Luna Belle and the Cave to Nightland

Luna:

“We have our mission and the time is now to act! It is our responsibility to find the vandals and stop them! Why? Because I made a promise and we, at the Protect the Canyons Club, always keep our promises. Also, because I volunteered.” Jason stands on a rock, doing his best to give a noble encouraging speech. 

“You volunteered!?” Cali interrupts. She, like the rest of us, was under the impression that Jason was tasked with this responsibility so we could prove our commitment to the Nature Center before we were allowed to use it as a headquarters. Cali voices these concerns. 

“Don’t worry, we’re still getting that, we just look better by volunteering!” Jason looks around at his team of four teenagers total. Jason is the Club President with a passion for the environment and a knack for implementing his crazy plans. Cali is his best friend and Vice President who surfs, mountain bikes, and knows the area like the back of her hand. Tapping his foot to a beat is Chase, the Club Secretary and musician who is always moving and making noise, usually both. Finally there is me, Luna Belle, the Club Treasurer who barely belongs in this club, much less running it. 

I sigh and look up at the stars. I used to be in the Astronomy Club with my best friend, Alisha, but I left after we had a big argument. Out of spite, I joined the Protect the Canyons Club, the other club that meets at the same time. They were looking for a Treasurer and I’m good with numbers. My true love is still astronomy though. I would never give it up because of Alisha. I can tell you anything about space and the night sky, like that the moon is currently at 100% illumination tonight, which is a way of saying that it is a true full moon.  

“What a beautiful night indeed!”  The voice in my head sings. 

I have a secret. She’s a pretty large secret, but very easy to keep. Literally. I have a mountain lion who is tame, apparently invisible to other people, and speaks telepathically with me. Her name is Calypso. She has been my constant companion since I was a toddler. Right now, she sits at my feet in between Chase and I. 

You’re right. I think, gazing up at the stars. 

“I’m always right.”  She smirks at me.

“I know you want to go over the plan again, so let’s hear it, oh wise leader. What is your brilliant plan that would free this fine establishment from the horrible threat of bored teenagers?” Cali sarcastically replies. 

“Thank you for asking, California.” Jason responds cheerfully. Cali rolls her eyes at the mention of her full name. “We are going to split up and monitor the park. Cali and I…”

“Wait!” Chase interrupts, putting his hands up. “You can’t go together, you’ll just get distracted and talk!”

“Me! Let my feelings for Cali get in the way of protecting the environment and furthering club interests? Never!” Jason protests loudly then catches Cali’s smile. “Well…”

BOOM!

The four of us jump as we see a firework explode in the distance. Meanwhile, Calypso lashes her tail, her hair sticking straight up. 

“What day is it again?” Jason asks as we watch another firework arch into the sky, followed by a second one. Two corresponding booms follow as the sky erupts into red and gold. Calypso glares at the sky. 

“July fourth…oh.” Chase replies. Today is Independence Day, a day celebrated by grand firework displays. 

“You idiot! You signed us up for Junior Firefighter duty on the day of the most accidental firework explosions!”

“Is that true?” Chase asks.

“I don’t know, but it seems right! Besides, fire is fire AND WE ARE LITERALLY STANDING IN A FIELD OF DRY GRASS!!!” Cali yells at Jason. He smiles an apologetic Whoops smile. 

“Change of plans! We’re going to monitor the entire park for trespassers! One of us will monitor the security camera while the other three will patrol the border! Now …” 

“Patrol.” Chase interrupts. 

“Me too.” Cali shrugs. 

“I’ll go too,” Jason says.

“I’ll stay with the cameras.” I say. We pause as three more fireworks explode overhead. Calypso snarls and crouches, lashing her tail. 

“I really don’t like that sound.”

I know.

I pat her on the head and wave goodbye to my teammates. Their flashlights cast dancing shadows as they walk away, leaving me in the dark. Fortunately the dark never bothered me. I walk over to the security office, just as the sky lights up, one by one, with fireworks. The noise is deafening. Calypso snarls then panics. I feel panic rise in my own chest and I sink to the ground, covering my ears. As I move, a shaft of moonlight falls on my arm and a feeling of calm washes over me before I black out.

Running. Noise. Panic. 

I blink awake to find myself sitting at a control council with a large screen showing a blurry video, as if an animal has the camera in its jaws. 

“Hm.” I look around. Everything feels familiar. Suddenly a thought dawns on me. As soon as I think about it, a thought bubble appears over my head. 

“I’m in my own head.” I say, matching the thought bubble’s statement. “But how?” Those words appear too. “And the screen! That must be what I’m seeing.” The image that appears on the screen makes me gasp. Jason, Cali, and Chase are running from me, screaming.

“I am going to kill you!” Cali screams. She might have been screaming at me or Jason, I couldn’t tell.

“Come with me! We’re almost at a cave.” Jason pulls Cali over to a large cliff face, one that I have seen before. I glance around at VHS tapes lining the shelves on the walls. 

