The Man and The Moon

“Hey! You, yeah you, right there.” a rich man said as he pointed at a mess he made on the floor, “Why are ya making me wait, CLEAN IT UP!” he screamed as I scrambled to get a towel to clean it up. You see, my name is Crower, but people call Crow, but I don’t really have any friends to call me Crow, since I’m poor, and in this cruel world, I get treated horribly. Peasants, like me, are expected to serve the rich. Why do people treat other people differently? I don’t know. When I cleaned the mess up, he told me in a tone I usually hear, to scram. Then, as usual, I retreated back to the alley I live in. But on the floor there seemed to be a drop of moonlight that shimmered in a puddle nearby. Well, moon drops are incredibly valuable so I made sure to very carefully pick it up. Moon drops are magical, they are usually used to make potions or to activate one's ability, but I have no ingredients to make a potion and I don’t have any abilities. But, like I said they’re worth every penny, so I made sure to put it in the safest place I could think of, my pocket. Then, I laid down on the torn mat on the floor and stared at the stars and thanked Lunarus, the Moon god. 

The next morning, I checked my pocket and it’s gone. I spotted it on the floor next to me, then a rat scurried across the floor and tossed in its feisty little teeth. I chased it around the alley and then it stopped so I did what a logical person would do to tackle it even though it’s 10 times smaller than me. Of course it ran its speedy little paws out of my grasp and tossed it to another rat, then I repeated the same thing but with two rats, then three, then four, then five, then six, then seven, then eight. It was like the rats were playing a coordinated game of catch. I said, “Why are there so many rats!” Then the rats all stopped, looked at me and I don’t know if I was hallucinating, but the rats started to point and laugh at me, but they dropped the moon drop so I once again tackled the rats to get it, and this time it worked. 

I ran down to the market, looked for the Sorcerer's Tools shop and ran in. Dawn, the person working there said, “You gonna try to sell me a dirty rag again?”. “No.” I said as I fished out the moondrop from my pocket, “Well, that is certainly gonna get you out of that alley.” She said, “How much?” I asked, “ 1500 gold coins, if you’re willing to” She said, “Of course I’m willing to.” I said. She replied, “You shouldn’t be, if you sell it, you're making a deal with the devils that you don’t honor the gods, and that won’t look pretty,”. “Oh well . . .” I said as I quickly put it back in my pocket, “There is a use for it though, there is a chance that it will summon a moon spirit that will protect you if you earn its respect.” She said in an excited tone, “Okay, how do I earn it though?” I asked. “ A quest works best, it will give you one if it summons”,  She quickly responded, “Oh yeah, forgot that it couldn’t work” I said. “Yeah” She said disappointedly, “Even if it doesn’t summon, here,” She said as she handed me 1500 gold coins and two beat-up daggers, “Woah, thank you!” I said. “No problem.” She responded.

I ran out of the shop excitedly, and accidentally bumped into an obviously boisterous, rich man, “Hey you! You better pay for this!” He said as he pointed at the tiniest wrinkle I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen some pretty small ones. But I showed him my sack of coins and he immediately apologized. “Being rich gives you privileges doesn’t it?” I thought to myself. I went back to my alley, and stared at the stars again as I held my moondrop in my hands. I prayed to Lunarus again and then I saw a faint glow in my hands. I let go of my grip and the moondrop started to float. I stared in awe as the moondrop exploded into the moonlight and recollected into a humanoid figure, “Well look at ‘Mr. I didn’t do my laundry’ over here” It said in a non-sarcastic tone, “Hey! It's not like you're any better, you’re made of uhhh… “ I instinctively responded “Yeah what am I made of?” It said in a definitely sarcastic tone, I continued to stammer as I said, “Something really pretty . . .”, “Yeah you can’t think of anything hurtful can you?” it responded, “No I can,” I started to list only compliments as I tried to say something hurtful, “Well your quest to kill the beast up north” It said over my compliments, “Stop trying,” It said to me, “Well what are you waiting for?” It was obviously rushing me to get my stuff and kill the beast. But, I didn’t know what it was so I asked it hoping it would give me an actual answer, “I don’t feel like telling you,” It said “What!” I yelled, “Yeah, nah,” it responded, “I swear to the gods I will kill you,” I said, “Oh, you can’t, I’m immortal” it said. I officially gave up. I grabbed my stuff, put the daggers in my pocket and headed north. 

