Chapter 4: A star is born
Part 1: The Northern Lights
It was late at noon and the sun is almost setting. A two year old Romeo and Lumina is currently riding on top of Astery for one of his feeding trips. Astery decided to take them with him for Romeo's birthday, or at least the day Astery found and adopted Romeo.
"Are we there yet?" Romeo asked excitedly.
"In a bit." Astery reply with a chuckle.
"So why did you decided to take us with you for Romeo's birthday?" Lumina asked. She currently has Romeo wrapped around her in extra layers of clothes and blankets to keep them warm.
"I thought you might enjoy the view." Astery answered. "I also want to show Romeo how dragon feed on the elements."
"Feed?" Romeo asked confused.
"You'll see" Lumina response.
They fly in silence for a bit more, with Romeo constantly looking around, taking in the view. This is the first time he left the island and everything is just so amazing for him. He asked many questions about the things he saw like whales, buildings, ships, etc. Lumina tried her best to keep up with the boy's energy but she was soon overwhelmed.
"We're here" Astery exclaimed, saving Lumina from his son's onslaught of questions.
Romeo and Lumina look around and all they see are snow and ice which does happen on the island. Romeo was about to ask but his father suddenly spoke "Look up."
As he did Romeo was caught with the most beautiful sight he has ever seen. The setting sun revealing beautiful lights of many colors spreading across the sky. Romeo was lost for word, the sight completely captured and hypnotized him.
"It's beautiful" Lumina spoke up, tears in her eyes "I never thought I get to see the beautiful Aurora again"
"Aurora?" Romeo asked.
"The lights." Astery answered. "They're like rainbow but instead of sun light change by water, it's sun energy change by the Earth's energy and air" He explained in a simple matter so his son can understand.
After letting everyone the time to appreciate the view, Astery spoke up.
"Romeo" he called, getting the boy's attention. "Here's something you need to know about dragons, they can feed on the element they're based on to gain strength and restore their own energy."
"So a fire dragon can feed on fire?" Romeo asked.
"That's right" Lumina answered "Smart boy"
"For stella dragons like me," Astery continues "we feed on the heat energy itself"
"Heat energy?" Romeo asked again.
"Any form of energy that produces heat like fire, lightning, lights depending on the source, even energy from the sun" Astery elaborate.
"Wow" Amazed Romeo.
"I want you to understand this so you can learn to be a great dragon slayer in the future" Astery explained.
Upon hearing the term dragon slayer however, Romeo's amazement got replaced with shock.
"I DON'T WANT TO BE A DRAGON SLAYER" Romeo exclaimed, surprising both Astery and Lumina.
"Why not?" Lumina asked.
"Because I don't want to hurt Astery" Romeo answer, tears starting to build up in his eyes.
Both of Romeo's guardians were touched by this.
"You don't have to hurt me or any dragons you don't want to hurt Romeo" Astery explained "Dragon slayer in this case simply refers to the magic that is bestowed by dragons to give man powers. Sure some do use them to hurt dragons and even other beings but some have use the power to protect too. What you do with your power is for you to choose"
Hearing this Romeo stop crying and begin to cheer up.
"Ok" he said "I'll be a dragon slayer so I can protect both you and Lumina"
Once again both of Romeo's guardians were touched by this.
"Do you want to see how we feed?" Astery ask.
Romeo agrees and Astery begins absorbing some of the surrounding auroras lights. Romeo was amazed by this, he was about to ask how but then remember that stella dragons can feed on sun energy and aurora are from sun energy. So instead, he tried to eat the light himself but is unable to.
Or so it seems. Unbeknown to everyone there, Romeo did manage to absorb some of the aurora light and would go on to overwhelm Lumina with his new found energy on the way back.
Part 2: Good and Evil
A three years old Romeo is currently sitting with Lumina practicing read and writing on one of the island's sandy beach under the shade of a palm tree. Astery is currently off feeding right now. Romeo wants to go with him but was told to stay and study. He was upset but still does as he was told.
He's instructed to read Lumina's books and write down what he read then Lumina will check afterwards. However, the book he's currently reading happened to cover an interesting topic.
"Hey Lumina" he call to her. Catching the woman attention who was currently preparing snacks for the boy.
"Yes Romeo?" She responded, finishing up a plate of fruits for the two.
"Are human evil?" Romeo asked.
Lumina almost dropped the plate and fall on her face hearing the question. She recompose herself and wondered where did that come from until she noticed the book she gave him. Good and Evil: the true nature of mankind, an extremely outdated philosophical book that were mocked by many due to its complicated and inaccurate, sometimes idiotic statements like mankind use to live under water but were forced to land because they were evil.
