Here's the next chapter! Sorry if it took so long. School is evil! I had to write a freakin' essay! Anyways, hope u like it!
Chapter 13
Confessions in the Moonlight
"Hey, guys. Wait up!" Aster yelled as he ran to catch up with the others. Everyone turned to Aster, just as he leaped over a fallen tree trunk.
"Where've you been then? We were hoping you'd know which fork to turn at, because we've just plum forgotten." Jaden said cheerfully.
"One: it's the right fork. Two: Mike wanted to give me something." Aster answered.
"Ohhh. What did he give you then?" Melody chirped, looking around Aster for anything new. Eventually, she came across the black and brown striped water skin.
"Mike figured I needed something bigger to fight with." Aster removed his water horn and tossed it to Chloe. "Present for you, Chloe. Come on let's go" Aster began to walk down the right fork, but nobody else followed.
"Aster, didn't James give you that?" Jaden asked.
"Yeah, what about it?"
"I just thought that…since your Dad's been kidnapped and all, you wouldn't want to loose it." Aster stopped walking, but he didn't turn around.
"He gave me this" Aster said without turning round and showing his manacle. "Isn't that enough?"
"He gave us weapons too" Jesse said.
"You can't abandon an old weapon of battle, Private" Hassleberry pointed out.
"Look, I don't time for this. Let's just get going, alright?" Aster snapped and walked off into the gloom of the forest. Everybody looked at each other before following rather nervously. Jaden hesitated for a moment, looking at Aster.
I never thought Aster would abandon a gift from his dad as if it were nothing. It's almost as if he's stopped caring about James completely. Jaden thought.
"Hey Jaden! Hurry up!" Jesse's southern accent yelled, snapping Jaden out of his daydream.
"Or do we have to drag you all the way there!" Chloe joked.
"Coming!" Jaden shouted back, running through the darkness.
…
"Are we there yet?" Syrus moaned.
"Don't worry, Syrus. I think its right around…here!" Chloe said, turning a corner. Right in front of them was a star of white light fitting perfectly in the forest path.
"So that's where Kagehoshi is." Melody said.
"Pretty much." Chloe nodded.
"There's something coming out of it" Hannah said. There was a slight pause. "Atmosphere!" Hannah suddenly yelled, making everyone jump. "Yes! Woo Hoo!" Hannah cheered, dancing around in circles and punching the air.
"Okay Hannah. Calm down." Aster said, grabbing her shoulders to keep her still. "Some of us might not be as eager to go through as you are." Aster turned to everyone else. "Okay guys. You ready?" His response was everyone running through the light cheering, including Hannah, who had somehow escaped from his grip. Aster sighed and shook his head.
"Doesn't anything scare them?" Aster muttered before walking through as well. When he reached the other side, everyone was looking around at the new world, except Hannah of course.
"Ah. Finally" Hannah said in relief, opening her arms wide and spinning in circles. "Real air. Now I know how you guys feel. Seeing without air sucks"
"What is this place?" Chloe whispered. The world they had entered was different from the forest and canyon. The earth was extremely black and was almost like ash, especially when the dust blew across the ground in the cold wind. The trees were dropping and were barely surviving in this place. In the sky, a large full moon filled most of the sky, and seemed to be almost the only light altogether, and the clouds passing over it looked like mice compared to the round, white moon.
"This world is even spookier than the last place we were in." Syrus whimpered, shivering.
"It's where Kagehoshi lives so I'm not surprised." Jesse said. He was trembling a little bit though.
"I'm not scared." Hassleberry said boldly. Suddenly, a howling of a wolf was heard in the distance. "AHHH! I SHOULDN'T HAVE COME!" Hassleberry yelled. Chloe, Melody and Hannah were laughing behind their hands.
"Hassleberry, get a grip." Aster said, sweat dropping.
"Hey, what's this?" Syrus said, pointing upwards. Before them was a large wooden gateway with scratchings on a white board nailed to one of the posts. Melody went to the sign to read it.
"It's says "This is The Snake's Path. Abandon hope."" Melody read.
"Must be a pretty scary place." Jaden said. Ahead of them was a path that seemed to zigzag up and down like thin, uneven hills, with various cliff edges and slopes. It appeared uneven, and occasionally rubble would fall down the edges into the ocean surrounding the pass.
