Blessing of the Seas

Luna arrived at her next class with Bennett, as they were on the same floor and hers was closer, so they went there first. It was at this moment, she realized that she wasn’t exactly confident when she wasn’t around Bennett. She had been taking the time with him for granted and was now completely unsure what her next action was, since she was mostly doing whatever he was doing.

Well, in reality, it was just an excuse for her to think instead of thinking that she was just relying on him and didn’t want to leave his side. Of course, this led to her tightening her tentacles around him and refusing to let go five minutes before class was meant to start, something she wasn’t exactly proud of.

“Luna, look, it’s fine. We’ve been separated before, like the week I met you. You weren’t like this before- ow!” he said, almost letting out a yelp as she pinched his cheek. “But seriously, I need to get to class. It won’t be bad, I promise. I won’t even complain later about you eating so much-”

Does he seriously think that letting me eat more is going to make me want to leave? Luna thought, tightening her tentacles further while rubbing her legs together nervously. When that had started, she had no clue, but it was a good indicator of nervousness.

He seemed to think for a moment before eventually sighing. “Will you actually go to class if I let you sleep in my room tonight?”

Seriously? That’s not going to… work… wait, that’s actually a very good deal, she thought. It means more time spent with him…

She blinked. Why did I want to spend time with him again? Because… I don’t remember. Speaking of, what logical actions led me to even decide to come here?

Luna knew why she decided to follow him; she wanted to watch his growth. But, was that just an excuse for something else? If so, what? And why was it so important to her subconscious that it affected her actual decisions?

“Lu, I really need to go, okay?” He pulled her in closer, unaware of her internal struggle and hugged her.

She blinked, her mind going blank for a moment as the warmth of his body enveloped her before he set her onto the floor, Luna not noticing that she’d let go of him.

“See you later, Lu!” He dashed down the hall, eventually flickering with red lightning as he ran.

…Huh? What just happened? She thought, her mind still a bit muddled. She shook her head a few times to clear it before letting out a sigh. Well… I should probably get to class anyways. I’ll just think about whatever just happened later.

She looked at the door in front of her as a few people walked by, either not acknowledging her, or just glancing at her curiously. She truly didn’t want to go in, but after a few more seconds of debating, she finally reached up and grabbed the handle-

“Wait for me!”

Luna blinked as she noticed a form running towards her. She then blinked and opened the door, letting the person barrel into the room, sliding face first onto the floor.

Huh. Why do I have a sense of déjà vu? Luna thought. Weird.

“Oof!” the girl in front of her mumbled into the floor before jumping up and spinning towards Luna. “Thanks!”

Luna stared at her, confused. The girl was silent as she waited for Luna’s response, but only got silence in response.

“...Ooookaaay. We should go into class though. It’s about to start.”

Luna nodded and walked past her, into the class with only two other people, one being a student.

Wow. I guess a water alignment really is rare.

Luna shrugged and decided to just choose a chair, which just turned out to be a pillow, at random and looked forward to the man at the front of the room, who seemed just a bit strange… There were some imperfections about his form, like one ear being slightly shorter than the other, slightly too-long arms, and slightly strange proportions.

Is he… an Elemental? That’s new. I’m not exactly sure about it, but I think it’ll be fine. I’m just a bit… lonely.

“You look lonely, are you okay?” a voice said from next to her.

Luna instinctively whipped a tentacle at the source of the voice before stopping it right before it hit her, frowning. The girl looked surprised to silence, unable to make any noise out of her mouth. After a moment of debate, she lightly tapped the girl before retracting her tentacle and staring at the girl for a moment.

The girl gulped before continuing. “Er… sorry for surprising you… what’s your name again? Wait, did I ever learn your name?”

Luna stared at the girl for a moment, noting the blueish horns on her head and the wings that flapped slowly in confusion, the skin stretching from the long limb, of what had to be nearly twice her size in length, to nearly a foot from the base. However, the actual area of the wing was far greater as the wings’ fingers were around three feet at the lowest and five at the greatest, causing the lightly scaled skin to be stretched out to nearly her height. Her full wingspan was about twenty-five feet.

The Dragon-like wings attached to her back may not have looked like they would be able to lift her, but, like nearly all Dragons, Dragonborn were far lighter than they looked, this girl probably lighter than Luna, even though she was twice her height. Most of their body weight was purely muscle though, so even though they weighed little, they could still easily overpower any human of their size. To be fair, their weight could simply just be attributed to the fact that their Mana is mostly what powers their body and the fact that they don’t need all of the same organs a Human, or many other races, need, like livers and lungs, since most of what they needed came from digesting food into Mana, the only waste being the Mana they didn’t need, so they ejected it.

