[Luna POV]
The next morning, the others all took forever to wake up. Out of all of them, it was Soleil that resisted the most.
“Luna, I knew this already, but your tails are really dangerous. That was the most comfortable sleep I’ve had in a while.” (Skadi)
“Ssss.” (Ophidia)
“You know what I mean, Ophidia.” (Skadi)
Ophidia slithered out of the tail she was sleeping in, up Skadi’s arm, and finally resting on her shoulders. There, she stuck her tongue out like snakes do, and tickled Skadi’s cheek.
“Hehehe.” (Skadi)
Turning my attention away from their flirting, I moved the tail that contained Mio and Soleil in front of me. I stuck my hand into the fluff and rummaged around until I felt one of them. I grabbed them from the scruff of the neck and pulled them out. The one I grabbed turned out to be Mio.
“Nya.” (Mio)
When I put Mio on the ground, she stretched as she yawned. While chuckling at that, I started rummaging around for Soleil. After about a minute, I finally found her and while trying to pull her out of my tail, she tried to resist.
“Noooo. Five more minutes.” (Soleil)
“No. We have things to do, Soleil. Velvet, help me out here.” (Luna)
“Soleil, wake up.” (Velvet)
“But Velvet, is so nice and warm.” (Soleil)
“Please let go before you pull some fur out.” (Luna)
I smiled at Soleil as I said that and she immediately let go, squirmed out of my grasp, and hid behind Velvet. She then transformed out of her fox form.
“Sorry big sis, I’m fully awake now.” (Soleil)
“Luna, stop intimidating Soleil.” (Velvet)
“Whatever do you mean, Velvet?” (Luna)
I stood up and stretched. I then turned to Mio who had transformed to her normal form again.
“Mio, you still remember the way to the hippocampi?” (Luna)
“Yep nya. Follow me nya.” (Mio)
Mio turned and started to walk in a direction.
“Skadi, Ophidia, time to go.” (Luna)
“We’re coming.” (Skadi)
“Sssssssssss.” (Ophidia)
“Ophidia, why aren’t you talking?” (Soleil)
“I wanted to be funny, but now that I think about it, it really isn’t, so I’m going to stop doing that. I am, however, going to stay on Skadi’s shoulders.” (Ophidia)
“Aww. It was cute.” (Skadi)
“Sssssssssssssssssssssssssssss.” (Ophidia)
I smiled at the antics of my friends as we followed Mio. As we walked, Mio regaled us with the dream she had last night. She said that she and the rest of us were swimming around in a sea of fluff. It’s funny since Tamamo, Fenrir, Atmos, and Tonya were present as well, only instead of their humanoid form, they were in ginormous, overly fluffy animal forms. Atmos was in the form of a tanuki for some reason, but I felt it was a fitting comparison.
{Atmos a tanuki, huh. I can see it.}
“I know, right.” (Skadi)
“Yep.” (Luna)
“…rawr” (Atmos)
“Atmos.” (Luna)
“Hmm rawr?” (Atmos)
“Remember the rules.” (Luna)
“I know, I just felt people talking about me and popped in to see what it was about rawr.” (Atmos)
“Gods can do that? I mean, I can understand if it was prayer or people looking at me in my case as well, but I didn’t think just saying your name did the same thing.” (Luna)
{Atmos, stop making Luna think we can do things we can’t. Just saying our name isn’t counted as prayer.}
“Tamamo rawr!” (Atmos)
“Um, is big sis’s curse still active?” (Soleil)
“It shouldn’t be.” (Luna)
“It’s gone, I just think saying it is fun rawr.” (Atmos)
“…” (Luna)
“Heh rawr.” (Atmos)
“I feel regret now. This is going to get annoying real fast.” (Luna)
“HAHAHAHAHAHAHA RAWR!” (Atmos)
We spent the next few hours of walking with me and Soleil trying to figure out a way to force Atmos to stop doing the thing I caused in the first place.
