Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon or any of the characters within it. Those belong to Naoko Takeuchi. I do not make any money off of this whatsoever. I do however own any original characters within these stories.
Author's Note: This story bridges some gaps which strangely have never seemingly been covered before to my knowledge. Also note that much of this involves my own headcanon, though I have done my best to keep everyone informed when it pops up.
Chapter 1: Awakening: Luna
The first thing she knew was dizziness. Dizziness and sleepiness, as she crawled out of the strange pod she'd been stuck in. Her legs wobbled as she took those first few steps. Where was she? Who was she? What happened?
Grass brushed her ankles. She was in some sort of clearing, near the edge of a thick forest. No buildings or artificial structures could be seen anywhere in the immediate vicinity. Before she could observe any further, her rubbery legs gave out, forcing her to lie on the grass. Her stomach was doing summersaults, and she lay there for several moments. She opened her mouth to dry and speak, but found it bone dry. Water, she needed water.
A cursory sniff told her there was water nearby. She willed herself to her feet, though her legs still shook erratically. Slowly but steady, she made her way into the forest. After a torturous walk, she finally came to a lake hidden amongst the trees.
It was perhaps the most beautiful thing she'd seen since her awakening. She moved her way to the edge and drew her head down, lapping at the water greedily to sooth her throat.
Her head pulled back out once she'd had her fill, her mouth dripping all over. A sigh escaped her lips. Her eyes were then drawn to an image in the water. She saw her reflection. She was a cat, a black cat to be precise. And there on her forehead was a yellow crescent moon. Though the crescent was wrong, for the inner edge was facing up rather than sideways. And yet, it didn't seem wrong at all to her.
A crescent moon…
A woman was standing over her, holding a scepter of some kind that ended in a large crescent. They were all in a large room of some sort. There was no sound now, save for the heartbeat of the woman before her, and the heartbeat of another beside her. But in this place, in this strange vision, she could not turn her head.
The woman raised her scepter, and Luna observed her. She was garbed in a dress of flowing white, complimented by equally flowing silver hair which almost reached the floor, and held up in a strange style, with two balls atop her head, with the rest of it loose. Even stranger was her face, or rather her lack of face. It was as if fog had formed a mask over the woman's features.
"By the power granted to me as queen of the Moon by the Silver Crystal," spoke the woman, "I, Serenity the Twelfth, grant you two, Luna and Artemis of Mau, the status of advisors to the Lunar throne, and as such bestow upon you the mark of the royal house, passed down through my family."
The scepter is held up high, and there is a flash of light. Luna feels something on her forehead, a building of heat and a crackle of electricity through her skin. But strangely it is not painful. When the light fades, Luna can feel something new on her forehead, and though she cannot see it, she knows the crescent moon is there.
Her neck turns automatically, caught in this long lost memory, so that she sees the being next to her, whose heartbeat had been ringing in her ears. It is another cat, like her, one she instinctively knows is male, and who is named Artemis. But unlike her, his fur is snow white, with eyes of blue. He smiles at her, and she can feel herself smiling back.
The woman is bending down to them, and the attention of both cats is drawn to her.
"Congratulations you two."
"The honor is all ours," replies Artemis with a bow.
"Actually," replies the queen with a restrained laugh, "the honor should be mine, for allowing me to place my royal symbol on so sacred a place as the focal point of your power."
"We were happy to let you do it," replied Luna, heat rushing to her face. "We could think of no one more deserving Your Majesty. And we shall serve you always."
Luna was pulled back to reality with a jolt. She remembered now, the Queen, the palace, the invasion, and her escape with Artemis in the pods Queen Serenity put them in.
Luna turned her head to the blue sky, and spots a silvery orb hovering in it, though it was quite faint. Even without the aid of a telescope, she knew that it was the face of the Moon. She was on Earth.
The Moon Kingdom had fallen. Queen Serenity was dead. The very idea made Luna want to retch, if she'd had anything in her stomach. But if she was here, where was Artemis? She hadn't seen his pod nearby, and she didn't smell him. Luna attempted to reach out to him telepathically, but that just resulted in a headache that sent her to the ground.
