Part 2
When we landed, we were greeted by talking mooncakes? Very strange. Anyways, they led us to a purple covering that was in front of us. I was confused, Why did they lead us here? What was so great about his purple barrier? I could tell by their voices that they were excited about what was about to happen. Then suddenly we heard singing. A beautiful singing voice, voice of an angel. I was in awe, so were my friends.
"Chang'e?" Fei Fei spoke up. That was Chang'e? We never have been here before so how did she know? Then again, we came here for Chang'e in the first place, so I suppose it was a safe bet that it was her,
Then she emerged from behind the covering, singing her song in a now upbeat tune. It was so upbeat that every single of the 'lunettes' went wild as they ran and bumped us around. I was even bopping my bunny head to the music. It was all so breathtakingly magical! During the song, my eyes fell onto the most handsome bunny I had ever seen. He was playing music on some sort of instrument on a table. This must be the famous Jade Rabbit.
I leapt out of Fei Fei's grasp just to dance to the beat. I even saw that Croak was dancing to the music inside of Chin's pocket. I was disappointed when it was done with seconds later. I wanted to keep dancing!
They then talked about Fei Fei's looks and Chang'e seemed disgusted by it. I was confused again. What was so wrong with how Fei Fei looked? They did a brief makeover on her, but I honestly didn't see any difference. She looked like the same Fei Fei that arrived with us. Chang'e then asked for the gift. Huh? What gift? I don't remember getting a gift. What is she talking about?
Fei Fei was just as confused as I was for she asked the question that was on my mind. She, for some reason found this funny and laughed. She then said that was the reason that she sent us her lions to come and get us here. I was confused yet again. Those winged creatures were lions? I didn't know lions could fly. Then again, I never saw a lion. If this place can have talking mooncakes, then I suppose it makes sense that this place can have flying colorful lions as well. Fei Fei talked about how excited she was to be seeing her that she was real, and took out her camera to show her. She wanted to take a picture back to Earth to show it to Ba Ba. So that was the plan! Good plan, Fei Fei! Ba Ba will have no choice but to believe us then! My owner is so smart.
My owner clicked the camera, but then Chang'e said that she refused to let us take the photo home unless we give her her precious gift. Fei Fei tried to protest and said she didn't know what it even is that she wanted. She told her that she'll give her anything. But Chang'e was stubborn and persistent about this one gift that we didn't even have or knew what she wanted. Man, I never expected this from Chang'e. Neither did Fei Fei. Then again we never met her before, so, I guess, go figure?
Chang'e then was mad that we lost it and suggested that it was on the moon somewhere. She told her people to find it in the form of a competition. She said that whoever finds it first gets their wish granted. Chang'e also told us that if we find it first, she'll give us back the photo. The lunettes went wild once again and all ran off.
Fei Fei tried to get a ride from one of them, but the lunacian refused. Nobody was helping out my owner. That made me sad.
"It has to be at the crash site!" She cried out with excitement. "What could it be?" Chin wanted to help,, but Fei Fei didn't want that so they ended up arguing. I wanted to shout at them, to tell them to get along and work together. But alas, I couldn't. This made me sad. Why can't they just get along? Never in my life had I felt so useless.
"You will never be my brother!" Fei Fei yelled at Chin before storming off. Chin went off too. I was torn. Should I go with Fei Fei or should I go with Chin? For some reason, I chose to go after Chin instead.
"Bungee!" I heard Fei Fei shout after me. I felt sad. Am I really betraying my owner? I feel like I am and I felt terrible about it, but for some reason, I was still following Chin. Perhaps because Chin was younger and I know Fei Fei can take care of herself. I don't know.
I met up with Chin as he was deciding what to do next.
"So, Bungee," Croak began. "You decided to join us after all, huh?"
"Yeah." I admitted. "I was torn in who to go with. Fei Fei or Chin."
"What made you choose Chin?"
"I don't know. I may have chosen the wrong one. It feels like I betrayed my owner, you know?"
