A Nightmare In The Moon

The Cliff - Part Two

"Take care." Moonlight reached out to the nearest source of water. She knew it belonged to some living thing. Gripping it with her magic, she dragged it down the cliffs. Suddenly an equally strong force jerked it out of her grip. Dark clouds swirled around the top of the cliff. Moonlight froze. "Should we r - AAAAH!" Olivia didn't get to finish her sentence before she was dragged up into a cave hollow by a tentacle of black smoke. Moonlight started to climb blindly but soon the fog covered up the cavern. Then everything was still. Moonlight breathed on her hands, rubbing them together in the cold wind. She reached out and firmly held her grip on the source of blood again, and pulled it down with her teeth gritting. Princess Olivia came flying out of nowhere and landed hard beside her. Moonlight inhaled sharply and pulled her older sister up. Moonlily . . . she didn't dare push her sister off, did she? Moonlight reached out again and this time felt the familiar pulse. She tried pulling it down, but there was a shriek and a hawk came soaring down, claws outstretched and aimed at Moonlight. Moonlight ducked, but the bird steadied itself and almost immediately swooped down. "Assuming that's not Lily, I think it's safe to hurt it," Olivia huffed behind her. Moonlight nodded and screwed open her gourd. She lifted her hands and the water followed out of the gourd, then flew at the eagle, splattering its feathers so it was too heavy to continue flying. The eagle gave a cry and disappeared behind the fog before plummeting to the rock. "Olivia," Moonlight cried. Her sister was sprawled on the ground, unable to sit up. Her hand was in a weird position. "Oh, Via," Moonlight whispered. She touched her water gem and the air shimmered around them. A moment later a beautiful blue dragon appeared before her. "Aqua," Moonlight said. "Heal Via, will you?" The water dragon bowed and dipped its head. But just as it was about to heal, dark fog surrounded them again. Shadows crept up behind the dragon and Aqua gave a roar and disappeared into the light. Anxiously Moonlight glanced at the sky. It was gray because of all the fog Moonlily was conjuring, but she could tell that it was nighttime. Reaching up with one hand, and touching Olivia - who had fainted - with the other hand, she whispered some magic words and disappeared. Moonlily, who was gazing down from her cave, frowned as her sisters disappeared. What did she just do? She kind of wished that they'd stay - NO LILY, GO FIND ICICLE AND FIX WHATEVER THEY DID. She told herself sternly. She stepped out from behind the boulders and cupped her hands over her mouth, calling out and the shrill voice of a hawk. "Coo-koo-koo," She called. "Koo-koo-ca!" Icicle's voice called back from somewhere below her. Lily jumped down and grabbed the ledge with one hand just before she would have fallen down. Suddenly there was a blinding flash. Moonlight appeared before her, one hand outstretched in a way that made Lily inhale sharply. She growled, promising herself she'd dump a bunch of mushed up tomatoes on her sister's head as she grabbed Moonlight's hand. "Stop right there," Arisha breathed. "No." Lily straightened. "I was thinking, maybe aunt Tsuki was right all along," Arisha said. "Maybe." Lily said. And she let go of Moonlight's hand and plummeted down. Moonlight stared after her, wondering why in the name of Eve Lily would do that. She didn't realize she'd said it out loud until she heard Eve say, "I didn't realize I was part of an expression, an appropriate one - of course, but, trust me, she'd never drop down unless she ultimately had a way to survive." "Obviously." Crystal agreed, walking up to stand beside her mother. "She's much too smart to drop to her death. If she didn't have a way to survive, she'd come with you and take her chances at a trial. She would have come home already." "Mother." Moonlight's voice was filled with hatred that Crystal had never heard her use before. Her voice wavered. "This is all your fault. Go away." Crystal shrugged and disappeared. Moonlight faced the chasm once again, steadying her breathing. There must be something down there that will save her from falling. I didn't see anything as I went down here . . .oh well, here's to hoping I don't die. And she jumped down, her hair rising above her. When someone grabbed her hand and Moonlight said, "Thank you," her voice was hoarse from all the screaming. The person pulled her up and jumped down, once again plummeting into the depths below. Moonlight grumbled something about "Pie headed potatoes" and jumped down after her sister. Somehow she managed to survive the fall, and was left facing off Lily, who was breathing heavily, as if saving her little sister had taken up a lot of energy, which it probably had. "Can you please just - HEY! COME BACK!" She yelled. "You had your chance, Arisha!" Lily called, not looking back as her hawk landed on her shoulder and she jumped up on her wolf, who snarled at Moonlight, as if to say, Don't you dare get near her again, and pounded off into the distance. Moonlight watched them until they had disappeared into the thick fog. The nine-year-old sighed and sat on the rock, watching