"Clearly I haven't recovered," she whispered through the throbbing in her skull. Her body was still weak from being brought out from stasis. For the time being, she would simply have to rest. Finding Artemis would have to wait until she was strong enough to mentally or physically search for him.
So after the pain in her skull faded, Luna went back to the pod. It was too small to serve as a permanent home, resting out in the open as it was, but it would work for now as a shelter. Her belly gave a small grumble, but Luna ignored it as she lay down in the grass beside the vehicle. She wasn't that hungry yet, so she could let her body rest. Rest would do well if she would need to acquire her own food, which was all but certain at this point.
She let out a yawn. It was strange that she was sleepy after spending who knew how long in the sleep of stasis, but Luna supposed that wasn't a normal form of sleep. Her eyelids drooped, and she felt herself slipping off into that strange land of dreams. Yes, rest would do her good. And the grass and earth below felt so soft and warm…
Luna had slept much of the day, for the Sun was beginning to set when she woke up. By that point, her hunger had grown to the point that it couldn't be ignored. So Luna went back into the forest to look for food. It felt strange for her to be hunting food on her own, both difficult and nostalgic all at once. While the planet of Mau was advanced enough for food to be grown and regularly available in markets, hunting was still practiced by quite a few cats. And Luna had spent several years of her youth hunting with her parents and friends.
After becoming advisor to the Queen Serenity, she'd never needed to search for her own food, having access to all of the royal chefs. Still, those old skills didn't seem totally lost, because after a few misses, she managed to catch quite a few forest mice as a solid dinner. She had to psychically examine the specimens before taking them with her, making sure there weren't any bacterium that might prove averse to her. That was a skill she also rarely employed, but she needed to try in absence of the tools to cook her prey.
As the Sun continued to slip down into the horizon, Luna lay on the grass by the pod, finishing off her meal, which wasn't too bad she had to admit. It certainly didn't compare to the grand cuisine from the royal kitchens, but it wasn't too bad.
The whole thing required so much adjusting. Never in all her years would she have thought she'd be living outside of civilization like some sort of castaway. And yet here she was, hunting for her food again and eating raw meat rather than dining off the dishes of the royal family, and sleeping in a small pod or on ground. For all the softness and warmth of the ground, she missed sleeping in the large bed Serenity had put in her private quarters. "I suppose I was rather spoiled wasn't I?" she mused. "But there are no such luxuries here, and no use in crying over old comforts."
Looking at the sky, she smiled. The sunsets on Earth were magnificent, a rich explosion of colors that eventually gave way to glittering stars and the silver glow of the Moon. It made up for the lack of a proper bed as she curled up inside the pod for the night.
The next day, after catching herself some breakfast, Luna decided to take inventory of what she had and her options.
She still found herself unable to psychically connect with Artemis. Whenever she tried she got a headache, though not as severe as the first time. She might need to physically search for him soon. Luna remembered Queen Serenity placing items inside the stasis pods before she sent her and Artemis off. She needed to see exactly what she had.
She found something under the bottom cushion, the miniaturizing storage device that had been left in the great Vault in the lower levels of the palace. Pressing the button, she saw it expand, revealing multiple drawers, further dividing the cargo.
The first drawer she opened up revealed a cylindrical object she recognized as the camouflage device the Moon had been working on. Its ability to change the appearance of the user could be useful if Luna needed to hide.
The second drawer made her heart catch in her throat. Sitting on the cushioned lining was the transformation wand of Sailor Mercury. Its neighbor held the wand of Sailor Venus. Following that was the wand of Sailor Mars, and following that was Sailor Jupiter. The wands of power for those four individuals who served as a personal guard for the Lunar princess. She felt ill as she noted the dried blood on each of them, probably the last physical remnants of their owners. Serenity must have pulled them from the battlefield.
