Chapter Text
Ouch…what the- Where-?
Despite the rapid pounding behind his eyes, Luna still tried to force them open, wincing at the assault of pain brought by the bright starlight. No, wait, it was too yellow to be pure starlight. Sunlight. Sunlight passing into Earth’s atmosphere.
His wary curiosity rose, but he did not try to re-open his stinging eyes, and instead refocused on his form. It felt stiff, yet warm, as if he’d been laying here for a while, soaking up the heat that seemed to permeate from the very rock beneath him. And it was rock he was laid on, sandy and coarse with the scent of baked air. Wait. Scent? Since when can I smell things?
As he shifted the unfamiliar form, he heard an odd scraping against the ground, as if rock was striking rock. The new limbs responded easily enough, pulling inwards towards his core in an attempt to lessen the feeling of being watched, and the threat that seemed to come with it. He counted four limbs, then another that felt more akin to a tail he’d heard Earth mention, and finally two more that seemed to rest limply across his sides. What the?
In sudden agitation, Luna moved his new tail in a fast beat, hearing the swish of air and feeling the spray of sand that came with it. His eyes gained the courage to try again, blinking open to see he was indeed on his planet’s surface, the distant Sun yellowed and surrounded by bright blues. The ground beneath was dry, almost Martian in its colour, with boulders of rock breaching the sea of sand at intervals. The only indicator that this was in fact Earth was the odd green plants sprouting from cracks and breaks in the scorched land. Where on Earth am I?
Lifting his head, Luna was surprised to realise how far he could see before needing to push up with his legs. A long neck then, certainly longer than the humans have. Swinging it around, Luna tried to make sense of the body he was now seemingly stuck in.
In the sunlight, he could only squint at the harsh shine his scaled hide reflected back at him. Tiny shales ranging from grey to white shimmered down his neck, melding with the armour of scales covering the rest of him. He could see where his neck met with the rest of the body, two shoulders rising from the long torso alongside two new joints Luna had not seen before in an Earthling. They seemed to be connected to the shoulder bones, rising from them into huge lines of bone and skin, arranged like a bird’s wing. He was reminded of bats, and the strange bone hands of their skeletons. As he tried to stretch them out, he was mesmerized to see how the sunlight shone through the skin, revealing a faintly familiar pattern. It looks just like my surface, stretched over skin.
The rest of his body was more understandable, passing from a wide chest into a more concave abdomen, which then fell into a pair of hind legs studded with the same scales that covered his whole body. The tail that spilled behind him was long, twisting into a curl at the tip, with a small line of thin spines rolling from his back.
Lifting one foreleg, Luna tried to touch his face, only to be met by a spark of pain as his claws caught on the scales there. More gingerly, he ran a claw up from his nose until it encountered a long horn, slightly curved. Further investigation revealed another, on the other side of the back of his head. Luna wasn’t sure what to make of any of this so far. Am I alone? Why is this even happening?
As his eyes adapted to the glare, he scanned the area for others. At first, he saw nothing, but gradually the lumps and odd rocks around him became something else. One tail there, a horned head there, and finally he spotted a mix of colours he could never mistake for anything else.
Rushing across the soft sand proved to be more difficult than he’d anticipated, and the first slide into a face-plant was certainly humbling. Shaking himself off, Luna kept going until he reached the blue-green form. Unlike his own, this hide was covered in a layer of feathers, rippling lightly in the warm breeze. The form was larger too, at least 2 feet taller at the shoulders, and the horns atop the head branched and rose unlike his smaller curved ones. The eyes were already blinking awake, the one facing Luna opening to reveal the familiar blue hue.
“Earth!” Luna gasped, unused to the way his breaths seemed to demand more time before speaking after that run. The sand in the air was similarly odd, catching in his throat and drying it out, leaving him feeling distinctly croaky.
“Luna?” The head rose, a feathered ruff of greens fanning out in surprise. Earth’s eyes scanned his moon’s new form, a confused frown twisting the narrow snout. “What? Why are you a dragon?”
“Is that what I am?” Luna asked, turning to look at his own wing as Earth reached out for it. The planet froze as he caught sight of his own clawed arm, staring at it in utter bemusement.
“W-why am I one too?” Earth frowned, twisting his neck to glance behind at the large feathered wings resting against his sides. They shivered, fluffing up so quickly Luna was momentarily concerned his planet had exploded into feathers. “Why am I fluffy?”
“Probably because you’re soft.” A familiar voice joked, and a red-scaled form bounded into the Earth’s side, pushing sand against the wings. Mars studied the feathers, trying to pull one from the mass. “What even are these? They’re so oddly shaped.”
“Ow! Leave them alone!” Earth turned with a snap, the wing yanking itself from the curious dragon’s claws. “Feathers. Birds have them.”
“But not dragons?”
“Dragons don’t have anything. They don’t exist, not on my surface.” Earth grounded out, waving one wing out in disbelief. “What the fuck is happening?”
“You tell me dude, this is your surface.” Mars rolled his eyes, the swirled horns atop his head almost white in the sunlight. A tail flickered behind him, spiked with an oddly bulbus, sickled end. “I just woke up like this.”
“Me too.” Luna added, his own tail swishing in agitation. I don’t like how involuntary that is. I’ll need to find a way to stop that.
“It seems this issue spread a bit further than you three.” The deep voice joining the conversation almost made Luna jump, despite the easy recognition. What is wrong with this body? It’s like I’m paranoid.
“Jupiter!” The two rocky worlds exclaimed in relief. While Mars had been a few inches shorter than Earth, Jupiter was at least twice the height of Earth at his shoulder. The huge dragon peered down at them, wide head topped with long, spiralling horns that seemed to melt into the sunlight. The familiar colours that usually adorned the giant planet were now scattered into a sea of glinting scales, covering the broad-chested form and sparkling in the sun. Down his neck, a swathe of longer, brighter scales fell, making his neck seem larger.