"So that's the path? I would've thought it would be windier, y'know like a snake. Oh well, guess they misnamed it" Syrus said.
"How can you abandon hope in this world? It's almost all we have" Jesse wondered.
"Well, I was taught by my coach that hope can be a distraction, so maybe we should abandon it." Aster said. Melody gasped.
"That's a horrible thing Aster. I'd never abandon hope, whatever the situation."
"Look, hope isn't going to get us through this path, and hope isn't going to find Daisy, so let's just go, okay?" With that, Aster walked through the wooden gateway without a backward glance. "Besides, that sign's probably there to try and scare us away."
"Yeah, Aster's right. We've got nothing to worry about." Hassleberry said cheerfully, though there was a tone of doubt in his voice. Everyone followed Aster through the path, still slightly uncertain, especially Jaden.
What's wrong with you, Aster? You're different from before. Jaden thought.
…
"I think we should stop here for tonight." Aster said when they reached a circle of earth, complete with a cliff edge.
"I'm surprised you can tell day from night in this place." Jesse said.
"You're right." Melody said, causing her to get a few confused glances. "Time passes by much slower in this dimension. Back in the forest, it was on Earth, but even atmosphere was different, the time was the same. Here, it's completely different."
"Oh?" Aster said. "Then how long is one Earth day here?" Melody counted on her fingers, trying to figure it out.
"I'd say an Earth day is about two weeks here."
"That's a long time" Jesse said.
"And we've been travelling for about five days so that makes…" Aster muttered. "Ten weeks!" He exclaimed. Aster clutched his head with his right hand "Daisy…I've left her for that long…" Melody placed a hand on his shoulder.
"You couldn't have known." Melody reassured. Aster glanced at Melody, her eyes shining with concern. He realised that everyone else was looking at him concerned, and even though he knew they cared for him, he found it annoying.
"I'm fine. Stop worrying about me." Aster said fiercely. He shrugged off Melody's hand and walked off.
"One of us has got to talk to him" Hassleberry said, looking at Jaden. Jaden took a step back.
"Why me?" Jaden asked.
"You know Aster better than any of us, and he's just been acting…different. Maybe you can understand why he's acting like this." Jesse pointed out.
"Fine"
…
Aster looked across the ocean as he stood on the cliff edge, the breeze blowing through his hair. He knew he shouldn't have acted the way he did, but he was just going through a hard time, as his friends would describe it. Aster gazed at the ocean. Even though the moon was behind him, the light reflected onto the water in a round sphere. Suddenly, the wind made the water ripple over the white circle. Before Aster's eyes, a face appeared in the moon's reflection, and Aster was surprised to see his father's face.
"My only thought was you, Aster…we can be together again…" James voice echoed.
"Dad?" Aster whispered.
"I'm sorry for lying to you, Aster. Please forgive me…" James reflection began to fade away in the waves.
"Wait!" Aster cried, reaching out to the reflection, but James was gone, and the moon's reflection was all that was left in the ocean. Aster squeezed his eyes shut, trying to control his emotions. "Don't go. I miss you…"
"Aster?"
Aster opened his eyes at the sound of his own name, and turned to see Jaden standing behind him. He walked to the edge of the cliff and stood with Aster.
"Thought you could use a little company." Jaden smiled. There was an eerie pause.
"I know why you're here Jaden, so save your breath. You and the others think I've been acting strange and they sent you to talk to me."
"How did you know? Is it a Phoenix Warrior thing?"
"Maybe" Aster teased.
"Okay, stop freaking me out" Jaden said. Aster laughed.
"Knew that would get ya!" Aster said. "Though sometimes I'm not sure if something happens because I have powers." Aster turned back to the ocean. "But I do know why you're here. You're worried about how I seem to have given up on hope. There is a reason. You see, hope never really got me anywhere. When my Dad disappeared and The D adopted me, he filled me with false hope that he'd return. And I believed it. I mean, if you were an orphaned five year old, who wouldn't? But Dad never did come back. I'd never felt so alone in my life. Sometimes, I ended up crying myself to sleep at night because of it. I still do now. But when he came back, that was the happiest day of my life. My loneliness was over. I don't think I've ever been that happy in my whole life. But now that Kagehoshi has kidnapped him along with Daisy, well, I felt alone again."
