18. The Moon’s Shadow
The Moon’s Shadow
She parked her car just outside Cable’s Cafe, where Lila was working.
Rain began to pour, drumming against the pavement.
Flora sat in her car, building up her courage.
The storm lightened, and she watched the world soften through her rain-speckled window.
Tiny droplets danced to the rhythm of red and green street lights, and behind them, through the cafe window, she saw Lila.
Her phone rang, breaking her from her thoughts. It was Davy, requesting a pastry from the cafe.
“Feed me or I’ll die.”
The bell rang as Flora entered the cafe, her hair and jacket mangy and a shade darker from the rain.
“Lila?” she said as she walked up to the counter. The girl at the register looked up over her glasses, then back down again.
“What can I get for you today, ma’am?”
“I—I just wanted to see how you were doing. I haven’t been able to get a hold of you and?—”
“Our special today is the blueberry crumble,” Lila said, ignoring her.
Flora stood speechless and swallowed.
Finally, Lila looked back above the rim of her glasses, her hair adorned with a red bandana. “Fine,” she sighed. “Peppermint mocha with oat, a ham and cheese pastry for Davy. I’ll be on break in 15 minutes.”
Flora waited anxiously at her table, tapping the lid of her drink. The cafe was empty, but Lila kept Flora waiting for 30 minutes for good measure.
“Okay, what do you want?” Lila asked coldly as she sat across from Flora.
Flora stuttered, “I wanted to make sure you were doing alright. At home. And with everything.”
“Home is home,” Lila replied with a bored glare. “But I don’t know about everything.” Her piercing eyes flicked to Flora. “You, in particular.”
Flora looked at Lila, confused. Lila huffed at the sight, leaning back in her chair with her arms crossed.
“What the hell, Flora?”
Finally, Flora thought. She knew Lila couldn’t hold back for long.
“How long were you gonna go without telling me about this alternate dimension shit? You were just gonna keep showing up in wonderland until something finally takes you out, leaving all of us here to just think, ‘Huh, Flora’s gone. I’m sure she’s probably just dead or tied up in someone’s basement. ’”
“I have no control over it, Lila,” Flora pleaded. “It just started happening when I was a kid, and it hasn’t stopped since.”
“No control over it?” Lila hissed. “You know what you do have control over? Whether or not you keep your friends and family in the dark. I’m not mad that this is happening, Flora.
I’m sorry that this is happening to you.
I’m mad that you would lie to me about it for so long.
‘Sorry, my parents say I’m not allowed to have sleepovers’, ‘Sorry, I must have broke my arm while sleepwalking,’ ‘Sorry, some asshole killed me in my dream, and now I’m never coming home’,” Lila scoffed with a wetness in her eye.
She said through gritted teeth, “What the hell, Flora?”
“I wanted to tell you,” Flora said, her gaze fixed on her cherished friend, one of the only things that made this world worth returning to. “I... I wondered if I was crazy,” Flora muttered. “If I told you, I thought you might think I was crazy, too. And then I just wouldn’t have you at all.”
“Of course you’d have me, idiot,” Lila shot back with a sharp glare.
She rolled her eyes, and the harshness softened, her mask slipping just enough to reveal the faintest smile.
“Even if you were completely out of your mind, you'd still have me.” Leaning forward in her chair, she clasped Flora's hands in hers, the intensity in her hazel eyes unshakable. “Just... promise me you're okay."
“I'm okay,” Flora assured her, her voice steady. “And I mean it.”
Lila’s grip tightened as she squeezed Flora’s hands. “You know I love you, loser. I can’t do this without you.”
“I love you too, Lila,” Flora replied softly, as she admired the girl who had shown her what deeper strength could achieve.
“Now,” Lila said, her grin turning mischievous, “take your crusty pastry and get out of here.”
When Flora finally returned home, the rain had subsided, leaving only the shimmer of wet pavement. She opened the car door and stepped right into a puddle. Letting out a groan, she sloshed her way inside.
“I’m saved!” Davy cried dramatically as she tossed the paper bag his way. “So,” he teased, “how’d you sleep last night?”
“Noec’s a scythe,” Flora replied nonchalantly.
“What?” Davy choked and put the pastry down. “A kitty dragon?”
Flora responded with a disturbed glare, and Davy shook his head at himself.
“Nope,” he replied before she could speak. “Nope, you’re right. I regret now how that sounded out loud.”
Driven by necessity as much as curiosity, Flora committed her day to research.