“Earth, do you have any idea why this has happened?” Jupiter asked with a rumble, his new form forced to bend his neck down to face the living planet. “You said these forms are not from your surface?”
“Definitely not. Dragons are just a myth. My Earthlings made them up!” Earth’s wings rose at his agitation, flinging sand at Luna and Mars standing beside him. “And I haven’t the slightest clue why we're here! I was in my orbit two seconds ago.”
“Same here.” Mars agreed, shaking his back to remove the sand. His own wings were held close to his body, rust red and flecked with darker scales, narrowing to points at their ends. “One second I was watching my moons, the next I was here! Wait, are Phobos and Deimos here too?”
“I’m afraid quite a few of us are here, unfortunately.” Saturn, standing only a foot shorter than Jupiter’s bulky form, stepped forward. Luna had not even seen the yellow-cream dragon’s approach, his scales too reminiscent of the very sand they stood on. His body was broader than Jupiter’s, with wings that appeared to curve at the ends rather than terminate into points. Under the giant’s stocky legs, a handful of small dragons peered about in wonder.
“Amalthea? Metis? Himalia?” Jupiter peered down at the smaller dragons, each roughly half Luna’s own size. The grey-brown patterning on each varied so minutely, but the gas giant clearly recognised them as his own. “Where are the rest? Is it only you three?”
“W-we think so?” Metis stammered uncertainly, following her fellows as they dashed towards their planet.
“We found Saturn’s moons too! But only a few.” Amalthea piped up, attempting to stand up on her hind legs for a better view of Jupiter. “The big ones are here too! I saw Europa! She’s back! She’s so shiny!”
“That’s good to hear.” Jupiter commented distractedly, already lifting his head to search for the Galilean moons. Luna tried not to feel too apprehensious about the supposed return of the exiled moons. “We need to gather everyone and get a count of who is here.”
Luna raised his head to the rest of the surrounding desert, the lumps and bumps from earlier now revealing themselves to be other scaled creatures, many already making their way over. His eye caught on a sharp glint of blue, shining harshly in the sunlight, and his eyes adjusted to make out a wide-winged dragon with rows of spikes rolling down his back and spreading from the tip of his tail. A slightly larger, paler dragon stood awkwardly nearby, his own smooth-ridged dorsal fin flowing to his tail. More dragons closer to Luna’s own size were talking in a huddle, the familiar green-orange of Titan catching his eye. So many are here.
…
In the end, they managed to round up and count every dragon in the radius of a few miles. Presumably, that was all there was, but Luna wasn’t about to go out and check. The heat was bad enough, and he’d already seen more than a few celestials accidentally step on sharp plants or rocks with clumsy feet.
All the planets were here, from Mercury to Neptune, and most major moons as well. None of the dwarf planets had been found and Luna really hoped they weren’t lost somewhere. In terms of minor moons, it seemed like only three of each giant’s group had been brought with them, as well as Phobos and Deimos. No sign of the Sun.
“WOW! This place is so fun!” The terrors themselves were currently Luna’s problem, as the larger moon tried to keep them in sight while the planets spoke. He'd much rather be listening in, but the two younger moons had disappeared and no one had wanted to go looking. So, obviously, Earth asked him to. And Luna was very bad at ignoring his planet, it seemed. It’s looking more tempting by the minute, though.
“Get back here, guys! We can’t get lost!” Luna scrambled to follow the red-brown dragons as they scuttled under bushes or clambered up rocks. His lungs seemed to protest every extra movement, this body strangely reliant on repetitive breathes. He’d heard Earth speak of his Life’s dependence on oxygen, but actually dealing with the demand was a whole ‘nother thing. Worst of all, even when he stopped moving, the body still forced him to pant and gasp for extra air. This is terribly designed.
Luna skidded to a stop in the loose sand, his wings raising involuntarily to try and counterbalance the force of the stop. Neither Martian moon was in sight. His eyes, still getting used to the bright sheen everything seemed to have, squinted into the vast desert around them. Because that’s where they were, according to Earth. A desert. Or at least a desert transitioning into scrubland, given the vast swaths of grasses and shrubs. Luna didn’t really care either way, as long as his throat could stop hurting soon and his organs could quit complaining.
“Up here! Luna! Up here!” The laughing cries of the little moons had Luna swinging his head up, eyeing the branches of a scraggly tree he’d been seeking some shade under. Twin tails curled from the highest stretch of the tree, golden-red eyes blinking down at the grey dragon. “We found this awesome thing! It’s so tall!”
The tree barely passed Luna’s head, but he wasn’t about to start an argument with these two. Instead, he reached up to pluck the closest one off the tree, his clawed forearm clumsily trying to grab the dragon’s middle without harming him. Phobos made this endeavour harder by squirming. “Stay still! Your planet will kill me if either of you get hurt.”
“But we’re just having fun!” Phobos protested, his own small claws digging into Luna’s in some attempt to dissuade him. “We wanna explore!”
“We don’t know where we are. And if we get lost, no one is going to know how to find us.” Luna tried to reason, tossing an anxious look back at the larger group. They still seemed to be preoccupied by their discussion, no heads turned in their direction. In his distraction, Phobos had scrambled free.
“Oof.” The little dragon had over-compensated as he was freed, tumbling off the branch to land with a spray of sand on the ground. Luna was about to panic, but the little dragon quickly bounced up again to shoot off into the nearby brush. “Catch me if you can!”
“Ugh.” Luna huffed, his muscles already stinging from his previous chase of the little moons. The grey moon trudged after the dragon’s path, surprised to find he could detect a faint scent everywhere Phobos had stepped. Maybe this will be easier than I think.
