The familiar squeak of the pulley system's cables pulled her up the terrifying heights of the painting, something Luna tried not to mind as her legs dangled from where she sat.
She dipped her paintbrush in the black paint and painted out the penciled lines. Two weeks from the start and she had made quite some progress. From concept art to the multiple sketches to now applying the line art as well as putting in at least five hours of work three days a week, the painting was shaping up to be a masterpiece.
The townspeople occasionally came by to see how she was doing. Some took pictures of the painting's progressive improvements while others were tourists marveling at her work so far. Heck, someone even started a fan page on its creation.
Luna tried not to care too much. She had errands to do, a painting to finish, a clan to run. Well, soon to run. She had too much to learn as an heiress. Luna could still remember the day she was accepted into the clan, as well as the responsibilities of becoming its heiress.
For a while, her mind was occupied with memories and Fall Out Boy songs on her iPod when it was interrupted by someone calling her attention. She tugged the earphones out of her ears, looking at the person who called out.
A boy with three stripes on one side of his hair and being accompanied by two girls wearing cowboy hats stood at the edge of the boundary lines, looking at her. Newcomers, she reasoned. Probably curious and need answers. "Excuse me? Are you Luna Canis?" the boy called out.
"Yeah," Luna answered. "Do you need something?"
"We need to talk to you," he called back. Luna nodded and started adjusting the rope to take her down, careful not to spill the black paint. As soon as the platform descended, she wiped her hands off on a towel and walked over to the odd trio.
"Hello," she greeted, nodding to them. "How can I help you?"
"Are you a dog?!" the noticeably sunnier of the three blurted out, looking at her intently.
"Wh-What?" Luna was taken aback by the sudden forwardness of this newcomer. A dog? Where'd she get that?
"Patty! Shush!" her older sister, who looked a little more serious, slapped a hand over her mouth, muffling her little sister's giggles. "I'm sorry. Syrup and ten sugar packets on your pancakes aren't a very good combination," she apologized nervously.
"I-It's OK, it's OK," Luna assured her. "But if you want the truth, then yes, I sort of am, I guess."
"So you are Luna Canis, then? The legendary auxiliary of Moonstone Creek as the townsfolk call you?" the boy asked for clarification.
"They call me that? An auxiliary?" Luna flushed, embarrassed. "God, that makes me sound oddly powerful," she said to herself. "Should I like or dislike that?"
Snapping out of her inner discussion, Luna answered, "Yes, I am Luna Canis."
The boy nodded. "My name is Death the Kid and these two are my weapons, Liz and Patty Thompson," he gestured. "We are students from the Death Weapon Meister Academy. My father sent us here to take you to Death City."
Luna raised an eyebrow. "To do what?" she asked.
The boy--or Death the Kid--only shrugged. "My father never really told us the true objective of this mission so we are all technically left in the dark here," he explained, looking almost embarrassed. "He only needed your compliance and that was it."
Luna fiddled with the hems of her paint-stained sleeves. "You're going to have to consult my mother about this."
~~~~
Kid wasn't a big fan of boats. But here he was anyway, sitting on a rickety boat, powered by a motor that looked like it had seen better days. He tried not to complain as the girl--Luna as she called herself--steered them off of the town's docks and downstream.
The boat rocked slightly as it bumped against a few rocks. As soon as the boat was navigated around a river bend, Luna sat down from across the trio and crossed her legs.
"So, how long are you newbs gonna stay in Moonstone?" Luna asked them.
"A week or so," Kid replied, "although I may have overestimated the time it would take to actually find you. The last thing we expected was to find you on the first day."
"You're lucky you found me on grocery day, then," she grinned, patting the bags sitting on the floor of the boat. "Laundry day's a different story. The boat wouldn't have enough room. Also, I wouldn't be at Mira's diner."
"So you only come into town on designated days or something?" Liz asked.
Luna nodded. "Three days a week. Grocery day, laundry day, fun day," she answered, ticking off the days on her fingers. "The rest of the week is spent in my village working on other things. But, I won't specify. I don't have time for tha--ooh! Mail!"
She steered the boat close to the riverbank and reached out to a small, rusty mailbox with faded letters reading, 'Canis.' Luna snatched three envelopes from its dingy interior and sat back once more and let the river carry them on.
"You really need to change your mailbox's positioning," Kid pointed out, his eye twitching slightly. "Maybe if I could just transfer it to a flat surface and tilt it a few inches to the right and maybe a quarter inch to the left then maybe it would be perfectly fine then. You can probably replace it, seeing as quite a part of it is rusting off and--"
"Kid, calm down! It's just a mailbox," Liz said.
"Here's the mail, it never fails," Patty sang.
"What's up with him?" Luna questioned, examining the backs of the envelopes without looking up.
"Sorry, his OCD is acting up again. Symmetry and whatnot," Liz replied, slapping a hand on his mouth. "Kid, you're being embarrassing." He looked at her with a perturbed expression.
Luna nodded absentmindedly, ripping open an envelope and reading its contents, frowning slightly. "Damn. Not again," she growled underneath her breath. She wadded up the paper and stuffed it into her jacket pocket, tossing the other two into the grocery bags.
"What was that?" Patty asked.
"A stupid piece of trash from a stupid piece of trash," Luna replied huffily. "It's nothing important. The rest are for my mom."
Kid was itching to know who this piece of trash was when he realized it was mostly irrelevant to the mission. "Who is your mother, exactly?" he asked, trying to ignore the mailbox and piece of trash matter.
"Selene Canis, our clan leader. She's the one who protects the town from certain things. She's also the one who took me in as her heiress and stuff. She's basically the be--oh! Waterfall!" exclaimed Luna, an excited look on her face.
"WHAT?!" all three of them yelled out, Liz and Patty gripping the sides of the boat while Kid held onto the seat of the boat.
They stared at Luna incredulously as she stood up in spite of the fast-moving currents and rushing waters. Her face looked almost overjoyed as she spread her arms wide. The waters parted as she did so, lifting the boat as she did.
"What the hell is going on?!" Liz screamed.
"I dunno, but this is AWESOME!" Patty squealed excitedly.
The boat was suddenly thrust into the air briefly before tipping down and taking a nose dive down a giant waterfall.