After a few moments of thinking, she realized that she’d started staring into space while playing around with her, currently, light-blue hair. She looked back at the confused blue eyes staring at her.

Her darker complexion belied the fact that she probably spent a lot of time simply floating on the top of the water in the sun, just lazing about like many of the Sea Dragons Lun- Cthulhu had met. For a moment, Luna had the urge to touch the now-folded wings, but held herself back.

She met the girl’s eyes with a simple blink, getting a more confused stare in response.

Hey… she’s a sea creature, by technicality. Does that mean-

___

Your Skill, Mental Communication, is currently-

___

Of course not. Why did I think that would work?

Luna let out an annoyed huff at the message, confusing the Dragonborn even more.

“Um… is something wrong? I’m not annoying you, am I?”

You are definitely annoying me. This is why I let Ben deal with conversations; he could’ve distracted you with something that I can’t currently think of, Luna thought while simultaneously shaking her head. But, I should probably not rely on him too much… well, he does mean free transportation, so it’s not all bad to rely on him-

“Oh, okay then. Are you just not able to talk or something like that?” she asked.

Luna let out a breath of air before shaking her head. She knew this dumbass system restricted her speaking in some way, as she could still make noises with her vocal cords, like hums and sighs, but just couldn’t speak properly, which was pretty annoying.

“Hm. Sounds like a case of underdeveloped vocal cords,” a slightly watery voice said from across the room.

The two of them looked over to the Professor, who was now making a strange face as he seemed to do something. Then, he spoke again, this time the voice had no watery sound and Luna noticed his proportions were more aligned now.

“Sorry about the voice, I’m still attempting to get used to Common,” he explained, waving his hand. “I’m actually a Water Elemental, since there were no Water Mages that were willing to share their oh so valuable secrets, which are literally just normal mage things.”

I’d say.

“Not even Seaborns?” the voice of the other student in the class, a Human boy, asked. “I’d think they’d be willing to teach.”

The professor hummed. “You would be right. But the headmaster decided not to ask them, despite the fact he knew that there was literally another Seaborn that may have been attending this school, who should be in this room now… Luna Yasmine, correct?”

Luna raised her hand in response, attempting to send a string of emotions to the Professor, seeing as it should most likely work. He stared at her for a moment before nodding. “Ah, I see, you can’t speak normally, correct? You can only speak to sea creatures and aquatic and water based lifeforms? That’s fine. I can see you’re an Apex Seaborn, as your tentacles are currently not visible, correct?”

Luna nodded as she brought up the information in her head. Where she came from, they were called Zenith Seaborns, but Apex sounded a bit nicer in her head. And now that she thought about it, Zenith were unable to speak normally, weren’t they? Since they were closer to Cthulhu in structure (though not by much), they couldn’t speak normally for a good portion of their lives.

Damn System. She was disabled by her own design. Damn her. She probably wouldn’t change it anyways, even if she did regain her old power.

“Wait, what’s an Apex Seaborn, and did she just speak to you in your mind?” the girl next to her asked.

The man nodded. “Right. I guess this can be sort of a first lesson; I’m not sure what else to start with. An Apex Seaborn, like Luna, doesn’t always have their tentacles, or other arms, visible, instead hidden in a… well, a bit like a pocket within them. It’s a bit like…”

Luna sent him another string of emotions and he nodded.

“Thank you, Luna. Yes, it’s basically because their tentacles are both natural and MP, otherwise known as Magic, based. They’re mostly magic, which allows them to regrow them quicker if they were to be cut off. Additionally, they are what use up most of their physical stats, like Strength, Endurance, and Dexterity. They actually heal based on Intelligence, but it can use Vitality if needed. It’s honestly just a more powerful sub-Race of Seaborn. They also tend to have much more control over their Element, which tends to be Water.

“And about her speaking, it’s not like actual words as you know them. It’s basically just complicated strands of emotions, woven in a way that seems to resemble words. It’s a bit difficult to understand, but don’t worry too much about it, since she won’t be able to speak to you that way.”

Both the boy across the class and the Dragonborn frowned.

Huh… maybe this will be simpler than I thought…

***

Bennett was very uncomfortable in his Lightning Focus class. It’s not that it was difficult or anything, but mostly because…

“This is the worst day of my life,” Reah Justyce muttered from next to him. “Why do I have to tutor him?! I don’t have the time for this! I was supposed to leave yesterday!”