As he paced around in the dry grasses and spiky thickets, Luna tried to picture how an Earthling would do this. He seemed to have all the senses of one now, he should probably learn to use them. Scent made sense, in a way, like a cloud of invisible molecules left behind by every creature. Not the same as gravity or heat, but similar enough in concept. Hearing was easy and familiar, though the range was different and appeared to be influenced by more than just distance now.
Touch was maybe one of the newer ones, having no real counterpart for celestials. Sure, they could ‘feel’ their surfaces and the general heat of the space around them, but no actual contact was ever possible. If a celestial was touching another, something had gone very wrong. But, in this form, everything was touching all the time, constantly sending new information to Luna’s brain. And he had a brain now, which was weird to think about. A fleshy lump of neurons and electrical signals now powered his thoughts, rather than his core. Eww.
“Luna! Look at this!” Phobos’ call forced Luna’s head up, his eyes trying to adjust to the light again after so long aimed at the ground. These things are pathetic.
Taste was a sense Earth had often spoken of in envy, but Luna really wasn’t seeing the appeal. His mouth tasted like sand, dry air, and something metallic. Not an enviable experience. Luna spat out another mouthful of sand after another trip into the nearest sand rise, his foot caught on an exposed plant root. Ugh.
“What is it, Phobos?” Luna asked as he drew closer to where the sound appeared to have come from. He knew Earthling hearing tended to use triangulation to work such things out, but the reliability of such a thing was yet to be seen. “Phobos?”
“What is this?” The little moon spoke, close enough that Luna could finally see him. The moon was sat in the sand, his forearm reaching out to indicate a strange creature he’d clearly flipped upside down. From the lack of movement, Luna guessed it was already dead.
“Please don’t touch it.” Luna sighed, eyeing the creature. “I don’t know what it is.”
“But I’m hungry!” The exclamation caught Luna severely off guard. Hunger wasn’t something they’d encountered before, but it did seem to be the right word for the twisting pain his abdomen occasionally pulsed with. But, looking at the dead animal, Luna did not think it looked very appealing at all, certainly not enough to remove the feeling of hunger.
“We don’t know what we can or can’t eat, Phobos.” Luna tried to sound authoritative about this, worried the little dragon would try anyway. “We have to wait for the others. We have to ask Earth.”
“Aw! But I’m hungry now!”
Luna ignored the complaint, scooping the creature into his own claws to keep it separate from the moon. As he studied the creature closer, he could see six spindly legs, with two more appendages made up of sharp-looking pincers. A thick, dark tail curled behind it, tipped with a bulbous hook reminiscent of Mars’ new tail tip. Odd looking creature.
“Luna! Luna?” The voice of his planet drew Luna’s attention away from the Earthling, his neck twisting around to find the blue-green dragon making his way across the scrub towards them. A few other dragons were slinking along as well, including an annoyed looking Mars. “Why’d you leave Deimos in a tree? He couldn’t get down.”
“Oh, sorry.” Luna flushed, realising his mistake. Now that he looked, he could see the other little dragon he’d been following was now huddled on his planet’s back, resting against the red scales. “Sorry, Deimos, I was following Phobos and got distracted.”
“By what?” Earth asked, close enough now to peer at Luna’s cupped talons. “Luna, you should probably put that down.”
“Why?” Luna asked, but did as Earth instructed, not looking to argue with the only Earthling expert in the area. “What is it?”
“Scorpion. Some kind of Thicktail, I think.” Earth lowered his head to look closer. “The tail is venomous, the scorpion stabs it into prey to kill. It can be deadly to larger Earthlings in some species, but this one looks dead at least.”
“Yeah, Phobos found it dead.” Luna assured, now even more glad of that fact.
“Why does the tail look like mine?” Mars asked, peering down at it too. He flicked his tail around to inspect it, causing Luna and Earth to flinch back. “Sorry. Does that mean my tail is dangerous?”
“Probably. Please don’t test it on anyone. I’m sure we’ll find some threat at some point.” Earth grimaced at the tail waving in front of him. “Be careful with it. We don’t really have the equipment to make an antidote.”
“Of course. I’ll be careful.” Mars promised, curling the tail back on itself until he had a spiral, the deadly hook nestled in the centre.
“Can I eat it now?” Phobos asked, clambering over to look up at the Earth. The ruff of feathers fluffed up at the question.
“Do you want to?”
“Don’t let him eat it, Earth.” Mars protested. “You literally just said it’s venomous."
“Yeah, venomous, not poisonous.” Earth corrected. “If we remove the tail, he should be OK.”
“‘Should be OK’?” Mars muttered disbelievingly. “No, I’m not letting my moon be a test subject for this.”
“Lots of Earthlings eat them. It’s a food source at least.” Earth shrugged. “We need to work out what we can and can’t eat pretty quickly. This can be a start.”
“Why? How long are we going to be stuck here?” Luna asked, dismayed that his planet seemed to be fixing to stay. I don’t want to be stuck in this dustbowl.
“We don’t know. Jupiter agreed that our best bet is to start looking for water.” Earth muttered, looking over his shoulder at the gas giant slowly approaching, wings casting shade over the moons following in his wake. “Then shelter and food. We need to get our needs met before we can start moving away from here.”
“So, where to, Earth?” Saturn asked, having followed Jupiter to them, his tail flickering at his side in rapid swishes. Behind them, the two ice giants also approached, their moons following as fast as they could manage. Earth raised his head to scan the area.
“Water will be near denser, greener plant life than this.” Earth strained to stand up on his hindlegs, the sand-clogged feathers spilling grains back onto the ground. His tail rose to help his balance, feathers flaring into a wide fan at the end. “There. That looks greenish?”
