Hello everyone! Here is another chapter update! Enjoy!
Chapter 6: Falling Sky
"Where am I?'' Luna landed hard on the dusty gravel. Her legs were bent underneath of her and her hands were beside her. Luna grasped the ground and felt how dry the dirt, more like dust, was and she raised it to her face, "Dry to the bone,.." Luna mumbled and let the dirt fall between the cracks in her fingers. She rose to her feet and dusted off her knees. "This is terrible..." Luna spoke softly to herself, "I hope that the people here have some sort of fertile land."
There was a shuffling noise behind her and Luna turned around immediately, her fists clenched in defense. Luna saw a frail child with a head too large for its body. The child's large eyes protruded from their sockets and were yellowed. It's kneecaps and elbows were also large compared to it's tiny limbs connecting to them. The child was pale and it's veins popped through it's skin. Luna picked up some more dirt and, using similar tactics to alchemy, Luna transformed the dirt into a small loaf of bread. She cautiously handed it to the child with the best warm smile she could produce for it. The sickly, beady-eyed child cowered back in fear and stumbled before falling flat on it's butt.
"Hey," Luna approached it, "I won't hurt you." She held out the loaf towards the frightened child. The closer Luna got the further back the child scurried. She stopped approaching it and pulled a cloth out of thin air. She never took her eyes off the child as she placed the loaf of bread on the cloth. Luna noticed that the child never took his eyes off of the loaf a bread as she stepped back a few inches. Once Luna stopped moving and the child saw that Luna was not moving towards it, the child greedily crawled towards the bread and shredded it to nothing.
"You must be thirsty too." Luna smiled and pulled a small clay bowl from behind her back filled with clear, cool water.
The child tilted its head in confusion and then slowly crawled over to Luna with great hesitation. The child grazed its cold hand against Luna and quickly snatched the bowl from her grasp.
It's so bony... Luna nervous for the child thought silently, I could probably break it if I touched it. Luna watched the child lap up the water. She saw each vertebrate in its spine poke through its dirty rags. It's so frail and tiny that I can't even tell the child's gender.
"Get away from there, Cam!" A woman's shrilled.
Both the child and Luna jumped at the sound of her voice. The boy named Cam was pulled so hard by the woman that he dropped his bowl of water and it shattered to dust. Luna jumped to her feet and instantly clenched her fists in defense. Her fists were covered in flames and Luna was ready to attack at any moment.
"Cam," The women knelt beside the child, "Are you all right?"
She looks worse than the child, Luna lowered her defense after she realized that this woman was the child's mother. The mother wore a long brown smock and had a brown tie to pull her bluish hair back. The woman's cheeks sunk into her bony face and the woman's fragile fingers raked through Cam's thin brown hair.
"What have you done to Cam?" A man growled behind Luna.
Luna turned and found a burly man with piercing green eyes. He was thin like the others, but one could see same muscle on him. "Who are you?" Luna asked.
"What kind of a question is that?!" A woman crossed her arms next to the man with green eyes. Her own amethyst eyes narrowed and she continued with a frown, "If you knew any better, witch, then you would be leaving right this instant!"
Geez... Luna complained, Some welcome party.
"Why are you here?" A calmer gentleman stepped out from behind the feisty woman and asked in a frightened tone.
"I'm here to help you." Luna turned to where the mother was with her child and found more people surrounding her, "All of you." Luna spoke louder, "Look, I don't know what has happened here, but I am here to help return this land back to normal."
"Normal?!" A blonde headed woman snorted, "This land hasn't prospered in about twenty years!"
Just before I was born. Luna noted, "What has happened here that has forced you all to live like this?"
"The Witch Princess." A scared child popped it's head out from the feisty woman's back. The child held the woman's garments tightly.
"Michele!" The feisty woman softened towards the child, "Let the grownups handle this..."
"What Witch Princess?" Luna interrupted and interrogated, "What has this witch done?"
"She froze the Harvest Goddess."A red-headed woman joined the crowd with a swollen belly and fragile limbs.
"Dakota," A green headed man approached her and grasped her shoulders gently, "Please go lay back down."
"Heath," Dakota pushed him off of her, "I am not going to lay down and do nothing." She pointed at Luna, "If this woman says that she is here to help then I am going to share what I know.''
Luna froze as Dakota approached her. Dakota looked ill-nourished and deathly. "How far are you?" Luna referred to Dakota's baby.
