SkyEarth Book 2: The Ethaerium Keys

Chapter 5: Etherealm

Chapter 5

Etherealm

By the time they reached the very edge of the Granazian continent it was dark.

Oliver landed the Peryton II on a grassy plain at the end of the Wilds. The biplane's tough landing gear allowed it to be able to land on harsh terrain in case of an emergency. He, Shaun, Luna and Morpheus made camp for the night. By morning, they will take on flying through Tramontana Bay.

During the campfire, they all exchanged stories. Oliver told his story of his two days restoring and upgrading the Bayonet with Morpheus as his assistant. He told Shaun and Luna about how they created the Levante Rider 2.0 in the spare time he had.

"It wasn't easy." he told them before take a spoonful of canned soup into his mouth. "I wasn't able to get much sleep, but with Morph and his sleep magic, he helped me feel refreshed like I had a full night's sleep without having to close my eyes. Ain't that right?"

Grunt grunt! Grunt! Morpheus grunted.

"I'm sure that's a 'yes'." Oliver concluded.

Shaun and Luna nodded. They listened to every word he said and appreciated his hard work. They then told him about their two days together gathering supplies, making routes on the map and strategizing plans, and their encounter with Nyx and her men. They concluded the masked Auraeons are being controlled by the Stratos. They had their cores overtaken by aural parasites. The Stratos must've secretly captured every Auraeon they could find during their years of inactivity and somehow harnessed their auras to their benefit. They don't know what happened to the people who had their auras siphoned away like gas, and they don't want to.

"If you haven't been there with the plane and the glider," said Shaun. "Luna and I would've been taken by the Stratos by now."

"It was through my quick thinking that we're here now." Luna pointed out. "You boys would've been captured a long time ago without me and Morpheus."

Something's been going on between those two, and Oliver sensed it. The aura around those two felt like the air before a huge thunderstorm: tense, charged and metallic. Had something happened in the observatory? He tried talking to them about it in private, but both refused to.

"Well we succeeded in doing that after you disappeared." Shaun interjected. "We were actually doing fine before you showed up."

"Oh it's my fault that things fall to pieces?" Luna asked, feeling angry at the country boy for placing the blame on her. "Those masked marauders would've found us eventually, even if we had not bumped into each other."

"Acolyte girl's right, buddy." Oliver intervened before his friend could retort. "The Stratos would've found us, even if we hadn't seen Luna and Morpheus in Copper Town. Look, we escape from the Stratos, and that's something we should celebrate tonight. Tomorrow, we'll fly through Tramontana to reach Agrotika and find our families. Once we're done with that, we can take Luna and Morpheus south to Solenne and that'll be the end of it. So please, I don't to see any fighting during our time together. You'll be out of each other's lives once we're done. Agreed?"

Shaun and Luna looked at each other for a while without uttering a single word. Both of them nodded, and that's the end of it. They finished their dinners, extinguished the campfire, and went into their tents. Shaun and Oliver sleep together under one tent while Luna and her baku had their own. Under the stars of midnight, they all went to sleep.

...

Luna dreamed of the lake again. This time, Shaun wasn't in it, thank Solaris.

She didn't want to speak to that insufferable country boy after he blamed her for everything that's happened. She didn't asked to be in the company of those two, yet this was her only option in getting back home.