Moonlings: A Clash of Meteors and Mages

Despite all the confusion on what happened last night, Regina was sure of one thing. She wasn't the one who sent the distress call.

"What do you mean by a distress call?" Again and again, Regina told the officers. "You think I'm an expert in advanced moon arts?"

The officer who was taking down notes in his tablet fidgeted his chin, remembering that Regina was just a part-time amateur. Communication using moonlight required maximum concentration and an endless source of power reserve and stamina. It was not hard to learn it, she heard. It was the resources that it consumes that makes it not that really recommended, unless it was for an emergency.

"But if it wasn't you," he looked at Sir Tanori who was beside the clinic door, observing the interrogation keenly. "Then who was it?"

Regina had a faint clue. There was only one person who always knew if she was in danger and that person was not present last night, much less around Jazel. So how? 

Or was she overthinking and hopelessly dreaming again?

It was not wrong to dream and certainly, it was not a sin to have some hopes up. Perhaps, maybe this time, it is now reality.

The medic did his last round of checking, carefully inspecting the bandages, her eye color, her heart rate, and finally, he started putting away his equipment.

"Your body's pretty sturdy though of course, I strongly advise that you rest for two whole days." He wore his dark smile, stating the obvious that he would get really mad if ever she disobeyed. He emphasized the number two. No matter how strong she was, an ordinary but serious human was enough to scare her.

After that, Sir Tanori nodded at him and the medic exitted.

"Regina," he started. "Do you remember...your appearance?"

She raised a brow.

"Sir, I don't quite get the question. But if I remember, I was just on my plain…"

The memory hit her. The heavy grip, her elongated weapon, her feet up in the air. And most specially, the strands of her hair—they were shining white.

Regina felt her heart spike and she clutched her face with her right hand.

"Hey!" shouted one of the officers in concern but Regina held out her other palm, a sign that she was fine.

"I-I'm okay." Regina sucked in a deep breath. "What was that?" she whispered to herself.

The sound of Sir Tanori's footsteps on the tiles approached her.

"That's what we call your moonform. In simple words, that is what you look like when you enter full battle mode. Everyone's moonform is strong but taxing. To think that you were able to unlock it on a whim, you must have been desperate last night."

Regina felt like she was back at the lecture halls where they had a crash course on becoming a moonmage before being sent outside to experience real fighting. The only difference now is that the experience came first before the lesson and her teacher was their boss.

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" She meant the question seriously. She was not asking if she did well, she was asking if unlocking her moonform was a good idea especially that she was just an amateur. Was it a good or bad omen?

Sir Tanoru took his time answering.

"It depends from here on now."

Great, just the answer that I needed, Regina thought.

"We can have that discussion later on. We have more important issues to talk about," he added.

"Right," one of the officers agreed. "The talking nightspawn."

Nightspawns were the parasites of the moon, though many say that they were born because of the romance between moon and earth. In reality, they were just beasts, natural enemies of the humans. Just like any other animals, they don't really have brains and thus, are referred to as with low intellectuality. There should be no nightspawn that can speak.

But one certain legend talks about this. Whenever a meteor was about to crash, there were signs everywhere that helped warn the humans about the incoming doom. These signs were called the three harbingers and the first sign just appeared last night.

But why now, of all times?

"A rabid beast that rattles, eh?" said Regina. "I suppose that's the ancient's way of referring to the talking nightspawn."

Regina sighed. If only the Moonlings and humans still had their close communication with each other, then maybe the world would have been a better place to play games.

"The first harbinger. But a harbinger of what?" another officer asked.

Sir Tanori was into deep thinking. One could tell immediately that a thought occurred in his mind when his eyes lit up.

"Regina, can you tell us again what it said?"

She knocked on her memory. She has to remember.

"He asked, where are the sacrifices? And then, Kill her. She's not the one."

Wait. Could it be?

"The missing children," Regina said. "He was searching for the missing sacrifices. Someone must have hid them."

Regina has seen such tactics.

Sir Tanori nodded. "It must be this 'she' that it mentioned."

Regina gasped then, realizing her dumbness on why she had only realized it until now. There was only one 'she' that came to mind.

"When I appeared, the nightspawn called me a Moonling. It was expecting to see a Moonling, not a moonmage."

By then, Sir Tanori had already got her point while the other officers still had a big question mark on their faces.

"I see," Sir Tanori said. "Officer no.1, prepare to mobilize all your special forces."

All of the eyes of the officers bulged out. Officer no.1 even almost dropped his tablet.

"S-sir?"

"Yes, we need that much. We're about to hunt down a woman who has stolen a bunch of kids from a remarkable enemy. She must either be incredibly dumb or ridiculously strong to have done that and make hybrid nightspawns chase her."

Ma'am Ague, here we come.