"Yeah, I get you. If you want to go with Fei Fei, be my guest."
"Okay. Maybe I will." I was about to go, when Chin called out for me to follow him. I didn't want to disappoint, yet I wanted to be with my owner. I glanced at where Fei Fei was and saw that she wasn't there anymore. Fearing that I might have missed where Fei Fei went, I made my decision and hopped after Chin.
Chin, Croak, and I were hiding from the guards. We saw them everywhere. I was pretty nervous. The photo could be anywhere by now. How are we going to find it? Chin told me the plan. He told me where to go and he will go the other way. I was surprised at how confident he sounded. He was eight. This didn't phase him at all? This little human boy was brave. Much more brave than I am. I respect that.
"I'll go with him." Croak stated. "Or do you want me to go with you instead?"
"No." I said to him. "You need to be with your boy and make sure he's safe. I'll go alone. I'm a grown up bunny. I can handle things by myself."
"Okay. Suit yourself." But as Chin walked off with Croak, I was still nervous, but I took a deep breath. You can do this, Bungee. If that brave eight- year- old boy and his pet frog can be brave, so can you. And with that, I hopped off.
But I must have been too slow for I didn't see the guards anymore. I looked and looked with no such luck. Darn! I wasn't that slow, was I? Chin is counting on me to go after those guards, and already I failed him. And I have no idea where Fei Fei was. I was alone in an unfamiliar place. Now what am I to do?
I then saw that same rabbit that I saw earlier with Chang'e hop somewhere. I was curious. What was he up to? I decided to follow him instead.
I saw him hop into what appeared to be a flower petal. I hopped after him and jumped into the flower myself. I slid on some sort of slope and when I landed on the bottom, I picked myself up and scurried to hide again. I hid behind an orange plant, bumped into it and just hid and peeked out to see what I could see.
I saw the bunny again. He was up on a platform doing something. When I first saw him, he was beating something on some sort of instrument, then he was doing this. It was official. This was not just any bunny. It did belong to Chang'e after all and was living on this strange planet, so I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised. Yet I was. Whatever he was doing sure looked interesting and cool.
I then saw Jade struggle with whatever he was trying to hold. I decided to go help him. I leapt out of my hiding spot, went up on the platform, and helped him to balance it. He seemed shocked to see me.
"W-who are you?" He wanted to know.
"I'm Bungee." I introduced myself. "And I know you are Jade from stories about you and Chang'e. I came with those humans earlier and danced to your owner's beautiful singing voice. It was a bop!"
"I don't think you should be here. You should leave." He managed to hold whatever and went back onto the platform that he was on. I hopped there as he was about to grab something.
"Why not?" Startled, he fell backward and he bumped into a pink dust thing, sending it flying. It hit me on the head.
"Are you okay?" He asked me with concern.
"Yeah. I'm fine." Suddenly, I felt a sneeze coming on. I tried to hold it in, but didn't succeed. I sneezed a huge sneeze and something weird happened. Pink beams shot out above us.
"DUCK!" He shouted at me. We both ducked, but the beams missed us and we saw a gaping hole in the distance. What was that all about? Very strange. "Your ears!"
Huh!? What about my ears? I was about to ask him this same question when I grabbed my ears and noticed that there were pink hues all over them now. Huh? What is this? Was this because of the things with the pink dust in that thing that hit me seconds ago? I didn't know what just happened, but oddly enough, I liked it.
Before I hopped off. I decided to give him a little thank you gift. So I hopped up real close to him.
"Hey, what are you doing?!" He asked, startled once again.
"This!" I said to him as I twitched my nose to his nose and pink dust floated between us. Satisfied, I hopped on out of there. "Bye-bye!"
With my strange new ear powers, I knew I was strong. It's like I became a brand new bunny and I know Chin, Fei Fei and Croak would like them. All I have to do now is find them, after I find the photo of course. Before I didn't think I could do it. Now I think that I actually have a shot. I feel like I can do anything!
