Luna

Chapter Two

I woke up to a room full of mannequins dressed in extravagant gowns. Not to my surprise there was my mom standing in the middle of everything, smiling so big that her dark eyes were shining.

"Since you're going to be stuck in bed anyway, let's talk dresses." she seemed to radiate energy, "Your sixteenth birthday is coming up and since you missed your fifteenth, we will just have to go all out this year." I groaned loudly, I absolutely hated these parties, and I wanted nothing to do with them. "Oh hush, this is for your own good if you are ever to be married."

"How come Ark doesn't have to do this silly stuff? He's already nineteen and still single." I eyed my mom. "Shouldn't you be more worried about him?"

"You know that your brother will be fine. Now we are going to talk dresses." I decided against fighting any further, for when it came to my mom and these parties there was no use in resisting. She always got her way.

Five hours and thirty-nine dresses later my mom finally left the room. I was decidedly wearing a sleeveless red and orange dress that matched Fidi. Since he couldn't come with me, I would at least carry his colors. After all, I would much rather spend the day with him than being paraded around like a prize pig for all of my mother's eligible bachelors. At least this party wasn't on the same day that I meant to meet Lily, for I would feel terrible if I made her worry the whole day. At least for now I could wear my running breaches again. An image of flying high above the city appeared in my mind and I was consumed by the bliss of it for a second. Fidi wanted to fly, and he wanted to do it with me. I looked out my window and saw him gazing at the clouds high above us. I slipped out my window and climbed onto his back just behind his wings, being careful of my injured side. After I was able to gain control of the air around me, he took off. Fidi flew carefully and constantly sent me images of my own side or blood. "Calm down Fidi, I promise you that I am okay. I will tell you if I'm hurting." The only response I got was a deep throated whine and slight increase in his speed. I leaned forward and hugged him, happy to be up here and away from everything. Especially the party plans. We looped around the city twice and were now flying in slow circles above my house. I could just make out a navy blue dragon heading for us, Zip was my father's dragon. Fidi shared an image of an angry Ava with me, which Zip had conveyed to him. I guess it was time to go home. We landed once more outside my bedroom and I sat on the edge of my bed waiting for my mom to come in and tell me what I should have been doing instead, most likely practicing how to eat with perfect posture and the correct fork. I appreciated more practical things, like training with Fidi. Luckily for me, my father appeared in the doorway. His soft blue eyes met mine as he entered my room. His once black hair was now peppered with the gray hairs almost outnumbering the black.

"Hey there kiddo, I heard what happened yesterday." as he was walking across the room he let out a sigh. He found his way to the chair that lived in the corner by the foot of my bed and sat heavily into it. "Where do you keep going Luna? Your brother says that you are crossing the Araki border, and you know that is a dangerous thing to do." technically Ark hadn't seen me crossing the border, so I couldn't believe he was telling people.

"He didn't see me cross the border dad, no one did" I began tentatively, "so if no one saw it I wasn't technically there, right?"

"Where do you go?" his blue eyes began turning icy, just the way that mine did when I was upset.

"I'm just getting away dad. You know I hate all of this 'proper' stuff that mom pushes on me, I'm just not built for her type of life" my eyes started stinging with tears that meant to escape, so I clenched my teeth and blinked away the tears.

"Oh, sweetheart. I know how you feel, but you know that if it were not for 'all of this proper stuff' your mom and I would never have met." I let my head fall into my hands and covered my face, for I couldn't stop all the tears and a few had run down my cheeks. I could feel the weight of my dad sitting next to me, shifting my balance. I leaned into him as he put his arm around me and he rested his dark head on mine. "Your mother isn't actually upset, you know. I just wanted to talk to you, but if you want to go flying then I am okay with that." I sniffled and looked up at my father.