The next compartment was a more curious item. It was not a wand, but rather a circular object, decorated with a crescent moon with four jewels around it at the cardinal points. It almost looked like a piece of jewelry, but Luna could sense the magical energy coming off of it, energy similar to the Silver Crystal, but not the Crystal itself. It was a transformation device.
"But whose…" she started, only to have her words silenced as a memory came flooding back to her.
Beneath the palace, there was the Vault, the storehouse of all sorts of devices, both benevolent and weapons of war, items too dangerous to store anywhere else. And today, it is a cold place, and Luna shivers. She is once again with Artemis and Queen Serenity. The Vault's heating system had broken down two days ago, and the repair process has been compounded by ever growing issues.
Queen Serenity had come down to oversee the repairs, and naturally, Luna and Artemis had followed. There were too many valuable things here, too many things that could be damaged by the ever colder winter this year. Truly it was one to rival the long winters of Mercury. Luna wishes for a moment she kept her fur longer. Perhaps Her Majesty could help her acquire a sweater?
But this Luna of memory brings herself to focus on the task at hand, which is assisting the queen in her oversight. She could not let herself appear weak.
Out of the corner of her eye, Luna can see Artemis conversing with one of the other workers. Luna turns her attention to the various storage compartments around her. Despite the name suggesting one large space, the Vault was actually made up of multiple floors, each with sets of separate storage rooms, all of them indexed. Currently they are on the floor second to the bottom. At the far end of this floor, Luna sees a storage space whose number she doesn't recognize.
As one of the royal advisors, Luna and Artemis are kept up to date on all the items that are developed or stored here. She thinks hard, but the number is still unfamiliar. And Luna remembers all of the others, and their contents. She cannot allow such an oversight to go uncorrected.
Luna turns to look at the queen, who has just finished speaking with another of the workers, having sent him back to his task. Serenity looks down at Luna. Or at least, her head tilts down in that direction. Once again, her face is encased in fog, making its contours impossible to see.
"Is something the matter Luna? You seem confused." She sounds tired. She has been overseeing the repair work floor by floor for quite some time today, and that was after other duties of state.
"Your Majesty" asks Luna, "what is in that storage space over there?" She points at it with her paw. "I do not recall seeing that particular number before."
The queen's head turns in the direction Luna is pointing. "Oh, that," she replies distractedly. "That is where the Sailor Moon transformation device is kept, along with the prototype."
"Sailor Moon?" Luna's jaw hung open for a few seconds in a most undignified manner before she managed to snap it closed. "The Moon created a guardian as well?" The very idea of a warrior powered by the might the Silver Crystal…
"Yes. When the transformation devices were being created, the Moon too worked on creating one powered by the Silver Crystal. First came the functional prototype, and then came the true device. Once it was finished, a member of the royal family was meant to be chosen to use it, but before that could be done, peace was established under the Treaty of the Silver Millennium."
Luna nodded in understanding. "And with the Moon as leader, there would not have been a real need to arm such a soldier."
"Correct," replied the queen. "But the devices are still kept here in case anything dire should happen."
Luna is brought back into the present. "Sailor Moon…" she whispers. The Queen placed this device into the pod with her. But there hadn't been a Sailor Moon. Or had there? Luna's memories were so broken, for every bit of information she could remember, it was accompanied by countless holes. Little details were missing everywhere. But surely Serenity would not have included it if she hadn't meant for Luna to have it, would she?
No, Serenity must have meant for Luna to have this. It must have had an owner. The invasion certainly counted as dire, and Serenity must have passed off the device to a member of the royal house during the conflict.
"Yes, that must be it," muttered Luna, nodding her head. It had to be. Sailor Moon must have escaped her attention in all the chaos.
After all, what other reason could there be for this item to be there?
Continued examination brought a few other odds and ends to her attention. Soon, it was time to find lunch. With her belly once again full, Luna started to consider her options. Even though she had all these devices at her disposal, what was she supposed to do with herself?
