The Skeleton Princess

Chapter 14 - Origin

The night sky glistens as the beast army all sit around a crudely made fireplace, it was almost as if Luna was camping with her friends.

The beast folk have a range of appearances, one is a wolf with a human-like body, and another one is a lizard with green scales which reflect the light of the red-lit fire.

Luna is sitting on a hollowed out black log with Max, Pip, and a tired-looking Lucy.

The princess gives everyone a serious look and says in an equal serious voice "I was told that the Celestials were the ones who ordered the attack on the underworld, apparently 'God' appeared to tell their pope that we're evil beings."

Pip and Max look in surprise while saying in unison "The Celestials, God!?"

Lucy who is half asleep asks in a mumbling tone "I was told that Celestials were extinct when the universe was created. Aren't they like super duper powerful?"

Luna nods and carries on with her explanation "Yes we thought they died but fron what the pope said, they only wanted us to believe that. He also said something about my origin and the location where I should go and that's it connected but-"

Max interrupts Luna with a loud voice "Wait, he told you about your past!? What did he say!?"

Luna looks at Max and realises that he is scared of knowing because she isn't a recorded race within the Underworld and Overworld "Don't worry Max, he said nothing, just where I should go to find it out."

Max shows a sign of relief and Lucy begins to sleep on Maxilla's lap like a pillow to try calm him down, Pip asks Luna in his usual high pitch tone "So, are you going there or not? I have to get back to my kingdom Bloodkeep before my sister tries to take my throne, so there's some time to spare and if you are linked to this maybe we can have some clue on how to meet the Celestials."

Luna looks at Max, he gives a nod of approval even though the colour of his eyes are the opposite of what his actions are.

Luna answers Pip who's looking at the undead couple with a smile "Yeah, if I find anything I'll tell you right away... wait, your a leader of one of the major cities!?"

Pip stands up from the dark log and walks towards his beast folk comrades, shouting to Luna "Yep, I'm the one of the people your father chose to be a leader!"

Luna smiles and says nothing, she just watches the cat man walk away into the darkness to his friends.

Max is looking at Lucy sleeping on his lap and is petting her head, Luna sees this and comments "Did something happen? You two seem closer."

Maxilla's eyes change pink and he says in an embarrassed tone "We're lovers right now."

Luna smiles mischievously and says in a sadistic tone "Oh, so you two finally confessed? I guess Lucy wants to BONE you after all."

Max gives Luna a judgemental look and asks in a annoyed tone "Was that a pun!?"

Lucy's smiles even harder and she says "No of course not, but I bet when Lucy's not here you get rather BONEly."

Maxilla and Lucy stay silent for a few seconds before ending up laughing so loud that a guard had to check up on them, luckily Lucy sleeps like a rock.

When the two childhood friends finally calm down Luna says in a serious tone "Just look after her Max, she's very emotionally sensitive."

Max nods and asks a question which has been bothering him "Hey Luna, did you do something in the human realm which was related to Lucy?"

Luna smiles and replies "Yes... I found the person who hurt Lucy and killed him, he was about to hurt another girl when I found him."

Max picks Lucy up in his arms while he begins to stand up, he says in a very thankful tone "Thanks Luna, Lucy felt it and it made her so happy but.... nevermind."

The knight who holds his own princess in his arms walks to the barracks with a slow pace, so he wouldn't give any discomfort to his undead lover.

Now that Luna's alone she decides to think about the dark presence which had spoken to her in that hollow voice, it sounded like her father's but different.

Maybe it was her imagination but she decides to visit her father's birthplace when all of this is over, Death's chasm.

The alone princess looks up at the twin magenta moons which cradle themselves in the dark purple sky and just watches like her father used to, maybe she has fallen for the moons too.

A few hours pass and the dark purple sky begins to light up which signals that day is breaking, Luna, Max, and Lucy all prepare to travel to the location on the Underworld map.

The place the pope marked isn't that far from the black gate and it's right next to the blood river which runs through the underworld like a vein, it's said that the river is made by an immortal creature that forever bleeds it's red crimson blood, but that's just a urban legend.

The three travel faster than usual because of the white and red wolf's which Pip let them borrow, they finally make it and it's a destroyed village.

It wasn't destroyed by the humans because this has been like this for a long time, the village is normal without any magic being used or anything of the sort.

The houses are made of black stone and wood which wasn't harvested from any of the trees or rocks in the area, they were made from alchemy.

Alchemy is a long lost art which only certain races can use, it's capable of being taught to people who aren't that race but it's extremely difficult.

That's when Luna can feel something, it's a nostalgic feeling that pulls her towards one of the houses.

Like all the other ones it's been burnt and smashed but there's something about it that brings the princess to feel high nostalgia.

Max and Lucy both follow Luna into the house where they find a table, kitchen utensils, beds and all the other living needs tipped over all over the place.

On the floor is a book, unlike all the other items it's in perfectly normal condition.

Luna picks the book up and opens it, Max and Lucy look at it over Luna's shoulders.

Their eyes go wide, they read the whole book ignoring the time it took to finish it.

Luna and Lucy's eyes begin to tear up, while Max decides to take a walk for a while.

Luna says in a broken sad voice "This is my mother's diary, I know everything now."

Lucy hugs Luna, and Max is outside swinging his sword at the surrounding objects as target practice.

After a while the three friends decide to go to Bloodkeep to tell Pip everything they just learned, and where to find the bloodstone.