“Soleil, I think the next time we hear from her, we do THAT.” (Luna)
“Are you sure, big sis? Wasn’t THAT supposed to be our last resort?” (Soleil)
“Yeah, but I think this situation calls for it.” (Luna)
“Alright then.” (Soleil)
“Will one of you tell us what THAT is?” (Velvet)
“The best prank me and Soleil could come up with. It’s a mix of her talents and my Authority of Space, but that’s all I’ll say about it. Though I will say that it might be kind of bad for a mortal if they experienced it.” (Luna)
“How so nya?” (Mio)
“Not physically, but mentally. Again, that’s all I’ll say.” (Luna)
{I watched the two of you make it, and I told you back then as well, Atmos will be able to handle it. She’s Atmos after all, she’s been through worse.}
“As long as it doesn’t actually hurt our relationship, then that’s fine.” (Luna)
It took another hour of walking before I heard the sounds of animals ahead of us.
“We’re here nya.” (Mio)
In front of us, a large herd of hippocampi were walking around sniffing the ground and digging out small things that hid under the sand. Unlike the ones in the stables back in the city, these ones had different colors. They were a rusty red color with dark blue highlights. Their manes looked like billowing flames and their eyes were a slightly orange color.
“They look more like demons that broke out of the underworld than hippocampi.” (Luna)
“That’s disrespectful to demons, Luna.” (Skadi)
“That wasn’t what I meant and you know it.” (Luna)
“Yes, I do know, but still.” (Skadi)
“Then what am I supposed to say?” (Luna)
“…I don’t know.” (Skadi)
“So, are you just going to go over there, grab onto two of them, and teleport back?” (Ophidia)
“That was the plan. Unless there is a better way to do this. I don’t want to tame them myself after all, so this is the best way I can think of doing this.” (Luna)
“Then you best look for a mated pair, Luna. I’ll help you figure out which ones are, but if that is your plan, then it should at least have the highest chance to not mess with this herd too much.” (Skadi)
“I think I can guess why, but what’s the reasoning?” (Luna)
“Hippocampi are animals that, once they pick a mate, will stay loyal to that one for the rest of their lives. If one of that pair dies, then the other one will follow suit shortly after.” (Skadi)
“Then we best pay attention.” (Luna)
We surveyed the herd looking for a suitable pair of hippocampi to bring back. After a while, Skadi pointed out two that were perfect.
“Alright. Should I use something to put them to sleep, or just wrap them up and teleport like that?” (Luna)
“Sleep. We don’t want them thrashing around and injuring themselves after all.” (Skadi)
“Alrighty then, here I go.” (Luna)
I opened a domain around the two hippocampi and dropped some of the sleeping potions I had in there. We then waited for a while for them to take effect and then I dissolved the domain, the two hippocampi laying there sleeping. We then approached them causing the other wild hippocampi to swim away. Once we arrived next to the sleeping ones, Ophidia slithered off Skadi’s shoulders and took her humanoid form again.
“I’ll teleport everyone else, master.” (Ophidia)
“Thanks. Let’s get this finished then.” (Luna)
I placed a hand on the hippocampi and teleported to the stable stall in the city. Shortly after, the others appeared. I then used my space magic to find Percy and when I did, used telepathy to tell him to come to the colosseum stables. After a while he showed up. When he saw the two hippocampi sleeping, an extremely happy expression covered his face.
“Thank you. These two look like they will be perfect.” (Percy)
“It wasn’t a problem. Just wait a few more hours for them to wake up and do whatever you need to do from there.” (Luna)
“Very well. Oh, a quick question. How do I contact you once I’m ready to race again? You are all people of the surface and I doubt you are all going to live here for that long, so I would like to know how I should tell you.” (Percy)
We started moving out of the stables. As I passed by Percy, I glanced over to him.
“Just pray for the guidance of the stars and I’ll know.” (Luna)
We then left while Percy had a very confused look on his face. Once we were outside of the colosseum, Mio asked me something.