“The same day you were harassing him?” the headmaster, the only other Lightning Mage in the entire school. “Because of your little outburst, I extended your time here until the end of the year. Plus, you need to actually attend the Academy, not constantly be fighting in a meaningless war-”

“It’s not meaningless,” she hissed as Bennett slowly scooted away, careful to not make any noise. “I can’t be there while all of the lines are being assaulted without my help-”

“I think you’re overstating your own usefulness. Currently, your best use of time is to help train our newest Lightning- Mr. Yasmine, what are you doing?”

Bennett froze as he almost managed to get a third chair apart from Reah. “Uh… I don’t want to instantly be killed if she gets angry. Those spears move fast.”

She glared at him. “Says the person who somehow dodged them. And threw that weird red lightning at me. The hell was that, anyways?”

Bennett didn’t answer her immediately, unwilling to speak to her. Then the Headmaster let out an interested hum. “I will admit I’m curious as well. I only ever saw you use it once before, during the Exams. It did kill the Boss, which I feel like you do deserve the Levels for, as well as the rest of your team, but alas, there’s nothing to do about it.”

Bennett blinked. “Er… it’s called Bloodbolt. I’m not sure how I got it though. I was half dead when I used it. It set me on the brink of death too, which I haven’t been that close to before.”

Reah hit the table in front of her. “How is that fair?! I killed the Boss as well and was nearly dead, but I didn’t get any special Skill from it!”

The Headmaster nodded. “It probably has special conditions. Was there any effect you were under that could have initiated you gaining this Skill?”

This feels less like a class and more like an interrogation, Bennett thought, scrunching up his face. But I don’t think Overheal would have contributed to it. What could have happened then? Does it have anything to do with Luna being assaulted? No… what could it have been then? All I know was that I was nearly dead when I used it… I ran out of MP when trying to summon a bolt of Lightning, and Luna was in the process of healing me… so what could I have done to do that?

“I… don’t think so. All I remember is I ran out of MP, but I somehow used HP instead?”

The Headmaster frowned. “That doesn’t help though, does it? That can happen if someone is desperate enough, but they would usually be almost dead, then die due to the HP drain, exploding with the Skill they were trying to use.”

Wait… Did I… somehow pull from Luna’s Overheal to keep myself alive?

“Besides, the only race that was ever able to use Blood Magic was Blood Aracne and it was only ever genetic, and I’m sure you don’t have Blood Aracne genes within you, and, even if you did, they’d be far too distant to affect you. So it’s only up to speculation.”

“Am I going to be ignored now?” Reah muttered, leaning her face into her hand.

Bennett resisted the urge to say “yes” and instead just blinked at the Headmaster like Luna most likely would’ve. Or, she would have just started playing around with his shirt while thinking about something beyond him.

“Hello?”

Bennett gave her a flat stare. “What?”

She rolled her eyes. “Jeez, no need to be so hostile. I already apologized for attacking you out of nowhere.”

He frowned at her. “I don’t care that you attacked me. I just don’t forgive you for nearly throwing a spear through Luna’s skull.”

Reah gave him a skeptical look. “What is she, your wife? Quit being so caught up over something so trivial.”

“Just because you clearly don’t have friends, doesn’t mean you have to act like they don’t mean anything to other people,” Bennett snapped, unable to help himself. But where the hell did she get the idea that Luna is my wife? Just because I’m old enough to get married doesn’t mean I’m married… Now that sounds weird.

Reah gave him a withering stare as she stood. “Now look here, Yasmine. I don’t give two shits-”

“Settle down. He is correct,” the Headmaster snapped. “Just because you’re stronger than most students doesn’t mean you can flex that power over those weaker than you.”

She growled as she sat back down, glaring at him. “How do you think I can possibly train him? This is stupid. I want to just throw him into a wall and-”

“Reah. You know his mother would turn you into an ice statue and throw you off a cliff if she heard you. You should know there’s nothing I can do to help you then.”

She let out a huff and looked away. Bennett however, frowned. “Just how strong is my mother? I don’t think any more information about her can surprise me at this point.”

“Well… Let’s just say that she’s somebody that I don’t even want to challenge,” the Headmaster muttered, looking a bit queasy for a moment.

Bennett stared at him. “You can lay waste to entire continents and you’re scared of her? What the…?” Bennett shook his head. “Alright, whatever. I can just interrogate her when I see her again,” he grumbled, looking at the desk.

“Right… Anyways, about your training, this will technically be Ms Justyce’s second year exam, turning you into an exceptional Lightning Mage. She will teach you the basics of controlling lightning and help you unlock Lightning Manipulation by the winter. By that point, you should have your Class and be a fully fledged Mage, maybe approaching Battlemage. By the end of the year, I would hope that you’re close to a Battlemage.”