Jupiter rose up as well, peering in the same direction as Earth indicated. “If you think so, Earth. We are all at a severe disadvantage when it comes to knowledge of survival on your surface, you will have to guide us.”
“I thought we agreed Jupiter was in charge?” Uranus piped up with an annoyed tone. “Since the Sun’s not here.”
“I can be in charge of us as a group, but the details of our interactions with this land will be Earth’s say.” Jupiter explained to the ice giant, his height rivalling Uranus’ by a good few feet. “It is his surface, and he knows the most about this.”
“Well, we should get going, then.” Earth tried to project his voice far enough to reach the stragglers at the end of the huddle. “If planets can let the smaller moons ride on them, we might be able to move faster. And, everyone, keep count of your travelling group and call out if anyone is missing or struggling. The heat is dangerous and we need to look out for each other.”
The gathered dragons nodded, exchanging worried glances and uncomfortable expressions. Luna shook himself off, picking up his feet to catch up with Earth as the group began to move. Phobos cast one last longing look at the dead scorpion. Small moons hopped up onto larger dragons, while major moons took up long strides to maintain pace with their planets. Luna was almost glad he and Earth weren’t that distant in size. One stride from Earth was one and two thirds for Luna, so his speed needed little adjustment to keep up.
The ground varied in texture, some areas as hard as rock while others caused feet to sink infuriatingly. The foliage only increased in density, catching on claws, tails, and scales. Earth lost more than a few feathers to the spiky thorns. Luna gave up trying to pick the burrs from his scales.
As they walked, Luna tried to distract himself from the relentless heat and baked surface by studying his fellow rocky worlds, all of whom were following close beside Earth. Venus was surprisingly similar in build to his own planet, with the same branching horns and narrow nose. The main difference was the feathers. Where Earth was covered in them, Venus only had a few, localised solely on his upper neck, just below his horns. They resembled his scales, red, orange, and yellow, with a few flecks of black.
Mercury was nearly the same size as Luna, only a few centimetres taller at the shoulders. The planet appeared grey at first sight, plainer looking than Luna himself. But, in the sunlight, his scales shimmered iridescent flecks of colour, a rainbow hidden within the dull sheen. His wings were far smaller in proportion to his body than any other planet, but they were shaped into narrow points that reminded Luna of birds of prey Earth often spoke of.
The distant smudge of green still sat across a yawing stretch of scrubland, the air blowing in eddies to spray sand at the group, and the sky itself becoming painful to look at from the searing heat. Every breath felt useless in the fight to cool down, every particle already warmed beyond helping, and the dryness in his mouth only got worse. Sand was sliding between scales and sticking, creating a scattering of irritation across the very legs Luna was trying to keep moving. The grey dragon tried to think of the cool of his usual orbit, the simple pleasure of having nothing touching his surface from any angle, only Earth's distant gravity to ground him.
“Are you doing okay?” Earth’s whispered question drew Luna from his musing to meet his planet’s odd-coloured eyes. The feathers around his neck were slumped down, pressed against his skin to shield it from the Sun’s glare. “Any headaches? Dizziness? We should get there soon, but heatstroke needs to be caught early, especially out here.”
“I-I’m feeling fine, Earth. Just a bit overwhelmed.” Luna admitted with a sigh, keeping his head down to avoid the bright sunlight. “This is crazy. Why are we here?”
“I don’t know, Luna.” Earth cast a look back, checking on the end of the line for stragglers. “I’m hoping if we can keep everyone alive until night, I can work out where we might be. I have a suspicion already, but confirmation would help.”
“Where do you think we are?”
“Based on the plants, climate, and ecotype, somewhere in the southern end of Africa.” Earth whispered to his moon. “If we can get to that green area, I might be able to find some human thing and get an exact location.”
“You think humans will be out here?” Luna wasn’t sure why anything that didn’t have to be out here would bother. The Sun alone made it unbearable.
“Maybe. If they’re anywhere, it’ll be near water.” Earth hummed, “They’re everywhere on my surface. I told you as much before.”
“Yeah, but here? There’s nothing here!”
“There’s plenty here. You already met one of the animals, and we’re surrounded by the plants.” Earth countered. “Anyway, this is probably as inhospitable as it gets. It’s not the rainy season, and this area clearly hasn’t seen any rain in weeks.”
“So, when will it rain again?” Luna had never thought of rain as so appealing before.
“That’s what I want to see the sky for. If I can work out where we are, and when, then I can get a rough guess.” Earth revealed, nodding to the sky.
“I don’t see how.” Luna huffed, trying to ignore the growing pain in his feet as the burning ground was eaten up by their strides.
“You will.”
…
“This isn’t water, Earth.” Mercury poked the oddly thick-leaved plant disdainfully. “The ground here is just as dry as everywhere else.”
“It’s not.” Earth waved his tail to the trees that rose around them, just tall enough to provide shade for the largest rocky planet. Behind Luna, the moon could hear the ice and gas giants trying to crouch down under the merger shade. “These trees wouldn’t be this big if there was no water. It’s just deep down.”
“So, it’s useless to us.” Venus hissed, kicking another scrub with his foreleg. “I’m not digging.”
“We don’t have to.” Earth nodded to some of the thick-leaved plants Mercury was playing with. “Those are succulents. They have swollen leaves because they store water. We can eat them.”
“I am not doing that.” Venus hissed, the feathers on his ruff rising in agitation.
“Fine. There's always these things.” Earth, in a move that probably wasn’t as painless as he made it look, picked up a longer, spiky plant with no obvious leaves. “Apparently they taste like cucumbers. Not that I know what that means.”
“Is that safe?” Luna asked, eyeing the spikes arranged on the plant. “Looks painful.”
“Cut the spikes off.” Earth drew one of his claws down the side of the plant, the spikes falling off onto the sand below. Luna made a note to not stand there any time soon. Once Earth had de-spiked the whole thing, he split it in half, offering one half to Luna. “Try it. It’s either this or digging.”
