Echos Of The Moon

Camping PT. 1 - Loona

Loona was sleeping peacefully in the passenger seat of Echos truck. He had somehow convinced her to let him pick her up before dawn. The mute said it would be better the earlier they set out. He's so lucky she liked him so much. It was still dark as night when he had shown up to get her.

On the bright side, Blitzø was still sleeping, so he couldn't... well, be Blitzø. She had snuck out, leaving a note on the table, a backpack with some clothes slung on her shoulder. She had already told the imp about the trip so he shouldn't get too butthurt about it.

Seeing Echo had been enough to pull her out of her drowsiness, at least for a bit. He was leaning against his truck, his helmet attached to his hip. When he had seen her his face lit up in the biggest smile, making her heart flutter. She had nearly ran to him, tackling him into a hug. The hug turned to a kiss, which then turned to a small make out session.

When they parted they were both slightly breathless. Loona looked into his blue eyes.

"I missed you." She said, her cheeks flushing.

Echo chuckled, his robotic voice emanating from his helmet. "It's only been like five days since we saw eachother."

"Yeah I know. And I missed you." Loona responded, her voice getting a playful grumpiness.

Echo laughed again. "I missed you too. Now c'mon. I'm hoping to get there before sunrise."

He took her backpack, and slipped it into the bed of the truck, under the tarp.

"Tell me again why we have to get there so early?" Loona said through a yawn.

Echo smirked. "Just trust me. It'll be worth it. You can get some more sleep on the way there."

Loona yawned again. "Fine. It had better be."

Echo opened the passenger door for her, and she climbed in. He then went around and got in the driver's seat, and they were off.

They listened to music and chatted for the first few minutes. But Loona kept having more and more trouble keeping her eyes open, and suppressing her yawns.

"You're cute when you're tired." Echo said suddenly.

Loona's face burned. "Shut up."

He laughed gently. "And grumpy. Get some sleep. I'll wake you when we get there."

She had tried to argue but wasn't able to get a sentence out without yawning again.

"Fine. You better not crash and kill us while I sleep." She let her eyes close, resting her head back.

"I promise. Sleep well." He responded softly.

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Loona had no idea how long she had been out before she felt herself being gently shaken awake.

Opening her eyes she saw that they had stopped. It was still dark out, but the sky was starting to brighten.

She yawned and rubbed her eyes. "Are we there?"

Echo nodded. "Got here about ten minutes ago. I thought I'd let you sleep a bit longer while I set some stuff up. But I wanted you to see the sunrise."

A cold breeze flew into the cab of the truck, causing Loona to curl up and try to get away from the door.

"Fucking hell it's freezing!!"

Echo stepped away from the door, reaching into the truck bed, and returned with a large, thick, quilted blanket. He held it open for her and wrapped it around her as she stepped out of the truck, simultaneously pulling her into a hug.

"Better?" He asked.

"Mmhm" She hummed in response.

He lead them to a fire pit. There were a few logs set up around it to act as benches, and it looked like Echo had prepped the pit, but hadn't lit it yet.

Echo sat them down on a log, and held her close. They sat for a moment in silence, then Loona spoke up, her voice still thick with drowsiness.

"Aren't you cold too?"

Echo shook his head. "It's a little chilly, but my coat's doing enough."

Unsatisfied with that answer, Loona wasted no time in wrapping the blanket around both of them. There was more than enough fabric to cocoon them together and she slid her arms around his waist, snuggling close to him.

"Better?" She asked, mirroring his question from before, a small smirk on her face.

"Better," he responded, with a smile of his own.  They sat together as the sky brightened. With more light, Loona was able to see more of where they were.

Not too far away was the oasis, a pool of clear, clean water. It was surrounded by trees and various vegetation. The oasis was at the bottom of a bowl shaped valley with steep walls. She saw the road Echo had taken down the valley switching back and forth on one side.

Then the sun crested the rim of the valley, and Loona couldn't help but let out a small gasp. With a slow motion explosion of color and light that lasted several minutes, the sun slowly rose, shedding warmth and brightness across the valley. Loona had spent almost her entire life in the city, and she had never seen anything like that.

"...ok you were right. That was totally worth it. I've never seen a sunrise like that." She held him even closer, and he returned the hug.

"I'm glad you enjoyed it."

As the sun rose higher the temperature rose with it, and they soon had to shed the thick blanket around them.

"You hungry?" Echo asked.

"Starving" She replied.

Echo chuckled and got up, moving to the fire pit and began to light it.

"Alright, just give me a couple of minutes. We'll need some energy for what I've got planned for today."

"Oh yeah? And what's that?" Loona asked, her ears perking up in curiosity.

Echo gave an adorably annoying smirk

"You'll just have to wait and see."