Serenity's last words were that she wanted her daughter and the others to live normal lives. But these devices had been sent with her and Artemis, wherever he was, in the event that the Dark Kingdom broke free from its prison.
But as far as Luna could tell, the Dark Kingdom didn't seem to be present here. The planet seemed quite beautiful, which surprised Luna. Without the Dark Kingdom, the reincarnation of Princess Serenity was as safe as she could be, at least to Luna's knowledge. So what was Luna supposed to do?
"Am I just supposed to live here and let the days pass?" she wondered aloud. Luna wasn't sure.
A few days went by, and Luna still hadn't found the answer to her question. She pushed it out of her mind with the business of survival, of hunting and resting, and strengthening herself, and searching for Artemis. He too eluded her. Neither psychic messages nor a search of the immediate environment around her produced her fellow advisor, or perhaps the term was ex-advisor now. Luna didn't like to think of it like that, didn't like to think about the fact that her past world was gone.
She was starting to miss him, not that she would admit it of course. But loneliness was starting to gnaw at her. As fortune would have it however, she went a bit farther on one of her searches for Artemis, and in so doing saw the outline of civilization in the distance, along with a dirt road to accompany it.
Here lay new options. She could go to this place of inhabitance and continue her search for Artemis. It was possible he was already there. Her searches of the forest and clearing made it increasingly unlikely that he was here in the forest anyway. It was all very logical, and worth a shot.
But Luna found herself hesitating, because while the rational of finding Artemis was clear, other parts of her were at war. On one hand, she was curious to see the people of the Earth as they were now. On the other, she was scared to get near them.
When it came to the Earth and the people that lived on it, feelings were mixed in the Solar System, especially among the denizens of the Moon. Opinions, gossip, and stories of the blue green orb that the Moon circled varied, but all groups participated in their creation, from the commoners, to the soldiers and the courtiers.
Most of it was negative. Luna supposed the attack on the Moon at the end didn't help. But even before then, many held it in a place of distain. Luna recalled one particular member of court, a woman in the science division if she recalled right, remarking with a startling amount of venom how the Earth was nothing more than an ugly ball of mud in the sky whose only value to the Solar System came in its orbit being useful as a universal scale of time measurement. And, as the speaker went on, were it not for the fact that it would knock the Moon out of a stable orbit, they would have had advocated that the eyesore be obliterated from the sky long ago.
Then there were other tales, that Earth was a place ridden with plagues, and inhabited by sadistic savages, not unlike the violent Lyocans who still prowled the dark countryside even in Serenity the Twelfth's time and whose howls inspired dread in many a Lunarian.
Before the invasion, Luna had never had much official interest in the people of Earth. The gossip and rumors had simply been unavoidable in the palace, especially with her hearing. The Earth wasn't involved in System politics, and there seemed little point in concerning herself with such a little isolated place when there were copious other matters to attend to.
And how did that attitude work out for us Luna? rang a voice in her head that sounded like Artemis. It certainly seemed like something he'd say, and Luna grudgingly admitted that it had a point.
Luna began to pace in the grass as she worked through her debate. Truth be told, prior to the invasion, Luna had never even seen an Earthling before, as had much of the Solar System. There had been good reason for that of course, and for the endless rumors that surrounded it. Yes, the memories were coming back to Luna now, like looking through an old but familiar book, page by page. The Moon Kingdom had banned all contact with Earth, and after the Treaty of the Silver Millennium, with the Moon as leader, the other planets generally stayed away from it, even if they weren't technically bound by the law. So the Earth was excluded from all System politics. The ban had been set in place after… after…
Luna stopped cold in her pacing. If the set of memories had been a book, then she would have found herself looking at a torn out page. "Why had the Earth been banned?" she wondered.
Try as she might, she could not remember. She clenched her teeth. Another hole in her memory, like Queen Serenity's face. It had to have been for something. Laws were not passed for absolutely no reason or provocation. The laws forbidding contact were quite harsh, bringing execution to anyone who was caught. It had to have been something of importance to warrant it. And whatever it was, it must have been some time ago, for it was around in Queen Serenity's time. Whatever it was, Luna certainly wasn't going to remember what it was any time soon. Just trying to do it was giving her a headache.