“Was that alright to say nya?” (Mio)
“I think so. The merfolk have no communication with the surface that I know of, and anyway, since I’m so close to the point of ascension, I’m starting to think about no longer hiding this stuff as much.” (Luna)
“Oh. That’s an interesting decision.” (Velvet)
“What I mean is, I won’t hide it as much in places like the shrine or in the castle of Celestia Kingdom. Probably the Elf Nation as well since the cult has actually somehow been gaining members again.” (Luna)
“When did you decide this?” (Skadi)
“Just a few minutes ago. I checked to see if this counted as a labor and it did. That means that I have at most one or two left to do.” (Luna)
“Didn’t you say there were 12 nya?” (Mio)
“Yeah, but I just know for a fact that as long as I complete most of them I’ll get my tenth tail. I don’t know exactly what number, but as long as it’s at most 10, then all I have left are two, and to my knowledge, the only one that I know for a fact that I can complete is getting a golden apple.” (Luna)
{On that note, would you like me to tell you where to find those now?}
We arrived back at Skadi’s manor while we discussed this.
“If you don’t mind. Depending on where we have to go, we might just head that way when we leave here.” (Luna)
{You can find them on an island far off the coast of the Beast Kingdom. The island is surrounded by a wall of perpetual storms created by the dragons that live there. The waters and skies are also full of powerful monsters so no normal ship will make the journey there in one piece. But that isn’t a problem for you.}
“It’s kind of fitting for the place my journey started in this life will most likely be the place the final levels will be obtained.” (Luna)
“…” (Soleil)
“What’s up, Soleil?” (Luna)
“It’s just hard to really wrap my mind around it. I knew that this would happen eventually, but now that the end is actually in sight, it’s a…hard feeling to accept.” (Soleil)
I smiled at Soleil’s words and pulled her into a hug.
“I know how you feel. I really do. But just like I’ve been told, and what I know is a fact, this is just a step, Soleil. Nothing will really change for us. You will still be my little sister and we’ll still be able to see each other whenever. Not to mention that the only thing that will change in regard to our adventures is the place. From what Tamamo has told me and what I’ve pieced together from things I’ve heard Atmos, Grey, and Fenrir say, the Divine Domain has many more fantastical places to explore than those in the mortal world could ever possibly imagine.” (Luna)
“Mmm.” (Soleil)
Soleil hugged me tighter and I started to pat her head.
The others looked at this with warm smiles and silently went to their rooms. I sat down while hugging Soleil and we stayed like that until I heard her quietly snoring.
“Fufufu. My silly little sister, you don’t need to worry about anything. Even with the end in sight, we still have some fun things to do.” (Luna)
Chaos Realm:
Atmos: ...
Stopped with the rawrs?
Atmos: Just for the moment. I'd prank them right now, but I don't want to ruin the moment for them.
Tamamo: Thank you for that.
Atmos: Nn.
Order: Payto, Astraea and Evelyn are asleep now.
Alright.
Tamamo: By the way, how many more labors does Luna need?
One. The golden apple should be the last one.
Tamamo: Can I tell her that?
If you want.
Atmos: Tamamo, how excited are you?
Tamamo: About what?
Atmos: Luna being this close to joining us. One tail left, and with her leveling demerit reduced, it'll happen extremely soon. Especially if things pan out like I see them panning out.
Tamamo: I'm very excited, though I won't show it outright. You know just as much as I do how this exact thought is weighing down on Luna.
If you want my opinion, you are allowed to be more selfish than this. No need to repress of hide your emotions, especially with someone you love as much as you do Luna. She knows that you are excited, and you showing her that will help her more than you know.
Order: And the perfect opportunity is close at hand to do that as well. What is it, two days till the next full moon?
Tamamo: Yeah, two. Guess I'll take your advice.
Atmos: Now, tell me what their big prank plan is, Tamamo.
Tamamo: Nope. They worked so hard on it that I'm not going to ruin the surprise.
Atmos: Tch rawr.