“...thanks.” Luna gingerly took the offered plant. The sap was already seeping from the wounds left by Earth’s talons, temptingly moist despite the stickiness. The reasonable part of his mind wanted to avoid putting this strange biological weirdness anywhere near him, but the new, animalistic part was thirsty and hungry and didn’t really care how Luna fixed those things.
The first bite wasn’t much of anything, if Luna was honest. The texture was the most noticeable part, both hard and surprisingly easy to break at the same time, while the flavour seemed to be mostly a mild tanginess, similar to the smell it gave off. Luna only managed a few bites before having to put it down, his dismay at the feeling of the sap clinging to his mouth roiling his stomach more than the hunger had. “Ugh.”
“Yeah, not exactly the best fix for water.” Earth frowned at his own piece, a few bites also taken out. “We don’t really have a lot of other options, though. I can’t see a river or anything else green for miles.”
“I guess it’ll have to do?” Mars frowned down at a handful of the thick-leaved succulents he’d been trying to force down. “Is there enough here for everyone? Seems a little small for the giants.”
“Ah, yeah, probably not. We might just have to dig.” Earth looked far more worried now, glancing up at the sky with squinted eyes. “The Sun will set soon, so it’ll be cooler then. We can dig in the dark.”
“Why?” Mercury asked, happily munching on a few of the rounded thick-leaves. “Won’t it be hard to see?”
“Maybe. But it’ll be hard to stay alive if we tried digging in this heat.” Earth explained, then picked up another stem of spiky plants to de-spike. “We’ll divide what’s here up among the others. Try and make sure everyone has at least a go at eating them.”
...
Luna ended up dragging a few of the weeping plants over to the Saturnian moons, who were all huddled under the shade of one tree. Their planet was laid out under another tree nearby, his head resting on Jupiter’s shoulders as they talked quietly.
“I’ve got some-” Luna wasn’t sure how to describe what he was holding. “-stuff for you guys.”
He’d awkwardly curled one wing under itself at his side to hold the plants, and now he fumbled to grab them back out with his talons, the sap already covering the wing and his claws. Eww.
“What are they?” Titan had stepped forward to accept one of the plants, turning it over in his talons to inspect it. “Are we supposed to do something with it?”
“Eat it.” Luna nodded to the plant as more of the moons came forward to grab one. “It’s got water in it, according to Earth. We need water to stay alive now, like Earthlings do.”
“Ugh! This is so gross!” Dione complained, her claws gingerly holding the plant away from her. “You want us to eat it? No thanks!”
“Fine, die of dehydration.” Luna really wasn’t in the mood for trying to convince ten moons to at least try not to pass out. As much as he’d disliked the experience of eating the plant, he’d still ended up finishing it out of necessity. “We’re going to try digging for water at night, but for now this is all we have.”
“This blows.” Mimas grumbled, his dark grey scales contrasting harshly with the rings of white around his eyes. Or eye, in this case, the other socket empty and black. “Why are we even here? What the Stars is even going on?”
“We don’t know.” Iapetus turned a worried look to the rest of the moon group. His half-and-half surface had been almost perfectly reflected into the dragon form, splitting him in two along the sagittal plane. “We can only trust that we will learn more soon, and in the meantime, we need to listen to the only planet and moon with any experience of Life.”
“Titan has Life too!” Janus, a smaller moon about the height of Luna’s foreleg from talons to horns, bounded forward to add.
“Not nearly complicated enough for me to know anything about surviving on Earth.” Titan protested, eyeing the plant he was still holding with a determined expression. “Well, here goes nothing.”
Watching Titan’s expressions as he ate the plant almost made this whole thing worth it for Luna. The overwhelming urge to laugh was making breathing a bit difficult, but his body seemed to feel lighter at the amusement, like he’d been suddenly hit with more energy than before. He’d listened to Earth’s rambles about all the chemicals Earthling brains use to control and induce the meat bit to move and stay alive, but actually feeling it was far more crazy than his planet ever made it seem.
“Having fun there, Titan?” Saturn had noticed the crowd his largest moon had acquired, peering over at them all with a bemused expression. “Oh dear, what’s that face for?”
“He’s eating a plant!” Janus exclaimed excitedly, “Luna says we have to or we’ll die!”
“Um-” Luna’s amusement vanished in the face of Saturn’s disturbed expression. “No, that’s not what I said. Earth just thinks it’ll be better if everyone tries to get some water before night falls.”
“Oh?” Saturn frowned, eyeing the plant Dione held out to him as an example. “Those don’t look very pretty. And we have to eat them?”
“Ideally. But we are planning to dig a hole for water later, once it cools down.” Luna explained, but Saturn didn’t seem terribly impressed by that either.
“Dig? That sounds terribly exhausting.” The sand-coloured dragon heaved a breath, pawing at the soft ground. “Do we have to? Why can’t we just wait until it rains? It’s always raining on Earth, as far as I know.”
“Yeah, but not here.” Luna struggled to keep his voice calm. It wasn’t Saturn’s fault he’d never experienced or heard about anything Earthlings actually have to do to survive on his planet’s surface. The adjustment was going to take time. “It hasn’t rained for weeks, and probably won’t rain for weeks more. And you won’t last that long without water!”
“Well, that certainly sounds like ‘eat this or die’ to me.” Hyperion laughed, unconcerned by Saturn’s quick glare in his direction.
“I’ll go get some more plants. Eat those ones.” Luna huffed, turning away from the group and pacing a few metres away, trying to work out why his heart was racing and his breathing was acting like he’d run a mile. His frustration was making thoughts surprisingly difficult, and he had the distinct urge to curl up and block everything out. What is going on? I was fine a second ago!
