"the moon and me are like this 🤞"
ᴍᴇʀᴍᴀɪᴅ ᴏᴄ
A tale of two impoverished sisters.
Luna and Marina were once nobles in an underwater kingdom formerly known as "Esdelle." That was until one day, humans came and wiped them out in what is now known as...
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⋆.ೃ࿔*:･₊ ⊹
Luna stood outside by the horse stables. The breeze was blowing, causing leaves to glide softly over the stone pavement. She was currently standing at a small distance, waiting on Dazai to bring one of the horses out. They were going to carry through a small mission regarding the 'tests' King Fukuzawa had been referring to.
She looked up at the sky. It was a bright, clear day, some of the clouds opening up the sky. Then she looked back down at the pavement, lightly kicking a pebble back into the dirt. She wriggled her foot slightly and bent her knee. She still had her legs. She was still human.
"Uh, so where exactly are we going?" She looked up at Dazai as he walked out of the wooden stable, holding one of the horses by the reins.
"Nowhere special.. just to the shoreline over east," He said with a slight smirk.
Her gaze went to the side. She still felt quite strange after the earlier occurrences. The simple fact that he happened to be outside at just the right time was a bit impeccable. As if he'd been waiting. Why did he have to be so vague about everything? She decided not to say anything, though.
"Meet Zora."
Luna eyed the mare as its ears pricked forward, eyeing her as well. She stood tall, the breeze lifting her mane slightly. Even their horses held a certain dignified essence. She was a deep brown in color, similar to Dazai's hair, except she had white patches over her nose and her sides.
"That's your horse?"
"Yeah.." Dazai answered, running his palm down Zora's neck. "Finest one in the bunch. You know how to ride, right?"
Luna paused for a moment, sizing up the horse. She looked almost double her size. She wore a cream colored saddle with some kind of embroidered symbol on the front. The saddle almost looked like a puzzle in itself, and she looked down at the stirrup, trying to discern how she was going to even get on.
"Yeah." She looked back at Dazai.
The man blinked at her a couple times, gauging her expression silently. Then his own expression changed into an amused one.
"You're actually a really bad liar, you know that?"
Dazai would end up helping her up onto the horse's back behind him, giving her proper instructions to hold onto him so she wouldn't fall. They rode down the stone path for a while, passing through the backpaths of a few nearby villages.
"You have to hold on tight." Dazai said.
"I'm doing that." Luna said through gritted teeth.
They passed underneath some leaf clearing that led to a secluded field area. Luna's expression immediately softened, her eyebrows raising slightly. The scenery was beautiful.
"Alright, some of my apprentices should already be here."
"So we're already here?"
"Nah, it's just a quick stop I wanted to make."
There was an immediate peaceful shift in the atmosphere. The sun above provided a soft, warm glow over the greenery and flowers–pink lilies, yellow daisies, blue forget-me-nots. The field was closed in by a light stone wall. There were two huge black rocks placed next to each other in the center of the field that stuck out like sore thumbs, probably placed there intentionally.
Luna had never felt the sun's embrace like this before. It was enticing. She raised her gaze and noticed two figures crouching down, seemingly picking flowers, their backs turned to them. It looked like a boy and a girl–one with white hair, and one with black. Luna recognized their blue uniforms. Those must have been the apprentices Dazai was talking about.
"We'll mount Zora at that tree over there." Dazai pointed at a group of trees where the two kids were. There were two other horses mounted there, presumably belonging to them.
"Atsushi Nakajima." The boy stood up and shook Luna's hand after she slid off Dazai's horse.
"Luna."
"I know you.." The woman turned to the black-haired girl. She'd picked a handful of flowers and held them in her palms. There were a few in her hair.
"Hello miss." Kyouka bowed.
"Okay, let's go!" Dazai began skipping over the field, heading towards the center where the black stones were placed.
Luna still did not know what was going on. She had no clue how to feel towards anything occurring these past days, having been forced into a spontaneous tango of uncertainty. It wasn't like she had a choice anymore either. For now, she was simply following everyone else's lead.
Though the questions still ate at her.
'What if I suddenly turn back while everyone's watching?'
'What if I never turn back?'
'Will I be stuck here for the rest of my days?'
"Hah.. It's so nice having someone who doesn't talk in your ear 24/7 about all your shortcomings." Dazai said with glee, coming to a stop as they all arrived at the two rocks.
"Are you talking about Kunikida?" Atsushi asked.
The brunette gave him a side glance and silently chuckled.
"Somehow it's way less stressful when he's not around."
Luna came around to Dazai's side to look at whatever they were looking at, and to her discovery, there was a hollow little pond. But even more so, there were a ton of carvings on the two rocks. They were names.
Christopherson Mae
S. Oda R. Uri And the list goes on.
"It's a monumental park meant to keep a record of the fallen. There's at least a thousand names etched in here, but with you.. it ends here." Dazai's finger trailed down and stopped at the last name at the very bottom.
Dazai looked up at Luna, and her gaze locked with his for a moment. She then looked down at her reflection in the pond, lily pads floating around her face, casting soft ripples in the water.
Everyone kept telling her she was going to be this island's hope, some kind of potential savior–but no one was telling her how. She had her healing ability, sure, but it would be impossible to heal every single person who fell ill to the curse. There was no way she could get to everyone. So what exactly was their plan?
If I could just get the wishbook, things could be different..
Luna froze just then. She felt something carefully start to wrap around her waist and arms, tightly keeping her in place.
