Fire, Ice and the Moon

Luna, is just another teenager struggling through life. But one ordinary day her life takes an unexpected turn.

Art by Simone Ford

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Hi there,

My name is Luna.

I'm writing this because it might save lives. I can't tell you how or why but... reading this could help.

I'm different from you. I thought I was you but I'm not. So, unless you have something better to do you might want to read this story. Because maybe, just maybe, my story feels familiar.

And in that case... find us. Before they do.

Where to begin? I guess I'll start at the beginning, when my life was shaken upside down. It all began when I punched a boy in the stomach...

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It was an ordinary day. Sunny with a hint of clouds, the type that remind you of cotton candy. I was walking home from school thinking about high school exams coming up, not really paying attention to where I was going.

Cars drove by and people walked on, talking on their phones, immersed in their own lives.

I was just another student coming home from school.

The latest pop song was blasting away on my Air pods and I was tapping my fingers on my legs to the rhythm when suddenly it happened.

A guy, some random dude with blonde dreadlocks and a weird smell came up to me. He stepped in front of me, all chill in his ripped jeans and orange beanie and I was about to step around him, when he grabbed my head and kissed me.

Yeah that's right. Some random dude that I've never seen in my life just kissed me right there on that concrete sidewalk.

He quickly let go of me and laughed at me as he saw my surprised reaction. My mind was going crazy, in total shock, but I managed to spit out three words:

"What the hell?!"

He smiled down at me and answered "Calm down, calm down. I was just doing what you're shirt said."

I looked down and remembered that my purple shirt had the words "Kiss me" on it.

I was about to answer him and stab him with the key I had in between my knuckles when he grabbed my face again, going in for a second kiss.

He was stronger than he looked.

My mind, which had been floating around like scrambled eggs, reunited.

Icy clarity sparked my mind and my veins felt like they were on fire. I saw, smelled and heard everything better. I felt stronger and faster. Anger flared around me and all I saw was red, fire and ice.

I felt my self slip away to be replaced by a being filled with fire, ice and power. It felt like a cold wall had slammed down and broken me in half, one side me and the other side...

I heard a metal screech, people yelling, the smell of roasted chestnuts as the boy's lips got closer to mine.

He never stood a chance.

My body moved in the blink of an eye. Before I knew what I was doing all the fire in my arm shoot down into my fist and BAM I hit the boy. My punch, deadly, precise and venomous sent him flying in the air. He landed hard on his back.

Before he could get up I grabbed his shirt and lifted him in the air with inhuman strength. I shook him as he looked at me, dazed and wounded and I growled.

"Never do that again to me or any other person." I said in a tone my voice had never gone to, dark and sinister, a promise of death.

"Yes, y... es, please don't hurt me, I won't do it again, please, just let me go." he answered, his entire body shaking with fear, his voice squeaky high.

"Consider yourself lucky." With that I dropped him, as if it were normal for a sixteen year old girl to lift 20 year old dudes with no problem.

He ran off with an actual whimper, stumbling and tripping over his own feet.

By then there was an entourage of people around me, phones clicking and cameras rolling. I stared at them, the fire burning in my veins. My hand, which had been clenched in a fist opened slowly, the fingers extending to the people.

With a slow nod they all tapped their phones and with blank eyes turned around and walked away.

That icy clarity, that feeling of someone else controlling my body, vanished just as quickly as they turned away. I gasped. No one said anything. It was as if nothing happened.

As if me, a girl with a mild temper and no athletic talent whatsoever, hadn't just... whatever that was.

---

That was the first time I realized that I wasn't normal. That somewhere inside of me lay a deadly viper filled with ice and fire. That I was different. So, I reacted like any other teenager who realizes they might have superpowers.

I talked to my parents.

---

My parents are nice normal people. My mom's a lawyer while my dad runs a small bakery and coffee shop. It was dinnertime and we were all sat around our glass table eating mac and cheese. I cleared my throat and interrupted my mom who was narrating one of her numerous victories on court.

Before I could stop myself I spat out quickly "So um, do you guys know if, um- like I might have superpowers?" Man, I thought, that sounded bad.

Silence fell on the table. My parents stared at me as if I had grown a second head or something. Finally, they looked at each other, a silent conversation packed with meaning happening in the blink on a eye.

My mom reached over and grabbed my hand.

"Honey... Are you okay? Dad and I noticed that you've seem... kind of off?" she asked, concern growing in her eyes.

"You can tells us anything." my dad added.

"I'm fine. Honestly. That was supposed to be a joke." I lied.

"Okay, if you're sure. Talk to us, okay?" my mom pressed, smiling at me.

"Yeah..." I answered, letting my hair fall in front of my face.

My parents looked at each other and then came to a silent agreement to carry on as normal.

I laughed, trying to lighten the mood, and soon everything went back to the same old dinner routine.

---

The next day, I woke up late for school thanks to my old, unreliable alarm clock. After quickly getting dressed and fixing my morning rat hair nest, I grabbed a waffle and rushed down the familiar street. It was cloudy and the sky was threatening to rain. My eyes alert, mouth full of waffle, I looked around, making sure that yesterday's... incident didn't happen again.

I was so busy looking furtively behind me that I wasn't watching where I was going. I slammed into someone and my waffle flew out of my hand.

Yeah. I should really try to be more aware of what's around me. I mean, honestly.

Anyway, before I could even excuse myself, to my amazement, the person's hand shot out and grabbed my poor waffle before it fell onto the city floor.

"I believe this belongs to you?" they said, in a friendly and authoritative voice. For the first time I looked properly at the stranger.