“Wow, you’ve got to be kidding me. Of all the things to store my memories in, I get VHS tapes.” I pick up one and read the side. Calypso’s first snow day. 

“Great! They’re home videos.” I roll my eyes, despite the fact that I’m smiling. 

“Jason! Why are we going to a cave when we are being chased by a mountain lion?!” Cali roars. I turn back to see them rush into the cave. 

“Great! We’re trapped in the dark with a hungry mountain lion blocking the only exit!” Chase says. 

With my night vision, I see the three of them pressed up against a stone wall. With my advanced hearing, I hear four explosions that sound like gunshots right behind me! My body and I both jump and my body snarls. I watch as Jason finds a hole in the cave and pushes Cali and Chase through it. I watch as they fall through a tunnel that ends with a room with three doors on the wall. I watch as they pick themselves up and look around. 

“Cali!” Jason leaps forward only to smack himself in the head with a panel of glass in between them.

“What on Earth!” Chase pats around him to find that he too is separated by panels of glass. 

“How do we escape, genius?” Cali says.

“The doors?” Jason offers. 

“What’s on the other side?” Chase asks, nervous. “Is this the starved lion, assassins, or gold riddle?” 

“Well, there’s an angry lion above us, and Cali already confessed she plans to kill me, so let’s hope it’s the gold.” Jason says with his typical unwavering positivity. 

“Same time!” The three of them grab the door handle and Jason counts down. The doors yank open and pull the three inside. Meanwhile, I watch in horror as my own body slides into the tunnel and lands in the room. A door I hadn’t noticed before opens and swallows me inside. 

I blink awake for the seemingly fortieth time today. 

“Oh, my head.” I put a paw to my throbbing head then pause. “Wait…paw?” I look down at my hands and am surprised that I am surprised to find them to be purple paws. 

“What is going on?” Calypso says in my head. 

It seems you and I traded places. The question is why are you not you and I’m not me? 

I stand up, shaking my head. I had landed on soft grass next to a quiet stream. Above me is an incredible array of stars. I can spend eternity right here, studying them. Outshining them all is the full moon, twice the size as normal. 

“That’s odd.” I look away from the moon to the stream. From the water, I was able to see my reflection. A purple mountain lion, like I suspected. 

“That’s odd.” Calypso says, echoing my sentiment. 

“If I’m a purple you, then…oh no!” I look around for my teammates. I’m used to some level of weirdness, but they would have no idea what’s happening! I sniff the ground, letting the scents of this unfamiliar forest waft into my nose. I pause to ask Calypso a question.

What do they smell like? 

“Like humans. Cali smells like salt water, grasslands, peanut butter, and grease. Chase smells like resin, wood, potatoes, and sugar. Jason smells like wet dirt, pine needles, and sunshine.”

Sunshine? What does sunshine smell like???

“Like sunshine, positivity, it’s hard to describe.”

You can smell optimism?

“You can’t?” 

I shake my head and focus on the smell of optimism, whatever that is. Instead I smell the faintest trace of grease and peanut butter in the stream.

“Cali!” I race upstream, towards the source of the scent. 

Cali:

My name is California Taylor and today is super weird. One minute, I’m on wildfire prevention duty because of my idiot best friend, next thing I know, I’m at the bottom of a lake surrounded by the weirdest creatures ever. I love the water, don’t get me wrong, but these creatures aren’t like anything I’ve ever seen and I’ve seen a lot. 

As if to illustrate my point, a tiny sea dragon floats in front of me, and I don’t mean those kelp sea dragons, I mean a scaly snake with spines and a forked tongue. 

I flick my tail and the poor thing goes tumbling in the current. 

Oh yeah, another reason why today is the weirdest day of my life, I have a tail, and not a mermaid tail either, as if that would make the situation better. Nope! For some unknown reason, I am a dragon. A salamander-like dragon with large deep blue wings to match the color of my scales and a webbed tail. I also have glowing yellow spots on my back and cool axolotl-like gill fins. So, as far as mythical creatures go, I might be the coolest. To be fair, I’ve only seen drawings of unicorns in my sister’s room and that tiny sea serpent. I wonder if that one’s a baby. Maybe it’ll have a growth spurt. 

I paddle up to the surface of the lake and peer around. The moon is enormous above me, but even its light can’t blot out the stars. This is the most stars I’ve ever seen in my life, and I go camping with Jason every summer. 

“Beautiful, isn't it?”

“Who said that!” I whirl around, preparing to blast Greek fire, which I didn’t know I could do. 

“I’m in your head silly.” 

An image of a dark blue salamander with yellow spots and gill fins appears in my mind. 

“Oh. Well, hello! Why are you in my head?”

“I’m the only reason you can turn into a saladragon.”

“Hmmm…Thanks? What’s your name?”

“What comes to mind?”

Hmmm…Sally? Ray? Ember? Clarisse?...

“Yes.”

