Month by Month Story

Chapter 1 

There were two kingdoms in a land long in ruins, one created by the gods and the other made by fallen stars. They lived in harmony, helping each other grow, until one day, tragedy struck the royal families, and a war started. The kingdom of fallen stars is now being ruled by the former king's brother, and the kingdom of gods has its four great houses. Both kingdoms are looking for their princesses, but no one knows where they went after the war started 11 years ago. 

Ding, Dong, Ding! The bell chimes three times. Kielo looks up from what she is doing and finds Emlyn looking down at her. “Hey, do you remember what time it is?” Emlyn said cheerfully

“I know what time it is, the bell just rang three times,” Kielo says, giggling.

“I think she was trying to say that it's lunch time and we should be heading back before Miss. Dolores gets mad at us,” Penelope said calmly while getting up and wiping her Peplo clean as she stood up. Kielo follows suit, sighing, “You know she's going to yell at us anyway.” Kielo says defeatedly

“Especially since we are having the coming of age ceremony in a few days,” Emlyn said as the sun glimmered on her golden brown skin and the wind blew the edge of her Cote. “Oh, yeah, I almost forgot that we have to start packing before we get kicked out of the orphanage after the coming of age ceremony,” Kielo grimaces at the thought.

“It's going to be alright, Miss. Hestia has our back. Remember, she said she would draw a map to Eleftheria,” Penelope said with a gentle smile. 

“You know the war had left Eleftheria in ruins,” Emlyn says, looking annoyed. Kielo tensed, clenching her Kainuu in her hands when Emlyn brought up Eleftheria and the war.  Penelope squeezed Kielo’s shoulder reassuringly. “I'm sorry, Kielo, I didn't mean to hurt you,” Emlyn says sincerely.

“It's ok, I know you didn't mean to, but you are right about Eleftheria,” Kielo says, trying not to worry her friends. Emlyn grabbed Kielo’s hand and smile at her “you know we don't have to go straight to Eleftheria after the coming of age ceremony, we're almost free to go wherever we want, so why don't we travel a bit first before going to Eleftheria okay” Emlyn says try to reassure Kielo.

“Okay, but where should we go first?” Kielo says, smiling.

“How about Mira Grotto? I heard it was nice, plus there might be dragons there,” Emlyn says enthusiastically. Kielo chuckles at how excited Emlyn is about the thought of dragons. “Come on, let's get back, it's getting late.” Kielo pulls Emlyn and Penelope forward, back to Aurora village.

As soon as they enter the orphanage, they hear Dolores screaming at Marcella for spilling her water.  Kielo drops all her stuff and rushes over, pushing Marcella behind her as she glares at Dolores. “Watch how you're glaring at brat, I can kick you out right now if I want to,” Dolores says, narrowing her eyes at Kielo. Kielo opens her mouth to say something, but Penelope interrupts and says, “I’m so sorry, Miss. Dolores, we’ll start making dinner with the meat and plants we got while hunting,” Penelope says while pushing Kielo to the kitchen. “What were you thinking? You could have gotten us kicked out!” Penelope says, running her hand through her maroon hair worriedly. 

“She wasn't thinking, she never does when it comes to Marcella,” Emlyn says while eating bread she properly found somewhere she wasn’t supposed to be. 

“I'm sorry, but I can't just stand by and let her hurt Marcella and get away with it,” Kielo says angrily. Then Kielo feels a tug on the skirt of her dress. Kielo looks down and sees Marcella looking up at her. Kielo kneels down to Marcella's level. “What's wrong, Marcella? Do you need something?” Kielo says, trying to reassure Marcella. Marcella runs into Kielo's arms, almost knocking her to the ground. “It's okay, Marcella, I got you,” Kielo says, patting Marcella’s head.  

“Miss.Dolores said that you are going to leave,” Marcella says, holding Kielo tightly.

“I’m sorry, Marcella, but it's true we are leaving soon,” Kielo says, frowning. 

“Then take me with you, please don’t leave me, please.” Marcella has tears in her bright yellow eyes as she tightens her grip on Kielo. Kielo looks up at Penelope for the answer, but unexpectedly, Penelope says, “Of course, little warrior, but are you sure that you want to do this?” Marcella nods. ”Okay, little one, how about you go pack and be back by dinner, okay?” Penelope says, smiling at Marcella. Kielo looks at Penelope in surprise as Marcella leaves to pack. “Are you insane? We can't take her, she might get hurt out there,” Kielo says, looking worried.

“She'd be more endangered here without anyone protecting her, but if we take her with us, we can protect her,” Penelope says in a serious tone.

“She's right, you know how the others treat her before you say she will be better off here,” Emlyn says, putting two bowls of soup down on the table. Kielo sighs, “I know,” Kielo says defeatedly. “Good, now, eat.”

A few days later, after the coming of age ceremony. Kielo, Emlyn, Penelope, and Marcella were standing at the edge of the woods with all their stuff in backpacks on their backs. “Well, looks like it's just us from now on,” Emlyn says, squeezing Marcella's hand. 

“Penelope, you got the map right?” Kielo asked Penelope 

“Yeah, I have it right here,” Penelope says, holding the map up.