The stories about the Earth might have been true, what with the hellish demons that accompanied the soldiers of the Dark Kingdom, the Youma. But the Dark Kingdom was gone now. Would the people of Earth still be the same? As much as Luna feared getting near them, she was also curious. Here was a planet that had been lost to rumor and myth for a long time, a planet with a new start. What would they be like, these Earthlings?
No, she couldn't hesitate. She needed to go there. If Artemis was there, she needed to find him.
Before she set out, she hid the pod in the ground in case anyone or anything came poking around. And she made sure to establish a psychic link with the storage device so she could access anything inside of it, even from a distance. It was a draining trick to be honest, but Luna wanted to be prepared. And despite the machine's attempts to save on space and weight, it was still too big for her to carry with her.
And so after securing her belongings, and filling her belly with a large breakfast, she found herself going down the long dirt road to that point of civilization, and eventually found herself in a town of some sort. Again she was assaulted by a number of differences from what she was used to. The roads beneath her feet continued to be pure dirt instead of the paved stone they were used to feeling, and the simplicity of the walkways were in stark contrast to the familiar column-lined paths of the palace. Here she was in a small settlement far from the ocean, when on the Moon she lived amongst the massive urban sprawl of the capital, whose air lingered with the scent of the deep waters of the Sea of Serenity which lay adjacent to it.
She supposed this place had one positive over the Moon's capital, and that was the lack of noise. It was nice for her sharp sense of hearing not be assaulted by the tremendous and varied noise such a dense settlement came with.
As she wandered the streets, she laid her red eyes on the Earthlings. They certainly looked nonthreatening. And they seemed to physically the same as the other people's the Solar System. That was a good sign. One of them was even carrying a cat like her. That was a very good sign that she wouldn't be met with open hostility, especially since the cat seemed content to be in the woman's arms.
Perhaps she could ask for help? Luna created a mental link with the woman, as she had done on the Moon, and acquired the native language. Luna was about to stop and speak to the pair, when intuition told her to examine the cat closer. There was something about the expression that made her pause. She linked her mind with the creature and found it to be incapable of speech or any form of psychic ability, unlike her own species. Clearly speaking the native language was out of the question. It would probably cause a sensation, since the cats here weren't capable of it.
So Luna kept wandering. As the crowds thickened a bit, she found herself annoyed by how much energy she had to put in avoiding being trampled or kicked by people that didn't pay her any attention. Again she was reminded of her home. On the Moon, Lunarians went out of their way to avoid her, parting for her as she walked the palace or on those rare, less busy days where she walked the markets. The crescent moon on her forehead demanded respect. Here, for those that paid attention, it seemed to inspire little more than curiosity, if the few glances in her direction were any indication.
But where was Artemis? Luna kept wandering around the streets, trying her best to systematically check the entire place, though that was harder to do without a proper map. But she had to keep looking. Her mind told her that she had to run into him eventually. Their pods had been launched at the same time and from the same place, so unless something had gotten in the way, their pods should have landed in the same general area.
Where are you Artemis? Don't let me be alone here.
In the end, she spent several hours searching the town, double checking and even triple checking. She'd gotten so caught up in her search of Artemis that she'd barely taken notice of how much time had passed. By the time she'd stopped, the Sun was merely a sliver of light. And now Luna was feeling too tired to make the trip back to the pod.
And just to make matters even worse and hammer in how bad the situation had gotten, it started to rain. No, that wasn't true. It wasn't simply raining, it was pouring.
BOOM!
… And now there was thunder and lightning too.
"What did I do to deserve this?" asked Luna as she scrambled for shelter in the alley she'd stopped in. She tried diving into the upturned cardboard box, but before long the material gave way under the rain and a now soaked Luna was forced to run for another source of protection from further soaking. How she hated being wet. It was fine if she wanted to be wet in the first place, like if she was bathing, but she absolutely hated being splashed or soaked otherwise. And considering the rainfall right now, she'd probably end up with rainwater saturating her coat, skin, and her bones if she didn't get under cover.
