Luna woke up and realized that she was lying on a strange bed. She looked at her wounded abdomen and noticed that it had been patched up with a clean bandage. She looked around the room and the most notable thing she saw was a woman looking at a large holographic screen.
The woman turned around. "Oh, you're awake. That was quite some wound."
"Where am I?" Luna asked her.
"You're in my clinic." She turned around to look at the hologram again. "Someone brought you here after you fainted on the way."
Luna tried getting up, but the woman stopped her. "Wait, I'm going to scan you one more time to make sure you don't have any other injuries." She pressed some buttons on the control panel on the side of the bed and a metallic arch came up on the foot side. She pressed some more buttons and the metal arch slowly traveled from her feet to her head, then back to her feet again. The woman looked at the projection and her hand flew to her mouth. Luna could've sworn she heard her gasp.
"What happened?" Luna asked.
"Nothing," the woman said, obviously lying. "Excuse me, I have some business to tend to." She left the room.
Luna looked at the hologram and got up to take a closer look. She noticed something under the picture of a DNA sequence. It says there that she was human on the maternal side, and seraphim on the paternal side. Luna's heart skipped a beat. All this time, she was half-angel.
Luna heard the door open and she turned around to see the woman had returned with a man about her age. "Is this what surprised you? I'm half-angel, aren't I?"
"Is this what you wanted to tell me?" The man asked.
"Honey, someone like her can help us. That is why you must take her to Miranda, she so can learn how to use her powers," she replied. On hearing the word 'honey', Luna assumed that the man was her husband.
"I'm sorry, what?" Luna asked. What did they mean by taking her to Miranda? She didn't even know who Miranda is. "Where are you taking me?"
"YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE!" Someone declared outside. The three of them went out to check what was going on. As it turned out, the announcer was a seraphim soldier.
"AS THE TOWN OF ELDHAM HAS FALLEN TO THE CONTROL OF THE DEMONS, AND TO ANTICIPATE AN ATTACK TO THIS TOWN, FOR YOUR OWN SAFETY, WE DEMAND THAT EVERYONE EVACUATES TO FARSTAG. BRING ONLY WHAT YOU NEED, TAKE NO TREASURES WITH YOU. THIS TOWN MUST EMPTY BY SUNDOWN!" After the announcer left, everyone hurried to their homes in order to pack up for the journey.
The couple went upstairs and instantly began sorting out what they needed for the journey. Luna only stood there not knowing what to do. She didn't bring anything to Fairberry, she went there empty handed, taking only whatever clothes she was wearing. A few moments later, they reappeared to her with their light baggage. The three of them went out the door as people had already begun crowding the streets in evacuation. Among the crowd of people, the couple kissed. "I love you," the husband said.
"Be safe," his wife whispered before joining the exodus of people.
"Come on." The man grabbed Luna by the arm and dragged her away, quite peculiarly in the opposite direction of where everybody was going.
"Where are we going?" Luna asked the man.
"To the docks," he said.
He continued dragging her. Surprisingly, no one seemed to care. They were too busy walking on their path that they were simply apathetic about a man dragging a girl going in the opposite direction. They arrived at the docks and the man dropped his baggage onto a boat.
"Come on," the man said.
"Where are we going?" Luna finally asked.
"South," the man replied. "To demon territories."
The mention of the demon territories made Luna shiver. What did his wife tell him? How could they agree to take her to demon territories? And about the mention of Miranda, Luna guessed that she had something to do with all this.
"No." Luna began walking away but the man caught her arm. "Let me go!" she demanded.
The two struggled. The man tried pulling her towards the boat while Luna tried to go otherwise. With one powerful tug, the man pulled Luna over and caught her in a choke hold with his arm wrapped around Luna's throat. Luna still tried to resist, but all her efforts were in vain. She eventually passed out.
When she came to her senses again, she realized that she was on a boat accompanied by a middle-aged man with graying black hair, the same man who kidnapped her. He looked at her with a grim expression while he rowed the boat.
"Who are you?" Luna asked. "Where are you taking me?"
"For the first question, my name is Janus," the man said. "For the second question, you've heard me answer it before. But I'm going to repeat it - we're going south to demon territories."
Again, Luna found herself shivering at the mention of demon territories. "No, I am not going to demon territories. Let me down now."
"Well, whether you like it or not, we are going south."
Luna panicked. "No, you should leave me and not involve me in whatever it is you're doing. I'm going back to Eldham."
Janus chuckled. "Back to Eldham? But that's where the demons are." He looked towards the horizon and his continuous observation made Luna look behind her.
Fires and smoke were rising from Eldham. Luna's face showed perturbation, she hadn't seen any of the girls in Fairberry and her biggest concern was that they had died during the attack. She looked at the ruined town as they strode pass it, seeing some bodies being feasted upon while some demons stood guard making sure that the seraphim didn't launch a counterattack.
"Still want to go back to Eldham?" Janus asked.
Luna could only shake her head. Janus searched his supplies and fished out a gun. "You know how to use one of these?"
Luna observed the weapon. It looked like a flintlock with a revolver's cylinder. Easily recognizable as one of those handguns the seraphim use. Perhaps he killed a seraphim and took it as a trophy. "I've seen how they use it. But never really used one myself."
Janus held the barrel of the gun allowing her to take the handle. "I want you to hold on to this. Our journey will be perilous and I might not always be there to protect you."
Luna took the gun, feeling its weight on her hand. She had never used a firearm before, and she felt nervous about getting her first one.
"And here," Janus reached inside his supplies again. "are the bullets." He handed her a small leather bag. "You still haven't told me your name."
"Oh, it's Luna," she said, finally opening up.
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If you're ever wondering, I did take some inspiration from The Last of Us to create this kind of Joel-Ellie relationship between Janus and Luna.
Qotd: What do you think of The Last of Us part 2?
I dedicate this chapter to AnnaleeDiAngelo1 who read and voted on the first book. Hope you continue to enjoy the adventure ☺️
-Zyrofern
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Of Master and Apprentice (Book 3)
FantasyLuna's life was turned upside-down when her hometown was attacked by demons. After learning a secret about herself, she was forced to go south in order to find and train under Miranda. There's only one problem - she's afraid of demons, and the south...