the fog slowly fade and the stars shining on the sky. Reaching out to a star, she closed her eyes and teleported herself back to the water kingdom. She sighed and opened her drawer, pulling out the pendant at the bottom. Once a beautiful sapphire, now it was a black diamond. There was one side that wasn't completely covered, but as she watched, the dark magic crawled across and enveloped the gem. Lily. Lily Lily Lily Lily Lily Lily. Moonlight thought her name over and over again. Her sister was practising dark magic - she could feel it. Tsuki opened the door to say goodnight, but there was a bright flash of light and Jenifer, Niagara and Queen Adira appeared and all started shouting at the same time. Moonlight could only catch some sentences: "How could you!?" "What happened that made you do this!?" "She's your niece!" And loudest of all, Jenifer's voice yelled. "I THOUGHT WE WERE FRIENDS!" "We are friends." Tsuki said calmly. "Not if you banish your own niece from your continent." Adira growled. "I agree," Niagara said. She glanced at Moonlight. "There is only one way to fix your mistake, Tsuki. You need to find Moonlily and bring her back immediately. If not, the dark magic may be enough to consume her own mind after a while, just like it happened to Multiman." "Yeah," Adira said. "I promise, if you hadn't banished her, Tsuki - the story wouldn't be so similar to their's." "But who will find her?" Moontsuki marveled. "I will!" Moonlight cried, bolting up. "And so will Via - I'm sure of it. As soon as she's fully healed." Tsuki shook her head. "It's too dangerous. You two aren't powerful enough. Yes, I may have come to the wrong conclusion - but she's not as you remember. She's changed. She's now a person who believes all she needs is power. She believes ambition is what makes her unique. And sooner or later, the darkness will consume her. She is so near to that scale, I fear you won't be able to defeat her anymore, with darkness powering her." Moonlight sank back on her bed, trying to hold back her tears. Images of Moonlily pushing Olivia off the cliff flashed past her mind, and the more she tried to shake it out, the more it replayed and replayed. "Which means . . ." Adira said suddenly. "You'll need better training, and possess another talent that will help you, at least for now. Unless you want us to find her." "Of course not!" Moonlight cried, springing off her bed. She threw Adira into a hug, which Adira was not very used to. "When will we start? Aunt Tsuki said already - the longer we take, the harder it will be." "We will work starting from this night," Adira said. She frowned. "You might need someone to join you, though. Aurora -" she clapped her hands, and Princess Aurora of the Spell Kingdom hurried in. She looked like a miniature Azure. When Moonlight had first heard her description, she couldn't stop laughing. But when she'd actually seen Aurora, she realized she'd been imagining it wrong, because no matter how ridiculous it sounded, Aurora still managed to look really good. She normally wore sneakers but this time she wore completely black spy clothes, complete with ankle-length black leather boots and a black hoodie. Her purple eyes glinted in the light of Moonlight's bedroom. Aurora was at least fifteen and was already just as powerful as Adira. No one knew if they were even related by blood, but no one cared because they valued their lives. Aurora walked up to Moonlight and whispered, "We'll do it, Arisha." Moonlight nodded. Apart from Moonlily and Olivia, Aurora was the only one close enough to call her 'Arisha'. "I can grant you one power," Adira said. "What do you want?" "Um, no no no no no." Tsuki blocked her. "No giving powers in my palace." Jenifer flared her wings and everyone - and everything in the room started floating. "Well. That was unexpected." Arisha said as they landed once again. "Like I said - no giving powers out or else Jenifer will make the world float." Jenifer swiped at her cousin with one of her wings. Moontsuki ducked. "Come now," Adira said to Arisha. "Are you sure?" Arisha said. "Positive." Adira assured her, holding out her hand. Moonlight bit her lip and thought of Moonlily. Her imagination was a bit overdue for an update on reality and she pictured coils of darkness wrapping around her older sister and pulling her into a swirling black portal. When Moonlily reappeared, she definitely looked evil. "It appears Moonlily is undergoing some kind of transformation." Niagara told them after glancing at Moontsuki's crystal ball. Arisha's mind flashed to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. She took a deep breath and took Adira's hand. The extremely powerful queen pulled her up. "Let's go." Jenifer said as Adira teleported them to the royal gardens. "Where do we start off?" Aurora asked. "Studying." Adira said, grimacing, as if the words pained her. "NOOO!" Jenifer groaned, falling to the ground. "Oh, come on." Niagara snapped, slapping Jenifer with one of her wings. The blonde jumped up and yelled some sort of snappy comeback. Moonlight didn't hear anything. The words faded in and out as she could swear Moonlily's voice hissed in her ear, "Death. Deeeeeeaaaaaaaattttttthhhh." And everything went black.