She becomes nervous, chastising herself for not paying attention to what she was giving the boy, knowing how he has been struggling with this idea for a while now. She walked over, noticing that Romeo only started the book and sigh in relief. She took the book from Romeo then sat down beside and began to explain.
"It's complicated," she said "Human, like all other living beings , can be good or evil, it's depends on what they choose to be. Like how there can be delicious edible mushrooms but also dangerous poisonous mushrooms."
"So did my parents choose good or evil?" Romeo ask with a frown. He was always aware of the differences between him and his guardians. When he asked them about this, they told him everything they knew about that night. Since then he often wondered, why did his parents send him through the ocean as a baby by himself, such an action is often considered to be evil right? But they did that to save his life so they must be good, right?
"It's complicated" was Lumina's answer again. "We don't know what happened to them that night, they could have been in a desperate situation with no choice but to do what they did, or they did have other choices but simply choose the easiest one. We don't know. It's hard to judge if someone is good or evil if we don't know enough about them. What we do know is that you, Romeo, is a good boy, and me and Astery will protect you no matter what."
This helps cheer the Romeo up and Lumina decided to end the reading and writing lesson there and instead switch to math, which makes the boy frown again. Lumina giggles a bit and gives Romeo the plate of fruit and some coconut juice which cheers him up again.
That night, Lumina threw that book to her fire pit, using the fire to cook dinner for Romo.
Part 3: A promise under the stars. Thank you for loving me.
It was Romeo's four years old birthday and they celebrate by another trip off the island, this time though, the destination was chosen by Lumina. So now all three of them are flying through a dense forest to reach where Lumina wants to show Romeo. After his second birthday he has traveled with Astery off island a few times so he's more aware of the out side world now and thankfully for Lumina, this means Romeo won't need to ask as much questions as before(though there are a few 'what is that' here and there). Right now Romeo just focus on enjoying the scenery.
They soon arrived after sundown at what seemed to be an abandoned village surrounding a ruined temple of some kind.
"Where are we?" Romeo asked.
"We're at my old home" Lumina answered, surprising Romeo. "This use to be a thriving village with many people living here."
Romeo nodded, listening to her story carefully.
"That," she points at the ruined temple "use to be the temple where we would give offerings to the stars in return for a good harvest. I was a priestess tending to the temple."
"What happened here?" Romeo asked.
"One night" Lumina answered "we were suddenly attack by a group of soldiers working for an evil king who believed that we hold the secret of immortality. Under his orders, everyone here was killed"
"Why would they work for someone who is evil?" Romeo asked, shocked and disgusted.
"They don't have a choice" Astery answered "the king has power over them so they could either do as he said or have them or someone they love get hurt"
Romeo now looks furious.
"I was prepared to meet my end until a group of soldiers consisted of young men help guide me to safety along with a group of survivors who were save by them too." Lumina continued "When asked why they simply said "because it's the right thing to do" afterwards we escape and went our separate ways. Years later that group of soldiers formed a rebellion and overthrow the king, ending his tyranny."
Romeo now looks in awed.
"The reason I'm telling you this Romeo, is because I want you to understand that nothing in this world is as simple as it seems. Not everyone who's doing evil things are truly evil or choose to do them. Not all people with power are gonna use it for good but not all of them are gonna use it for evil either. The king has power and use it for evil. But those soldiers that day has more power than us yet they choose to do good. They later gathered more power in order to stop the king, to use the power for good, not evil. As someone with power it's your job to use that power to help and protect the people who don't have power from those who use power for evil. Promise me Romeo."
"I promise." Romeo nodded. Lumina smiled.
"So what happened to all the escape villagers?" Romeo asked.
"They're...dead" Lumina said. Her face turned melancholy.
"What?"
"This all happened 200 years ago." Astery commented "Any human from back then would die by old age by now."
Romeo was shocked beyond belief.
"The king was right in a way." Lumina explained "We can't grant immortality but we can extend one's life span for several decades while also stay young even in death. This is done through harnessing the power of the stars through the temple so it's usually the priests or priestesses who received this blessing. Though I was the only priestess left by that point. The temple won't work again due to how destroyed it is too."
Suddenly, a feeling of unease overtook Romeo as he realized something.
"How much longer can you live?" He asked shakily, dreading the answer
"Today is my last day." Lumina response, looking away from the boy.
"WHAT NO THERE HAS TO BE SOMETHING WE CAN DO YOU CAN'T-" Romeo scream.
"Romeo" Lumina scream back, running up to him and pull him into a full embrace. Romeo could feel tears running down her face.
