Finale

Meng bit into one of the few foods that the moon spirits had, it was a kind of candy that was vaguely sweet and extremely sticky.

“Blergh… I mean thank you but… Blergh sorry.” Meng sighed as she sat on a bench and ate the moon candy. She and Youshin were still far from tip top shape, but they were okay now.

For the most part.

Meng still felt the pang in her heart of not knowing where her parents truly were.

The idea that she’d dragged Youshin all the way up to the moon for nothing, and made him fight with the Emperor of Ji for nothing also stung.

The spirits could feel this pain in Meng’s heart as well.

“Young lady… We believe we can help.” A spirit said softly. Meng looked up.

“R-really?!” Meng shouted, suddenly standing up straight and dropping the mediocre morsel of moon marzipan.

“Yes, you seem to have a gift… One which your parents would’ve given you.” The spirit explained, slowly and gently taking the compass stone from Meng.

“Huh? My parents didn’t give me that thing.”

“It’s not the stone we’re talking about. It’s this…” The spirit gently pressed Meng’s chest, shifting its ghostly green hue to a similar purple as the stone.

“You have magic in your soul, your parents would have much the same magic.” The spirit explained, when it took its finger away it returned to its green hue.

“Remarkable, so we’re looking for a purple spirit?” Youshin asked, surprised that the colour of a spirit would be affected by magic.

“Yes, not but not just that…” The spirit muttered as the compass stone pointed away from Youshin.

“Your connection to them will guide you. Now go.” The spirit declared, handing Meng the stone.

“I-I… thank you so much.” Meng sniffed as she ran through the crowd of spirits and followed the stone, Youshin following just behind. The many streets of Yue City twist and turn, spiraled up and down in confusing patterns.

But Meng followed the compass until she reached a large boulevard, the spirits still looked the same, tall cloaked beings with rabbit-like extensions at the top of their hoods.

It was a plaza with a large fountain in the middle with thousands of spirits meandering about.

They all were a mostly uniform green colour, except for one purple spirit, sitting on the edge of the fountain next to another green spirit.

The pair of spirits looked at Meng, and Meng looked at them, for a moment, time itself stood still as they realized who they were.

“MAMA! PAPA!” Meng shouted as she ran through the plaza, stumbling over herself to reach them, they stood up and opened their arms wide as their daughter ran to them, sobbing.

She stopped just before reaching them, choking back tears.

“I-I’m… I’m here.” Meng said as she looked at the spirits of her parents, their faces and bodies obscured by the cloaks. The purple spirit collapsed onto the floor, sobbing uncontrollably as the green spirit got on its knee to lower itself to Meng’s eye level.

“Meng… we’re here too. It’s been too long…” The voice of the spirit of Taiyang said shakily while Xiaolong couldn’t stop crying, her apologies mixed in between her sobbing.

Youshin stayed back at the edge of the plaza as all of this happened, a crowd of spirits forming to watch this tearful and fleeting family reunion.

“I-I… I can’t touch you can I…” Meng cried as she stayed a step away from her parents, she didn’t want to feel their cold dead touch, and they didn’t want to subject her to that.

They kept their hoods on, to hide that the faces they wore were not the ones Meng remembered, and ones they didn’t want her to remember them by.

“No… No you can’t.” Taiyang sighed as he consoled his wife.

“You’re really gone… aren’t you?” Meng asked tearfully.

“Yeah, yeah we are. But we can talk, just for a little bit.” Taiyang explained as his spiritual body began to fade.

“I’d like that…” Meng sniffed as she sat beside them, Xiaoyang finally regaining enough composure to talk to her daughter for the last time.

Meng mostly talked, regailing them in the many adventures that she’d gone on in order to find a way up to the moon.

“And and and, I bought this magic stone and it… well the spirits here showed me how to first… but it showed me how to get to you guys!” Meng explained as she gingerly grabbed the piece of rock that had the same purple glow as her and her mothers spirit.

Xiaoyang laughed softly upon hearing those words.

“You really do have my spirit… Thank you Meng for finding us.” Xiaoyang said warmly as her spirit began to quickly fade away.

“W-wait but I haven’t finished yet!” Meng gasped, reaching out to where her mothers arm once was. It’d already faded away as she clenched at empty air.

“We are only here because we were waiting for you Meng. We wanted to see our little girl grow up before we left.” Xiaoyang explained with a warmness to her voice that cut through the chill of the moon.

“We know you’ll keep doing amazing things, Meng.” Taiyang choked, struggling to hold back tears as he faded away with his wife.

“We love you, Meng.” They said in unison before.

They were gone.

The crowd of spirits left as Youshin slowly came over to where Meng sat frozen in place.

“Meng I-”

“ALRIGHT!” Meng shouted, suddenly her old energy came right back to her as if nothing had happened. Though, Youshin could hear the tinge of pain echo through her voice.

“Let’s go back home, I think I need to get some sleep.” Meng asked sincerely and tiredly, looking up at the dragon that had graciously taken her to the moon.

Youshin let out a sigh, he could tell that Meng needed something else.

“How about we take a detour, is there anywhere else you’ve ever wanted to visit?” Youshin asked with a coy smile creeping onto his dragony face.

“I-I… I guess I’ve always wanted to go… there.” Meng muttered, pointing up to a bright red planet in the sky.

“Then that’s where we will go. Hop on.” Youshin smirked as Meng climbed onto his back before they flew off into the stars at lightning fast speed, leaving Yue City and the moon behind.

And so another tale was added to the great tapestry of story that were the myths and legends of Ji. There were many names for this story, The Girl Who Went To The Moon, The Girl and Dragon and the Dragon who Flew To the Moon.

But most today call it Starbound Dragonflight.