Ember?

“Yes.”

Great! Now, Ember, where am I and how do I find Jason and my friends and get us home as normal humans?

“I don’t know about normal, but leaving here will probably make you human. You are currently in the Nightland, a world that exists underneath your own. If you want to find your friends, that’s easy. Just tap into the water and sense their presence.”

Yeah, easy.

I close my eyes and sink into the lake, imagining the water around me. I picture the rocks I saw and imagine the water flowing around them. I picture a stream leading in and out of my lake, generating the soft current I feel. I let my mind flow downstream, like the leaf boats I used to race with Jason over the summers. I imagine the dew collecting on the grass along the river and picture the drops getting pressed and absorbed into something running along the bank. I focus on that object, the water existing in the blood and cells. It’s strong with four legs and fur bristling against the misty air. I imagine it getting closer and closer to my lake, until it’s standing on my shores. I open my eyes to see a shadow overhead. 

Easy, huh.

“I told you.” 

Ember smiles her goofy smile. 

Let’s go greet our guest.

I push up from the bottom and splash to the top. 

“LUNA!” I yell. Even though I’m staring at a purple starry mountain lion, I have a feeling I’m talking to my friend.

“Cali!?” The mountain lion stares at me, eyes and jaw wide open. 

“The one and only!” I smile, flaring my wings open.

Jason:

Deep breaths. Any problem can be solved as long as I am focused.

“Great plan.”

“Who said that?!” I jump to my feet and trip over my hooves. “Hmm…apparently being a…deerperson? Weredeer? A whatever, is trickier than I thought.” I wobbly rise to my feet. My name is Jason Noah and today has been…different. 

“Wow, you’re really bad at this.” 

“I know. What am I? I’m definitely no longer human.” I look down at my new deer legs. The hooves wiggle as I try to wiggle my toes. 

“You are a felven, or a forest elf. I am Cornelius, your…guide.”

“Hmm. A forest elf. I can work with that.” I take a step forward and immediately fall over. Ferns bloom underneath the palms of my hands where I fell. 

“Cool!” I close my eyes and pick up a stick. When I open my eyes, the stick has become the perfect staff. 

“Yeah!” I pump a fist into the air. “Wait until I show Cali! Oh no, CALI!” I take a few steps and surprisingly don’t trip. “Cali, I’m coming!” I take off in a sprint towards the direction where the woods tell me she’s at.

Chase:

Something is definitely not right. For one, I have three heads. Or is that for three??? Nevermind. I stand up on my four legs and look around. One head scans the right, the other scans left, and the third looks behind me. 

Once I was a normal, well, sort of normal boy named Chase Dylan. Now I am a three-headed black dog with large ears and spines along my back. Also I’m sitting on a rainbow and have a satchel full of tricks around Head Three. 

“Life is interesting.” I say to the other heads. 

“No doubt! My name is Silas!”  One of the heads responds.

“Pleasure to meet you Silas.” I grin and drool drips onto the rainbow. “Any ideas on what to do now?” 

“Exploring?”

I grin again. “You bet!” I sprint forward, barking as the rainbow follows me under my feet. I know I should probably be taking this a little more seriously but I’m a three headed rainbow dog. Life isn’t being serious with me, so why should I treat life seriously? 

That’s when I decide to jump into the air. Like I suspected, the rainbow leaps into the air to follow my paws. I’m running on top of a floating rainbow. Life is good. 

I close my eyes and listen to the sound of the rainbow, my heartbeat, and the beating of my paws. Music. When I was younger, I was surprised that no one else was able to find the music in everyday sounds. Now I know that they have no idea what they’re missing. I let out a happy bark before turning back down towards the ground. I land in front of a lake with a gathering of creatures collected at the shore. 

“This is great!” I say to my friends. Somehow I know who they are despite their strange appearances. 

“Chase!” They say in shocked unison. 

“This is cool, huh!” I say, bobbing my heads to the rhythm of a song stuck in my head. 

“And here I thought you guys would have a panic attack.” Luna says, plainly. She is a purple mountain lion. 

“Any ideas on how to get out of here?” Deer-Jason says. 

“I wish we were home?” Cali suggests. She paddles on top of the water.

“How about that door?” I suggest after one of my heads notice a doorway inside of a rather large tree. 

“Huh.” My three friends turn to the door as if noticing it for the first time.

“I guess having three heads has its advantages!” I smile. 

“Onwards!” Jason says. “To home!” 

The four of us pause for a moment then walk through the doorway. 

I take a breath of air as I step out of the cave. The nature preserve looks the same: the same carvings on the cliff face, the same shadows of trees over the night sky, and the same moon hanging in the sky. I look around and find my three friends staring up like me. We’re all human again. 

“However, not everything is the same as it was.”

I smile and look down. At my feet, like I knew he would be, is Silas. He only has one head, but the spines and giant ears are the same. He and I both start humming the same tune as we follow our friends back to the Nature Center.