When the Moon Rises (MCSM)

The Fire Queen

"We wait, either until they wake up or their friends come looking for them," I said calmly.
"How long until then?" she asked.
"I have no idea, soon I hope."

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Petra's POV;
           Petra groaned, it had been two hours since their battle with the island natives, and no others had come to investigate. She was bored and cold, not enjoying the fact that she had almost drowned. Carmen was slowly transferring her energy to Petra, but it wasn't enough to cure her fatigue. Jesse however looked as awake as ever; her familiar, Rue, must have a lot more energy than Carmen.
"It's n-not that!" Carmen squeaked indignantly. "Rue used all her strength, I'm slowly transferring mine so I don't pass out as well." Petra sighed, she should have known, Carmen was as careful as they come. Petra kind of resented the fact that Jesse and Rue's personalities complemented each other so well. Both of them were reckless risk takers, ready to run into danger to protect the ones they love. Carmen however was hesitant, on everything. She wouldn't willing put herself in harms way, at least not without a plan. Petra would gladly run head first into an adventure, throwing caution to the wind. But, unfortunately, now she had a little voice in her head telling her not to do the stupid and dangerous stuff.
         Petra groaned again, she was just about ready to throw herself back into the ocean if something didn't happen soon. The others also didn't look like they were doing too well. Axel had fallen asleep against a palm tree; Lukas and Olivia were throwing pebbles at him trying to see how many they could get before he woke up. Jesse however was down on the beach, splashing around in the surf. Petra didn't fail to notice that she kept looking wearily at the tree line then her eyes would flicker over to the cage where they were holding the natives. Petra knew that if there was some kind of retaliation from the island people that Jesse was the only one who would be able to fully handle herself. The rest of them were still to waterlogged to be of much assistance.
         Petra shakily pushed herself to her feet, she stumbled a few steps but soon regained her balance. Olivia rose to help her, but Petra just waved her away. She didn't need help, she didn't want it either.
         She slowly made her way to the beach where Jesse was, trudging through the sand that was pooling at her ankles. Jesse looked up and smiled at her lightly. Petra gave her a tight-lipped smile in return, trying to ignore the fluttering sensation in the pit of her stomach. Jesse walked up to meet her and softly grabbed her arm to help Petra down to the surf.
         The ocean lapped gently at her feet. Sand and sea foam dirtied the surf in front of her, swirling in clouds under the water. Waves crashed far off, but close enough so Petra could hear the quiet noise of them breaking on the rocks. Sea birds called to each noisily, flying gracefully through the sunset stained sky. Petra turned to Jesse, whose  emerald eyes were trained on the horizon.
         "What happens now?" Petra asked quietly. "We can't just wait here forever, we need a plan." Jesse sighed, her shoulders drooped slightly.
         "I really don't know, we're in no shape to fight a battle, and soon we'll need more food and water," Jesse said.
        "Anything is better than waiting, it's driving me insane," Petra said irritably. Jesse laughed softly, turning towards her and bringing a hand to cover her mouth. Jesse had a nice smile, the kind that crinkled her nose and displayed her dimples. It conveyed her open and kind personality, the one that brought Beacon Town to idolize her as their hero in residence. The thing that frustrated Petra though was that Jesse would always cover it, hiding her smile like it was something to be ashamed of. So without putting much thought into it, Petra lightly pulled Jesse hand down to her side, their fingers automatically knotted together. She watched as Jesse's eyes went wide and a splash of red settled across her cheeks.
        They stood there awhile, neither willing to pull their hand away, not even to put a little distance between them. It was comfortable and uncomfortable at the same time; like Petra was in her own world and Jesse was a major part in it. That was a world Petra could get behind, in fact she could do it very easily. There was also this force, pulling her towards Jesse; as if Jesse was the Earth and gravity was weighing Petra down. It made her nervous, not the kind of nervous when you're surrounded by monsters. No, this was a new type of nervous, one that Petra had never experienced before.
