"The Slumber"
Chapter 9
~Danger and Friends~
By: Willow Mae

The Prince and Princess sat in a faint globe of light that surrounded them. The darkness that Endymion had passed through constantly pressed at the feeble comfort the light gave.

"What is this place, Princess?" Endymion asked, once more peering into the tangible darkness, puzzling over the situation.

"I don't know." She whispered, staring at her pale hands folded in her lap to avoid seeing the blackness pressing against their faint protection of light.

"How did we get here?" He tried a different approach.

"I don't know that either." She crumpled slightly and sounded close to tears. Endymion sighed inwardly. The last thing he wanted to deal with at the moment was a weepy princess. But she didn't cry. After taking a breath, she straightened and looked solidly into his eyes. "I know that we're in some sort of subconscious realm. One that I can't get out of, no matter how hard I try…" her voice trailed off in despair and fear. Endymion thought a moment about what she said.

"Are we dead?"

'I don't think so."

"Are we dreaming?"

"No." Endymion could tell by her voice just how terrified she was. "Dreams here are even more awful than the dark. I've learned to ignore dreams when they come."

Endymion didn't respond for a time. What the princess was describing was like nothing he had ever learned about in his studies. However, he was also the first to admit that his studies had never taught much anyway. He had learned government and war strategies, but the true lessons he had learned were not from teachers, but from comrades on the battlefield against Beryl.

"Well, we'll simply have to figure out how to wake up on our own." He said confidently, getting to his feet.

"Don't you think I've tried?" Serenity demanded in an un-princess-like way. Realizing her words, she looked away. "Forgive me, my lord. It has been a long time since I've spoken with anyone but myself, especially royalty. I'm afraid I've forgotten much of proper decorum."

Endymion let his noble smile fade into a large grin.

"Don't worry about it. I've never much liked all that formal talk anyway. We can completely drop it, if you like." Serenity looked at him and smiled for the very first time.

"I could like that, my lord -- Endymion."

***


After dinner, the lords and ladies retired to their rooms to work out the many sudden confusions of the day. An invitation to go star gazing was politely declined, and as soon as the generals had reached their quarters Kunzite called another meeting.

"Gentleman, our situation is far more dire than I could have anticipated." He said gravely as they all took their seats. All eyes turned to the windows, where it seemed that the Earth could always be seen hovering in the night sky even when it was not in view.

"The moon…" Zoisite breathed, his eyes glazed with wonder. "To think, for all these years, that this was just another object in the night sky. Who would have dreamed there was an entire kingdom up here?"

"Who would have dreamed." Nephrite concurred, his shock equaling everyone else's. "This whole situation raises too many questions. Like how did we get here, who are these women, why isn't there anyone else, how do we get home again…"

"Those are such serious questions." Jadeite grumbled. "I'd really rather not think about them now."

"But we must." Kunzite reminded him. "After all, we cannot just accept things. There is much we must learn about this place, and about the people here."

"But why?" Jadeite shot back. "Why is it that we always have to figure things out? Why can't we just enjoy the experience? I mean, hell! We're the first person to be on the moon in a long time, we've established that! This is an adventure, not a science experiment." He cocked an eyebrow and crossed his arms defiantly.

"Lord Jadeite," Kunzite set his chin in a hard line as he addressed his friend formally. "For everything we believe in, it is imperative that we approach this delicately."

"All right, I understand your point." Jadeite argued amiably. "But we have plenty of time to worry over those sorts of things. After all, we don't know how long it will be until Endymion is well again, and until we have a definite idea of that, shouldn't we be allowed to enjoy ourselves a little?"

Kunzite opened his mouth to respond, but Zoisite was too quick. "Speaking of Endymion, I want to see how he fares before we turn in. Perhaps we should all meditate on the situation until tomorrow, so we can approach this with level heads?" he suggested, looking at the arguing generals pointedly. After a moment, Kunzite nodded. Zoisite stood and opened the door into the halls.

"Wait Zoi, I'm coming with you." Jadeite said abruptly, standing and following the shorter man out into the halls.

"Well, come on then." Zoisite obligingly waited and the two left the West Room and began to walk down the silent hallways.

"Thanks for turning old Kunz away from me. " Jadeite chuckled and ran a hand through his blonde hair. Zoisite looked at him a moment, then continued walking.

"I didn't say anything." He said. "I wanted to go check on Endymion. You need to control your urges more and Kunzite needs to have more flexibility. Quite honestly, I would rather see you two duke it out. You both could learn from each other. "

"Oh come on," Jadeite scoffed. "You can't be serious."

"Jade?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you have any idea where we are?"

They stopped and look around at the rows of massive doorways on either side of the glowing white hallway. It looked just like every other hall they had passed through, and just as empty and foreboding.

"Great. Now what?"

"The Slumber"

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