Her paws created splashes as she ran through the puddles, looking for another place to get out of the torrential downpour. Standing in the road, she saw another alley across the way. And it looked like there was some sort of plastic container in there Luna could use. It would certainly hold better than the beaten cardboard box. But before she could take another step, a new sound reached her ears, like spinning gears.
She turned her head. A bicycle was headed straight for her, and fast! She needed to move out of the way. Panic set in as she tried to dash out of the way. The soil under her paws had already turned to mud. She propelled herself into a jump, but the mud puddle she was in was slippery, causing her to lose her balance as she pushed herself from the ground. Instead of jumping into the open space of the alley, she was sent head first into a collision with the alley's trashcans. She fell to the ground, and the force of the impact sent some of the cans toppling, sending garbage all over her.
The world was spinning, and full of stars. Her psychic focal point was burning with pain. Everything is unfocused. She could see the outline of the bicycle. Someone was getting off, approaching her. They were bending down, and Luna can hear a voice faintly through the ringing in her ears and skull.
"Oh no! Hey kitty, are you alright? Are you hurt? Oh please don't be hurt…"
Luna blacked out after that.
When Luna woke up, she found herself on a large cushion, wrapped in heated blankets. Where am I? What happened?
It came flooding back, the rain, the bicycle, and the way she jumped and slipped before smashing into those cans. In corroboration with the memory, her forehead began to ache, but just a little. She must have been knocked unconscious from the impact. But where was she now? She certainly wasn't outside anymore.
She examined her surroundings. She saw a bed, a closet filled with clothes, a desk, a set of drawers, and walls decorated with posters, photographs, and drawings. It was definitely a bedroom, but whose bedroom?
Just then, the door opened, revealing a petite young woman with teal colored hair that touched her shoulders and light green eyes. She came in bearing a tray of some sort. When she looked down at Luna, her face brightened. "Oh thank goodness you're awake. You really had me worried there for a while kitty."
She set the tray down on the nearby desk and bent down to Luna's level. "I'm so sorry about before. I was just trying to get out of the rain, like you were I guess. I just didn't see you through the storm. I didn't mean to almost run you over, or make you crash like that. You were shivering so badly, you must have really gotten soaked out there."
The girl, whoever she was, seemed nice enough. Now that Luna was more cognizant, she picked up a new smell in the room. What was it? Sniffing around, she found it coming off her fur and skin.
The girl noticed her sniffing. "I hope you don't mind, but I had to give you a bath. You were covered in mud and garbage, and I couldn't really set you down on anything like that. My clothes already got pretty dirty carrying you."
Ah, so the smell was soap. Luna's face turned pink under her fur. As kind as it had been, it was still embarrassing to think that that had happened while she was out.
The girl started to pet Luna's head, which felt very good. "You know, when you didn't even move in the water, I was afraid you'd never wake up." Her voice seemed to clench. "But I'm so glad you're okay. And hey, you aren't cold anymore, right?"
Realization crossed her face. "Oh yeah, I almost forgot." She picked up the tray and set it down on the floor. On it were three different bowls. "I brought this stuff for you in case you were hungry or thirsty. I've got water, milk, and some cat food." She took each of the dishes off and set them in front of Luna.
Luna was indeed hungry. But still she hesitated. As much as this strange Earthling had taken her out of the rain, she was still a total stranger. Luna gave a curious glance at the girl. She just smiled back. "Go on. It's perfectly fine."
Slowly, Luna dug into the so called "cat food". Despite the appearance, it actually tasted very good. Better perhaps than the forest mice she'd been eating since she'd woken up. She quickly started devouring it, but then slowed down to a more moderate pace when she realized the Earthling was still watching, alternating between the food and the saucer of milk.
