Chapter 3: Journey to the Lunar Kingdom
It felt like hours by the time Roy finally reached the end of the passage. He was exhausted, hungry, and his feet hurt like hell. He held up his small lantern to the blocked exit for examination.
There seemed to be rock in covering this side of the passage as well, meaning that he somehow needed to remove it. So Roy did what he thought was best to remove the rock. His fists glowed a dull orange and he smashed the boulder into pieces easily. As he exited the tunnel, Roy suddenly realized that his "brilliant idea" made the passage easily visible and not a secret at all.
Roy face-palmed. "Dammit! This is exactly why I'm going to fail school!" he yelled with frustration.
After some time thinking he came up with another "good" idea. Roy destroyed the entrance from the passage so that there was no way to enter it or get out if you came from the other side. After he completed with his other "brilliant idea" he paused and stared at the patronizing rubble.
Roy sighed. "On the bright side, I'm not coming home for a while."
Roy was sick of all the terrible and random ideas he was having, so he decided to press onwards and meet his father's friend. Surprisingly, it didn't take much time for him to reach the gas station, it was actually fairly close.
As he approached the parking lot area, a man with a giant mustache greeted him. The man was large and muscular with a darker skin tone, bald head, and wore a biker suit, although it didn't quite fit him.
"You must be Roy right?" the mustache man asked.
"Uhh yeah! I'm Roy … you're my dad's friend right?"
"That's correct! My name is George! But you may call me Mostacho, for obvious reasons." George said, rubbing his mustache proudly.
"Oh okay, uh... Mostacho. Anyway, how exactly are we going to get to the coast?" Roy asked. He was more than a little concerned to be traveling with this man.
"With this beauty!" Mostacho said, pointing to what seemed to be a kind of large drill with wheels.
"It's very simple to drive. You just go underground and drill to your destination!" Mostacho said with enthusiasm.
"And how exactly do you know where to go and when another of those drill cars are close so that you don't crash with them?" Roy asked nervously. His apprehension was growing larger by the second.
"Well, us Ground users are able to sense through the earth. Basically we sense when an object is coming at us or where we need to go from the earth around us."
"I see. Well then, it seems there's nothing for me to be worried about then."
"Exactly! Now get in and sit in the back. You can set your backpack next to you while we ride." Mostacho said as he climbed into the driver's seat.
Roy nodded and entered in after him. It was surprisingly spacious inside, almost like a shuttle. He fastened his seatbelt and waited for Mostacho to start the drill car.
"You better hang on tight, we'll be at the coast in no time! Mostacho rammed the key in the ignition fiercely. The engine came to life with a loud rumbling which shook the car and everyone inside it.
"But the coast is like an hour from here! How do you expect us to get there in no ti- AHH!" Roy had yelled above the noise, but while he had been talking Mostacho had already begun digging, and had advanced into the earth in well, no time at all!
They were moving at a surprising speed considering they were advancing through earth. In most of Roy's experiences, earth isn't very soft.
Roy glanced at one of the nearby panels, displaying the blinking red light of another drill car coming ominously close.
But suddenly Mostacho slammed on the gas and they zoomed past with a second to spare.
"A car was about to hit us man! What the hell is wrong with you?!" Roy shouted.
"But it didn't hit us! Ha-ha! And because we're going so fast we're almost there!"
"I just hope we get there soon and alive." Roy muttered to himself.
5 minutes passed by quickly as Mostacho proceeded to nearly get them in a wreck every few seconds. Luckily for Roy, they soon arrived at their destination.
"We're here!" Mostacho jerked the steering wheel straight up causing the ground to burst open and send the car flying into the air.
"AHH! NEVER AGAIN I'M GETTING IN THIS CAR WITH YOU! AHH!" Roy screamed, clutching the seat tightly.
"HA-HAHAHAHA! Prepare for landing kiddo!" Mostacho.
The drill car somehow managed to land squarely on all 4 wheels right next to the port entrance. At this point Roy opened the door and flopped straight onto the ground.
"Sweet land, I always want to be above you from now on." Roy said. He lay face down, breathing in the beautiful scent of earth. And also trying to keep his breakfast in his stomach.
"Come on kiddo, it could've been worse! We did get you right on time to your next ride!" Mostacho grinned and rubbed his mustache vigorously.
Roy swayed upright. Everything had finally stopped spinning and allowed him to collect his bearings.
A warning whistle issued from the docks, the ship was getting set to leave.
"Better grab your gear and get moving kid!"
Roy nodded and put his backpack on. He turned to leave but Mostacho put a hand gently on his shoulder.
"Be careful kiddo, not many places are safe these days. And remember, you can't let anyone know you're an Elementi or that you're from Dreadnought. The Lunar Kingdom isn't exactly friendly with Dreadnought, especially with all these alliances. If anyone finds out, not only they will do terrible things to you, but the nations will use that as a sign to continue the war. You're our only hope to stop the war at this point, so don't fail us." Mostacho said.
Roy grinned. "I won't fail anybody, after all, I'll be the one that makes the skies on the entire world blue again! Thanks for everything Mostacho, see ya later!" He waved farewell as he ran through the entrance just as the final call for passengers was announced.
Despite the man's questionable sense, Mostacho was a nice person. Roy smiled, glad to have met him.
He walked up to the ticket booth and handed the man inside his ticket and credentials.