We trekked forever, I was complaining about it, but Lunus told me to cry about it. We officially named him Lunus halfway through the trek. I desperately needed rest, but Lunus didn’t. There was this heavenly clearing in the trees. I didn’t know whether it was heavenly or I was just too tired to see clearly. As soon as we stepped foot into it, four goblins came exploding out of the ground, on a minecart, out of nowhere. “Ay, what are you lookin’ at?!”, one goblin said as they somehow landed perfectly. I just gave them a blank and confused stare. “Boss, I think he wants ta fight!” The one that was obviously the hothead said. “No, we most certainly do not!” I said, panicking. “Oh come on! Yes, we most certainly do!” Lunus butted in. “Noooo. . .” I groaned, “If they wanna fight, they get a fight!” the smart goblin said as it grabbed what looked like a firework cannon. Wait, a firework cannon? “Here comes the BOOM!” he yelled as he aimed it towards me. The firework came blazing towards me. But I dodged away to the side and bumped into Lunus. Lunus absorbed into me and covered me in the pretty substance that he was made of. It was acting as armor. He began to speak to me in my mind, “You see them, go kill ‘em” Lunus said. “What is this? I mean, how are you here, in my mind?” I asked. “ This is my armor mode and you are now using me to protect you. You can reform me and make stuff out of the moon goo.” Lunus said. I used the goo to make horns and I charged into the goblins. The smart one aimed the cannon at me and I failed to dodge it. It hit Lunus and I, but I felt nothing. The sparks flew all over and then it got on the dynamite on the cart. “Now that’s gonna make a big BOOM!” I said sarcastically as I looked them in the eyes. I saw the explosion engulf them in flames and debris while I was completely fine. The once heavenly spot now looked more like the place down under. Lunus phased out of me and said, “Not so heavenly, but it's still sleepable.” “How did you know I thought it was heavenly?!” I exclaimed. “I saw your thoughts and memories when I armored you. You have some serious trauma by the way” Lunus replied, “You have to tell me what you saw cause there is personal stuff in my head!” I said “Makes perfect sense, I mean those are your thoughts, but no, I’m keeping my mouth shut” Lunus replied “What!?” I yelled “I’d rather not you know?” Lunus said “No, I don’t know” I replied angrily

We looked around to find a place to sleep because we obviously didn’t want to sleep in that charred piece of land. We couldn't find a place for hours, probably because we were pacing back and forth on the same path. Eventually, we just followed the path and found ourselves in a village made of mushrooms “How’d I get here?” I said “You know the salad I gave you earlier?” Lunus said “Yea” I replied “Well I picked a few ferns and shrooms to put in it and there was this purple and green mushroom that I picked and put in the salad and a bite of that bad boy knocked you out cold,” Lunus replied as my face turned into a concerned expression“What did you do to me?” I asked “Don’t know?” Lunus said “Am I gonna die? Did you poison me? Why would you pick a purple and green mushroom?” I rambled on with concerned questions as Lunus said “Don’t be mad at least you're fine,” “I don’t know if I am!” I yelled. A few people looked out of their windows or doorways because of the commotion.  A random lady took us out of the crowd and led us to her house, “Super sorry that I just took you, I took you out of there because the townsfolk get angry when people interrupt their sleep. Oh, and my name is Greta, Greta Herwink,” Greta said, “Thank you for taking us out of there and my name is Crower, their name is Lunus.” I said “Lunus must be a moon spirit right?” Greta said “Yea they are,” I replied “I have a few extra rooms you stay there tonight” Greta said. We opened the door to her house but it was just a long empty hallway, much longer than the house. 

Greta turned from a sweet old lady to a sickly green witch. She pushed us in the hallway and made a broom out of thin air and started to chase us. Lunus changed to armor mode, “Don’t run,” Lunus said, I stood still as Lunus made giant axes in our hands. I swung them around trying to hit her but she was too speedy with the broom, in an instant Lunus went out of me, made a bomb and threw it at Greta. Without warning it exploded in a fury of purple light, I felt myself being blown back into a wall, I felt a sharp pain in my back, I heard a crack. As the light cleared my vision faded the last sight that I saw was the remains of Greta.

I woke up to the sound of mechanical whirring and felt a pain in my arm like it was numb but at the same time it wasn’t. Lunus floated in way too energetic as if they didn’t bomb me but I kind of missed them. I could only see his silhouette but it looked like he was wearing a hat and monocle. As my vision cleared he clearly was wearing unnecessary accessories, “Hey, Bud! You’re finally up!” He said it was way to excited for my tired body. I groaned as I propped myself up as Lunus dished out pancakes, I was going to pick up the fork but my arm was something I have never seen before. It looked like a machine but way more advanced than we had. There were vials of what looked like moon goo then Lunus abruptly ended my train of thought with an answer.  “Oh sorry about not telling you but your arm. I got that from the other side of the moon.” Lunus explained “The other side of the moon is a place with so much technology it would make this world look like we were in the stone age, but there was no magic no spark that gave life to every little bit of the world and due to this the world was cast into darkness, demons were led to the world in this age they started possessing the kaiju that lived there, now they use their tech to kill these evil monsters, and I got this from there” Lunus gasped for breath and looked at me “I can’t take you seriously with that monocole” I said, Lunus took it off and looked at me, “ Okay, I look really cool with the hat though, right?” Lunus said, “Yeah” I admitted, they looked really cool with that hat, “Well you should rest now,” Lunus said, “Wait what?” I responded.

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The End

                                                    PART 2 COMING SOON