Then I heard something and saw it reflected in the distance. Huh? I stopped in my tracks and looked back. I saw a beam shoot out from where Jade was. Was Jade in trouble? I didn't know. Fear that he might be, I hopped back as fast as I could.
"Jade!" I yelled when I came back to him. "What's going on?! Are you in trouble?" He shook his head.
"Quite the opposite Bungee; it works!" This got me quite confused.
"What works?"
"The potion! Now Chang'e can finally see her beloved Houyi." I didn't know what he meant, but was just happy that he was happy.
"That's great, Jade! I'm really happy for you!"
"Thanks and it's all because of you!" I was confused again.
"Me? What did I do?"
"I can't explain it, but the dust from your ears got in here and did something. I think it was just the last ingredient that I needed."
"I don't know what that means, but, congrats! I'm going to try to find Chin and my owners now, and maybe help Chin get the photo."
"Good luck!"
"Thanks!" And with that, I hopped off.
I hopped and hopped, trying to find a guard. Chin was counting on me and I was not about to let him down. I found a guard and hopped after her as fast as I could. She saw me and screamed. She ran away from me which made me hop faster. I used my powers to shoot at her. She fell to the floor. I used this opportunity to hop onto her.
"Please!" She begged in fright. "Don't kill me, you cute, but deadly little bunny you." Deadly? I am cute, but I wasn't going to kill her for it. All I wanted was the photo, but did she have it? I had no idea, and if she did. Will she understand me? "Hey, I know you. You're with those human kids who came in here and the girl took the photo of our glorious leader, Chang'e." She stood up. "Well, I hate to break it to you, but I think your kid is trying to find the gift before you all can go home. And I don't have it." My ears dropped, and I looked down, looking sad. Darn. But, wait. Is she lying? I better make sure. I tried to look very menacing, as menacing as I possibly could. I wanted her to know that I meant business and this little bunny rabbit wasn't messing around.
"If you think I'm messing around with you," She continued. "I'm not. I simply do not have it, end of story." Was that a lie? I don't know. Gah, why is this so hard? She looked at me and sighed. "You don't believe me, do you? Well, I don't know what to tell you that I haven't already and obviously can't make you understand so…" She ran off. Not wanting to give up, I gave chase to her once again. "Look, you're very cute. But, LEAVE ME ALONE!" I shot my powers at her with no such luck. She evaded me until she ran out of my sight. Darn it! I can't go back to Chin empty pawed, can I? I went looking for more guards.
I hopped all over and shooting my beams at guards from left to right, trying and failing to get the photo that my owner needed to get home. But it was a waste.
Since I never got a single guard to hand over what we needed, I decided to give up. I didn't want to do it, but I saw no choice. Hopefully Chin and Croak had better luck.
"I did it!" I heard Chin cry out in triumph to himself. He then saw me and my magical ears, So did Croak. They both were in shock. "Bungee?" I blew on my ears to show off my hues. He smiled. "Maybe we did it." We then all did a fist/paw bump to each other. We then all ran off. Croak asked me about my ears.
"I don't know." I said to him when he asked how I got the pink hues. He was even more confused.
"What do you mean?"
"It's kind of hard to explain but if you must know…" I told him my encounter with Jade Rabbit.
"Jade Rabbit?" And so I explained to him who Jade Rabbit is. He seemed to get it.
"Oh."
"So you got the photo?" He shook his head. I frowned.
"Oh. I didn't have any luck either." I changed the subject. "So, what was Chin so excited about?"
"He broke a barrier."
"Oh. That's good at least for him I guess."
"Yeah, it is."
"Your human sure is strange, no offense."
"No offense taken. I know how weird he is. I live with him."
We ran until we were running beide Fei Fei and a weird green creature. The kids were happy. While Chin talked, I hopped into Fei Fei's arms. Fei Fei then showed what she had. I don't know what it was, but apparently it was the gift. It was half of an amulet, whatever that was.
