Chapter 5 : The World's First Touch
Chapter 5: The World's First Touch
The morning city smelled like sweat, fried food, and wet concrete.
Lunara walked slowly, her bare feet sore from cracked sidewalks. The bread roll from the night before had filled her belly, but only for a while. Now hunger returned as a dull ache in her ribs. But it wasn't just her stomach that hurt.
It was her **heart.**
Not because it was broken.
Because it was beginning to **beat with Earth's rhythm.**
Everything around her pulsed. The people, the cars, the blinking lights overhead. It was like living inside a heartbeat too big to understand.
She had watched Earth for centuries. But watching was not the same as *touching.*
Now, she was touching.
And it was overwhelming.
At a street corner, a woman bumped into her.
Hard.
Lunara stumbled back, blinking. "Oh, I'm sorry."
The woman didn't even look at her. She kept walking, shouting into her phone.
Lunara turned in a circle, watching the waves of people move past her. Their faces were tired, angry, distracted. Some held coffee cups. Some dragged children behind them. No one looked up at the sky.
No one looked at **her.**
On the moon, she had been surrounded by silence and stardust. Now, she was drowning in **noise.**
Car horns blared. Sirens wailed in the distance. Somewhere, a baby cried while a man cursed into the wind.
She wasn't prepared for this.
She thought Earth would feel like wonder.
But so far, it only felt like **loneliness.**
Lunara crossed the street without knowing where she was going. She passed a row of shops: a beauty salon, a bookstore, a pawn shop. Her reflection shimmered faintly in the windows, almost like a ghost.
She didn't belong.
Not in her white dress, not with her wide silver eyes, not with her bare feet.
People glanced at her. Some narrowed their eyes. One man whistled, and she flinched.
Her hands trembled.
She ducked into an alley, her back against a brick wall, trying to breathe. Her heart—this *loud*, *fragile*, *human* thing—beat too fast.
She slid to the ground and whispered, "I thought I was ready."
The Moon, of course, said nothing.
An hour later, she found herself in a crowded plaza.
A fountain stood at the center, spraying water into the air. Children ran through it, squealing. Street vendors shouted in loud voices, selling roasted corn, beaded bracelets, paper flowers. The scent of cinnamon and smoke filled the air.
It was chaotic.
And for a moment…
…*beautiful.*
Lunara sat on a bench and watched.
A woman painted delicate patterns on people's hands with henna. A guitarist strummed a soft tune, singing about lost summers. A boy blew bubbles into the air, chasing them with laughing friends.
Something inside her softened.
Maybe Earth wasn't only harsh.
Maybe it had **music**, too.
She stood and approached a vendor selling fruit slices in plastic cups. The colors dazzled her—orange mango, pink watermelon, red pomegranate.
Her mouth watered.
The vendor, an older man with a crooked smile, looked at her curiously. "You want one, sweetheart?"
She nodded slowly. "I don't have… your paper."
He frowned. "No money?"
She shook her head, embarrassed.
He sighed. "Go on then. Keep walking."
She turned to leave, but her shoulders dropped a little lower than before.
Before she could take two steps, a small hand tugged her sleeve.
She looked down.
It was a girl—maybe seven years old, with missing front teeth and braids full of beads.
"You can share mine," the girl said, holding up her mango cup with a proud smile.
Lunara knelt beside her. "You'd give it to me?"
The little girl nodded. "Mama says if you have two bites, you can share one."
Lunara blinked back tears. "Then I'll only take a small one."
She plucked the tiniest slice of mango from the cup. It was juicy, soft, sweet.
Her first taste of Earth.
And it tasted like **kindness.**
They sat on the fountain edge together, Lunara and the girl.
"What's your name?" the girl asked.
Lunara hesitated. The Moon had warned her not to reveal her true name. It held power, even here.
"Lune," she whispered.
The girl beamed. "I'm Cammy."
Cammy leaned close, lowering her voice like she was sharing a great secret. "Are you a fairy?"
Lune smiled. "Maybe."
"I knew it," Cammy grinned. "You're too shiny to be regular."
For the first time since she had arrived on Earth, Lune laughed.
But peace never stayed long.
Not on Earth.
A sudden scream broke the moment.
Lune turned sharply. Across the plaza, two men were fighting. One shoved the other hard, slamming him into a food cart. Shouts erupted. Someone threw a bottle. People scattered.
Cammy's mother came running, grabbing her daughter's hand. "Let's go!"
Lune backed away, her heart thudding.
A man nearby yelled something about gangs. Someone else shouted for the police.
And in the chaos, Lune felt it—
**Fear.**
Not hers.
Everyone else's.
The air **vibrated** with it.
Panic rolled like thunder. And all she could do was stand there, stunned.
She had never known what **violence** looked like up close.
Now she did.
It had a face. A sound. A weight in the chest.
She clutched her arms tightly as the plaza emptied. The warmth from the fountain was gone. Only smashed fruit, sirens, and cigarette smoke remained.
By nightfall, she was back in the alleys.
Sitting on a cardboard mat behind a bakery, her knees drawn to her chest.
The stars were faint here. The sky too full of light and cloud to see the Moon clearly.
But Lune looked up anyway.
"I saw beauty today," she whispered. "But it ran away too fast."
She closed her eyes.
And in that moment, she heard footsteps.
Soft. Measured.
She turned.
A man stood at the alley entrance.
Tall. Shadowed. Cloaked in a dark coat.
He didn't move. Didn't speak.
To be continued.....
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