The Lunar Elites

Chapter Three

Thorne's POV
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Utter silence ensued. They all stood frozen, uncertain of what to do. Especially Thorne. Though he could see blotches of colors silhouetting members of his crew, since he had taken his bandanna off for a while, he still had absolutely no idea what everyone else glimpsed that left them so speechless. Instinctually, his arm reached out, searching for Cress. He felt a small, soft hand slip into his and he squeezed it tightly. Then he realized that she was shaking. He didn't know whether she was scared, or sad, or hurt. Being blind made him feel so helpless, and that's not a feeling he enjoyed.

​"Cress, what's wrong?" He murmured, so that only she could hear him.

​"I-"

​"What in the name of Luna is going on?!" Cinder screeched before Cress could continue, her voice getting louder with every word.

​Kai started speaking in a quiet voice. "Cinder, calm down-"

​"No! I'm not going to calm down! We already have so much to worry about without some portal showing up and shoving a bunch of freaking time travellers from what looks like the first era onto our hands! What are we going to do? Just stuff them back into where they came from?" Cinder exclaimed. "Or even better! We can just toss them into outer space!"

​"Wait, back up. Time travellers? What's going on here? Can someone please tell me what happened?" Thorne inquired, his brow furrowed in confusion.

​"Come with me. I'll explain what's going on."  Cress said, tugging on his hand.

​She led him away from a fuming Cinder. Cress guided Thorne down a series of halls, until she took a sharp turn left, leading him into the control room. They made their way over to a couch, sitting down beside each other. There was a moment of silence while Thorne collected his thoughts and asked her his first question.

​"Time travellers? Where did they come from? And what does Cinder mean by them being from the first era?" Thorne prodded.

​"Okay, so this is what happened," Cress started. "Remember we heard Cinder scream? We then followed the sound to her sleeping quarters. When we came in Kai was holding Cinder, and behind her was a big...portal...I guess. Suddenly, six people just fell out of it!"

​Cress voice shook as she spoke, clearly terrified by what happened. All of that seemed pretty absurd, so either it was somehow insanely true, or everyone else was playing an elaborate and well-staged prank on him. He wouldn't put it past them to abuse the blind man. But it seemed strange that Cress would go along with that, so he trusted her.

​"Thanks for the, uh, detailed information, but I also want to know how on Luna did that portal even get there in the first place. Also, first era???"

​"Well, I don't know how it got there, but Cinder might know. She was there when it appeared, after all. Also she made the comment about them coming from the first era because of their strange, robe-like clothes, which were similar to ones I've seen in drawings from the first era." Cress paused, then continued, chuckling. "Cinder was sure as hell right about one thing though. Things have definitely just gotten a lot more complicated."

​Thorne reached out and pulled her close. He held her and revelled in her warmth, while she leaned her head on his shoulder. They sat together for a bit, until Thorne heard someone come in. Cress practically jumped out of his arms, embarrassed, but he wasn't really feeling much chagrin.

​"Cinder wants to talk to everyone in the engine room. Right now," said Wolf's gruff voice.

​Thorne stood up and Cress followed suit, interlocking her fingers with his. Together they walked to the engine room, and Thorne hoped that the hum of machinery in their meeting place would have calmed Cinder down a bit by now. They walked in and Cress led him to crate where they both settled down to listen to what Cinder has to say.

​"Our visitors have been placed and locked in separate rooms." Cinder said, her tone no longer holding any emotions. "I thought that we should keep them apart for now so that they don't do something stupid like go and murder everyone on this ship. There are two males and four females. They've all been provided with clothes and they should be awake by tomorrow morning. Tomorrow, we'll bring them all here and discuss our...situation. Maybe they could help us somehow."

​"Yes, ma'am." Thorne grumbled. He didn't even get a chuckle. Apparently everyone was too serious too enjoy his legendary humor.

​"Cinder?" Thorne heard Iko's soft voice. "Where do you think they came from? And what about the portal? How did that come to be?"

​Cinder let out a sigh and answered, "For where they came from, I don't know. I guess we'll find out when they wake up. The portal was created by me. I don't know how, but somehow my powers made it."

​Cinder cleared her throat and continued. "Well, right now I think we should all get some rest. It's been a long day."

​Thorne heard everyone start to leave, but he stayed behind. There was something he needed to discuss with Cinder. He told Cress to leave him there and he can find his own way back to his room.

​Once everyone was gone but him and Cinder, he started to talk. "Cinder, I want to ask you something."

"Okay?" Cinder replied, waiting for him to start talking.

"Well... are you okay?​" Thorne asked, and then laughed. "Well that question is kind of stupid. No one's okay right now. I just want to know, well, if... I don't know how to phrase this properly. I saw you brooding all day, and what happened with the portal... well it feels like you finally snapped. So... are you okay enough right now?"

For a moment, Cinder said nothing. Then she cleared her throat and said, "I'm fine."

Those famous words mean that she is, in fact, not fine, but she would be mad if he tried to pry further. 

"Alright." Thorne said, and was about to follow up with some advice but Cinder was already bidding him good night and walking out of the room.

Thorne sighed, and decided not to follow her. Everyone was tired, and he would rather first get some sleep before facing Cinder with this issue again. He found his way to his room, burying his face into his pillow contentedly. Sleep was a sweet relief after that stressful day.
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​Thorne woke up, feeling disoriented. At first he couldn't put his finger on what woke him up. And then he heard it. A scream coming from a room further down the hall. He scrambled up and nearly fell over, his eyes still dysfunctional. And then he remembered who Cinder told him was in that room down the hall. Not one of his crew members.

One of the visitors was awake.
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A/N. Phew, finally done chapter 3! This was a particularly hard chapter to write since Thorne is blind so some of my descriptions of things from his point of view were really undetailed :/ But that's okay because my next chapter will be from the POV of a character who can see, even if not from both of their eyes ;)  *hint *hint