"Wow, you must have really been hungry then," said the girl as Luna finished off the meal. She picked up the dishes and the tray and set it back down on the desk. "I've got plenty, so I'll leave these here for now, and if you want more, you can just get my attention." Suddenly there was a knocking from somewhere beyond the room.
"Oh, that's the door. I better see who it is. I'll be right back kitty. Please just wait right there."
She hurried off out of the room, which left Luna alone once again. She could have defied the order and gotten up, slipping out to take the long trip back to the pod. But she was feeling worn out from her search, and it seemed rude to just up and leave in the face of such kindness.
So Luna opted instead to curl herself deeper into the pillow she was resting on, and wrapping the blankets tighter around her. She missed this, being able to sleep on something approaching a real bed, and being fed a decent meal. The pod may have had cushions, but they were hard, and not the most comfortable things to sleep on. This young woman certainly knew how to treat her well.
Another story of Earth surfaced in her mind. This one was perhaps a bit more credible than some of the others, since it had been from the one of the royal historians. The man had said something about the people of the Earth having a great fondness for cats, stemming from their worship of a cat god of some sort. If it had been true, it certainly would have helped endear her to the planet. Well, if the invasion hadn't happened. Luna idly wondered if this young woman's behavior was related to that. Perhaps the practice was still around? Or maybe her actions were some sort of subconscious remnant? It was an amusing idea anyway.
It took fifteen minutes for the young woman to return. "As much as I appreciate them protecting the contents, do they really need to use that much tape and glue to reinforce the box?" she was muttering. Her face once again brightened when she saw Luna, who was still tightly coiled in the blankets.
"I see someone's comfy" she chuckled. Her eyes glanced back at the doorway, to the space beyond the room. "Hey kitty, would you like to sit down and watch TV with me while I eat my dinner? I wouldn't mind the company, and I could move your little bed over to my sofa."
Luna was surprised to hear the Earthlings had something like television. Slowly she uncoiled the blankets and walked up to the young woman and gave a small mew as a sign of acceptance. Talking was certainly out of the question anyway.
And apparently it worked. "I'll take that as a yes. Okay then, the sofa's right this way, so just follow me."
The girl walked ahead, with Luna right behind. This could be an interesting experience.
Luna had been correct in thinking it would be an interesting experience. Oh, it hadn't started out as such. She'd gotten on the sofa in front of what she could tell was the television in question, and moved back into her bed of pillows and blankets once those had been moved. The girl, who over the course of the exercise Luna had learned was named Ayako, sat next to her, eating a dinner she said she'd cooked in a microwave. Every now and then, Ayako would glance back at Luna and smile, but her expression was something curious. There was something in that expression that Luna wasn't privy to, but whatever it was, it wasn't malevolent.
After moving through several channels, Ayako had settled on what she said was a marathon of one of her favorite shows, an Earthling romance of some sort. Clearly it was entertainment, a work of fiction, but for Luna, it was also something of a learning experience. Intuition told her the show was of a more realistic nature, therefore the setting reflected something of this modern world. It was quite fascinating to see something of what the Earth was like now after the fall of the great kingdoms of the ancient Solar System.
So Luna watched on intently, following every detail. Thankfully this marathon seemed to be playing the episodes in order. The show itself was quite entertaining, even if Luna knew she was missing several key pieces of information from being from another planet and time period. The commercials in between were also quite strange. If they were meant to be advertising something, Luna wasn't always sure what it was, or how some of those arguments would even work.
Time slipped on by, and when the marathon finally ended, Ayako got up from the couch and stretched. "Oh that was great," she said. "Things like that always make waiting for the new season easier."
She turned her attention back to the feline on her sofa. "So kitty, what did you think? Did you like it?"
Luna really had, and gave a small mew of approval.
"I'm glad. And thank you for the company." She sat back down on the sofa, closer to Luna, and began to pet her. "You know kitty, that's a really pretty crescent mark you've got on your head. It really makes you stand out. I mean I've seen cats with different colored patches of fur, but none of them have patches in such a nice shape like you do."
