The Lunar Void (Book 2 to Moon Series)

Chapter 4- Earning A Rank

Emilio stepped off of the landing plateform and began to pick at his new piercings, especially his bottle lip ones. He picked up all of his luggage and struggled down the ramp with all his human high school supplies. He was met by a large bulldog Rakian, who obviously wasn't too happy escorting a human.

Emilio gave the bulldog a polite smile, only to have a returning glare come his way. His greeting smile faded away when the bulldog crossed his arms and turned away.

Emilio sighed quietly and followed the Rakian. No words were exchanged; Emilio couldn't speak very well under the new world's atmosphere and pressure (especially with 12 text books on his back) and the Rakian obviously was a natural talker.

The bulldog, who was massive in muscle size, took long stides to escort Emilio to where it seemed like the middle of a pale desert. There was no clear bulid visible to him, but the Rakian knew where to lead him. Suddenly, he stopped, causing Emilio to stop as well.

"Stand here," his voice demanded from Emilio. He rushed over and stood next to the Rakian. Immediately as Emilio placed his bags on the dusty floor, the ground seemed to be sinking. The ground moved downward, but the Rakian just stood there, as if it was supposed to happen. As the ground sank below the desert surface, Emilio noticed that the area under the desert was forest.

Lushes of blooming trees were growing around a silvery complex buliding. Large branches from the trees hid the facilty, but not well-enough for Emilio's keen eyes. He easily saw mulitple bulidings hidden in Ausa's nature ferns and some of the large forest trees were destoryed to make a clearing for some out-door training.

Emilio glanced upward and saw that natural sunlight and sky was being flitered into the hollowed area. He was truly amazed to see more of Rakian technology at work.

The bulldog smirked and shook his head. "You humans are amused by the simplest of things."

Once the platform reached the ground, Emilio picked up  his school supplies and followed the Rakian through a slightly thick groove in the forest path. They reached the silvery walls of one of the buildings with a small grove where a door was visible. They walked inside into a dark room.

"Leave your stuff there," the Rakian said, pointing to a corner. Emilio listened and secretly hoped that his wasn't his room. "Pick a weapon"

The bulldog turned on the lights, and revealed the room to him. Emilio saw multiple metal racks lined up agaisnt the walls. Instead of holding various weapons, the racks held what looked like handles of swords. The tile floor reflected everything in the room, leaving everything exposed.

Emilio dropped his things in a corner and began to examine the different handles, wondering what to actually do with them. One was large, a dark metal, and embedded was strange symbols. Another was pale silver and held a ruby-like crystal at the end. Emilio didn't how to base his decision on, so he went with blind luck.

He picked up a smaller handle, that was slightly bigger than his hand; there was nothing particularly special, just a simple black metal handle thatseemed to eb belonged to a dagger.

The Rakian bulldog began to chuckle, which made Emilio regretting his blind choice of a weapon.

"Really?" he crossed his arms and leaned against a taller rack of handles. "You're going with that one?"

"Why? What's wrong with it?"

The bulldog shook his head in disbelief. "Is this what Earth promises for their best?"

"Yeah, I like to switch things up a bit," he said, "Makes things, ya'know, more interesting."

"Whatever, human." He snickered and walked to the other side of the room. He pushed a botton on the wall closest to Emilio and a hidden door open. He held up a hand and indicated for Emilio to walk through.