazed glee. And we learned about it from the stories of Magicians long ago. Our sky is black, but the sky on earth is blue. Our ground is a pink, earthy color - the earth ground can be any color, and rocky, or filled with plants, or smooth like glass, or shifting like sand. It's all so familiar and warm. And yet all so frighteningly different. The sights. The sounds. The smells. The cool wind on my face is unlike anything I've ever felt. Pleasure, unlike anything I've ever experienced. Wonder, unlike anything I've ever known.

"You okay?" Larissa asks, and I snap back to the moment, gasping for air as if I'd forgotten to breath. My senses begin to stabilize. Back to smelling the rancid odor of blood on my clothes and skin.

I turn to Larissa. "I think I just had a-"

"Sh!" she interrupts. I hear something."

I enter fight or flight mode immediately and I crouch to the ground. We both turn our heads. There's someone else on the wall, and they're walking right toward us. 

"Allo!? What are you two doing up here!?" the guard shouts. So much for sneaking past the guards.

"Run!" Larissa yelps, as she begins to barrel away down the other side of the wall's walkway. I shake my head in a panic, unsure of whether to follow her or to stay put and nicely explain to the guard why I'm here.

August, what are you thinking? You've heard stories of humans EATING each other! You gotta run!

Yep. I'm running. Right behind Larissa. And we continue running until we reach a gate tower. She gets there first and tries the door, slamming it several times. "I don't have time to pick the lock," she panics, turning back around. The guard is going to get to us any second now.

"Jump!" she cries, and she plummets over the far side of the wall, toward the town. I lurch to follow her, looking down. It's a long fall. She's laying on the ground down there. Did she even survive the fall?

I take several deep breaths amping myself to take the plunge. Larissa is standing up - she made it. I'm ready. Ready as I've ever been. I let all my energy flow into this single moment and scream as I jump. 

"AAAAAHHHHH!"

I fall about six inches until I am suddenly stopped. The guard has caught up to me and plucked me right out of the air.

He hoists me over his shoulder. "Alright, kid. You're coming with me."

And so, for the second time that day, I found myself captured by a human. Can this day really get any worse?