         A scream cut through the pleasant silence like a sword through butter. It shattered Petra and Jesse's shared moment effortlessly and effectively. Both women whipped their heads towards the direction of the screams. Axel was covered head to toe in little pebbles, and was struggling to get out from underneath them. All the while Lukas and Olivia were laughing at his misfortune and were exchanging high fives. Petra rolled her eyes, they were so childish sometimes.
         She and Jesse made their way back to the tree line, Lukas raised an eyebrow at Petra, looking at her and Jesse's intertwined fingers. The tips of Petra's ears turned pink as she tried to subtly untangle her fingers from Jesse's. When Axel was finally free, Jesse went into full leader mode.
        "Alright guys I have a plan," she announced confidently. "We're going to take the fight to them."
       "How are we going to do that? We don't even know where their town is," Olivia said worriedly. Jesse smirked,
       "Leave that part to me, let's find some ropes to tie these soldiers up."
        They begun to scour the immediate area for anything that could be helpful. Eventually they were able to collect enough thick vines to tie the natives up throughly. Jesse walked right up to the largest man and threw his mask to the side.
       The man's face was covered in tattoos and piercings. Both of his eyebrows were pierced with golden ring stacks that covered the length of his brow. He also had nineteen straight lines tattooed across his jawline. Jesse bent down to meet his eyes,
        "I'm only going to say this once, you either take us to your village at your own accord or we find it anyway and make your life a lot less pleasant," Jesse said, voice steely. The man only glared silently at her. Jesse sighed, and drew her enchanted diamond sword and pressed it to his neck.
         "I guess it's the hard way, fine," she motion for Petra and the others to draw their swords. Each of them took a masked warrior to stand behind and press their swords to their throats.
         Jesse led the way through the humid jungle, taking deep breaths as she went. "She's sniffing them out." Petra frowned, confused by what Carmen had said. "She's following the trail that the big scary men took when they first attacked us. Jesse is basically retracing their steps," Carmen said, weakly. "Also don't think I didn't notice the moment you and Jesse had back at the beach." Petra blushed, muttering curses at Carmen under her breath.
         Eventually they made it to what looked like a stairway up into a large mountain. Petra's prisoner began to struggle violently, trying in vain to escape Petra's iron grip. One by one each prisoner began to struggle, all except the one under Jesse's command. He stood stone faced and unmoving.
         "I suggest you climb, we don't need all of you as bargaining chips," Jesse growled quietly to the soldiers. Petra was enjoying watching Jesse's acting, as it turned out she was actually pretty good. Everyone in the Order of the Stone, previous and current, knew that Jesse didn't have a malicious bone in her body. She would never intentionally hurt someone, or Notch forbid, kill someone. But their captives didn't have to no that; all they needed to know was that Jesse wanted something in their village and would stop at nothing to get it.
         They made their way up the stairs into a chamber lit up by controlled streams of lava. People were crowded in a circle around the center of the chamber. Delicate strums from some sort of string instrument were resounding and echoing around the room. Jesse took a step forward clearing her throat. The crowd slowly turned their attention to Jesse; a few gasped when they saw their guards held captive with swords at their throats.
"Who's in charge here?" Jesse growled. "Hurry up and take us to them, or I'll slit their throats, right here, right now!" The crowd slowly parted to reveal a woman in royal purple robes sitting on a stool with an intricate golden harp in her hands. Her lips were dark red and her eyes were as black as coal. She had delicate features, the most striking thing about her was her hair. It looked like lava turning into obsidian, bright in some places, dark in others. She looked at them, her dark eyes not revealing any emotion.
"I was warned that the Champions of Sun and Moon would come. I didn't believe that hag, but yet her you are." The woman said. "I am Seraphine, Queen of Fire."

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I'm back!!! I think I owe all of you an explanation of why I've been gone so long. Well there's only one thing that could make me disappear for so long... Wolves. That's right I flew to Colorado to volunteer at a wolf sanctuary called Mission: Wolf. It was one of the best things I've ever done and I highly recommend if you're as invested in wolves as I am you should go check it out. There is also a camp program that goes out there and helps for a couple weeks. It's the Road Less Traveled, Call of the Wild program. I hope you've all had a good summer, and don't forget to Comment and Vote!
~Wolfe🐺