"Oh…I see what you mean…" Jaden said quietly. He realised something else. "But what about that gift he gave you? Doesn't that mean anything to you?"
"Not really"
"See? This is exactly what I'm worried about" Aster looked at Jaden confused.
"What do you mean?"
"Aster, what's got into you? In the forest, almost all you cared about was finding Daisy and James, and now it's as if you don't care about them at all."
"I was so upset about losing them, that I just lost it. You saw what I did not once, but twice. I could have hurt someone. I hate it when I let that happen." Aster said.
"But now you're not letting yourself feel anything." Jaden protested. "I know it hurts to hope, and it hurts even more to care but you've got to promise me you won't stop caring." Aster said nothing, and turned around to go back to the others. Halfway there, he stopped.
"Thanks for your concern, Jay." He said quietly, and as he turned the corner, he was gone. Jaden watched Aster go with concern, before turning back to the ocean.
…
Jesse sat on a rock facing the moon. The rock was shaped almost like a bench, and looking at the moon this full used to make him happy. But now, it made Jesse sad. The moon now reminds him of someone he knew.
"The moon sure is beautiful tonight."
Jesse yelled in surprise after hearing the voice. Sitting next to him was Melody.
"Sorry. You sorta scared me." Jesse apologised.
"It's okay" Melody and Jesse turned back to the moon. "Like I said, it sure looks beautiful."
"Doesn't it just" Jesse said. "Y'know, it reminds me of someone I knew."
"Who?" Jesse looked down.
"A girl." Jesse answered. "My girlfriend to be exact. Her name was Selena."
"Selena? That's a beautiful name."
"Looking at the moon reminds me of her. Her name means "goddess of the moon" y'know"
"I see" Melody said. "So where is she now? Is she back home on our home planet?"
"You come from Earth?" Jesse exclaimed in surprise. Melody laughed.
"Of course I'm from Earth, silly. Just a different part of it. A place not even on the map."
"Well that's good." Jesse said. "Anyway, Selena…well…she isn't around anymore." Jesse said mournfully.
"What do you mean?" Melody asked. There was a pause as Jesse looked back up at the moon.
"It all started about a year ago" Jesse started.
Flashback
Jesse sat on a bench in Domino Park, waiting for someone. In his hands was a small red box tied up with yellow ribbon.
"Jesse!"
Jesse looked up and his emerald eyes smiled seeing someone walking towards him waving her arm in the air. Jesse stood up.
"Hey, Selena!" Jesse said and walked up to her. She had white hair down to the top of her ribcage, but today, it was tied up in two plaits with blue hair bands, although her fringe was close to her dark blue eyes.. She wore a short blue pleated skirt, with a short sleeved light blue blouse decorated with small dark blue polka dots.
"I'll be going on holiday tomorrow. Isn't it exciting?" Selena said, jumping up and down in excitement.
"I'm sure you'll have a great time. Where are you going again?" Jesse asked.
"I'm going to Sri Lanka, silly." Selena giggled.
"Oh, yes. Sorry." Jesse laughed. He handed her the present. "I got you a little present." Selena took the small box and untied the ribbon. When she removed the lid, she gasped at what was inside. She pulled out a silver chained necklace with a silver crescent moon pendant.
"Oh, Jesse. It's beautiful." Jesse took the necklace and fastened it around her neck.
"Glad you like it. I wanted you to go on holiday knowing that I'd be thinking of you." Jesse tapped the necklace gently "My beautiful moon goddess" He whispered, using his little nickname for her. Selena giggled.
"I love it Jesse. Thank you." She hugged Jesse around the neck and let go a few seconds later.
"Now you will write every day won't you?" Jesse reminded.
"Of course, Jesse. Oh, I'm going to miss you so much."
"You're only going to be away for a week."
"But it will feel like an eternity without you." Selena said. Jesse and Selena shared a kiss together, but a car horn interrupted them.
"Oh, that's Dad getting impatient. Bye Jesse." She said cheerfully, hugging Jesse before running back to the car with a wave. Jesse waved back to her.
"Bye, Selena."
3 days later
"Jesse! Jesse! Wake up!" Cobalt Eagle's shrill voice said. Jesse blinked his eyes open sleepily as he shielded them with his arm as Cobalt Eagle tried to wake him up by batting at him with his wings.
