Lunar

Noctis' back thumped against the hard rock as he coiled on the floor in pain. However, thinking about the hounds just behind forced himself up to close the opening somehow.

Though when he sat up all he saw was him being in a closed room with walls on all four sides and no ceiling, letting the bright moonlight through illuminating the closed cavernous room.

'Shit'

Noctis cursed but sprawled once again on the floor in order to catch his breath.

Looking up to the sky, the moon looked especially big and bright today. Maybe it was a supermoon kind of situation, he thought to himself as he didn't remember any of the 4 moons being so bright and big.

Indeed this world seemed to have four moons, by his observation of their patterns and movements, which peculiarly never aligned perfectly to have even two moons in his sky at the same time, much less all four.

This one was the most frequent moon in the sky, from where he was at least, almost the same size as his previous world's but without all the scars. Indeed it was quite flawless, devoid of any marks.

It looked quite surreal the first time he looked at it. Another similar size moon was also quite smoother comparatively but it had notable cracks on its surface suggesting its icy surface.

This one however was like a young child that hadn't been through the eons of skirmishes others celestial bodies had to go through.

'Yeah probably not. No way this moon just formed out of nowhere. Quite beautiful even if a bit eerie nevertheless.'

Shifting his gaze to the white owl standing on top of one other side walls shaking itself vigorously to shake off the water in its feathers.

Sending droplets all around, but since he was already soaked wet from the rain anyway it mattered little. Instead he wanted to give her some peace of mind for all the things that had led to all this.

But reminding himself of her supposed age and the circumstances of their situation he suppressed it for now.

After a bit of resting he implored the owl,

"Are they still here?"

The owl looked down at him and tilted her head to the side.

"The hounds dumb. Are they still here, surrounding the premises or have we evaded them?" he asked, a bit hopeful.

The owl this time roasted her head directly towards her back without moving an inch and back again before swaying her head side to side, signalling denial.

"No as in they haven't or no, they are still here?"

The owl repeated the motion once more and before he could say anything, took flight towards the opposite side from where he sat going straight up and out of the…

'What the f.'

Noctis saw as the owl went into, or out of the four walls area from one of the sides and magically came out of the original side from where he sat.

As if the walls extended beyond what looked physical to him and had a spell to not let anyone out.

"Holy horse. What have we gotten ourselves into."

Noctis closed his eyes and fell back on the ground.

Some more time went as he took deep breaths to calm himself and think about maybe some solution.

As he was thinking he felt something landing upon his head and some tapping sounds on rock from his side.

Thinking it of little importance to check considering the only other occupant, Noctis kept his eyes closed until the tapping sounds translated into knocks on his own head.

"You really just can't seem to understand do you?"

Noctis shot his eyes open as he said into the wide expanse in his field of vision.

The owl flew up and stared at him down for a moment before tapping at the wall to his side.

"Do you want to borrow your way out of here?"

Krook-hoot~ kwook~

"Jeez why so loud." Noctis sat up finally to look at the place that the owl seemed so eager to knock down or something.

"Alright let's see how much success you've found with this genius plan. Hmm?"

Noctis' nonchalant expression changed as he saw some kind of marks on the wall.

There were various motifs on the wall along with several symbols and strokes on the wall that suggested it to be some sort of script and thus instructions perhaps of some kind.

Could even be the way of escaping the place, had only if Noctis could read the script.

"Just great."

Sighing at his inability, Noctis lamented.

Nevertheless he still inspected the writings to gain any lead on it when he reflexively put his hands on the wall trying to trace the carvings when suddenly the symbols lit up and it started spreading out onto all of the walls.

Noctis took a step back at the sudden change and carefully scammed his surroundings once more.

•••

Far away from the forest, up in the dark clouds between the shining abode of stars sat a silver stag and a golden doe.

Looking at this scene the doe squinted her eyes and said with confusion,

{What just happened? Did he successfully decipher the riddle? So quickly?}

[Perhaps.]

The stag replied, averting her gaze away from the doe.

Noticing the action the doe frowned deeply, and said,

{Impossible. He shouldn't even know the language. Looking at it, does she have something to do with it? No she wouldn't trespass this much into my domain. Then…?}

The doe went into deep thought at the strange sight.

After a bit the doe's eyes went round as something clicked into her head.

{Aha. He must be one of those Islidars. No wonder then. And no wonder you are so interested in him.}

The doe gave a side-eye to the stag beside.

The silver stag only averted her gaze, unable to meet hers.

{But I can't let him take it just by the virtue of his birth. Hmm… yes this sounds better. Let's see what he can show us.}

With this the doe put up one of her hoofs in the direction of Noctis before majestically dropping it.

And with the hoof dropped Noctis into a hole in the ground of the room that wasn't there a moment ago just as the cavern had completely lit.