Bennett nodded slightly, still skeptical. “Are you sure I’ll be able to achieve that? I’m not that confident.”

“I did, and more,” Reah snorted, leaning back.

Bennett gave her another flat look. “I have now realized I was stupid to have ever looked up to you. If I could, I’d bash the me from a year ago over the head with a rock, just to make me forget you existed.”

She stared at him, mouth slightly agape, for a few moments before clearing her throat. “Yeah, yeah, whatever. Anyways, when are we supposed to start this show from hell?”

“You’ll start next class.”

They were both silent, giving him a confused look.

“I would rather you two be on better terms when you start; it’s not preferable for you two to dislike one another this much,” he continued, placing his hands behind his back.

Bennett thought for a moment, trying to understand the man’s intentions while he rubbed his hands together slightly, generating a slight bit of Lightning.

Hm… Luna does that sometimes. I think she finds it a bit funny that I produce just a gigantic static field… wait.

Bennett began rubbing his hair vigorously, the same way Luna had, earning a strange look from both the Headmaster and Reah.

“The hell are you doing?” she snapped. “Pulling your hair out isn’t going to make this better for either of us- what the-”

She stopped mid-sentence as her hair began to raise up into the air as if lightning was about to strike her. After another few seconds of rubbing, sparks were visible occasionally in the air, striking the table and causing a burn mark to suddenly appear on the table in front of him.

He then stopped rubbing his hair and simply said, “Huh. That’s… interesting.”

The Headmaster nodded. “Interesting indeed. How did you do that?”

“Eh. Someone didn’t believe I had a Lightning Alignment and Luna decided to do that to prove I did. I dunno where she got the idea. She probably thought it would be funny if it worked and it did,” Bennett responded, shrugging. “Guess it’s a good party trick?”

“So you generate a static field. So fun,” Reah said, having given up on trying to push her hair down. “What does that do for you?”

Bennett frowned. “Static electricity… can’t that empower Lightning, since technically, it’s basically an overcharge of it. Like, if I focused all the electricity into a bolt, it would empower it just slightly. It’s not a huge amount, but it’s just a bit. It’s useless, but if I can make it bigger…”

“You, somehow, make sense,” Reah muttered. Then she raised an eyebrow as Bennett began charging Lightning Strike. “What-?”

“It increases the charge quicker without me having to use extra MP,” Bennett muttered, ignoring her. “But, I stop producing it when I charge it. Basically, a lot of movement can generate a static electricity field and I can absorb it to increase the charge of Lightning Strike-”

“Hey! What are you on about? Increasing the charge of Lightning Strike is easy; just add more MP.”

“You didn’t hear a word I said, did you?” Bennett said to her, tossing the bolt at her, mildly surprised when she caught it, twirling it around a few times before seemingly absorbing it.

“Huh… for the amount of MP I watched you put into this, I thought it’d be less charged. How’d you do that?”

Bennett stared at Reah before looking at the Headmaster. “Are you sure she’s fit to teach me?”

He let out a hum. “Of course not. That’s why I put her with you.”

Bennett rubbed his face with his hand. “Yeah, I’d rather just read books on the theory of Lightning than be taught by someone who you don’t even think is qualified to teach me.”

“How would I not be qualified?! I’m already done with my first year!”

“Didn’t you leave midway through because of some Avatar? I don’t get why it’s so important to a war that, now that I think about it, shouldn’t even be happening,” Bennett responded. “You seem to care about it more than the place you were supposed to learn how to fight. Additionally, there’s another problem with it that makes no sense: the strange need for Overheal, as I’ve heard.” Bennett looked at the Headmaster, who seemed a bit weary. “Why? It’s literally just another healing Skill, from what I know, just that it increases maximum HP temporarily.”

For a few moments it was silent, and Bennett was a bit worried he’d run his mouth a bit too much. Bennett knew that he was less… respectful when he started getting stressed, but he was actively attempting to tone himself down.

After another moment, the Headmaster sighed. “I’m sure you understand this, but Overheal is what one would call a ‘broken’ Skill. It allows a person under its effects to survive a fatal hit, meaning that if they were to technically die, they wouldn’t. Of course, if you, say, lost your entire head, you’d still die unless it was reattached as quickly as possible, but no matter what type of damage you take, you could survive. It allows Mages to survive ‘after’ death, and continue fighting. It’s a powerful Skill that anyone can take advantage of.”

And I can take advantage of it more than others, Bennett thought. “I get that part, but it doesn’t really contribute much, does it? It’s just more HP, isn’t it?”

“It’s a bit more complicated than that. But enough about that. About the war… you’re right about it being unnecessary, but I don’t have a choice. Us high level persons, like me and some other Professors here, must care, since we get most of our funding from the Empire, who’s banking on this small war going in our favor.”