[Luna POV]
The next morning, the others all took forever to wake up. Out of all of them, it was Soleil that resisted the most.
“Luna, I knew this already, but your tails are really dangerous. That was the most comfortable sleep I’ve had in a while.” (Skadi)
“Ssss.” (Ophidia)
“You know what I mean, Ophidia.” (Skadi)
Ophidia slithered out of the tail she was sleeping in, up Skadi’s arm, and finally resting on her shoulders. There, she stuck her tongue out like snakes do, and tickled Skadi’s cheek.
“Hehehe.” (Skadi)
Turning my attention away from their flirting, I moved the tail that contained Mio and Soleil in front of me. I stuck my hand into the fluff and rummaged around until I felt one of them. I grabbed them from the scruff of the neck and pulled them out. The one I grabbed turned out to be Mio.
“Nya.” (Mio)
When I put Mio on the ground, she stretched as she yawned. While chuckling at that, I started rummaging around for Soleil. After about a minute, I finally found her and while trying to pull her out of my tail, she tried to resist.
“Noooo. Five more minutes.” (Soleil)
“No. We have things to do, Soleil. Velvet, help me out here.” (Luna)
“Soleil, wake up.” (Velvet)
“But Velvet, is so nice and warm.” (Soleil)
“Please let go before you pull some fur out.” (Luna)
I smiled at Soleil as I said that and she immediately let go, squirmed out of my grasp, and hid behind Velvet. She then transformed out of her fox form.
“Sorry big sis, I’m fully awake now.” (Soleil)
“Luna, stop intimidating Soleil.” (Velvet)
“Whatever do you mean, Velvet?” (Luna)
I stood up and stretched. I then turned to Mio who had transformed to her normal form again.
“Mio, you still remember the way to the hippocampi?” (Luna)
“Yep nya. Follow me nya.” (Mio)
Mio turned and started to walk in a direction.
“Skadi, Ophidia, time to go.” (Luna)
“We’re coming.” (Skadi)
“Sssssssssss.” (Ophidia)
“Ophidia, why aren’t you talking?” (Soleil)
“I wanted to be funny, but now that I think about it, it really isn’t, so I’m going to stop doing that. I am, however, going to stay on Skadi’s shoulders.” (Ophidia)
“Aww. It was cute.” (Skadi)
“Sssssssssssssssssssssssssssss.” (Ophidia)
I smiled at the antics of my friends as we followed Mio. As we walked, Mio regaled us with the dream she had last night. She said that she and the rest of us were swimming around in a sea of fluff. It’s funny since Tamamo, Fenrir, Atmos, and Tonya were present as well, only instead of their humanoid form, they were in ginormous, overly fluffy animal forms. Atmos was in the form of a tanuki for some reason, but I felt it was a fitting comparison.
{Atmos a tanuki, huh. I can see it.}
“I know, right.” (Skadi)
“Yep.” (Luna)
“…rawr” (Atmos)
“Atmos.” (Luna)
“Hmm rawr?” (Atmos)
“Remember the rules.” (Luna)
“I know, I just felt people talking about me and popped in to see what it was about rawr.” (Atmos)
“Gods can do that? I mean, I can understand if it was prayer or people looking at me in my case as well, but I didn’t think just saying your name did the same thing.” (Luna)
{Atmos, stop making Luna think we can do things we can’t. Just saying our name isn’t counted as prayer.}
“Tamamo rawr!” (Atmos)
“Um, is big sis’s curse still active?” (Soleil)
“It shouldn’t be.” (Luna)
“It’s gone, I just think saying it is fun rawr.” (Atmos)
“…” (Luna)
“Heh rawr.” (Atmos)
“I feel regret now. This is going to get annoying real fast.” (Luna)
“HAHAHAHAHAHAHA RAWR!” (Atmos)
We spent the next few hours of walking with me and Soleil trying to figure out a way to force Atmos to stop doing the thing I caused in the first place.