He gave into the demands of the strange mood that had fallen over him, curling his head and tail into a tight circle with one wing thrown over to hide his eyes from the outside world. His breathing didn't improve, but the jittery feeling was lowing its intensity to a mild buzz rather than an all-consuming urge. The dark at least seemed to be helping with the pounding pain his brain had decided to add to the mix.
“Luna?” The voice caused his shoulders to tense, even as his muddled mind recognised the speaker. He carefully drew back one wing so he could see the dragon before him.
“Earth.” Luna forced out, his voice tight. The feathered dragon took a step forward, only to pause as Luna drew back. The moon didn’t understand why he was acting like this. I know Earth! I trust him!
“Luna? Are you- No, you’re clearly not okay. Is there any way I can help?” Earth awkwardly asked, the concern in his voice making Luna feel even worse. “Can you explain what’s upset you?”
“I-I don’t know! My organs are being weird just ‘cause I snapped at Saturn and tried to tell him we might all die out here! And now my stupid fleshy brain is mixing everything up and making it worse. And there’s sand in my scales and it really itches.” Luna finished lamely, his breathing calming slightly just from speaking it all aloud. “I wanna go home, Earth.”
“I know. I do too.” Earth hummed, gently curling his soft body around the moon and drawing one wing over Luna’s side. The feathers tickled his nose, but Luna felt far more grounded as he rested his head on the downy side, the scent almost familiar despite his recent acquisition of a nose. “It’s going to be hard. If we have to survive here long term, I’m definitely going to freak out too, don’t worry. Being an Earthling is hard and uncomfortable and messy. ”
Earth’s words weren’t helping Luna’s optimism for the future. He knew far less than Earth, but even he had seen the horrible, painful fates of so many life forms over the years. If that happened to one of the others…it didn’t bear thinking about.
“But, we can survive. We have more knowledge between us than your average Earthling, as irrelevant as much of it might seem. We have wings, and if we can master them, we can move to a better location.” Earth explained. “We are relatively big, most of us. Food might be a struggle, but we can learn and we’re equipped with plenty of weapons. The area isn’t great, but if we can find out where we are I can try and navigate to a nicer, wetter area. There are plenty of Earthlings in far worse situations right now, and they’re surviving as well.”
“Hm.” Luna hummed against his planet’s side, the feathers in front of his muzzle ruffled by the air. “Why did I just- freak out, then? I’ve never felt like that before.”
“Earthling bodies are weird. They’ve been selectively bred for generations by every threat and predator on my surface, and that tends to come with some built in panic buttons. If the brain thinks there’s a threat you need to run from, it shocks you with adrenaline to try and be helpful.” Earth smiled ruefully. “It’s not very good at telling the difference between a bad conversation and a lion, though. Sorry.”
“Oh. So my brain was the problem, then.” Luna sighed, already done with this free-trial of being puppeted like a meat sack.
“Not really. It was trying to be helpful. I’m sure you’ll appreciate the boost when a real threat comes after you.” Earth joked, laying his own head onto the sandy ground. “Man, this heat really does make Earthlings sleepy. We might as well rest for a bit, just till night falls.”
“Okay.” Luna shuffled a few of his limbs into better positions, trying to get as comfortable as possible against his planet’s side. The repetitive breaths from the dragon beneath his head felt soothing and soon he was dozing off too. “Thanks, Earth.”
“No problem.”
…
“How are we supposed to dig a hole in this stuff?” Uranus complained, his claw-marks re-filling with sand after every drag. “It’s too shifty. And I can barely see.”
“Really? I can see great!” Neptune offered at his side, the wide-eyed planet also attempting to dig into the ground, his disproportionately large wings trailing in the sand as he failed to keep them neatly on his back. “Not a lot of colour, though.”
“We need to dig in the lowest part we can find.” Jupiter swung his head around to peer down at a clump of trees in a small ditch. “Down there.”
“You want us to fit in there?” Saturn frowned at the tight thicket of branches. “I’ll catch my scales on every branch, Jupiter! Not to mention the insects!”
“Rip the trees out.” Uranus suggested coldly, his whip-thin tail striking the ground in irritation. “They’re half your size. Just remove them and we can start digging.”
“I really don’t think that would be polite to Earth-” Jupiter started, only to be interrupted by the planet himself.
“Just do it. We’re going to have some impact on my surface to stay alive, a few trees is the least of it.” Earth huffed, watching the argument with the air of a tired teacher. Luna was still sticking to his side, not interested in going anywhere right now. He probably could've just stayed asleep under the trees with the rest of the rockies and moons, but his planet had been called on to supervise the giants as they dug.
The darkness had fallen surprisingly quickly, and so had the temperature. Rather than being too hot, Luna was starting to feel too cold. Luckily, he had a fluffy planet’s wing to hide under. The sky was open and shining with the familiar pin-pricks of light, curved above their heads like a dome. A few hours of darkness had already passed and his celestial form was rising full and bright into the sky, passing between the Pegasus and Pisces constellations, aiming for Aquarius.
Staring at his physical form, Luna felt a sudden longing to speak to Dark. The other side of his form didn't seemed to have transferred to this one, leaving his mind oddly empty and lonely. Sure, Dark would sometimes sleep for extended periods of time, leaving Luna in silence, but he rarely felt so unreachable. Maybe it's for the best. Dark would hate this.
“I think we’re in early September.” Earth’s muttering caught Luna off guard and he tilted his head to see Earth was gazing at the sky too. “Definitely the southern end of Africa, going by the constellations at this time of night. And the full moon, of course!”
“What does that mean for us?” Luna asked, not sure what use knowing the month was.