The green creature introduced himself as Gobi. Chin did the same to Gobi. Fei Fei shrieked as one of the guards attacked Gobi. We halted in our tracks and gasped. We gasped again as another guard bumped into Fei Fei, making the amulet fall to the floor.
"Fei Fei!" Gobi shouted. "Get it!" Fei Fei ran and got the amulet. She and Chin ran in to pull away Gobi from the guards. "No, no! Leave me be!" But they managed to pull him away. One of the lunettes shouted for us to hurry and that we had to go. We ran with her and other lunettes back to where Chang'e was.
We gave half of the amulet to Chang'e. She put it together with the other half she apparently had. Fei Fei chatted with her and then Chang'e began to sing. We then heard a man singing. Chang'e turned around and was shocked. It was her beloved Houyi. We all smiled as the two stepped up closer together, both of them singing. It was a beautiful sight, seeing those two being reunited after so, so many years apart. Then Houyi did something unexpected.
"Chang'e." He said to her. "I cannot stay." She told her that she had to move on.
"But how?" She wanted to know. But Houyi didn't answer. Instead, we saw him fade away in the air. Chang'e sobbed and yelled out for him not to leave her.
"Oh no!" Fei Fei said to herself. Fei Fei was right. I didn't know what was going on, but I know that it was something bad. Then everything around us began to dim and the lights powered down. We heard that this was the Chamber of Exquisite Sadness and saw that Gobi was feeling woozy and collapsed.
"What's going on?" I asked. "What's the Chamber of Exquisite Sadness?"
"It's because of Houyi." Jade explained, I looked at him. "Chang'e thought by finding the second half of the 'gift', it would bring Houyi back. It did briefly as you saw, but she thought it would be for good. Now that he's gone and Chang'e knows that he's not coming back, she is now in deep depression. It happened before long ago. We prayed that it wouldn't come back."
"Someone has to do something." I said. "Don't they?" Then as if Fei Fei read my mind, she stepped up.
"Let me try." She volunteered. There were cries of pleas and protests, but my owner ignored them. As someone was tying to stop her, she went off. We all gasped. It like there was an invisible wall and Fei Fei was on the other side with a crestfallen Chang'e. My owner walked over to comfort her. But as she was about to, she stopped. What was happening? Why did she just freeze all of a sudden? I wished I knew what was happening.
I then saw Fei Fei get down and hug herself in a ball. This got me sad. I wanted so bad to hop over to her to comfort her. Someone said that she was stuck now.
What? Stuck? No! Not my Fei Fei. I don't want her stuck forever. I need her. Chin needs her. Ba Ba needs her. All of us need her and she needed us. But what to do? Fei Fei got through, but can I?
"I'm sorry about Fei Fei." Jade told me. "She's stuck forever."
"No." I said, refusing this answer. "I can get Fei Fei out."
"But Bungee, no one can ever…" I then hopped back, prepared my ears and pointed them towards the wall. Jade gasped. "Bungee, no, you can't! The force field is too strong." But I didn't care. I just wanted Fei Fei back.
I tried to beam a hole though like earlier when I just discovered my powers with Jade, but it failed miserably. I collapsed onto the ground as everyone gasped and came to see if I was okay. I got up. Tears welled up in my eyes.
"Bungee, are you okay?" Jade asked me. I shook my head, trying not to cry in his presence.
"Fei Fei must be thinking of someone that she loved who has passed on." Jade continued. "That's what the Chamber of Exquisite Sadness does, it reminds people of the painful past."
It's Fei's Fei's mom. I know it was. It has to be who she is remembering. I felt the tears keep on coming. Why does the Chamber of Exquisite Sadness has to remind people like that? That's just cruel. We just looked on at what was happening, watching hopeless. I never felt so powerless in my whole life.
"No...more...barriers." Chin said, taking some steps back. We all watched as the boy ran towards the wall, yelling. "I WANT MY SISTER!" We then gasped as he broke through to the other side.