"Come on, Cobalt. It's 6AM." Jesse moaned, rubbing his eyes sleepily as he sat up. Amethyst Cat appeared lying down like a cat on his bed, her paws on top of each other.
"Jesse! A cat-astrophe has occurred in Sri Lanka where your friend Selena is right now." Amethyst Cat said.
"What!" Jesse exclaimed, his eyes wide. After hearing that news, his was wide awake now. Ruby Carbuncle appeared on his shoulder, and leaped down onto a TV remote that was on his bedside table, turning the television on.
BBC News
"What happened many years ago has happened once again. An earthquake has stuck Sri Lanka, and caused a devastating tsunami. We are still finding survivors, but it's still unknown what the death count is. A family originating from Domino City are a few of the survivors. The parents are fine with a few bruises and broken bones, but they have been sent back home with other survivors for medical attention, along with their daughter."
"Hey! That's Selena!" Jesse exclaimed, seeing the familiar smiling picture of Selena when she was twelve. "Thank God she's okay." Jesse said, breathing a sigh of relief, but he noticed that the spirits of his crystal beasts had turned away. "Right?" He said quietly. He turned back to the television.
"Fifteen year old Selena Hopkins was washed away by the wave. Her body was found sometime later alive, but she had obtained some serious injuries. She was sent to Domino Hospital, along with her parents, where we have just received news that she is alive, but in a coma. We're not allowed to interview the parents, for right now only family can enter."
Ruby Carbuncle jumped again to turn the television off. The spirits turned to face a shocked Jesse. He was trembling all over and his eyes were shining. Jesse looked down at his bed covers, his green hair hiding his face, and began giving hiccup-like sounds. Teardrops fell from his face and landed on his bed and his hands clenched into fists, grabbing the covers underneath as he cried.
"No…Selena…" Jesse cried. Amethyst Cat, Cobalt Eagle and Ruby Carbuncle looked at each other, trying to think of a way to comfort him. Ruby Carbuncle leaped onto his shaking right shoulder and nuzzled his cheek, causing her fur to get wet with his tears. Jesse looked up at Ruby, his eyes literally emerald pools, being filled to the brim with crystal tears, and were pouring out down his cheeks and dripping off his face onto his bed. Ruby's eyes were shining, because she hated seeing Jesse cry. Still crying, Jesse smiled and stroked Ruby Carbuncle under the chin. Ruby nuzzled Jesse's hand in return.
"Its okay, Ruby. You shouldn't be sad just because I am. I'm sure I'll be allowed to see her sometime. I just hope something even worse won't happen to her." Jesse wiped away his tears and got out of bed.
"I did manage to see Selena in the hospital eventually. It was horrible seeing her there, tubes attached to her arms and machines beeping. It was so awful, I cried for hours when I got back home. I'd be devastated if something happened to her. She's been in a coma for nearly a year now, but we haven't given up and pulled the plug on her yet. She will wake up, but we just don't know when. We've all lived on the hope that she'll be okay and everything will be just like it used to, but it's becoming harder and harder to hold onto that hope." Tears fell down Jesse's face as he looked up at the moon again. "I know she's still alive somewhere inside the shell that is her body, but I'm scared something horrible will happen to her while she's in that coma." Jesse closed his eyes tightly to try and stop them from watering.
"Oh…I'm sorry I asked." Melody said. "Wait a minute, if you've got a girlfriend, why did you blush when you saw me?" She asked. Jesse wiped his eyes dry with the back of his hand and turned back to Melody smiling.
"You remind me of her. You've both got the same face and eyes. Seeing you made me happy." Melody gave a small smile as she blushed. They gazed into each others eyes for several moments, before they both closed them and moved closer to each other, but just as they were about to kiss, Jesse turned away, surprising Melody.
"I can't" He said "I feel as though Selena's watching me with the moon out."
"I'm sorry" Melody apologised. Jesse stood up.
"No. You shouldn't be sorry." Jesse said and walked off back to the camp.
In that moment, both Jaden and Melody moved away from their places and walked back to camp, the moonlight shining down on everyone.
TA DA! Phew! Took me ages to think up this chapter. And all for you guys. Stay tuned!