“Well, it tells me we might be waiting a bit for rain. It’s definitely the dry season.” Earth moved his head around to take in more of the constellations. “It also gives us a start point for our time-keeping. We know we arrived on a full moon, and in roughly a month we will see another one. Hopefully we’ll be far away from here by then.”
“We’re moving?” Luna asked, watching as Jupiter tried to yank a tree out with his teeth. The tree snapped.
“We have to.” Earth confessed, turning his head to one side. “East is that way, and we will aim for that tomorrow. Hopefully, after some water, everyone can be convinced to try flying.”
“Ah.” Luna had not considered that. Wings had barely registered in his mind as anything other than uselessly gangly limbs, but obviously Earthlings used them for flight. As easy as floating through air usually was, the idea of having to manually generate enough lift to oppose Earth’s surface gravity with these floppy bone-skins alone sounded exhausting.
“It’ll be fun!” Earth grinned, peaking down into the ditch to check on the progress. Jupiter and Saturn had managed to extract the trees, leaving only a mound of disturbed earth in their place. Uranus and Neptune were already digging, with Saturn hesitantly approaching to help. Jupiter was inspecting the roots of one of the destroyed trees.
“What’ch looking at, Jupiter?” Earth asked, getting up to approach the gas giant. Jupiter turned to greet him.
“Earth, Luna. I was just wondering if the roots might give us a clue as to how deep we’ll need to dig.” Jupiter pressed one claw to a lower root, showing the dark soil caught between the tangles. “This dirt is darker and colder. Do you think-”
Jupiter’s words abruptly paused as Earth boldly stuck his tongue out to touch it to the dirt. Luna shared a bemused expression with the golden dragon before Earth withdrew his tongue to speak.
“Yep! Wet dirt.”
“Earth, was that really necessary?” Jupiter sighed, while Earth just laughed.
“Come on Jupiter, we can’t be so delicate about this stuff. I can’t imagine how you’ll manage to eat a bloody carcass at this rate. Saturn might faint.” Earth pointed out, turning his head to check on the ringed giant, who was still only touching the dirt with the tips of his claws.
“This is a hard adjustment, Earth. He just needs some time. We all do.” Jupiter replied sternly, but the concern in his gaze as he watched his fellow giant gave it a softer edge. “I fear he is quite upset by all this already.”
“Well, I know what might cheer him up!” Earth pointed one talon high above them, just east of Luna’s own form. “Up there, that little dot, that’s Saturn. If we had a telescope, we’d be able to see his rings.”
“Indeed.” Jupiter mused, his own head upturned to look. “I will have to point it out to him.”
“Yeah, and if we had a good telescope, we might have been able to see Neptune as well.” Earth added, apparently not done explaining the night sky to Jupiter. “He’s really close to Saturn at the moment.”
“That’s quite fascinating, Earth.” Jupiter replied politely. “It is certainly strange to see our home and forms from your perspective. We all look very small.”
“Except Luna.” Earth added brightly. “Luna’s lighting this place up like the Sun! We should enjoy it while it lasts!”
“It gets darker than this?” Uranus, who must have been listening in, suddenly raised his head from the ditch. “This is bad enough!”
“Yep, sorry.” Luna smiled apologetically. “I’m not a full moon all the time. The light is only this bright once a month, roughly.”
“Ugh!” The ice giant flopped onto the ground in defeat, having pulled his bulk from the ditch to lay in the moonlight, and spoke through his clenched teeth. “This is torture.”
“Take a break if you need one!” Neptune stepped up from the hole, peering down at the pale, moonlit dragon as dark mud dripped from his razer-sharp claws. “The mud is really sloppy now, so I can’t imagine we’re far.”
“It is?” Earth shot forward to gaze into the hole the ice giants had created. Luna scrambled to follow. “Yes! OK, we need to clear as much of the mud out as we can. It’s going to taste gross, but we can drink this.”
“I’ll wake the others.” Luna offered, darting off into the trees again to find the rest of the group.
He stumbled over the rockies first, quite literally, nearly earning a stinger through the eye from Mars. He hurriedly conveyed the news before running off before Venus could get mad that he’d trailed dirt all over his tail.
The moons had gathered further back in the trees, huddled together despite the heat. Luna knew a few of the moons were hesitant about Ganymede and Europa seemingly being back now, but compared to the planets they were positively jumping for joy. The two exiled moons hadn't even approached their planet yet, still hurt and confused by the way Jupiter had reacted during the trial. Luna wasn't sure where he stood on the whole issue, or if he even needed to be involved at all. It all seems a touch silly in the face of this situation.
“Guys! They found water!” He gasped out as he approached the mass of moons. A sea of half-glowing eyes rose to face him, more funny than eerie when he could name every face he saw there. There was a scuffle of wingbeats and hissing before the whole group was up and following Luna back to the hole.
As they arrived, Luna saw Jupiter withdrawing his head from the ditch, muzzle stained dark with mud. Saturn was curled up completely, his talons delicately trying to remove the mud caked to his sand-bright scales. Neptune was off to one side, trying to wipe the mud off on a nearby tree, while Uranus just stared forlornly at the ground, mud dripping from his teeth.
Earth was showing the other rocky planets how to dip their heads down and drink. Venus appeared just desperate enough to give it a go, while Mars and Mercury watched on with doubtful expressions. Luna led the moons over.
“How’s it taste?” Callisto asked as they reached the hole, eyeing Venus’ wet muzzle with a dismayed expression on her speckled face. The orange-yellow dragon huffed and drew back his teeth in a grimace.
“Disgusting. But it’s water. And the best we’re gonna get apparently.”
“Unfortunately, yeah.” Earth agreed, nodding to Mars to have a go next before turning to the moon group. “OK, we are going to be orderly about this and stand in a line. Once you get a drink, leave the line. If you want a second drink, go to the back of the line. If the water looks low, scoop the mud out or call one of the giants over to do it for you.”