"Okay, I see you have all of the required identifications. Your cabin will be number 47, Mr. Coltello." the man said.
At the moment the man said "Mr. Coltello" Roy sighed. He hadn't realized his dad had given him a fake last name on his credentials. He took back the ticket and his fake ID from the man and got in line.
"Coltello, really? Roy sighed as he was admitted on board. "Roy Coltello, isn't that bad of a name I guess." Roy thought.
He kept on walking until he finally arrived at his cabin. He proceeded to enter and flop onto the bed.
The entire voyage was going to be quite short, only a mere two hours, so he decided to rest after all of his journeying.
Roy shut his eyes wearily, falling asleep quickly despite still wearing his backpack.
He was suddenly standing on a blank grassy field, without any recollection of how he had gotten there. Roy looked around in every direction but there only seemed to be grass as far as the eye could see. The sky above him seemed depthless, the only light coming from the gigantic crescent moon hanging delicately in the inky void.
With no other real alternative, he began to walk until suddenly the ground began to quake and tremble. A dark shadow appeared in front of him, seeming to appear out of nowhere despite its hulking appearance.
The shadow was nearly upon him when it drew to a halt, stopped by the shine of the crescent moon in the sky above him. A beam of light shone from the moon and hit the shadow. It roared and retaliated in kind with a pure black beam. As the beams of both crashed, Roy felt a strange heat piercing his heart.
As he looked down at his chest, he cried out in shock. A flaming sword was impaled clean through him. Roy fell to his knees from the pain and awoke thoroughly alarmed.
"What in the world?" Roy said, rubbing his head.
He looked through the window and saw the gigantic port of the Lunar Kingdom. Roy rolled off the bed, grabbing his things and headed out. He got off the ship and went directly to the taxi services as Jack had instructed him.
The rest of his trip was about a half hour drive to finally reach the place where he would stay while on his mission.
During the drive, Roy eagerly gazed in awe at the beauty of the peaceful nation. Ice spires stood tall and proud in perfect green fields, some of them even floating in midair. Towns were composed of entirely white marble and glistening rivers flowed peacefully throughout the land.
The only thing that could make the beauty of the scenery complete would be the sky. But even here, the sky glowed red. It was fainter than Macabre but still ominous. Even such a calm nation still suffered the pain of war.
Roy was finally dropped off at his new lodgings. It was a large cabin, located in a thickly wooded forest and right next to the school. There was even a bus stop right, highly useful if he was to get to school on time.
Roy opened the door with the keys his dad had given him. The door swung open with a click. The first thing he noticed was a basket full of fruit sitting on a kitchen table. He closed the door and examined the basket, finding a note curled up inside:
"Dear Roy,
If you're reading this then it means you finally arrived in the Lunar Kingdom and have made it your new lodgings! There's a video transmitter in your room. Please activate it, and I'll explain the rest of your mission to you.
Hope you had a pleasant trip,
Lord Roelf."
"Heh, it wasn't that pleasant to be honest, but whatever."
He grabbed an apple, gave it a bite, and headed down the hallway. He entered a small bedroom, his new room, and found a small transmitter lying on the bed. Roy didn't even pause to look around, such was his impatience and eagerness to know the rest of the mission. He activated it and up came a holographic image of Lord Roelf himself.
"Roy! Good to see you again! You've grown a lot I must say." Lord Roelf said, his voice full of enthusiasm.
"Well, if I hadn't grown in the last 10 years I would be worried."
Lord Roelf laughed then quickly became serious.
"Well enough about that, we actually have little time to prepare. You've come here for your mission." Lord Roelf said.
"Such as I've been told. I'm to protect your daughter right?"
"You're right about that! As you know I have been threatened that if I continue with my idea of peace, my daughter will be harmed. Although she is fairly powerful, I don't want her to be caught unaware."
"But how could they harm her if she's a princess and supposedly has a lot of protection? Besides, isn't she in school most of the time? It'd be impossible for some terrorist to enter the school and attack anyone." Roy asked.
"Well, she can't be protected at all times because the school won't allow it. They say it would make the students nervous if there were a lot of guards there. You see, the princes and princesses from the other allied nations also attend this school, it's the best place of education in the entire kingdom! And regarding your comment about how the terrorists can't enter school, they've already done it. These organizations are recruiting younger people in order to do these missions. They enter the school, pretend they're normal students, befriend or lower the guard of their target, and when you least expect it, they both disappear." Lord Roelf explained.
"So basically I'm going to do the same. But instead, I'm going to enter the school, pretend I'm a normal student, and protect her from these people." Roy said.
"Basically yes. Now I'm going to tell you the name of my daughter. I would tell you what she looks like but I don't have a lot of time before my advisors return. Her name is Luciana, please remember it. Also I would prefer it if you don't tell her about all this, I wouldn't want her to be worried." Lord Roelf said hurriedly.
"I won't forget it Lord Roelf, I promise. And I won't tell her about it."
Lord Roelf nodded and disconnected from the transmission. Roy went directly to his bed. He flopped onto the bed, deep in thought.
"The princess's name is Selena… Hmmm things will be interesting starting tomorrow."
He closed his eyes, fatigue taking over and falling deep asleep. Thankfully, he didn't have any nightmares and slept soundly as the moon rose slowly into the sky.