“Soleil, I think the next time we hear from her, we do THAT.” (Luna)
“Are you sure, big sis? Wasn’t THAT supposed to be our last resort?” (Soleil)
“Yeah, but I think this situation calls for it.” (Luna)
“Alright then.” (Soleil)
“Will one of you tell us what THAT is?” (Velvet)
“The best prank me and Soleil could come up with. It’s a mix of her talents and my Authority of Space, but that’s all I’ll say about it. Though I will say that it might be kind of bad for a mortal if they experienced it.” (Luna)
“How so nya?” (Mio)
“Not physically, but mentally. Again, that’s all I’ll say.” (Luna)
{I watched the two of you make it, and I told you back then as well, Atmos will be able to handle it. She’s Atmos after all, she’s been through worse.}
“As long as it doesn’t actually hurt our relationship, then that’s fine.” (Luna)
It took another hour of walking before I heard the sounds of animals ahead of us.
“We’re here nya.” (Mio)
In front of us, a large herd of hippocampi were walking around sniffing the ground and digging out small things that hid under the sand. Unlike the ones in the stables back in the city, these ones had different colors. They were a rusty red color with dark blue highlights. Their manes looked like billowing flames and their eyes were a slightly orange color.
“They look more like demons that broke out of the underworld than hippocampi.” (Luna)
“That’s disrespectful to demons, Luna.” (Skadi)
“That wasn’t what I meant and you know it.” (Luna)
“Yes, I do know, but still.” (Skadi)
“Then what am I supposed to say?” (Luna)
“…I don’t know.” (Skadi)
“So, are you just going to go over there, grab onto two of them, and teleport back?” (Ophidia)
“That was the plan. Unless there is a better way to do this. I don’t want to tame them myself after all, so this is the best way I can think of doing this.” (Luna)
“Then you best look for a mated pair, Luna. I’ll help you figure out which ones are, but if that is your plan, then it should at least have the highest chance to not mess with this herd too much.” (Skadi)
“I think I can guess why, but what’s the reasoning?” (Luna)
“Hippocampi are animals that, once they pick a mate, will stay loyal to that one for the rest of their lives. If one of that pair dies, then the other one will follow suit shortly after.” (Skadi)
“Then we best pay attention.” (Luna)
We surveyed the herd looking for a suitable pair of hippocampi to bring back. After a while, Skadi pointed out two that were perfect.
“Alright. Should I use something to put them to sleep, or just wrap them up and teleport like that?” (Luna)
“Sleep. We don’t want them thrashing around and injuring themselves after all.” (Skadi)
“Alrighty then, here I go.” (Luna)
I opened a domain around the two hippocampi and dropped some of the sleeping potions I had in there. We then waited for a while for them to take effect and then I dissolved the domain, the two hippocampi laying there sleeping. We then approached them causing the other wild hippocampi to swim away. Once we arrived next to the sleeping ones, Ophidia slithered off Skadi’s shoulders and took her humanoid form again.
“I’ll teleport everyone else, master.” (Ophidia)
“Thanks. Let’s get this finished then.” (Luna)
I placed a hand on the hippocampi and teleported to the stable stall in the city. Shortly after, the others appeared. I then used my space magic to find Percy and when I did, used telepathy to tell him to come to the colosseum stables. After a while he showed up. When he saw the two hippocampi sleeping, an extremely happy expression covered his face.
“Thank you. These two look like they will be perfect.” (Percy)
“It wasn’t a problem. Just wait a few more hours for them to wake up and do whatever you need to do from there.” (Luna)
“Very well. Oh, a quick question. How do I contact you once I’m ready to race again? You are all people of the surface and I doubt you are all going to live here for that long, so I would like to know how I should tell you.” (Percy)
We started moving out of the stables. As I passed by Percy, I glanced over to him.
“Just pray for the guidance of the stars and I’ll know.” (Luna)
We then left while Percy had a very confused look on his face. Once we were outside of the colosseum, Mio asked me something.