“For… territory that never belonged to Humans in the first place?” Bennett said, unable to suppress a glare.

Reah cleared her throat. “Firstly, those Elves have more than enough territory, they’re just stingy about it. Secondly, the territory in question is filled with valuable resources that they don’t even use, like high concentrations of Mythril and even traces of Adamantium. It’s more valuable than you’d ever know.”

Bennett frowned at her. “I know what’s there, I just think that it’s dumb to fight over something we don’t need as of right now.”

“How would you know if we needed it?” Reah snapped, glaring at him.

“Enough bickering. This is supposed to be a time for learning, not arguing over trivial things,” the Headmaster interrupted, clasping his hands together, looking between them.

“Trivial?! The hell does that-?”

“Ms. Justyce, silence,” he demanded, and she, surprisingly, snapped her mouth closed.

Man… I just have really bad luck, Bennett thought.

***

As time kept going on, Luna kept getting more and more uncomfortable, as well as more tired. It’d been an hour since the class had started, but she couldn’t do much more than twitch nervously, attempting to pull at the non-existent shirt of Bennett.

Why is my body failing to calm down when Bennett isn’t nearby? Damn instinctual needs; this body has probably associated him with safety, and is starting to undergo what mortals call a “mental breakdown”.

This was probably the case as she shivered slightly, trying to not think about him, but the safe feeling that she always got when pressed up against his side was absent, which made things worse. At some point, the Dragonborn female, who’s name was Ulayla, as Luna found out, next to her had noticed her panicked state and was seemingly trying to console her.

“Hey, you’re fine, right? Why do you smell all panicky and… scared? Is there something that’s worrying you?” Ulayla asked, looking concerned for Luna.

I don’t even know what’s wrong with me! According to my body, it just wants to be near Bennett. I don’t like this one bit.

Luna closed her eyes for a few moments, trying to rid herself of the need, but failed horribly.

If only I had used Blessing of the Seas…

Suddenly, she snapped back into reality. No. I can’t use it with him. Who knows what that would do. I don’t even remember having that when I was a Goddess… well, in my full power, at least. I still don’t understand the purpose of it. How would it affect him? How would it affect me? Am I willing to risk harming him?

No. I’m not… but I want to bind the Skill to him. It could benefit him. It could benefit both of us. But… I can’t. Not yet. I still don’t know the specifics of sending him my emotions. Like I thought before, is it just going to send him my emotions regardless if I want to or not? Will it send me his emotions? Will-

“Luna, were you even listening to our Professor?” Ulayla asked, poking her a few times in the cheek. “No, I think she’s completely lost in thought.”

“Whatever. I’ll just wake her up.”

Suddenly, a bombardment of water rushed over Luna and she blinked into it, unsure of what was happening. She then simply blocked the flow and stared at the other boy in the room, who was clearly baffled at Luna’s casual act of ripping control of the water away from him.

Luna gave him a quizzical look, wondering what was happening before remembering she was in a classroom.

Oh. Was he saying something- no, actually he’s half asleep, she thought, looking at the Professor, who’s form was looking like it was about to fall apart, and giving him a flat expression.

“Al’an, that was unnecessary! She’s perfectly awake!” Ulayla snapped, wings flaring out and knocking aside a few pillows. “Are you okay, Luna, he was just being really rude. The professor said we had the rest of the class to try and teach Al’an Water Manipulation, since it’s integral to the class as a whole. But you’ve been looking really… concerned about something for like fifteen minutes. The only time I’m that concerned is when I…”

Some sudden realization seemed to dawn upon her and stars seemed to shine in her slitted eyes. “Wait, are you worrying about someone? Do you have a mate?”

Luna blinked as she processed this for a moment. In Dragon terms, that would be like asking if Luna had a husband…

Suddenly, a very clear image of Bennett appeared in the forefront of her mind.

Huh? HUH?!

Luna felt her face start to heat up as she shook her head vigorously. Ulayla frowned, then her eyes lit up again, this time morphing into literal stars.

SHE’S DOING THAT ON PURPOSE!

“What about someone-”

Luna shook her head again before she finished, even clearing it up by putting two tentacles in an “X” shape.

“Hm… I don’t believe that! You must have someone you like. It’s impossible not to; I’d know that myself!” Ulayla exclaimed.

The boy, Al’an raised his hand. “I don’t-”

“You’re Human, you don’t count. You all are all just… blegh,” Ulayla retorted, rolling her eyes at him.

This Dragonborn… is a completely different breed. She’s outright insane. She’s monstrous. Wait. Bennett’s Human… But I don’t like him in the way she’s suggesting.

