Naughty Luna

Chapter 1: Stranger in a Strange Land

She awakened from her deep sleep with the gentle noise of rhythmic beeping in the distance. A heavy head throbbing and a body weighed down by unseen chains indicated that the unfortunate moon had again been deprived of its sleep. The antiseptic, sterile smell, and hum of the machines told her it was somewhere alien. She forced her eyes wide open, blinking against the piercing white light from fluorescent tubes.

This room was nothing like the rooms in Zarythia because it was devoid of all the organic elegance found on her planet where buildings glinted like crystal and walls seemed to be alive, responding to touch and emotion. Rather, she was surrounded entirely by cold metal and lifeless plaster.

She sat up with a hard effort, muscles weak and slack, looked at a theoretical monitor with wavering lines and numbers she did not understand, and noticed that her arm was stuck with many tubes feeding into a beeping machine beside her. 

Her heart raced when distorted flashes of memory popped up: ambush on Zarythia, rebels charging up, that emerald stone at her chest glowing with teleportation energy—and then the abrupt, gut-wrenching snap of that stone bursting while in the process of escape.

Before suddenly clutching her chest, relief flooded through her fingertips as they touched the broken emerald. Though faint, it still pulsated with latent energy that almost felt dead. The other piece was taken away by a thief who had vanished just before she had. 

She took the brief moment to survey the empty space—a narrow bed, a chair with clothing stacked atop it, and an approximation of a glass-now-reflecting surface. Slowly, swinging her legs over the side of the bed, she shuffled toward it, moving unsteadily but on purpose.

It brought her to a halt.

Where once lay the golden hues of her Zarythian skin, now only a warm, rich color could be found. Those eyes, which had once been silver-blue and sparkling, were now an emerald green as if uttered unto the very color of the fractured stone. Hair that used to be golden and ethereal now flowed in waves of auburn over her shoulders, glimmering under the less forgiving, cruel light. The body remained lithe and athletic from years of royal training on the art of combat, but the contours softened in ways that shocked even her. 

"What... has happened to me?" she whispered, her breath hitching in her throat. 

She kept staring at her body—now body, but in all its aspects, unsettlingly human. Her reflection smirked back at her-musically, almost in a way that might be taken as mischief. If it is a curse-it could be such she would learn how to use it against others.

She was interrupted in the musings by the door opening. Luna had her body spinning around, all instincts on high alert. A woman came in, a white-coated lady with a clipboard tucked beneath an arm. Tall, kind face framed in dark curls, and sharp, analytical eyes. 

"You are awake," the woman said, relief and some curiosity in her tone. "How are you feeling?"

Luna hesitated for a moment. Her emerald embedded translator understood every word, but she made it a practice to choose her words carefully. "Where... am I?"

"You are at St. Raphael's Hospital," the doctor replied as he advanced closer to her. "You were discovered unconscious last night in the middle of a busy street. Do you remember anything?"

That was not as possible for Luna; there were too many answers that raced through her mind. If she said that she was an alien princess whose nexus stone was satisfactorily shattered, that would turn her to a major target-or, even more terrifyingly, a mere experiment.

"I... can't remember," she said as if to open herself.

"That is normal after trauma. First, let's start with the basics. What's your name?"

"Luna," she answered instinctively, slipping into her royal tone.

"Okay, Luna," she began, "I'm Dr. Grace Carter. Quite a journey you've had, but physically, you seem all right now. Vital signs normal, though you were a bit dehydrated and malnourished when you came in."

Grace made a small scribble on her clipboard and added, "Any family or friends who we can contact?"

"No family," Luna shook her head, eyes cast down in an emerald shade. The voice resonated sadness.

In so much confusion, Grace eventually nodded cautiously. "You should rest, and should remember anything or want help, press this button." She pointed to the button, which was positioned adjacent to the bed as she left the room. 

Luna broke at once the moment the door clicked shut. She pressed her fingers to the emerald stone, whispering a command in Zarythian. It flickered weakly then threw a translucent map into the air. It wasn't stable, but it would still pinpoint the stolen fragment, aided by the blinking dot marking its forgotten location somewhere within this sprawling Earth city. 

Her fists clenched, she knew she had to retrieve it. There was no option for failure. An ancient relic in its own right, the emerald stone linked Zarythia to her people. But strength was still too weak to take action.

But now again, her reflection caught her gaze and permitted a small smile. Perhaps the change was not an impediment, and her new form possessed an air of enchanting seduction that she might wield in this strange world. 

She was distracted now by muffled voices outside of the room. Slowly she crept towards the door, pressing her ear against it. 

"Sergeant Cole," said a firm voice, "the witness reported some unusual activity near the woman just before she blacked out. We need to talk with her."

A deeper voice responded, steady and commanding: "I will take care of this. Where is she at?"

Luna hitched, peering through the tight crack of the door to catch sight of him.

Sergeant Ethan Cole stood tall, broad shoulders filling the hallway like a tower. He wore a crisp uniform, his sharp clean lines accent the deep blue eyes that seem to see more than they should. He has dark hair trimmed to specification and he moves with a predatory calculatedness.

The man Ethan intimates sets on demanding attention, and so Luna feels a spark of admiration as well as caution. Whoever he was, he was not someone to be taken lightly.

But waiting to see what his intentions was not her plan. She took off the plain clothes draped over the chair, short skirt and simple blouse; nowhere near the elegant flow of Zarythian garb, but good enough.

Within moments, she was dressed and slipping out through a secondary door. The hospital resembled a maze of sterile corridors, but Luna made her way through with the agility of a well-trained warrior, ducking behind corners, and evading staff. She was gaining energy, though not enough to risk facing them directly.

As she was nearing an exit, a firm hand clamped down on her arm.

"Leaving already?" a baritone voice quipped.

Luna turned sharply towards the voice; immediately, she found herself with her eyes locked to his. Up close, Ethan's intensity proved even more mesmerizing. His gaze was piercingly critical but his grip-in-so-tight though not painful.

"I think we haven't met before," Luna said with smooth disarming voice while tilting her head to let her auburn hair tumble over one shoulder. "Do you always grab strangers like this?"

Static in air now with eyebrow raised, Ethan seemed unimpressed with her charm. "Sgt. Ethan Cole, U.S. Army," was all he replied. "And you are?"

"Luna," was her reply as the emerald eyes sparkled with pretend innocence.

He scrutinized her for a moment with a clear suspicion. "So, witnesses saw some weird thing happened before you fell down. Care to explain?" 

Despite the bright smile still plastered on her face, Luna's mind raced. "Just a girl in the wrong place at the wrong time," she said playfully.

Ethan's expression turned steely. "You're not going anywhere until we sort this thing out." 

Reclining her lips slightly forward and dropping her voice to a sultry whisper, Luna said, "Then I guess you're just going to have to keep me close." 

Ethan narrowed his eyes, but before he could reply, Luna slipped from his grasp as nimbly as a snake. "Catch me if you can," she taunted, a second before disappearing into the crowd beyond the hospital doors. 

Ethan watched her leaving, jaw clenched. Something told him that this woman concealed more than met the eye.