Luna felt her face turn pink again. The remark shouldn't actually have amounted to much. She wasn't a normal cat after all. And while the crescent moon mark was composed of both markings in her skin and a discoloration of her naturally black coat, it's not like Luna could take credit for it. It was magically induced by Serenity, a mark of rank, not an aesthetic improvement.
Ayako kept petting Luna in slow strokes, going down her back now. "You know what? I just realized that I don't really know what to call you. I mean calling you 'kitty' is sort of weird isn't it? But you don't have a collar or a name tag, so I guess you don't have a name. Hmm… so what should I name you? Maybe…" Ayako was cut off when she let out a very large yawn.
"Wow, I'm getting sleepy. What time is it?" She turned to see the clock. It showed it to be nearly midnight. "Is it really that late already? I guess I hadn't been paying attention. Naming will have to wait then, I need to get to sleep. And you do too I guess. Let's move you back to my room then."
Ayako didn't even allow Luna to walk as she had before; instead she just scooped her up with the pillow and blankets, and carried her back to the bedroom, setting her back down in the same spot across from the bed. "There you go. Now you stay here, okay?"
Luna did as she was asked and stayed on the pillow while Ayako got ready for bed. Thirty minutes later, Ayako pulled her own blankets over her nightgown clad body, and switched off the lamp on the bedside table. "Goodnight kitty, pleasant dreams."
Ayako fell asleep quickly. Luna could tell when the girl was finally in the grip of slumber by the way her breathing and heartbeat steadily dropped before leveling off. Now was her chance. Silently and carefully, Luna telekinetically lifted the blankets off and rose from the pillow. The room was dark, but it posed no problem to her honed night vision.
She jumped up to the window sill. She'd stayed out of politeness before, and because she'd still felt a little weak from her crash. And truth be told, the time spent here was enlightening. But it didn't change the fact that she was supposed to be searching for Artemis.
With the Earthling asleep, it would be easy to telekinetically open the window latch, and from there she could get back on the road back to the pod and plan her next move. If all her searching had proved anything, it was that Artemis wasn't here. And if Artemis wasn't here, there was no point in staying.
No point except for the comfort and shelter this woman provided, whispered a stray thought as she began to work on the window.
That was true. Ayako had shown Luna quite a bit of kindness, and offered her a better meal than she'd been getting in the woods. But she'd stayed the day, and she needed to get back to searching for Artemis.
She seemed to enjoy you being there, came the reply. She might not like it if you're suddenly gone. What if she breaks into a panic?
That wasn't her concern really. Ayako seemed like a nice girl, but Luna had a job to do. She continued to force open the latch.
But just as she was about to get the latch open, a whisper broke her concentration. "Don't go… kitty… please… don't… go."
Luna's head snapped in the direction of the bed. Was Ayako awake? Focusing on the bed's occupant, Luna realized her heart rate and breathing had changed, had elevated. How had Luna not noticed before? But Ayako was not looking in Luna's direction, or even looking. Her eyes were closed, and she faced the ceiling. Her legs moved, kicking back her blankets as her hand reached out slowly.
Luna gave a sigh of relief. She was just talking in her sleep, something a quick telepathic connection confirmed.
Ayako's hand continued to reach out, grasping at something imaginary. "Please stay," she whispered again. The words were filled with desperation diluted by the drowsiness of sleep. "Don't…leave…me…alone."
The window latch lowered itself back into place, and Luna just stood there for several seconds, just watching the young woman. Quietly, she hopped down from the window sill and walked over to the bed. Luna sent out a mental signal to ease Ayako's distress, a sensation of calm which Ayako seemed to respond to. She then lifted the blankets with telekinesis and pulled them back over Ayako before getting back into her own bed. Before Luna closed her eyes, she sent another message to Ayako's dreaming mind, the psychic equivalent of a whisper in her ear.
You can call me Luna.
Author's Note: And that was the end of chapter 1. I hope you all enjoyed it. And please remember to not only read, but review. All of us authors here need it to get better. But please no flames.