Lunam Natis: Chapter Two

Chapter Two: Time for a Shower

We find the boys at Bob’s Doodads, Knicknacks, and Olio, the most cluttered place in town. Even our pawn shop doesn’t have as much stuff per square inch. Joy and I join them in browsing through the little figurines. One is a dragon with a cat on its back. I show it to Joy and we laugh. I turn to my youngest brother.

“What happened to my candy?” I ask.

“Oh... here,” he gives me some candy, as well as all of my money. “It didn’t cost as much as usual,” he explains with an innocent grin on his face. I sigh and roll my eyes.

“How much did you steal?” I ask. He furrows his brow and thinks.

“Umm... Like a few pounds of candy?”

“What are we going to do with you?” I pretend to be disappointed and shake my head.

“Hey, guys!! Look at this!!” DJ interrupts us, showing us the cool painting he found. It was howling wolf silhouetted against a whole moon. There are evergreen trees in the background, and the painting looks almost 3-D. We’re momentarily distracted, until we feel the first impact. It jars the whole building and knocks everyone inside to the ground. We try to get up, and I see a Newbie hit his head on the ceiling, still not used to the ⅙ G. He has black, bleached-blonde hair, and chocolate eyes. He’s tall and dressed in the latest Terra fashion. He also has a pair of folded black feathered wings at his back. An avem person. Another impact hits, and another. There’s a general consensus to wait until the impacts have passed to get up again. When they finally do stop, we get up. It’s at least ten degrees warmer in here.

“What was that?” Newbie asks, coming over to us.

“I don’t know…” Joy says, confused.

“It didn’t feel like a lunarquake,” Hayden supplies.

“Asteroid shower?” DJ suggests.

“A shower?? Are you dirty??” Hayden laughs, pretending to misunderstand him.

“Not that kind of shower!! The kind where giant rocks rain down!!”

“Ouch,” Newbie puts in.

“Remember, Hayden? We learneded about it just last week!!

“Yah, right!!”

“Learned, and it’s not actually that bad of an idea,” I put in. They look to me, expecting the brain to know everything.

“I mean, that could’ve explained the impacts, and if we were hit hard enough, it could’ve knocked us out of orbit. That could explain the rising heat.”

Just then, I realize that it is dead silent, and everyone has heard my theory. Suddenly, they all start talking at once, discussing it. Something light and soft falls on my head. I reach up and wipe a little off with my fingers, and look at it. Dust. Not moondust, more like drywall dust. I look up and see a crack in the ceiling.

“EVERYBODY OUT!!!” I yell, and the noise seems to set off the structural balance. The walls  and ceiling start tipping, creaking, falling over. The small crowd of people form a stampede and rush out. Just as the last person, a cute little three-year-old, on unsteady legs, with a runny nose that I have to help along, comes out, the building falls. They were built to be lunarquake-proof, but that was decades ago. This town, Lunam Natis (the native Latin for Moon Town), was built forty-two years before I was born, and I’m sixteen, so that’s pretty old. No one expected an asteroid shower; accordingly, no one planned for an asteroid shower. I just hope that the domes didn’t get hit. The domes solved most of the oxygen leak problems about twenty-four years ago, and all of us would be dead within a few minutes if one of them broke. The three-year-old starts bawling, and I pick him up, trying to pacify him. He is distracted by my ears and starts petting the fur on them. I locate his parents and reunite the family.

“I’m Adair Sta-Stella,” Newbie introduces himself, stumbling on his last name. I suspect that stella, star, is a fake last name, but I don’t say anything..

“I’m Kasia Ollens, and this is my brother Hayden, and my other brother Derek, and my friend Joy.”

“My name is DJ, not Derek,” he protests. We laugh, greet each other, and walk towards Rea’s Cream, the best ice cream parlor on Luna. We end up having a good time, and momentarily forget about the horror that has passed. That night, I can’t fall asleep. Thoughts keep flying through my head, so fast that I can barely even tell what they are before they’re gone. Finally, at about three AM, I slip into a dreamless sleep.

Author's Note

Avem means bird.