Introduction (20 November 2022)

After leaving you with a cliffhanger in the previous chapter, I'll try to not keep you waiting for too long to get (some) answers.

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Chapter Intro:

After an eventful day, night-time had arrived. Nasa however still seemed to have energy left for some display of affection, until a bright light interrupted his plans…

Chapter 23 – Beacon (part 1)

"But that g-glow… that's n-not me, dear... it s-seems to be coming from… outside?"

"Huh?" was the young man's first reaction.

Nasa sat up straight and looked around. He had been so focused on his cute wife that it had escaped his attention that it was actually the sky outside which was lighting up with a strange glow.

"Maybe they have found us and it's a searchlight?" Tsukasa suggested, as she jumped up as well.

"It is a strange color for that though, and you'd expect a moving beam of light in that case," Nasa more or less instantly debunked her suggestion.

Nasa had barely finished saying this when the strange light suddenly disappeared. He quickly moved the improvised curtain of palm tree leaves, which acted as a provisionary door for their shelter, aside and stepped outside. 'The princess must be sleeping,' Nasa thought, after seeing the "door" of her shelter now being closed, which wasn't yet the case when he had gone to bed a little earlier.

"Do you see anything, dear?" Tsukasa asked, as she appeared next to him.

"Whatever it was, it seems like it's gone now…" her husband replied, with a touch of disappointment in his voice.

"Maybe the power on the spaceship somehow started working again?" Tsukasa suggested.

"I seriously doubt it," Nasa started, "…but I guess it won't hurt to go take a look."

'The mood is now pretty much ruined anyway…' in his mind he added to the words he had just said.

But his curiosity quickly took over from the disappointment of the strange light phenomenon having interrupted their couple moment. 'What could this strange light have been?' Nasa pondered, as they got closer to the rescue pod…

"Just as I expected, all circuits are still dead…" Nasa reported, after checking out the control panel inside the cockpit; "If only the light had been visible for just a little longer, we could have spotted where it was coming fr…"

Then, just as mysteriously as it had disappeared, a bright glow was now suddenly illuminating the night sky once more!

"Husband! Look!" Tsukasa shouted, as she pulled on his sleeve; "It's coming from that direction!"

Nasa looked into the direction where Tuskasa was pointing. 'The light indeed seems much brighter there… and we haven't explored that part of the island yet,' he remembered, referring to the rock formation, which he had noticed earlier that day.

"Hurry up, dear!" Tsukasa's voice rang in his ears, as she grabbed his hand, pulled him along and started running; "We need to get there before the light dies down again!"

'Tsukasa-chan is right, there is indeed no knowing how long the light will last this time,' Nasa silently agreed, as he tried to keep up with his energetic wife's pace. Luckily the night sky was clear, so it was relatively easy to watch where they were going. As an added bonus, the mysterious light was making everything stand out even better. Soon they arrived at the side of the rock formation and found a path that seemed to be leading upwards.

"Do be careful, Tsukasa-chan!" Nasa warned, as he watched her rushing uphill; "You can't just…"

"Don't worry, dear! Your incredibly cute wife is totally used to these tricky mountain trails," Tsukasa instantly brushed away all his concerns, as she turned her head around and looked back at him with a confident smile on her face; "They don't call me 'the human mountain goat' for nothing, just so you know," she added.

"They do?" Nasa wondered, not sure what to believe of this, as he had learned his 'incredibly cute wife' would occasionally exaggerate things just a little.

"Absolutely!" she continued bragging; "So, just focus on trying to keep up with me, after all we have a mystery to solve and… kyaa!"

"Tsukasa-chan!" Nasa yelled, as he saw his wife suddenly losing her foothold.

Instinctively, Nasa reached out to a boulder right next to him, for support, while using his other arm to catch Tsukasa, and stop her from falling down!

"I guess I forgot to tell you that some people at times also would call me a big klutz…" Tsukasa whispered, as she averted her eyes at the ground, feeling a bit ashamed.

"I know and I don't mind…" Nasa commented, "… to be honest, I think it makes you even cuter," he added, while blushing slightly.

"Th-thanks…" Tsukasa said, while moving her head up and looking straight into his eyes; "Eeh… y-you can let go n-now again, dear…" she added, with a soft voice.

