Moonbeam: A Timeline series companion

chapter 43 + 44 teaser

I wrote ahead a little, have some snippets of Jerboa and Darkstalker. :)

pov: the twelve year old who kidnapped you is a complete and utter mess and so are you but now you have to deal with it. 

***

"Don't say that about Permafrost," Shadowhunter growls, standing up. "She's—she's special to me, okay?"

"How?!" I scoff, throwing my wings up in the air. "She's boring, and mean, and she thinks I'm running a cult! As if! We're all friends here!"

Shadowhunter rubs her eyes. "Oh, three moons, I can't believe I'm having this conversation at eight in the morning." She looks away, as though almost embarrassed. "She's, um—I don't know. She's pretty. And she's smart—like, really smart. And she works hard when she wants something—and when she wants something, she gets it? And... she really cares about the world. I don't know. It's none of your business." She clears her throat.

I think that over for a moment. "I still don't see it," I mutter.

"Too bad," Shadowhunter snaps. "It's none of your business anyway."

She said no to me. That means she doesn't like me. That means she's gonna leave. She's gonna leave, and—

"Jerboa. You must have—you must have had someone," Shadowhunter says, in her "barely holding it together" voice. She uses that one a lot with me. "You wouldn't have survived in the desert alone—there must be some parental figure you remember?"

"I told you!" I roar. "I DON'T HAVE A MOM! SO STOP BEING A JERK AND ASKING ABOUT IT." I slam my talons down on the floor. "Please." A tear trickles down my cheek. I look away.

***

ok ok and now. DARKSTALKER AND CLEARSIGHT TIME. have your little fluffy scene. do not think about what they had to do to get to see each other. it's very sweet out of context. :)))))

i had so much fun coming up with the plot for the lost continent scroll franchise--if there's ANYTHING i know it's children's book series lmao.

***

There's a scroll on our bedside table in a case titled Tales of the Lost Continent. It's old, and faded from the sun, the lettering in gold.

"Hey—you used to love this one, didn't you?" I open it up, unrolling it a little. Shadowhunter scrawled her name on the title page, with a bunch of skulls doodled around it. Below that, in more faded, elegant script: For my dearest Clearsight: I hope you love these adventures as much as I did. Happy first hatching day. Love, Dad.

Clearsight smiles a little. "Shadowhunter was so obsessed with this thing. I had to read her a chapter every night. Remember--she wouldn't let you, 'cause you never did the voices right. You could read any other story, but not this one." She laughs, and I can feel her chest rise and fall a little.

"Read to me," I whisper, looking up to meet her eyes. I think I've never felt so vulnerable, and exposed.

Clearsight smiles a little. "Just give me a minute." She adjusts the blankets around us, and clearing her throat. "Tales of the Lost Continent. Chapter One: In Which Landhunter Has a Very Bad Day." She giggles a little, playing with my talons. "Do you remember this one?"

I shake my head.

"It's so ridiculous, I love it." I can hear the smile in her voice. "It was a dreary morning, and Landhunter's parents were bickering again, about boring grown-up things, like fixing the leak in the roof and whose turn it was to go hunting. His parents were miserable, ordinary folk, and he often didn't understand how they could possibly be related. All they cared about was fixing their small dwelling near the bottom of the ravine--which was constantly falling apart--or nagging him. Every day, it was all 'Landhunter, don't go flying in that storm!" and "Landhunter, you're getting dirt in the house!' and so on.

'Goodbye, Mother," he called, slinging his school bag over his shoulder. "Goodbye, Father!'

They didn't seem to hear him over their squabbling."

I laugh. "Wait, wait, did Shadowhunter think this was us? Are we the boring adults now? That's a horrifying thought."

Clearsight laughs--deep belly laughs. "No, no," she reassures me. "We're very cool and exciting and hip with the youth and our dragonets definitely don't think otherwise."

I snort. "Never say that phrase again."

***

She reads through the whole thing, until her voice goes hoarse after a few hours, and she has to have some tea, and I have to take over. It's a good story—even if Landhunter has a bit of a superiority complex; but Clearsight says he gets a character arc to fix that. I guess I'm not one to criticize. We read through his flight across the ocean (which he decides to embark on because he lost his pet frog and can't find it anywhere else, what an idiot), and his meeting with Emerald, who's obviously his love interest, and Clearsight's favourite. And then, he finds out that the evil queen has been taking too much territory from everyone else and making everyone mine precious jewels for her, and it's a bit of a dystopia right now, and plot twist, Emerald is actually a princess, and Landhunter goes out on his own, shocked at all the horrible things her family as done, and he finds this weird scavenger civilization, and manifests future-seeing because of weird scavenger magic, and explores the continent and almost dies, and then she rescues him and they have a very dramatic love confession scene, and they launch a coup to take the throne from Emerald's mother. I can see why Queen Vigilance might have wanted to change that plotline a little bit.

"Emerald and Landhunter ruled the kingdom in prosperity, for many years to come, as did their many dragonets. The end," Clearsight says, taking a sip of her tea.

"Aren't they like, child rulers? Like he's three or something at maximum, right..."

"Shut up, you're ruining it. I thought this was the definition of romance as a kid, just so you know," Clearsight giggles.

"The coup part?"

"No! Okay, a little bit, fine. But they're so good together!"

"I want a sequel where their throne gets stolen by Emerald's slimy ex-student," I mutter. "And they're tired and their daughters keep getting kidnapped and Snowfox and her stupid son ruin their lives."

"Oh, there is a sequel. They're all grown up, it's like a next-generation thing? It's horrible, it tries to be all edgy and nuanced, but the characters are all wrong? I think the author died, and her daughter wrote it or something."

She sets down the scroll, pressing a kiss to my forehead. "You look so cute right now, you know."

"Please tell me your blueprint for our relationship wasn't a scroll you were obsessed with as a one-year-old."

Clearsight throws back her head laughing. "Nah, Landhunter's kind of annoying. I think he cheats on her in the third one. You're better than him."

"Reassuring," I say, rolling my eyes. "You still haven't given me a concrete no, by the way."

She shifts around a little, closing her eyes. "Maybe just a little bit."

I whack her with one of the pillows. "I can't believe you!"

She swats at me with her talon. "Mmm. I'm tired. No pillow-fights right now. Or I won't read you that godawful sequel and make fun of it with you." She pulls me back down into bed, and I wrap my wings around her, pulling her close like I used to.

"Warm," she murmurs sleepily, grinning.

I can feel those butterflies dancing around in my stomach again. I can't tell if they're from happiness or terror.