Luna Mountain, The Mére of the Moon, Day Two, Morning

Gaga awoke to a bright morning. The sun's light shone down through the ceiling, reflecting off of the stones until it came to the pool. However, instead of entering the pool, the sunlight reflected off of it, illuminating the whole room.

As he sat up, looked over at Onua and saw that she was still sleeping. She must have been exhausted after everything that happened yesterday. He quickly got up and got dressed, glad that his clothes had dried out from the dunking he'd gotten the night before.

Once he finished, he knelt next to Onua, planning on waking her up. As he looked down at her he thought… she looks so peaceful when she's asleep. Unthinking, he reached out to brush a stray hair from her face. He caught himself right afterwards, and shaking his head at his folly, he gently shook her awake. "Onua-san, wake up. It's morning."

She stirred and stretched, "Good morning, Gaga-san! Did you sleep well?"

"Yes, I slept very well, thank you." He left her side and began preparing breakfast from the supplies Niobe had given them, making sure to be facing away from Onua. She got dressed quickly, and sat next to him as they ate in a companionable silence.

Once they had finished and cleaned up, Gaga said, "Where do we go now, Onua-san? We can't go back the way we came."

"If we could, then we wouldn't have to got through the last two challenges, would we? So we can't. We have to go forward. Look there. On the other side of the Mére there's another tunnel."

"I see. We'll go out through that one, and hope the challenges aren't too dangerous."

"Exactly. Let's go."

They gathered up all of their belongings and packed them neatly away in their bags, and then set off through the far tunnel.

After about an hour and a half of walking, in which the tunnel meandered all over the place, twisting, turning and doubling back on itself, they came to another cave. This one was by no means as nice as the one with the Mére. It was irregular and had largish stones sticking up from the floor at random. At the other end, and slightly to the side, was a door. A door? Thought Gaga, There must be a challenge on the other side. But why is there a door? All of the other challenges seemed to be part of the natural landscape, but this… As he was thinking, they walked to the door. When Onua touched it, she froze, not moving at all.

"Onua-san?" Gaga tapped her on the shoulder. "Is something wrong?"

She slowly turned her head to look back at him over her left shoulder. When their eyes met, he pulled back, startled. Her eyes had changed. They were empty, and they seemed to pull him in, to try to drown him in their depths. But at the same time they were full to overflowing with something he couldn't describe, something that frightened him. She turned the rest of the way around, and he took a step backwards, unsure. He couldn't tear himself away from her eyes; as much as they frightened him, he couldn't look away.

She walked toward him, and he backed away slowly, until he tripped backwards over a rock. He fell to the floor with a thud and scuttled backwards on his backside, still trying to flee what he saw in her eyes, still incapable of breaking eye contact. She followed him, moving toward him on all fours now, as he ran out of room to back away. With his back against the wall, he waited for whatever it was that she meant to do.

She approached him on all fours, moving up his stretched-out legs towards his body. When she reached him, her eyes mere inches from his, he shut his suddenly, too frightened of what he saw in hers, though he still wasn't sure of what it was. She sat back on her heels, and caught hold of his shoulders with her hands. And then she leaned towards him.

His eyes flew open again as her lips pressed against his, and at his sides, his fists clenched, and then slowly loosened. She pulled back for a second, and then returned, deepening the kiss, as her hands slowly slid forward, towards his collar. His heart beat faster and faster, and his breathing sped up, and his brain seemed to be on fire. And then his jacket was gone, and she was unbuttoning the shirt underneath it, and his hands held her at the waist, and then her hands slid downward to his belt as his slid up along her sides, and then… "NO!"

He grabbed her shoulders and pushed her away, holding her away from himself. He let his head hang downward, unable to look at her. "We…we can't. You're too wonderful of a person for this. You are my best friend's daughter and my very good friend yourself. You are the daughter of the gypsy caravan's boss, and I am just the servant of the Princess of Hell. You are a young, vibrant, beautiful human woman, and I am an old demon in a young human's body. It's…not right. We can't do this. I can't let us do this. I can't…won't…let myself take advantage of whatever spell you're under. Because…because I…I love you." There. He'd said it. He'd admitted that he was in love with her; hopelessly, deeply, wildly in love with her, with this beautiful, wonderful, intelligent, kind, practical woman.

"Oh, so does that mean that if you didn't love me, you would be able to?"

"What?" Gaga looked up, startled, to see that Onua's eyes were normal again. They were no longer empty; they sparkled with delight and amusement, amusement at him. He realized what she'd said. "Oh, no, no, of course not, Onua-san! I mean, if I didn't love you, it wouldn't be so hard to resist you, and…"

Onua laughed. "I'm teasing you, Gaga-san! I knew what you meant."

Gaga relaxed and released her shoulders; it looked like she was fine.

"And by the way, Gaga-san…" Onua smiled at him, her eyes full of gratitude. "Thank you."