After doing as he was told, they continued to ascend the rocky trail as fast as they could, but with a bit more caution than earlier on.

"I think we are getting really close now…" Nasa said, as they were getting near the top.

"We should lower our voices then, and try not to make any sound when walking, dear…" Tsukasa whispered; "After all, we don't know whatever, or whoever is doing this…"

Nasa nodded agreeingly, and they sneaked the last few meters to the top. 'Just a little further and we should be able to see over the edge of that ridge…' Nasa thought, when all of a sudden they heard the sound of a branch snapping under his feet. Instantly, the light disappeared!

'Shoot, there goes our element of surprise!' it flashed through his mind as the young couple rushed forward, hoping to still catch a glimpse of the cause of the strange light phenomenon. But there was nothing to be seen.

"Is a-anybody there!?" Nasa shouted, feeling a bit nervous.

There was no reply, even after he repeated his question a few times. They quickly checked out the surroundings but found no clue about what could have been causing the bright light.

"It's like nothing was here at all, dear…" Tsukasa commented, after they had thoroughly investigated the spot.

"Hmmm, it does appear to be like that…" Nasa mumbled.

"Maybe it was the ghost of a pirate who got stranded here on this island, many years ago!" Tsukasa suggested; "Perhaps a captain, whose crew started a mutiny, and left him on this island to waste away, so they could keep the treasure for themselves."

"I don't believe in ghost stories, usually science can rather easily explain all of these so-called ghost sightings…" Nasa started, "… although there isn't really a logical explanation for being married to a fourteen hundred year old girl either, so I guess there are some situations where we can't fully rely on logic alone," he added, smiling.

The girl in question didn't respond to that though, but instead gave him a glaring look.

"Tsukasa-chan? Is s-something wrong?" he carefully inquired.

"Hmpf!" was all Tsukasa uttered in return, clearly not amused.

'What has gotten into her? I wasn't saying anything bad or weird, right? Oh… wait!' he suddenly realized something very important.

"I mean, a girl who has been sixteen years old for fourteen hundred times, naturally…" Nasa corrected himself, while rubbing over the back of his head.

"That's better. But you are not getting away with that this easily, mister!" Tsukasa replied; "First of all, when we get back, you will treat me to something nice," she added, while crossing her arms over her chest: "And second, if you are so determined that it wasn't a ghost who did this, I'd like to hear how you would explain that strange light, and why it suddenly disappeared after it apparently heard us coming."

"Okay, when are back home again, I will get you anything you like," Nasa promised, as he wavered his hands to apologize; "And as for your second question, I am actually thinking of a bit more logical explanation…" he added, while looking somewhat lost in thought.

"Wait, you did discover something after all, dear?" Tsukasa wondered, instantly forgetting about being angry at him.

"Perhaps, but for now, it's probably best if we head back to the camp site," he replied, followed by a big yawn.

Tsukasa objected at first, insisting to get to the bottom of this mystery first, but moments later she was unable to suppress a yawn herself, and had to admit that she was pretty tired as well. So, they traced back their steps down the side of the hills and a little later, they arrived at the "door" of their shelter again. Tsukasa went inside, and after looking around once more, Nasa did the same.

"Goodnight, dear…" Tsukasa whispered.

"Goodnight, Tsukasa-chan…" Nasa replied.

After a short but tender goodnight kiss, both quickly fell asleep, as if nothing had happened…

(To be continued…)

Chapter Afterthoughts (27 November 2022)

A shorter one again this time. Originally, I had planned to reveal everything about the mysterious light in a single chapter but keeping up the suspense for a little longer looked quite appealing too. I hope you can forgive me for being such a tease, lol.

Disclaimer

Please let me know what you think of this chapter and leave some feedback in the form of a review. If you have/create an account on this fanfiction website, and post a review when logged in, I can even reply to your comments. It would be nice to be able to interact with the people who read my stories!

Btw, since I am not a native speaker, there might be some silly mistakes in this story, like for instance in grammar and/or in punctuation. I hope you can bear with me and see through that. Naturally any helpful tips and suggestions are welcome.

Stay safe, and maybe until soon!