“Was that alright to say nya?” (Mio)
“I think so. The merfolk have no communication with the surface that I know of, and anyway, since I’m so close to the point of ascension, I’m starting to think about no longer hiding this stuff as much.” (Luna)
“Oh. That’s an interesting decision.” (Velvet)
“What I mean is, I won’t hide it as much in places like the shrine or in the castle of Celestia Kingdom. Probably the Elf Nation as well since the cult has actually somehow been gaining members again.” (Luna)
“When did you decide this?” (Skadi)
“Just a few minutes ago. I checked to see if this counted as a labor and it did. That means that I have at most one or two left to do.” (Luna)
“Didn’t you say there were 12 nya?” (Mio)
“Yeah, but I just know for a fact that as long as I complete most of them I’ll get my tenth tail. I don’t know exactly what number, but as long as it’s at most 10, then all I have left are two, and to my knowledge, the only one that I know for a fact that I can complete is getting a golden apple.” (Luna)
{On that note, would you like me to tell you where to find those now?}
We arrived back at Skadi’s manor while we discussed this.
“If you don’t mind. Depending on where we have to go, we might just head that way when we leave here.” (Luna)
{You can find them on an island far off the coast of the Beast Kingdom. The island is surrounded by a wall of perpetual storms created by the dragons that live there. The waters and skies are also full of powerful monsters so no normal ship will make the journey there in one piece. But that isn’t a problem for you.}
“It’s kind of fitting for the place my journey started in this life will most likely be the place the final levels will be obtained.” (Luna)
“…” (Soleil)
“What’s up, Soleil?” (Luna)
“It’s just hard to really wrap my mind around it. I knew that this would happen eventually, but now that the end is actually in sight, it’s a…hard feeling to accept.” (Soleil)
I smiled at Soleil’s words and pulled her into a hug.
“I know how you feel. I really do. But just like I’ve been told, and what I know is a fact, this is just a step, Soleil. Nothing will really change for us. You will still be my little sister and we’ll still be able to see each other whenever. Not to mention that the only thing that will change in regard to our adventures is the place. From what Tamamo has told me and what I’ve pieced together from things I’ve heard Atmos, Grey, and Fenrir say, the Divine Domain has many more fantastical places to explore than those in the mortal world could ever possibly imagine.” (Luna)
“Mmm.” (Soleil)
Soleil hugged me tighter and I started to pat her head.
The others looked at this with warm smiles and silently went to their rooms. I sat down while hugging Soleil and we stayed like that until I heard her quietly snoring.
“Fufufu. My silly little sister, you don’t need to worry about anything. Even with the end in sight, we still have some fun things to do.” (Luna)
Chaos Realm:
Atmos: ...
Stopped with the rawrs?
Atmos: Just for the moment. I'd prank them right now, but I don't want to ruin the moment for them.
Tamamo: Thank you for that.
Atmos: Nn.
Order: Payto, Astraea and Evelyn are asleep now.
Alright.
Tamamo: By the way, how many more labors does Luna need?
One. The golden apple should be the last one.
Tamamo: Can I tell her that?
If you want.
Atmos: Tamamo, how excited are you?
Tamamo: About what?
Atmos: Luna being this close to joining us. One tail left, and with her leveling demerit reduced, it'll happen extremely soon. Especially if things pan out like I see them panning out.
Tamamo: I'm very excited, though I won't show it outright. You know just as much as I do how this exact thought is weighing down on Luna.
If you want my opinion, you are allowed to be more selfish than this. No need to repress of hide your emotions, especially with someone you love as much as you do Luna. She knows that you are excited, and you showing her that will help her more than you know.
Order: And the perfect opportunity is close at hand to do that as well. What is it, two days till the next full moon?
Tamamo: Yeah, two. Guess I'll take your advice.
Atmos: Now, tell me what their big prank plan is, Tamamo.
Tamamo: Nope. They worked so hard on it that I'm not going to ruin the surprise.
Atmos: Tch rawr.