She delved into Sona's journal once more, this time hunting for fresh insights about the Scytherax as a whole.
Her fingers flipped through the pages, one after another, faster and faster as she unraveled the story of the cleric of the Shrouded Village.
No breed of Scytherax was known to voluntarily live in proximity to humans, not until the Night Sky Scytherax.
Living precariously in the shadow of Night Sky Forest, Sona feared that the village's survival might one day hinge on the depth of their understanding of the powerful creatures that lurked in the shadows.
Especially, as she wrote, because their numbers had surged in the past twenty years.
As a child, Sona never once heard their echoes rumbling through the Forest. But as she grew, so did the threat of the once solitary creatures, and by the time she had returned home from her medical apprenticeship, stepping foot in Night Sky Forest was strictly forbidden.
But, no threat could stifle Sona’s curiosity.
With the help of Aria, an eccentric cleric and former peer, Sona took careful notes through experimentation on their anatomy and physiology, as well as their unusual resistance to illness.
Even after her falling out with Aria, Sona had continued her studies on the Scytherax independently.
Her approach, however, had shifted entirely toward observation from afar—focusing on their habits, social behaviors, and escalating interactions with humans.
Far beyond the hand-drawn anatomical figures and the dated records of those counted as victims, Flora came across a heading in bulky letters: The Moon’s Shadow.
The passage was infuriatingly vague. The Moon’s Shadow was the very darkness in the Forest, Sona wrote—a darkness unseen since the war.
“Come on now, Sona,” Flora murmured, skipping to the next line with her finger.
“They drink from the veins of the Well, the Shadow feeding them each new addition, expanding their collective wardrobe of disguises, like a web of shared knowledge. ”
Flora blinked. “The fuck?”
There was a knock at the front door. Flora arose from her perch to see who it was.
“Lila?” she said.
Lila brushed past her and set her bag on the counter. “I’m coming with you tonight,” she stated. “Consensually, this time.”
Back in Emyre, the Shrouded Village saw a glimmer of hope with the return of their prodigal son, Noec.
They wondered at the subtle volatility in his eyes, and there were already rumors of his destructive temper.
But with the flash of his smile and the thoughtfulness of his words, any hints of distrust seemed abated.
Lila, however, wasn’t so easy to win over.
“Lila, it’s so nice to see you again!” Noec had said, fumbling to his feet as they appeared at Lunara’s Spring.
Lila looked down at and back up from his extended hand, responding in turn with a scoff before walking away. Still, for the next few days, Lila insisted on staying the night at Flora’s.
And, upon her father’s demand, she did actually show up one day holding his black portable radio.
She set it on the Eldon dining room table and clicked play.
Elia clapped in awe as music poured from the ancient device, and Heron smiled over at her.
They bobbed their heads to the highlights of “Wacky Wavy Inflatable Man”, including Kansas, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and Fleetwood Mac.
Noec, entranced by the sound and the newfound variety, danced happily with himself. He spun and shuffled in an awkward fashion that would have made Mr. Fray proud. Flora took Noec’s hands and grinned as he began to sway along to Bob Seger.
They giggled like children until they caught each other's eyes, and they shared a nervous smile. Heron fought a smirk as Elia’s eyes sparkled with excitement.
Lila gritted her teeth.
For the next few days, everyone kept a very close eye on Noec’s health.
But, like Heron had said, Noec seemed to be safe from whatever “spell of death” the wartime chimeras had once been enchanted with.
He was doing so well, it seemed, that Heron decided that even referring to him as a “chimera” might be misleading.
So, under a new section in Sona’s journal, Flora wrote the title “Polychrome Hybrids”.
“Noec, I was wondering something,” Flora asked as they made their ceremonial journey to the spring, Lila close behind. “Did you… interact with other scythes in the Forest?”
He shook his head and replied, “Not really. I saw other scythes, but I kept my distance to be safe.”
“Hm,” Flora muttered. “Any chance you saw another hybrid or two?”
“No, sorry,” Noec sighed. “All monochrome out there, it seems.” He glanced over at her and added, “I did notice something you’d find interesting, though: scythes seem to default to walking around in human forms. They walk through the Forest in disguise, even when they’re alone.”
“I suppose a constant disguise makes for easy victims, should three stupid kids stumble into their Forest,” Flora responded with a nostalgic smirk. “Sona observed the same thing,” she added. “And I guess they opt to speak the same way we do. Just… very technical, very apathetic. ”
Noec huffed. “Uncanny,” he muttered. “In the worst sort of way.”