“Now that’s just rude. What if she likes a Human?”

Ulayla stood there for a few seconds, thinking. Then-

“Huh. I didn’t think that far.”

Al’an looked at her for a moment before groaning. “This year’s gonna be something else, isn’t it?”

~~~

Eventually, though it seemed like hours longer than it should have been, the class ended, to Luna’s pleasure, and it was technically their Free Time/Training period.

“Oo, do you want to go to the big lake nearby, Luna? It’s nothing like the ocean, but there’s a really good sunbathing spot I think you’d like!” Ulayla said, flapping her wings and blowing away multiple papers while Al’an clearly seemed to wonder if he should bang his head against a wall, partly since he’d gotten no closer to getting Water Manipulation and partly because of Ulayla’s… Ulayla-ing.

Luna frowned. How would you know if I’d like it? We met three hours ago and half that time was me trying to not run out of the room to find Bennett. Now that I’m thinking about it, I completely forgot about him at some point. Is that a good thing?

After a moment, Luna shrugged at her.

Ulayla seemed to think for a moment as she stood up to leave the classroom. “Hmm… do you still want to go, if just for the lake? I wanna dive into it to see what’s at the bottom; it’s actually really deep, despite its looks.”

As she approached the door, she frowned. “Why does it smell like burnt hair-?” She froze in place as she opened it, mouth frozen in the middle of her sentence.

Luna looked past her and nearly started to giggle at the sight in front of her.

Bennett stood in front of the door, hair all puffed out and slightly singed while he clearly looked like he was debating living life. He noticed her and raised a hand, emitting a defeated aura.

“Hey, Lu. I have the worst story ever to tell,” he said tiredly.

She immediately bounded over to him and took her usual spot, finally glad to have her feet off the ground. She then poked him in the cheek and he sighed.

“Yeah, I didn’t have a good time, that’s for sure. I got hit by multiple bolts of lightning, which isn’t fun, mind you. I’m immune to the muscle spasms, but not immune to the pain they inflict. Speaking of… he trailed off, finally noticing the Dragonborn in front of him. “Oh, sorry, I just came to pick Lu up, since I’m sure she’s going to smack me over the head at some point for just leaving her here. Well, that or she’s literally not going to let go of me for the next three hours-”

“Lu?” Ulayla said, confused. “You have a nickname for her?”

“Nickname?” Bennett looked into space for a moment. “Huh. I guess I do. Never realized I called her that. I do that for a lot of people. Like sis. I’m a bit surprised I haven’t for Jennifer, since her name’s pretty long, at least to me, but I’m sure I’ll start eventually- huh? Why did your pupils just morph into stars?”

He took a step back as Ulayla’s wings flared out and she looked at Luna. “Is this the Human you-”

Al’an, annoyed that Ulayla was blocking the way, shoved past her and her outspread wings. “Idiot. She already made it clear she didn’t. Stop assuming things, overgrown lizard person.”

Ulayla spun toward him, but he was already a few steps away, quickly leaving. However, that didn’t stop her from firing a jet of pressurized water at him, which he dodged as he began running down, cackling, for the first time showcasing an emotion other than annoyance and boredom.

“Hmph. Rude boy,” she huffed before looking back at Bennett, who was currently giving Luna a strange look as she used a bubble of water to wash out his hair. After disposing of the water by unceremoniously throwing it out an open window, Bennett’s hair was clean and he looked slightly less unhinged.

After this, he looked at Ulayla. “You’re one of her classmates, right? I’m not sure what that was, but thanks for keeping her company, as I see you clearly did. From what I can tell, she doesn’t really do well alone. Oh, right, I’m Bennett, a friend of Luna’s.”

Ulayla stared at him for a good ten seconds, clearly trying to gauge… something about him. Then she frowned. “Uh… why exactly is she sitting like that on your arm?”

Bennett looked down at Luna, who looked up at him before wrapping a fourth tentacle around him, unconsciously refusing to let go. “Honestly, I don’t know, but this feels natural, so I just go with it. Oh, yeah, I never asked about your name.”

Ulayla seemed to brighten up again as she put her arms out and spread her wings out to their full extent. “I’m Ulayla, Luna’s friend.”

That’s a bit of an overstatement, but it’s close enough, Luna thought.

Bennett looked down at her in surprise and she hit him over the head before he could say anything.

“Ow! I didn’t even say anything! What was that for?!” he complained.

She gave him an unimpressed look and he looked a bit guilty. “You know what, fair enough. But seriously, you’re so… Luna, I'm surprised you managed that. By the way, I brought you something.”

He pulled out something from a pouch on his hip and unwrapped it with one hand, revealing-

“One of the lemon tarts you ate six of during lunch! I saved a few for after class since I knew you’d probably be hungry.”

Luna blinked before wrapping her arms around his chest happily before grabbing it and managing to stuff half of it into her mouth joyfully, savoring the taste of both sweet and sour lemony cream in her mouth.

Bennett rubbed her head and she leaned into him before blinking in confusion and sitting straight up.

Wait, what just happened? It felt like my entire body went into autopilot the moment I saw Bennett. I remember crawling into my normal spot, smacking him on the head, and now I’m cuddling into him like some sort of clingy pet. What am I doing?!

Her face started to go red as she shook her head vigorously. I even hugged him without practically exploding from whatever feeling I keep getting when I’m near him. Now I’m starting to get that feeling! What is wrong with me-?

“Uh, Lu, what’s wrong. Is it bad or something? Did it get burnt?” Bennett asked, pulling out another one and inspecting its packaging. “It doesn’t look bad. Or burnt… What could be wrong then-”

Ulayla, who’d watched the entire thing play out, gave the two of them a completely unamused stare. “Huh. Interesting.”

Bennett tilted his head at her. “What? Did something happen?”

She shook her head before giving them a very self-satisfied smirk. “Nothing, nothing. Anyways, I was inviting Luna to a lake near the Academy! It’s really deep and has an amazing sunbathing spot. Do you wanna come too?!”

Bennett frowned. “Can I bring my sister? I’m sure she’d love it.”

“The more the merrier!”

