The Future of the Full Moon (Bonus chapter)

Luna and I were doing some cleaning in her personal bedroom on the moon, moving a lot of her stuff into the other room we were sharing.

She had a lot of silly knickknacks and cloths, even a collection of weird rocks that glow whenever you touch them. Most of it was dumped into a few boxes and walked over to our rooms closet.

We could have gotten the maids to help, but Luna and I were a little board, so this was an excuse to keep busy and pass time.

I was carrying a rediculously oversized box full of her makeup and accessories. Seeing over this thing wasn’t possible, so Luna had to lead me around. We’d had plenty of practice with this sort of thing in the one ring, if you think about it.

“Okay, just a little more to the right…” she said.

With a little turn, I was getting ready to set this box down in the corner.

“No! Wait! Watch out!”

BUMP!

My foot hit a dresser really hard!

Excruciating pain shot through my body! It forced me to drop the box!

CRASH!

Items rolled all over the floor, Luna was quick to check my condition.

“Are you alright?” She started examining my foot. “Oh dear…it looks like you bruised your big toe…”

My toe nail didn't look too pretty either. It felt like my whole foot was about to completely disintegrate.

“That hurt…a lot…” I squealed. "Sorry I dropped your stuff."

Luna kissed my cheek.

“I’m sorry, Walden. My instructions weren’t clear enough.”

“No…it’s fine.” I was tearing up in pain now, but I forced a thumbs up.

She used some sort of healing oil on my foot, which at least eased the pain. But she said my toe was going to take time to recover.

While she was dressing my wound, I noticed a glass ball was rolling across the room.

“Hey, what’s that?” I asked.

“Oh?” She turned to it, then picked it up. “Oh! This belonged to my Auntie Callisto…”

Her aunt was a fortune teller, banished from the moon for being a little too lucrative with her occult magic...whatever that meant.

“She used to tell us all sorts of stories about the future with this. It feels like that was the only time my sisters and I got along as girls.”

Luna started to rub some of the smudges and dust off the surface. The glass ball started to get all hazy on the inside.

A small blue light started to glow at its core.

“It’s reacting to you.” I commented.

Words appeared facing Luna. They spelled out…

‘If thou wishes to know the future, may thy wishes be made known.”

Luna was overtaken with excitement. I however was a bit more skeptical. I didn’t want to put too much faith into some random glass orb. Who knows what sort of dark arts her aunt conjured up with this thing?

“Put that cursed thing down.” I ordered.

“No.” She held it close to her bosom. “I must know the future!”

“You don’t need to. What if our future is going to be bad?” I asked. “It’ll just make you paranoid.”

“All the more reason to know, so we can prevent it.”

There’s a paradox in that statement…

Against my better judgment, curiosity did catch me a bit. I had to get a taste of this forbidden fruit.

A deep sigh left me. “Whatever…but you’ll be responsible if something goes wrong.”

“I trust my aunt wouldn’t leave this with me if it was dangerous.” Luna started rubbing the glass ball again. “But, they do say knowledge is power, after all. And power is a dangerous thing in the wrong hands.”

“You got that right.” I nodded.

We both sat on the floor and responded to the crystal ball by asking it to tell our future. More words appeared…

“I see many proud battles in thy future, Luna. Snow capped warriors and lots of gold.”

“There’s going to be war?” Luna asked. “Oh dear…”

Her tone changed pretty quickly with that statement.

“War has always raged across the worlds. Thou must unite everyone, humans and Lunar alike. Only then will the day be won.”

This crystal ball was really vague…much like I expected from actual fortune telling. But I think I have an idea of what it was getting at…

Was it possible that this was all just an allegory for something? Perhaps it’s about uniting our two worlds together, finding those that are pure as snow and dispelling the pride or greed that separates us?

“Luna, I think the message here is that we need to keep good connections with both our worlds,” I suggested. “Trying to keep those good relations will probably be an uphill battle. And I’m sure some greedy people want to keep us from winning.”

“I think that may be correct…I hope…” She laid back against the wall, looking to the ceiling and rubbing her hair nervously. “Dear dear…this is sure to not sit well with me for a while.”

I told her she might not like doing this. But did she listen to me? Nope!

Unfortunately, next came my prediction…but this one was a bit different from hers.

“For you, Walden, the future lays in thy past…”

The past? How could a future be part of the past?

“Thy life last lived was not of this world. Thou still has connections to thy old self, which lay still in the street. Thy experience hath been stunted.”

Luna had an idea of what it was saying. “I believe its hinting at you being reincarnated.”

Reincarnation wasn't a new thing, but not everyone went through it upon death, so some mystics say. It was said that only those who didn't live a fulfilled life would get a chance to try again.

Not like it meant much, since I prefer to live in the moment. What's a long dead version of myself matter if I don't even remember him?

“How did this happen?”

“A bright light, then vwoo! Ahh! Her salvation! But then thy dream fades…”

This thing was talking out of thin air. What did that even mean?

“If thy dream is in art, though must carry the tourch of they previous life to paint a stable future for all.”

Was it saying that in my last life, I was some sort of artist? Luna was thinking the same thing based on that.

This was starting to really creep me out.

“Luna, let’s put this thing away…”

She was about to agree with me, but then another message appeared inside the ball…

“Thy love shall be thy salvation. Seek a deeper bond, and fear not the future…”

So, like the rest of our journey, love was the answer…cryptic.

Now that we were both spooked as could be, we locked that thing deep inside the lunar treasury. I didn’t want to ever see it again.

On the bright side, she and I took a walk out in her garden to unwind. I finally got a good long look at those crystal looking plants she’d been so proud of.

Lucky for me, I had my sketch book. So I started drawing down what I was seeing. I was supposed to hand this off to Zumi so she could add the pictures to her book, but I totally forgot this morning…

Sitting on the near airless moon...everything was so white and gray, rocky too. Crystal plants and buildings were the only thing to break things up.

Once I finished the sketch, Luna requested to take a look at the rest of the book, taking a good long pause on a picture I drew of her.

“This one of me looks…childish.”

I drew her based on a silly style I came up with. She had her hands cupped kindly in front of her, tilting herself to the side and looking at us with a light smile. I thought it was cute.

“Do you not like it?” I asked.

“I love it, but it’s certainly unique among the rest of your works.” She closed the book, looking up at the galaxy.

I could tell she was nervous. Whenever she had that face, she was worried about something.

“Thinking about the crystal ball?” I guessed.

“Most definitely.” She nodded. “Forgive me. You did warn me of this paranoia.”

I gently grabbed her head and pulled it down to give a comfort kiss to her forehead.

“Don’t worry about it. We’ll take things one day at a time.

“Indeed.” She smiled.

Whatever the future had in store, we’d be ready. I just knew it in my heart.

“Why don’t we go get some tea?” I asked, causing Luna to spring up from the bench like a child.

“Of course!” She did a few excited hops in place. “I have some lovely flavors I’d like you to try! 600 of them!”

“Not…not all at once, right?”

She just grabbed my hand and we both raced off to the kitchen at full speed.

I’m glad her mood revived. And all it took was drowning me in her signature beverage of choice…I love this woman so much.