Aaric stood in front of Luna and saw her peaceful expression suddenly being marred by a frown as she put her hands in front of her, seemingly searching for something.
Iggnesia stood beside Aaric. "This process is not painful but does require reliving your past and confronting your pain and fear." Iggnesia paused and looked at Luna again.
"She is strong-minded enough to relive that pain and come out stronger on the other side, but subconsciously she is searching for comfort, for help," Iggnesia observed.
While Iggnesia was talking, Aaric gently held Luna's outstretched hand, and she held it as if her life depended on it.
She then moved forward, guided by the hand, and hugged Aaric tightly, shaking slightly.
Aaric hugged her back and whispered assurances to her that he was there and would not leave her.
Luna's frown softened, and she rested on Aaric, seemingly using his warmth to fight the darkness.
It took about an hour for Luna to open her eyes, her breathing slightly ragged, and she did not speak for some time, seemingly thinking about what had just happened.
Aaric gently stroked her hair as she seemed to be gathering her thoughts. She let out a breath after a moment. "That… was something," she said, not knowing how to describe it.
"I hope it was a good something," Aaric said, letting go of the hug and taking a step back.
Luna nodded at that and looked at Iggnesia. "Thank you," she said with a smile, and Iggnesia inclined her head in acknowledgment.
"Shall we meet my sister?" Iggnesia asked in excitement, and Luna nodded.
Iggnesia turned into a bird to fly with Luna and Aaric as they flew toward the giant metal sphere above the golden tree.
The three landed on the sphere and looked around to see some little spiders scurrying around the area. Their bodies were like that of Velka, who was moving toward them.
Velka approached Iggnesia, and they hugged and giggled. "Now I will have a sister to help me!" Velka cheered and approached Aaric and Luna.
"Come on, let me show you what we have done," she said, beckoning them, wanting to show off like a child.
Aaric and Luna followed her with a smile after exchanging an amused look. "First I repaired this propulsion system," Velka babbled.
"It works on manipulating electromagnetic fields and gravity to move in different directions," she said and started to explain everything, all of which went above the heads of Luna and Aaric.
"The civilization that built this structure must be very advanced," Velka mentioned.
"Have you found out about what happened to them?" Aaric managed to ask the question when she stopped speaking for a second.
Velka shook her head. "There are no records in the structure. There is one AI here, but it doesn't know who created it," Velka said.
Aaric shrugged. "Maybe there was no civilization. Maybe someone dreamt of roaming in a spherical mechanical ruin, and it just manifested in the Dreamlands," Aaric mentioned with a hand on his chin.
Aaric then looked around. "Was there a well on the sphere?" he asked, and Velka nodded. "Yes, there was, but it disappeared after I joined it with our island," Velka said.
Aaric shrugged. "How will this structure help in protecting the island?" Aaric asked.
Velka gestured around. "At the most rudimentary level, it can create a forcefield around the island, and my end goal is dimensional isolation," Velka said casually.
"The second part will take time though, and maybe a highly compressed and malleable type of energy," Velka started muttering to herself and began making theories.
Aaric and Luna smiled wryly and walked around, seeing cute spiders scurrying about and working. Luna would give them head pats and thank them for their hard work with a smile.
Iggnesia, meanwhile, was keeping up with Velka in certain topics regarding energy, and they would bounce ideas off each other.
"How are you preparing for the Triwizard Tournament?" Luna asked Aaric, and he shrugged. "The first task is to fight a dragon, shouldn't be too hard," he said casually.
"How did you know that is the first task?" Luna asked in surprise. "They are being arranged from the dragon sanctuary we own, so…" Aaric shrugged.
Luna gave him a deadpan look, and Aaric chuckled, raising his chin. "You know who my father is?" he said arrogantly and then looked away in embarrassment.
Luna rolled her eyes at him. "I met a nice dragon some time ago, let's go meet him," Luna said, and Aaric said yes immediately, he was hers to command for now, after all.
They both waved to Iggnesia and Velka before Luna looked at Aaric lazily. "I don't feel like flying. Carry me," she said, and Aaric shrugged and picked her up in a princess carry and started flying.
Luna yelped and blushed. "I changed my mind," she said with a red face. Aaric smirked. "As you wish," he said, about to drop her. She hugged his neck after he loosened his grip.
"No, don't let go," she said, panicking a little, making Aaric laugh. She just hit his chest after he tightened his grip again, and she pouted all the way.
They reached a small island, lush and green, with some animals but not much else except a cave. Luna got down from Aaric's arms not before giving another light punch on his chest.
Luna walked toward the cave, ignoring Aaric. "Mr. Dragon, I am back," she announced herself in the most Luna way, making Aaric chuckle beside her.
A chuckle was heard from the cave, deep and reverberating. Luna skipped over to the dragon, Aaric following in amusement.
After entering a bit of distance, they were greeted by a majestic dragon with scales shimmering like molten gold.
Eyes glowing with wisdom and golden intensity as they looked at Aaric and Luna.
"This must be the boy you were talking about," the gold dragon asked Luna after he noticed Aaric.
Luna nodded. "Yes, please ignore him, he is here just as transport," Luna said dismissively, waving at Aaric.
'She needs a spanking,' thought Aaric with a twitching lip.
The gold dragon chuckled and inclined his head towards Aaric, who bowed in respect.
"After our last chat, I got some things for you," Luna beamed and opened a small pouch on her belt, starting to fiddle with it.
She laid out some pearls of different colours, books like The Republic by Plato, Bhagavad Gita, Cosmos by Carl Sagan, and many more.
She then turned the pouch upside down and shook it. A giant container of honey emerged, bigger than her.
A/n: gimme power stones and reviews.