~~~

Luna stared at the water suspiciously, eyeing the large fish that swam close to the surface, but Ulayla, clearly unable to help herself, jumped into the water and seemed to smack the fish back down to the deeper water.

“Wow, Ben, there really is a lake here! I thought you were joking,” Yelena exclaimed, already barefoot and slowly wading into the water.

Bennett nodded as he looked at Luna, who’d found her old dress and was now wearing it once again, feeling far more safe than she would in the school uniform, that, yes, dried very quickly, according to Ulayla, but Luna just felt like it was more appropriate to be in water with her dress on.

She looked back at him for a moment before finally hopping from her perch and dashing into the water, unable to help herself. The moment she was far enough in, she extended her tentacles and dove under the water, propelling herself along at a pace faster than she could ever hope to move on land straight down.

This is interesting. It’s actually way, way deeper than it looks. It would take at least another two hundred feet to get to the bottom, and even then, there seems to be something else down there.

After a moment of debate, she scanned the memories of some of the more developed fish around her, realizing that, down there, there was a pretty big skeleton, probably of some sort of leviathan.

She nodded before shooting back to the surface and launching herself out of the water, nearly twenty feet up, before falling back into the water and keeping herself afloat. Just going from side to side, the lake had to be nearly two hundred feet wide, and maybe three hundred long. There were some other students nearby, but she really didn’t mind.

Luna then looked at Bennett, who’d gotten into the water at some point and was looking very much confused. She shot over to him as Yelena swam in circles around him, trying to dodge the jets of water that Ulayla was blasting at her.

When Bennett noticed her, he shook his head. “Man, I feel really dumb thinking you were drowning when I effectively fished you up. To be fair, you didn’t exactly look like you were okay.

Luna huffed and went underwater before jumping out again, flying over his head and, just to prove her superiority, flipped twice before doing a perfect dive.

Bennett laughed at her as she popped back up in front of him with a smug expression on her face.

Finally, I’m in the water again. I didn’t realize how much I missed this, she thought. It’s… nice. Especially now that I’m with… friends, I think I can call them.

(It’s different. Cthulhu never truly had anyone she could consider a friend. Most never lived long enough for her to get attached to, so she never really tried. The closest she had to friends were the other Ancient Gods, but they betrayed her when the horrid System arrived to take over the worlds they had made. It was both infuriating and understandable. They really only tolerated one another since they mutually benefited one another. Cthulhu spent most of her existence alone, anyways, since there was never really anything to do. At some point, the years just started to pass. Then decades. Then centuries. Then millenia. Then time just seemed to pass faster than she could count. She descended upon her own worlds sometimes, bringing joy to the things she created, or releasing another one of her destructive creations, not many of which she let propagate, since they were just too destructive. Friends were never on Cthulhu's agenda.)

Luna listened to this snippet of her life, feeling just a bit lonelier. Then, Bennett, with some unknown technique, pushed a wave of water at her, surprising her slightly. In response, she used a tentacle to push water at him, which he yelped at before diving under the water and grabbing at her feet, pulling her under.