"He did it!" Croak cheered, "That boy is becoming strong."
"But how come I couldn't do it?" I questioned. "What makes Fei Fei and Chin so special? They don't have magical powers like I do."
"Beats me." Croak replied. I looked back at Jade again who could only shrug.
"Don't look at me." He said. I looked back at the wall. The lunettes then all cheered, even Jade seemed happy by his voice. "The wall! It disappeared! Everything's powering back up again. Chang'e is happy again."
"How do you know the wall disappeared if it's invisible?" I wanted to know.
"I just do." Sure enough, we all could now run and hop out. And that is just what we did. Croak, Fei Fei, Chin and I all watched as Gobi, the winged lions, Chang'e and the lunarians all hug it out. It was such a beautiful sight.
Shortly later, the lunarians all cheered and chanted Fei Fei's name as we all emerged from on top of a platform. Gobi approached Fei Fei and asked questions that Fei Fei apparently knew the answer to.
"Remember when we had to say goodbye?" This question from Gobi caught me off guard.
"You mean right now?" Fei Fei asked with a laugh.
"Yeah." I grew sad. I looked at Jade. Does this mean we have to part ways too? Even though he and I had known each other for a brief amount of time, it felt like it was longer. I didn't want to say goodbye, but I must. Jade hopped up to me.
"Well, this is goodbye, Bungee." I sighed.
"I know. I know this sounds stupid as we barely know each other, but I don't want to leave you."
"It may sound strange, but I don't want you to leave either." I was shocked by this and a bit overjoyed that he shared what I was feeling.
"Really?"
"Yes. I can't explain it, but I feel like we really connected earlier if you know what I mean." I blushed.
"Yeah." He then did the unexpected. He took my bunny paws in his.
"Goodbye, Bungee."
"Goodbye, Jade Rabbit." I then let go and hopped over to Fei Fei who bent down to my level. She then said something to me that I thought she'll never say to me in a billion years.
"If you want to stay, you can. I'll be okay." Relief flooded over me and I hopped up into my owner's arms and we hugged. True, I'll miss Fei Fei, Ba Ba, and Earth, but I was just glad to be here with Jade. "You have a new life. Go." I hopped away. "Goodbye, Bungee." Jade smiled.
"I'm glad you're staying after all, Bungee." He said. "There's so much about you that I wanted to learn about. Now I can."
"I guess you can." I agreed. "And I'm grateful that Fei Fei allowed me to stay. I feel like she's grown so much since her mother died. So have I. We both learned to move on from the past and love someone new." Jade chucked.
"Out with the old, in with the new. I don't know how I came up with that, but it sounds right."
"Yup! That it does."
"I think I'll stay with Chin." Croak said to me. "Keep him out of trouble." I smiled at him.
"You do that." I agreed.
After all of our goodbyes, we watched as the winged lions took Chin and Fei Fei away, along with Croak in Chin's pocket. Although Fei Fei assured me that she'll be alright, I still couldn't help but feel teary eyed.
"You're going to be alright, Bungee?" Jade asked me.
"Yeah." I told him. "I will. She'll be alright. I know she will be."
"I know she will be too."
After they disappeared in the distance, Chang'e smiled down at me.
"Welcome to your new home, Bungee." She said. "I hope you like it. It's a lot different up here then down on Earth." Next, the goddess looked at Jade Rabbit. "You take good care of her, Jade. She may be here on the moon with us, but she's still mortal. Love her while you can. Don't take the time you have for granted. Because you sadly can never know what'll happen in the near future." She and the others all left us alone. Jade looked at me, and I looked at him.
"Always." He said.
"And forever." I agreed. And with that, we hopped off. Although I'll have to get used to being a Lumarien bunny, I know with Jade by my side, I will have no problem. I had left my old life with Fei Fei and Ba Ba behind, but I can't wait to start my new one with Jade Rabbit, Chang'e, and all of the others on Lunaria. I'm a very lucky rabbit.