“Good, which way is Mira's grotto?” Kielo says, looking at Penelope 

“We have to go up north for a few days till we hit Broken Mast Bay, then we have to find someone willing to take us there on a ship,” Penelope says, looking at the map 

“Well, let's get going, we have a lot of ground to cover,” Emlyn says, picking up Marcella and walking into the forest. Marcella snuggles into Emlynn's arms as they make their way up north.

 For the next day's walk north, both Kiole and Emlyn hunted while Penelope, with the help of Marcella,  gathered edible plants and Medical Herbs that they found on their way. They just made it to Broken Mast  Bay. “I’m going to sell some of the meat to a butcher to get some pedals so we can get a room in one of the taverns for us to sleep tonight,” Emlyn says, taking the bag of meat and walking off with Marcella in tow. 

“I'm going to put up some snares to get dinner, do you want to join?” Kielo asks Penelope

“Sure, I'm going to take the left of the woods, you take the right, okay?” Penelope says, picking up her bags. 

“Okay, see you in an hour or two,” Kielo says, waving bye to Penelope. 

Kielo finished setting up the snares, and now she is wandering the forest waiting for the snares to go off.  Out of nowhere, she hears the sound of a violin. As Kielo follows the sound of the violin, she finds a stone path. She continues to follow the path, finding a meadow full of “Roses.”

To be contiuned 

Reality started with nothing to show that it even began: Only stars and an endless abyss. After ages of this state of nothingness, however, the stars in one part of the cosmic void began to cluster, slowly creating the first living thing. A One Above. The ray of life: Luxis. Her creation, formed of stars as she was, naturally meant there needed to be a balance. A being condensed of the darkness left behind in those stars’ place. The fin of darkness: Prismali. Together they traveled across what had been before them, creating the cycle of creation to end the stagnation left from the beginning ending. Every star they went to was given planets by Prismali, and those planets were given living things by Luxis. This cycle is what brought about the true beginning.

As the cycle of creation was granted to every star, the two Ones Above only stayed long enough to fulfil their own purposes. Prismali left the second a planet formed, immediately moving on so that he could start forming the next; Luxis only stayed on a planet long enough to create species to inhabit it. Many of the early species were so rarely able to recall their presence, leaving them to ponder how they got there for ages. Many fights were waged within species over arguments about it. Many of those same early species went extinct over this fighting, and those that remained often never evolved beyond where they were: a basic society that functioned solely off of nature, with no real invention of their own. They were too afraid that they'd be dragged into more conflict should they try anything new.

Seeing how their creations suffered, Prismali and Luxis decided to create one final planet as a way to stop the constant battling between species. Both of them chose handfuls of each species - individuals who never condoned the fighting to begin with - and told the groups to travel to the new planet. They knew it would take ages for all of them to make it, so they waited. Waited for a very long time, just to make sure there were no stragglers. Hundreds of species gathered in the place they'd been told to go, and when each arrived, they were met with the sight of what would be their new home: a world that could surely hold even more than just what had been invited.

“All of you have been chosen to inhabit this place,” the voice of Prismali said to all of them, “and as such, you will need to accept an oath to keep the balance.” And of course, they all agreed (why would they refuse the order of their deity?). “You will all become a unified species,” the voice of Luxis spoke after the other. “I shall give you the guidance you need to do so.” As she finished the final word, the stars that made up her form scattered. A small piece of stardust from Luxis became a part of all of them. Her final gift to the species she'd taken so much time on was to make them able to actually connect with eachother, and connect they did.

~★~

The planet that Luxis had created in that time had long since become a metaphorical paradise for all species, from Caninoids to Felinoids, from Lagomorfians to Dracians. They all lived in peace, just as they'd sworn to Prismali ages ago. In fact, Prismali was their ruler at the time, just to ensure that they did indeed uphold their promise (lest they be thrown off of Lumina).

Lumina was only put into peril once, by the remains of those who had perished in all of the pre-connection fights: a new One Above composed of their bodies and their hatred, a jellyfish-like creature known as Triplicatress. Prismali lost much of his power in a battle against them, and so the connected species had to finish it themselves. The connected ones who rallied the rest to battle came to be called the Triad.

The first member of the Triad was Royal, a grown, blue Avianoid who had been a commander directly under Prismali. His connections to the entirety of Lumina was what helped him lead the others. The second member of the Triad was Gunmetal, a grown, grey Caninoid. She had once been a mere citizen of one of the larger cities (maybe it was Diamond City, with its endless lights, or perhaps it was Ruby City, located near a volcano made to give the Dracians a home?). Her sheer strength was her main benefit to the cause. The final member, the raised Felinoid named Moonstone, was the one who gave the strategy that led to the defeat of Triplicatress.

After the new One Above was defeated, kicked off of the planet, the Triad went their separate ways. Royal returned to his job as a guard, creating a new defense force known as the Drop Thorns to protect Lumina in Prismali's absence. Gunmetal went back to her normal life as a regular Luminan, although those who had followed her command in the battle never did stop demanding that she be given more credit. And Moonstone? Moonstone was granted the title of Lux, making her the new ruler of Lumina. A role that she took with perfect grace, and which she promised to never corrupt. A promise that she kept even through her descendants...