She had gray and black hair, cut in a messy yet fashionable way and brilliant blue eyes. She was wearing, to my surprise, a tight superhero looking suit with lines of gold carved in intricate patterns. Her mask matched it, made out of the same flexible and endurable material as her armor that reached up to her ears... pointed ears.

That was my first sign that this stranger, whoever she was, was different. She coughed quietly, breaking our awkward silence and I realized that she had asked me a question.

"Um... Y-yeah that's mine." I stuttered out. She gave me the waffle.

It's weird trying to guess a person's emotion when their mouth is covered. Are they happy? Are they sad? Her eyes revealed nothing, dead to any emotion.

She woman stepped back from me, and stared at me intensely, as if giving me a quick assessment. She nodded to herself and in a flash grabbed my arm and dragged me down into a dark alley.

"Hey, what the he-" I yelled, furious that people kept doing this to me, when the woman's hand covered my mouth, and forced me to choke on my words.

"Ssshh. Just listen." She said and slowly uncovered my mouth.

I grumbled under my breath, but figured that if she had wanted to kill me or harm me she would have done so before.

"I know what you are. I know what you did, yesterday. You are an elf." The woman said, whispering it, as if it were a curse.

I wanted to laugh in her face. To say deny it and write her off as a crazy lady. But what happened yesterday... that icy clarity and fiery power that gave me inhumane strength... maybe she was right.

She continued speaking "Some elves have powers like you- fire, ice, air, light- anything. And humans hate us. That's why we hide, why you didn't know." she started talking urgently, as if she were running out of time- "Look, I know this is a lot to take in, but you have to trust me. I don't have much time. They know I'm here."

Her eyes flicked around, her body tense as if she could hear something undetectable to my ears.

"I will come back to get you. Don't use your powers, and prepare all the items you will need to leave immediately." The elf said as she started backing away, down into the darkness of the alley.

"What? Wait-what about my parents? And my life? How do I even know you're telling me the truth?!" I demanded. I could hear footsteps thundering closer to the my alley.

"Curse those fools." she muttered. "You have to trust me. And those humans you call parents are not related to you." she said.

Before I could answer, she did a strange rotating movement with her hands. A bright flash illuminated the air and I had to look away. When I turned back she was gone, as if she had melted into the shadows.

The footsteps got closer and three men dressed in black with high tech looking weapons stomped down the alley. Crap.

I looked frantically around me, trying to find somewhere to hide but the alley was small and cramped. The men were close and started yelling to each other as if they had found a treasure. They still hadn't spotted me, with my black hoodie, I probably wasn't very detectable. But they kept on coming closer.

My heart raced and my breathing got heavier. There was something about these men that screamed danger, and unlike with the strange elf woman, I didn't feel safe. What was I going to say to them, that I just wanted to walk around in a dark alley?

That's when it hit me. I was a innocent looking teenager, alone. I quickly rubbed some dirt on my face and knotted my hair to make it look messy. I stared hard at one spot without blinking until tears started dripping down my face. Perfect.

Just then, the men clambered close to where I was standing.

"Hey, Gert, I found someone!" a man with slick blond hair yelled. The others rushed towards him, and they all stood around me, with their weapons aimed at my chest.

Time for some acting.

"Pl-please, that woman- she" I stuttered, crying hard. I wiped my nose on my sleeve.

"Hey, it's going to be okay." the blonde man said as another man, I assumed called Gert, came over to where we were.

"Tell us everything that happened. We're police and that woman may be a criminal." the man said.

I shrieked a little. "A criminal?! Oh please, officers." I bawled.

"Calm down. Get a hold of yourself." Gert said for the first time, speaking in a very gruff manner. Rude.

I dried my tears and took a deep breath. I noticed that the third man was walking around and scanning everything with a weird machine all the men had, taking notes when he found something.

"I was walking to school and this... woman in armor came and she forced me to go in this alley. She told me I had to give her my hair and she just took a piece. She even took some of my blood, look here at this scar and then she said some stuff and she had pointed ears and she disappeared like... like magic and then you came and now you're here and I'm sure I'm safe." I spoke fast and nervously, never pausing.

"What are they up to now?" the man with the slick blond hair wondered aloud.

Gert scoffed and took out a weird device that the third man had been using. He swiped it up and down and it beeped.

"Nothing." Gert said.

"We still have to take her to headquarters. Protocol and all." the blonde man said. He was about to point and shoot a gun at me when suddenly, the clouds opened up and thunder bellowed in the sky.

Rain fell, the heavy, drenching kind where you can barely see your own hand. The men cursed and tried to protect themselves. I shrieked and yelled about how my hair and clothes would get ruined.

"Let's go. Leave her, she isn't a threat." Gert ordered, cursing at the rain.

"But sir, proto-" the blonde man said.

"I said leave her! Just look at her. Headquarters will never know." Gert interrupted rudely. He didn't seem like a nice guy.

He started running off and the other two men looked at each other and decided that I wasn't a problem. They stumbled off, cursing when they slipped on the wet floor.

"Hey! You can't just leave me here!" I yelled, shaking my hair, trying to play the part of a spoiled brat. But the men had already disappeared.

I don't know how long I stayed there, under the cold, heavy rain. Long enough to make sure they were gone and long enough for me to process everything.

That woman, whoever or whatever she was, had known about me. And my powers. What if she was right? I had never fit in at school or in life, really. I had never really connected with my parents. We had a normal relationship but half the time I felt like they didn't know or understand me. I didn't even look like them, but I had always connected it to weird genetics or something.

But what if it wasn't? What if I was what the lady had said... an elf?

I took a deep breath. I shivered from the cold and decided to go to school. Going back home would raise too many questions.

I would do what the lady had said. Pack my bags and wait. Because there was something about her that just felt familiar... like home.