Moonlark Madness: Just Friends
Hello! It’s been a while since I’ve posted my Keeper of the Lost Cities fanfiction, so here’s a quick reminder of what’s happened so far…
Luna, Moonlark 2.0, is captured by Sophie Foster’s friends and taken to a Black Swan hideout to be questioned (saying it like this, I guess it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense… oh well)
Her mind is completely impenetrable, and she is able to block Sophie and Ritz Cracker—I mean, Fitz Vacker, sorry—from entering
She convinces them to let her go, but before she can Teleport away Tam reaches her
They go to Atlantis together
They meet three girls—Ira, Elidi, and Calypso—and play a game of splotching before they leave
Tam discovers that Luna is not your average elf and learns a bit about her past (okay, all of it. He learns all of it)
They run into Mr. Forkle and he tries to make amends with Luna, succeeds partially
Luna moves in with the Ruewens
She starts her first day at Fox Fire
She has Telepathy training with Sophie and Ritz Cracker Fitz Vacker
Aaannnddd that leads us to chapter seven! Please enjoy!
Just Friends
Luna had toyed with the idea of sitting at Sophie’s table for a while before lunch. During Telepathy training, she had entered her older sister’s mind because she’d grown tired of doing nothing, and had found memories surrounded by warmth and a hazy pink glow. They were happy memories, of her and her friends, and Grady and Edaline, doing all sorts of normal stuff. Eating. Studying. Goofing off. She even found one where they were all having a sleepover—minus Keefe—only, that one had been tainted with sadness around the edges.
She had felt something then—not jealousy, no, not quite. It was an ache in her heart that she couldn’t put a name to, even though she’d felt it many times before.
So Luna decided not to intrude her sister’s personal life any more than she had to and sat on her own. She doubted she’d be welcome, anyway, after how terribly Telepathy training had gone.
“Nice table!” Elidi materialized beside Luna with a tray of mallowmelt and prattles, plus a bottle of Youth to wash it all down. “This one is usually taken by now, since it has such a good view.”
A good view? Luna looked around. It was dark—depressingly so—because of a giant banner covering the glass walls. That was why she’d picked it, actually, but she didn’t see why Elidi appreciated it so much.
“Well… usually, anyway.” She sat beside Luna and snapped her fingers. A fist-sized orb of colors and light glowed in the center of the table, throwing rays onto Luna’s cheeks and nose.
“Cool,” she murmured, her eyes lost in its beauty.
Elidi grinned as she watched her expression. “Do you like it? I’ve been practicing for the talent show coming up.”
“We’re doing a group act,” Calypso explained, pushing her tray into the middle of the table. It was almost completely occupied by three small savory pies, a bottle of flavored air, and her own bottle of Youth. “You should come see it!” She brushed a strand of her blue and purple hair out of her face.
“Uh, yeah! Totally.” Luna nodded her agreement.
“So.” Elidi reached into Calypso’s lunch tray and grabbed a pie, taking a small bite out of the side. “Earlier you said that you didn’t live with elves when you were younger.” Ira and Calypso snapped to attention as Luna shrugged. “Where were you?”
“I was raised by gnomes,” she said. “But my… guardian reached out to me and got me into a family—and this school.”
Elidi’s jaw hung open, so Luna grabbed a square of mallowmelt and put it inside.
“Were you really?” Ira inquired in disbelief.
“Of course I was,” she replied. “Why would I lie?”
“I’ve always loved gnomes,” Calypso offered. “It’s cool that you got to live with them! But can I ask… why? Did something happen to you family?”
Luna bit her lip and scratched the back of her neck. So much for being normal. The three girls peered at her curiously as they waited for a response. “Oh well,” she sighed, pushing her hair out of her face. “The act is up. I grew up with gnomes because I don’t really have a family. I was…” she lowered her voice to a whisper, and her friends leaned closer to hear her. “Created. By the Black Swan.
“You’re kidding!” Elidi exclaimed.
“I don’t kid.” The girls looked amazed, and Luna had barely told them half of it. She explained to them slowly about her relationship with the Black Swan—and Sophie—and was only questioned about six hundred times.
Progress.
“That’s insane,” Ira shook her head, flabbergasted. She stared at Luna’s eyes, taking in their abnormal color. “Insane,” she repeated quietly.
“Oh!” Elidi, who had been sitting beside Luna the entire time, suddenly stood up and walked around the table to sit on the other side. Luna worried that she had done something that upset her, and missed her closeness. Their table was a small one—only meant for four people—so the three girls were all pressed together, meanwhile Luna sat on her own.
“Hey, can we sit here?” Luna glanced up and found herself making eye contact with Tam. His silver-tipped bangs covered his silvery blue eyes, and the light behind him formed a sort of halo above his head. He looked… Luna wasn’t sure how to finish the thought.
“We?” Luna leaned back and saw the girl she’d nicknamed Suspicion the day before smile sheepishly at her. She didn’t particularly like Linh, but her brother was all right. “Uh, sure, I guess.”
She scooted over to one end of the bench and was very aware of the four sets of eyes that bored into her head as Tam slid in beside her. Linh perched on the other side of the bench, beside Tam and out of Luna’s view.
Good.
“Sorry about yesterday,” Linh apologized, leaning towards her and ruining the divine mental wall Luna had tried to block her with. “I’m not usually so rude, but I thought you might be from the Neverseen. Of course, now that I know more about you, I get it.”
Luna made a face. “We’ve never had an actual conversation.”
Linh’s eyes adopted a mischievous light. “True, but Tam’s told me so much about you,” she said, “that I feel like we’re already family!”
Luna gave Tam a look that was meant to be withering, but his cheeks flushed and he looked away. Across the table, Elidi, Calypso, and Ira suppressed giggles, and beneath it, Tam’s foot pressed firmly against Linh’s.
“He absolutely couldn’t wait until today,” she went on, kicking her brother in the shin. “I’ll admit that we don’t always show up at school since our lives are so otherwise busy, but he was adamant about attending to—mmgh!” Tam shoved a custard burst into her mouth and laughed awkwardly.
The three girls looked between them with amused expressions.
“Sorry about that.” He shot daggers at his sister before glancing sheepishly at Luna. “She doesn’t get out much.”
“I don’t get out much?” Linh scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Incredible,” she muttered.
“So,” Elidi wiggled her brows, “what’s your couple’s name?”
“Our what?” Luna raised an eyebrow.
“We’re not, uh, not…” Tam trailed off, flustered.
“You guys could be Lam! Oo, or Tuna!” Calypso offered.
“That’s cute,” Ira agreed.
“He’s not my boyfriend,” Luna deadpanned. “Why would I date someone with no sense of style?”
Linh snorted Youth out her nose and Tam looked over his clothes, appearing self conscious. Elidi, Ira, and Calypso only shrugged.
“If you say so,” Elidi hummed.
“Just keep them in mind,” Ira shrugged. “They’ll come in handy one day.”