The majority of the gathered moons nodded, though Luna noticed the disdainful looks of a few thrown his planet’s way. Mars had finished by now, and Mercury was seemingly sikeing himself up for the task. The small planet appeared to take one big mouthful, then threw his head back to force it down. Luna wondered if that was actually a good idea.
“You go first, Luna.” Earth indicated to the hole after Mercury was done, the smallest planet gagging slightly in a distinctly unappealing review of the experience. Luna shot Earth a look, noting the lack of mud on his planet’s face.
“What about you?” Luna asked, stepping back to indicate the hole. “You first. All the other planets have done it.”
“I can go later. It’s fine.” Luna searched his planet’s face, trying to work out where the sudden reluctance had come from. Hypocrite.
“You can’t get on Saturn’s case for being squeamish if you're not even willing to do it.” Luna accursed, gratified to see the feathers on his planet’s ruff rise in agitation. He wasn’t about to let his own planet go without water over a silly reluctance. “Don’t be delicate, Earth. We’re going to be eating Earthlings soon, like you said.”
“Don’t remind me.” Earth deadpanned, his glare sharp in the moonlight. “Fine. OK, it’s just mud. Just mud. Just mud…”
As Earth whispered this to himself, he lowered his head into the hole and shut his eyes, drinking deeply from the dark water. Watching the specks and clumps of dirt floating in swirls as the planet drank, Luna was hit by the realisation that he was next, and now, to avoid Earth’s endless teasing, he’d have to do it more confidently than the planet. Just mud, just mud, just mud…
“Ugh.” Earth withdrew, shaking his head to dislodge some of the mud, then turned a smirk onto Luna. “Your go!”
With a smirk of his own, Luna confidently dipped his head in and slurped up a mouthful. And quickly realised his mistake. Oh Stars this is terrible! Ew ew ew ew!
“What’s the matter? Not very fond of mud?” Earth’s teasing voice ignited a short fuse of spite in Luna, and the grey dragon used it to gulp the mouthful down. His next draw was slower, with the distinct goal of minimising the amount of dirt clumps he was forced to swallow. Once he was done, he withdrew as calmly as he could pretend to and marched off. He heard Earth tell the next moon to go ahead before padding after his moon.
The water felt like it had triggered some reflex in his chest, the back of his neck tensing and almost painful to resist. Luna clamped his mouth shut and tried to ride the wave of discomfort. Never again.
“You good?” Earth’s question was a bit redundant, since Luna was actively trying not to hurl. Once his stomach stopped playing roll-about, he glared at his planet.
“What do you think?”
“Not great then? Yeah, but hopefully tomorrow we can find a new water source, or dig a new hole.” Earth laughed, reaching up to wipe the mud from Luna’s face, and his voice dipped down to a more serious tone. “We will have to do that again in the morning, though.”
“Ugh.” Luna flopped down onto the sand, his stomach protesting the distinct lack of food and overabundance of mud. “If I have to choose between that and dying, I might pick the latter.”
“Don’t be silly!” Luna turned a glare on the Earth until he crumpled. “OK, yeah, that was horrid. But, we can’t give up just because the water tastes bad.”
“Why not?” Luna knew he was being unhelpfully dramatic, but the pain in his stomach wasn’t giving his brain a lot of joyful chemicals to work with. Earth laughed and flopped down beside him, watching the moons take drinks one by one from the hole.
It was almost peaceful, for what it was. Laying under the spray of starlight, a comforting reminder of every other night of their lives, while the dragons around him settled into naps and quiet conversations. Earth was gazing at the sky again, and Luna was happy to just doze.
The peace didn’t last long, however, as Earth was soon nudging him awake again.
“Luna. Luna, wake up.”
“What?” Luna groaned, blinking his eyes open. It was still dark, his celestial form now higher in the sky, nestled in Aquarius. Earth was indicating another constellation, just on the northern horizon. The calm that had settled over him was hard to shake off, even in the face of Earth's expression.
“Cygnus is wrong.” At first the words coming out of his planet made no sense; but, as Luna studied the familiar constellation he realized Earth was right. Cygnus was tilted, Deneb was now pointing straight down rather than at the angle expected to the horizon line. “It’s pointing compass north.”
“Why?” Luna asked, bemused by the randomness of this change. “Are any other constellations wrong?”
“Not as far as I can see.” Earth hummed, tilting his head at the stars. “I can’t think of any reason they would, or even could, move.”
As the two dragons stared, the stars shifted again, the constellation tilting slightly to resume the normal appearance. Luna blinked in confusion, and suddenly the constellation was wrong again, pointing north once more. “This is really weird.”
“I think we have to go north.” Earth’s words sounded distant, as if the planet was still deep in thought as he spoke. “Why else would it point so accurately to the north? And only one constellation, the northern cross. It has to be deliberate.”
“I guess?” Luna really wasn’t sure about this. It seemed like a strange way to communicate such a thing, but they hardly had any other clues about their purpose here. “So, we go north? Straight north?”
“No. No, that would be a bad idea.” Earth hummed to himself. “We’ll still go east, till we reach the coast. Then we can follow the coast north and hopefully stay close to water.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Luna grunted, not nearly knowledgeable enough to even guess at the kinds of areas they’d be flying through. Trying to survive here had been bad enough, and everywhere else was likely to present just as steep a learning curve for the group. “We’ll have to get everyone there alive.”
“Yep.” Earth breathed, his voice sounding momentarily overwhelmed by the task ahead. “But we can do it! We’re celestials, after all. We can deal with a few days stuck on my surface. And the Sun will probably kill us if we lose anyone.”
“Sounds likely."
“You ready?”
“No.”
“Good, me neither.” Earth grinned at him in the full-moon light. “Let’s do it!”