For as sick as she appeared, Dakota still managed to give Luna a glowing smile, "About seven months." She held her belly and rubbed it softly, ''The village doctor, Van, said that the baby may not make it." Dakota grew teary-eyed, "But I know that this little one is strong, and it'll come into this world stronger than anyone of us, right, honey?"
Dakota looked at her husband, Heath, and he gave a weak smile, "Yeah... that's right sweetie."
Good Goddess... Luna cursed silently and looked down at the dirt, "I can't do much now, but..." She knelt down and made another loaf of bread out of the dirt, "Here..." She handed it to Dakota, "Take this."
Dakota took it but instead of eating it herself she walked over to Michele and handed it to the child, "Here you go sweetie. The nice lady made this just for you, so you better eat up."
"Don't you dare give that to her!" The feisty woman smacked the loaf out of Michelle's hand and the bread returned to dust, "That witch could have poisoned it!"
"Why would I do that?" Luna snapped, "If I wanted to kill you, don't you think I would have done so already?!"
The feisty woman shut her mouth and looked down at Michele. Luna could tell that the woman immediately regretted that decision so Luna walked over to the girl, and like she did for Cam, Luna pulled out a clay bowl from behind her back. "Michele," Luna waited for the girl to come out from her hiding spot, "Look inside of this bowl and tell me what this is."
Michele peered inside of bowl nervously and shrugged.
"Do not know what this is?" Luna asked. Michele shook her head no then Luna gave her the bowl, 'Drink it then."
Michele looked at the bowl and examined it before gulping down its contents. "It's water...?" Michele squeaked out an answer, a bit unsure of herself.
"Yes." Luna smiled and stepped away from the child, "Where is this village's well?"
"It was destroyed." A new voice appeared.
Luna turned towards the direction of the voice and narrowed her eyes, "Who are you?" This person made her feel edgy.
"A better question is, who are you?" The fully clothed camouflaged man removed his hood. Luna felt the coldness in his icy blue eyes. His hair was spiky and onyx. If the light shone at the right moment, one could see specks of silver in his hair.
"My name is Luna," she answered strongly.
The man pulled a deer from behind his back and walked towards the burly man, "Where do should I put this Roy?"
Roy answered, "On the table in the back," He turned and headed towards a blacksmith's shop, "I'm going to need your help Matt!"
A quiet male with brown hair raced after Roy and the mysterious character.
I don't like him. The crowd of people receded and Luna stood her ground, Not one bit...
"Wahhhh!"
Luna shot her head up and saw a small blob falling from the sky. What the...? Luna held out her hands and reached out for the blob. A flaming fireball landed in her palms and once the flames diminished Luna could see that this blob was wearing a green outfit and was something she recognized from her life in Castanet.
"A Harvest Sprite!?" Luna gasped.
"Oww..." The sprite rubbed its bum and adjusted its cap, "I can't keep landing like this..." Once the sprite stood on its feet did it finally notice Luna. "Oh! Hello!"
"Who are you?" Luna poked at him.
"My name is Uranus." He announced and then realize, "You can see me?"
"Yeah." Luna pulled off his tiny cap, "You really are a Harvest Sprite."
"Yes," Uranus nodded and then asked, "Are you the prophecy?"
"What prophecy?" Luna shook her head in confusion.
Uranus floated off of Luna's hands and fluttered around her. He examined Luna quickly and concluded that she was not the one.
"What do you mean, I'm not the one?"
"Well," Uranus explained, "Long ago my family and I approached a man with a prophecy. That prophecy said for us to find her in order to save him."
Why does that sound familiar? Luna asked, "You said that you told a man." Luna waited for a confirmation from Uranus before she asked, "What..." She hesitated, "Did the man look like?"
"He had two different eye colors and was kind of mean." Uranus described the man, "We told him that we thought he would know what it meant."
"Did your Harvest Goddess tell you that?" Luna intrigued.
"It may have been..." Uranus frowned, "The Goddess was frozen a year or two before that though."
"She may have had some energy left to send you a message." Luna concluded, I'm going to have to talk to Dad about this. Luna walked past the Harvest Sprite and headed towards the blacksmith's shop.
"Where are you going!?" Uranus called after Luna.
"To investigate."
And now the meat of the story officially begins! Please continue to read and review! Thank you!