
A Half Year on the Blue Star
I found I couldn't stop writing after the books were published, and I suddenly wrote this on a Lunar fansite message board. It's a comedy.
Ghaleon once said, "Humans always surpass my expectations. I should have known, but still you surprise me."
At this particular moment Hiro was reflecting on these words in his heart of hearts, but from a different perspective.
***
At the conclusion of a great many efforts, Hiro made it to the Blue Star and awakened Lucia. Together, they decided to become the first married couple on the Blue Star on the verge of its rebirth. Which was well and good, but...
"Um, Lucia?"
"What is it, Hiro?"
"Shouldn't you put on some clothes?"
"Why?"
"It's cold outside, and, well, it's kind of hard not to stare..."
"That's alright, it will warm up soon, even though it's just in the vicinity of this shrine right now. And anyway Hiro, you really wanted to see me without any clothes just recently, didn't you?"
"That true, but..."
"And besides, we're married now, aren't we? There's no one else here -- it would be strange to be embarrassed."
"I suppose, but still..."
Hiro succeeded in getting Lucia into some clothes, several hours later...
Lucia turned up with both arms full of small animals, and said, "Look, Hiro! These are our children, aren't they adorable?" as she beamed at the creatures with a smile of absolute motherly affection.
For all of Hiro's awkwardness where "that" is concerned, he is a normal young man nonetheless. For example, being that humanity has been lecherous since it's earliest days, even among the artifacts of the noble science of archeology there are records of the nighttime activities of ancient people. Hiro used to embarrass Ruby by reading these avidly, but those days were distant memories to him now...
"Hiro, what is on your mind?"
"Oh, uh, it's just... L, Lucia? Did you... give birth to them?" As soon as he said it he felt like an idiot for asking. But...
"Why, of course. Who else could have done it? Look everyone, it's your father."
Hiro's head was spinning.
The creatures within Lucia's embrace were not human babies. Even though some beastfolk blood did flow in Hiro's veins, they were not beastfolk babies either. They appeared to be a bundle of kittens who had yet to even open their eyes.
There were four of them; white, pink, aqua and grey in color. The long, thin protrusions on their backs surely were wings.
"Say, Hiro, won't you pick their names? ...What's the matter, Hiro?"
"You... You bowled me over."
"Oh, is that how happy you are? Hiro, for you, I'll bear lots of children."
Another hour later, Hiro discovered that he and Lucia had been miscommunicating. (Again, Hiro's habit of getting too wrapped up in things prevented him from escaping the chaos.) He knew now that Lucia had not 'given birth' to the creatures, she had 'given life' to them through freed magic power; and that he had, in fact, had a lot to do with it. These new lives were intimately connected to him.
All the plants, trees, insects and animals spilling out across the Blue Star were created in this way each time Lucia freed more magic power, or so Hiro understood. Furthermore, once Lucia finished creating - that is to say, once she had given life to every last creature and her magic power was expended, she would become human, to the best of Hiro's knowledge. And the four dragonlings that were living in Lucia's shrine and growing rapidly on a steady diet of Lucia's magic power were special magical beings that had to do with the awakening of the Blue Star. That was as much as he had been make sense of in such a short amount of time.
So, Lucia took six days to create the world, and on the following day she rested. That's really how it went.
***
When Lucia awakened the next day, she abruptly said, "Hiro, let's do the one thing that only married couples can do."
"Huh?" Hiro stammered as his cheeks flushed red.
"Well, let's get started," Lucia said, smiling sweetly.
"Wha?" A sinking feeling overtook Hiro...
Smack! Right out of the blue, Lucia slapped Hiro across the face. It didn't particularly hurt, but it left him in complete confusion.
"Lucia...?"
"You ungrateful cheat!
"Um, what's going on...?"
Lucia smiled again. "A marital quarrel. They even make the family dog run for cover, right?"
"...Lucia, who around here could I cheat on you with?"
"I'm sorry... I just wanted to have the full experience of being married."
"It's all right, Lucia."
"Next time, I'll bring real proof!"
"O-of what...?"
After that, their comedy of marital errors continued on the Blue Star for weeks.
Three months later, the area around the shrine was wrapped in the green of leaves, and small streams flowed to form a lake nearby. Hiro was in the forest, gathering fruit for Lucia - fragrant fruit with a tart flavor.
That's when he realized:
"Oh no! There's no one here for our kids to marry!"
A half-year later... Hiro and Lucia were on Lunar.
"So you see, we're recruiting emigrants, and Lucia wanted to come home for the holidays as much as I did, so we decided to put in an appearance." Hiro laughed. A smiling Lucia stood next to him. She appeared to be pregnant.
Unfortunately, the Star Dragon trial was so difficult that they never did get very many neighbors.
Did anyone make it all the way down here? Thanks for reading! Now I have a dilemma - this story is the shortest by far so I don't feel weird about posting it, but the next one is substantially longer. I really do want to hear your thoughts on it though, so how should I make it available?