This time, as she resurfaced with him, she couldn’t stop herself from giggling.

Yeah, she thought as she tackled him, splashing water everywhere. I like spending time with friends.

~~~

Luna opened her eyes with a groan, finding herself laying on top of Bennett as they floated on top of the water near Yelena and Ulayla, whose wings were completely spread out, resting. He opened his eyes to look down at her.

“Oh, hey, you awake now? Been ‘bout an hour since you fell asleep. There’s like thirty minutes until dinner. Wanna see if Lena’s awake?” he asked.

Still a bit groggy, she snuggled into him, unwilling to move from her comfortable position. He shrugged, holding her with one arm and quickly paddling over to his sister. Who was definitely not awake. He headbutted her in the side of the chest and she turned over, facefirst into the water like it was a bed before her body realized it was definitely not in a bed.

“Eh?! Where the hell- oh, the lake,” she spluttered before calming down. “Benny? What’s wrong?”

“It’s almost dinner. You want to try and wake up the sleeping dragon?”

Yelena looked at Ulayla for a few moments before getting in a more optimal position and shaking her head. “Nah, she looks at peace. Let’s just let her sleep.”

Her brother nodded and they both, Bennett holding a still sleepy Luna, paddled back over to the shore from nearly the middle of the lake, which took not too long, surprisingly enough, before throwing a towel over one another and making their way to the Academy, along with a few others who’d also decided to leave the lake as well.

At some point, Luna had fully woken and was trying to remember what they had been doing before. Whatever it was, it was both a little tiring and fun.

Well, as long as it was nice, I don’t care if I don’t remember, Luna thought, poking Bennett in the chest.

He looked down at her and smiled. “Yeah, it was fun, wasn’t it? Oh, right, you and Ulayla dove under the water for a while when we were there, where’d you go?”

She blinked. We went to check out the skeleton, didn’t we? It was… odd, to say the least. It was basically just a giant fossil that emanated really strong MP pulses that were pretty relaxing. It felt somewhat familiar, as if it was one of my creations. Maybe a kraken?

In response, Luna simply shrugged, as if to say she didn’t really remember. Then something seemed to strike him. “Oh yeah, Ulayla said that you both found a fossil of some big sea creature. She wasn’t exactly sure how it could’ve gotten there, but, according to her, there might have been an underwater tunnel?”

Luna nodded, slowly remembering this tidbit. There had been an underwater tunnel that probably stretched all the way to near the ocean, based on the fact that further down it, Luna had been able to sense a slight concentration of saltwater.

“Ben, I’m gonna go to my dorm and take a quick shower,” Yelena said, waving to her brother. “See you at dinner.”

“Same here. See ya,” he responded, and Luna waved as well. “Right, let’s go get a shower and change.”

When they got back to the dorm, Tyreese quickly jumped to interrogating them, but seemed to grow interested when he heard about the lake, and Jennifer seemed a bit intrigued as well, but didn’t say much. After being dropped off at her room, Luna went to take a shower, staring up at the metal pipe that dropped hot water on her head, before drying off, which was as easy as a flick of the wrist, and putting on her nightclothes.

After that, it was to dinner, which wasn’t too exciting except for Ulayla suddenly showing up out of nowhere, declaring she was to eat with them, then proceeding to eat every ounce of seafood she could get her hands on, eventually falling asleep mid-dinner and one of her dorm mates had to carry her out of the dining hall.

Finally, it was time to sleep. Luna yawned, holding onto Bennett as they bid goodnight to his sister and to Juli, who’d joined them.

“Sure,” Juli simply said before walking off.

Yelena just rolled her eyes before hugging Bennett and dashing after her. They returned to the dorms and everyone went to their rooms, tired after the seemingly long day, but. In reality, they had spent only six hours in the classrooms, but, to be fair, they were quite attention demanding.

Bennett, instead of bringing Luna to her room, simply just walked into his own room, yawning. When she gave him a mildly confused look, he shrugged.

“You would’ve probably just broken into my room anyways, so might as well just bring you here,” he said.

Luna nodded and he gave her a flat look, muttering something about her not having to “admit you would’ve anyways”. After rushing back to her room to grab a toothbrush, which every world she went to seemed to have, along with toothpaste, and brushing her teeth with Bennett, she hopped into his very warm bed and, after debating it for a few moments, snuggled against him.

With a yawn, he pulled her against him, a bit protectively, and muttered a goodnight to her.

As Luna quickly drifted off to sleep, she thought she’d had a decent day, if not a bit long. However, she felt warm and safe, so she simply closed her eyes, ready to drift off into a dreamless sleep. However, she was nowhere near that lucky.