These Two Are Insane

Lunareina held her position, her body stiff as a board and sweat rolling down her face. She knew she wasn't supposed to raise her head, but since she couldn't see Mei and Kai she had no idea what was happening, making her stomach churn.

"What the hell is that?" Kai whispered, unable to release the look of pure confusion his face contorted itself into at the sight in front of him.

Mei leaned in slightly, her face mirroring his almost exactly. "You think that liquid did something to her brain? " "I doubt it," Kai muttered. "When we tested it on animals, none of them-."

"Those aren't people, though," Mei interjected. "Maybe we should ask just to be sure?"

Kai shrugged, took a deep breath, and turned to address Lunareina. "Uh, what are you doing?" Kai asked, unable to stop some of his inherent snark from tagging along with the genuineness of his question. He shoved his hands in his pockets and glanced at Mei as if he was waiting for some kind of backup.

"You know you can look at us, right?" Mei quickly chimed in, responding to Kai's call to action.

Lunareina swallowed the large lump forming at the back of her throat and took on a normal standing position. "Well… that is normally used as a friendly greeting among my people; it's meant to show things like trust and stuff… —it's like saying, 'I'm not a threat' or something… but I guess you've never seen it before judging by your faces…"

Mei and Kai quickly glanced at each other, their skepticism and pure confusion plain to see. Then, they returned to look at her. "I see, " they said in unison, nodding their heads slowly, attempting not to show their confusion.

"Well, I'd say it's great to meet you, too, but you did point a bow at my head. But I guess we did kill your friends, so we're even." Kai began to mumble.

"They weren't my friends. I wasn't even their leader; I was the only one out of us who could speak Tulsan to translate for them." Lunareina quickly interjected to set the facts straight. She didn't want any more misunderstandings with these two, not after seeing how dangerous they could be.

Mei nodded. "That makes sense since you don't seem like the leader type." She looked at Kai and said, "I can feel you itching to go, so let's hurry up."

Kai clapped, breaking the awkward tension in the atmosphere around them. "Yes, yes. First things first, your name is way too long. So I'm going to call you Luna from now on."

"Hey-" Luna leaned forward and began to interject but stopped once she realized Kai was ignoring her and continuing to speak.

"Second thing. Luna, save your thanks for now. You're the first person not local to this place we have seen or spoken to, and we need something essential from you: information. Don't get the wrong idea as to why I healed you." He turned back toward the rose bush they came through and flicked his head. "Now come on, we want to get out of here and need help."

Mei scratched her head and sighed. She patted Luna on the back and gestured for her to follow. "Hey, don't pay that any mind. We do need information, but he wouldn't have healed you if he didn't care. He's just putting on airs.

"Luna scoffed and followed closely behind. "It's fine, I don't really mind…" She rubbed the back of her neck and her voice became muddled and almost incomprehensible as she lowered into a mumble under her breath so Mei couldn't hear. "Besides, I think I really need your help too…"

Mei's ears perked up, just catching the last of what Luna had said. While not nearly as smart as Kai, she could still tell that something was bothering her, and she wasn't meant to hear that, so she noted it down silently and continued to follow Kai until they were finally back at the edge, staring off into the vast sky in front of them.

Kai pointed at the island floating in the distance and turned to Luna. "I'm assuming you came from that island, so how do we get there?"

"I mean, I need to go back there anyway, but I don't think you know what you're asking. That isn't a place to go for fun. That's just a remote farming island. The bad part is that it's in Tulsa's jurisdiction, and they've been really protective of their resources lately, so trespassers are considered to be criminals, and any authorities on the island will come after you if they find out you're there." Luna slowly walked toward the large feather on the ground that was left there earlier as she explained.

"What's Tulsa?" Mei questioned. "You mentioned that name before too."

Kai chuckled. "Who cares? I want to go there."

Luna sighed. "You guys really were isolated here then, I guess. "Think of them as one of the most powerful nations around. They're aggressively expanding, and their language is universally taught, so most places affiliated with them speak it."

"Hmmm. So, like those beasts we took down last year, right Kai?" Mei turned to him. "Seems like it. Why do we speak it, then? I doubt this island is affiliated." He grumbled in thought, wondering under his breath.

Luna walked up to them and held out the feather. "We have a more pressing issue than world history right now if we really want to go. The most common way people get around from landmass to landmass is with the help of a Fleudel. There's almost no way to find places without one unless you somehow have a map. This feather is from mine, but the two enforcers that were chasing me probably took her back over there."

"A Fleudel? Interesting, I want to see one." Kai mused.

Mei grunted, stamped her foot into the ground, and rubbed it back and forth. "Well, that's just great. We still can't leave." She turned to Luna, "You have powers too, right? I can see the mark peeking out on your chest. Can they help?"

Luna shook her head. "No, they're more suited for battle than anything else. Besides, I can't use them right now anyway…"

Kai sighed. "It seems like we'll have to go with our original plan then."

"I'm still not flying." Mei quickly snapped.

"Damn. How about we do a combination? I'll make a thin, woven bridge, and you run us across?"

Mei rubbed her chin. "That might actually work…"

Luna snapped her head back and forth between the two, her mouth open in disbelief. "Are you two insane? No way that'll work!"

They both gave her a half nod. "Probably." They said together, somewhat confidently.

"Hear me out, though." Kai quickly grabbed a vine off a nearby tree and huddled everyone together. He explained his plan using the small diagram in his hands.

"… Yeah, you guys are insane… but I hate that I think this could theoretically work…" Luna sighed, thinking that she just might be insane, too.

Mei nodded. "It's our only option, so I say let's do it. Even if it fails, we would have made it off this godforsaken island for at least a few brief moments, so it all wouldn't have been for nothing."

Kai nodded, then turned to Luna. "I'm going to trust you, so let me be honest, Luna. I might be marked, but I wasn't blessed with the same bodies you two have. Once I make that rope, I'm going to pass out, so if we somehow make it there, you'll have to protect me."

"I'll probably pass out too. I'm really tired, and that's a long distance. Not to mention, transforming fully takes a lot out of me. You'll have to protect me too." Mei added nonchalantly.

Luna grunted. Holding back her litany of objections and concerns. "Yeah, sure, if we don't die, there's a place we can go. I need to pick up my clothes and stuff there anyway before we find my Fleudel."

Mei and Kai nodded. "Perfect. Thanks, Luna. Now, come on, let's get started; if we pull this off, you might even start to think this was a good idea." Kai grinned with a wicked look on his face.