"I've lived for far too long. I know that this is painful for you but you have to let me go. My time has come and we all must accept it."
Romeo was in tears, he tried to fight, to denied what he heard, desperately looking for a way to-
"I've live for over two hundred years" Lumina speaks again "Yet the last four years that you've entered into my live Romeo, was the greatest years of my life. During those years, you've become someone very important to me and I'm proud of the boy you grow into."
Romeo cry even harder, now returning the embrace.
"Remember your promise to me Romeo, and make sure that no matter what happened, you'll always be the kind caring man that I raised you to be."
Romeo, despite all his tears, managed to say between gasps.
"I will. I promise I will."
To the side, Astery can be seen with trying to cover the tears falling from his eyes. He stayed quiet, trying to remain strong, but the loss of his longtime friend and the sight of his son crying was too much for him.
Lumina begin to glow.
"It's seems my time has come." She said "Romeo please know that I will always love you no matter." She then kissed him on his cheek. Romeo felt a familiar sensation.
"Thank you" She said " Thank you for coming into my life, for letting me be your mother. Thank you Romeo, for being my son."
Lumina then faded away from Romeo's grasp. The boy remained there crying. Astery, tears in his eyes, came over and wrapped his son into his embrace, comforting him. The two remained that way for a long time.
Part 4: A new star
It was midnight, Romeo explore the ruins a bit while Astery remained neat by, keeping an eye on him. They've been quiet after they both stop crying and Romeo wanted to explore a bit.
"So how did you met her?" Romeo asked suddenly, surprising Astery who then smiled.
"If I'm remember correctly, it was around a year after her village was attacked. I sensed a weird form of energy and investigate which turned out to be her star energy that's keeping her alive. She was alone in the forest and had no where to go. She asked if she could come with me which I agreed to since I was also alone and needed some company. We travel a lot. She collected a lot of stuffs, most of which is gone now but some can still be found in her hut. We travel and learn a lot about each other. Eventually we became friends who could always rely on each other for help when needed. We finally settled on the island 10 years ago."
Romeo smile. He then asked
"Did you know about her story?"
"Yes." Astery response "We share a lot about each other during our travel, I've tried to refill her star energy when I learned about it but it was no use. Eventually we just have to accept the inevitable."
Romeo then look away, he then noticed something in the distance.
A small figure fly through the trees, once he entered the moonlight he was shown to be an Exceed. He was primarily orange with white around his mouth and chest, on his paws and the tip of his tail. He also wore a brown bandanna around his neck.
Behind him, a pack of wolves approached. One of them leaps forward to catch the cat, but he was pulled out of the way by Romeo.
Astery then appears, scaring the whole pack away.
Once the coast is clear, the exceed looks up to his saviors.
"Yo-you save me" he managed to get out.
"Yeah. Are you alright." Romeo asked.
"Yeah I think so."
"Interesting," Astery spoke up, frightening the exceed "don't worry, I promise I won't hurt you."
"Yeah" Romeo spoke up "my father is really nice"
"Father ?" The exceed ask.
"Indeed" Astery assured "tell me, what does an exceed like you doing around these parts of the woods?"
"Exceed?" Romeo ask.
"I'll explain later" Astery respond.
"Well" the exceed spoke up "I'm looking for a place to live. I don't have anywhere else. My family abandoned me."
Both Romeo and Astery were shocked to hear this which soon turned to sadness.
Romeo then has an idea.
"Can he stay with us?" He ask his father. This surprised the exceed.
"Sure" Astery answered "as long he helps around."
"Great." Romeo said with joy. He then turned towards the exceed. "What do you say?"
"Ok" the exceed answered.
"Awesome," Romeo screamed "I'm Romeo by the way. Romeo Steorra"
"I am Astery, kind of the stella dragons." Astery introduces himself
"My name is Keenan" the exceed introduce himself "thank you for taking me in"
A short while later, the three of them fly back to the island. Keenan is currently sleeping but Romeo is still awake, thinking.
He then gets in Astery field of vision with a determined look on his face.
"I'm gonna keep my promise." He declared "I'm gonna become stronger and protect those in need."
Astery looks at his son with pride. A smirk appeared on his face.
"Good." He said "Then tomorrow, we'll start your dragon slayer training."
Romeo nodded determinedly.
All three of them slept in the next fay.
Author's note
Well. This is a long one. So incase you don't know Keenan is an original character from the story my fic is based on. Future chapters are gonna be shorter than this. I don't know why I decided to add all four part into one chapter instead of splitting into four chapters so don't ask. Anyway let me know what you think and drop some suggestions or ideas for the story and I'll incorporate them into the story if I can.