LUNA

            This day was full of new surprises, and troubling tides.  Luna Love sat in the sandstone throne in place of her son, King Chris, and held court with Gardevoir standing patiently at in front of the chair itself.  She heard many of the same things as always, mostly grievances from one fisherman against another, or competing shops complaining about stolen recipes. One owner insisted that the recipe was his, and the other should be punished.  The accused restaurateur, meanwhile, accused the other of defamation by claiming such atrocities.  At least these are peaceful problems to have, Luna supposed. 

            She had received word that her twin brother had joined the fight against the Brightflames in Rustboro, and then that there was no battle.  Carlos Brightflame’s Chief General, Starfall, had laid a trap.  Indeed, there were five thousand campfires as the Brightfires traditionally lit so signal battle, but it was all for naught.  Luna could not bear to listen to the common folk’s problems today.  The trap laid by Starfall could only mean one thing: Mt. Chimney meant to attack a different target.

            Please let it not be Mauville, she prayed as the voices of the angry restaurant owners softened to no more than a buzz in her ear.  I could not bear to lose another one of my family.  I can’t bear to lose a second King.  Each day that her son grew she saw a little more of her departed husband in her face.  It made her happy to see his likeness again, but it made her miss him more. 

            Today was an important day for Princess Lily Marsh, however.  She sat to the right of the throne.  Today was the first day that Lily attended court and learned how to make decisions and see how a Queen or noble Lady might make them.  Sadly, Luna wasn’t surprised to see her young daughter’s attention devoted intimately to her Egg instead of on the matters at hand.

 Justice and Court wasn’t the only reason for Lily to make her debut today, however.  Chief Granite and his grandson, John, were supposed to make landfall at Slateport today.  Lily had been betrothed to John on the night before Chris had departed for Mauville to explore his own proposed marriage to Sarah Spark.  

It was necessary, my love, she thought to herself as she stole a glance at her little girl.  Sometimes a Chief, a Lady, or a King must sacrifice their own wants for the good of their tribes and kingdoms.  Poor Lily had no idea. 

Luna was thankful that Hera Love, her niece, was going to be with Lily while she was to meet and begin to play with John.  Afterword, Luna would have to say good-bye as her daughter, niece, and future son-in-law would depart back to Dewford so that Lily might learn their own customs.  If the two young children grew up in each other’s company, then they would more likely be comfortable with their arranged marriage.

In a way, it was better that Hera would be attending Lily during her first visit to Dewford.  Luna’s niece was still young enough to be looked up to as a kind of older sister that Lily never head.  She has a special relationship with Chris, but there’s nothing like a sister, Luna thought.  She had always wished that she had had a sister.  Luna’s whole childhood was filled with having to chase after Apollo on his wild adventures and excursions.  Hopefully, she’ll never need to learn to fight as I did, though.  May the Mudkip that hatches from that Egg protect her as fiercely as if her father were still alive.

She had finally come to a decision on the squabbling restaurant owners.  If the man wanted his fish stew recipe to be more secretive, then he should not have written it down, or created a better fish stew to where it didn’t matter.  As far as Luna was concerned, the more restaurants that served excellent fish stew, the better.   Bitterly but understandingly, the owners bowed to her and departed. 

Finally, the guard at the entrance to the long wooden hall announced the name she had been waiting for.  Chief Granite and Aggron had arrived along with his grandson, John, and his grandson’s spirit Pokémon, a shy Aron.  Luna recognized a few of House Granite’s guards, but did not recognize the raggedy looking sailor that accompanied them politely.

Luna smiled at John Granite, as the nine year old boy was a cute one.  He had tailor made leather clothes, and wore an adorable made-to-scale metal sword.  “Welcome Chief Granite and young John,” she said as she stood up and curtsied.  Gardevoir bowed gracefully at the foot of the throne.

“I trust you have heard all about my daughter, the Princess Lily,” she said as she motioned to the young girl, who was still staring intently at the Egg she held.  “Lily,” she said again to get the girl’s attention. 

“Yes, mother?”

“Lily you should greet young John Granite, he’s here to play with us today,” whispered Hera.

“Oh, yes! Come! Let’s play on the beach!  I know of a game where you have to build sand castles and steal the other castle’s prize to win!”  Lily bounded off the chair ran down to young John and Chief Granite’s men, and dragged him off by the hand out the door in a flash.  John laughed cutely.  Luna supposed that this little boy must do everything cutely.  His poor Aron shyly trotted out to follow its Spirit Partner.

“Please excuse me, Aunt Luna,” bowed Hera as she and Kirlia followed suit so as to make sure the two youngsters did not stir up too much trouble. 

Luna turned back to old white-bearded Chief Granite and smiled.  This arrangement couldn’t have gotten off to a better start.  If only Chris was as young and manageable.  Her smile left her face as she saw that Chief Granite did not return the smile with the same eagerness.

“My Lady, I’m sorry to say that I bring grave tidings,” he said. 

What could it be?  Is it not enough that there is war to the north? Must something else rattle this old man’s bones?  “You’ve come to the right place to speak of such tidings.  Let us try to solve your problem.”

Chief Granite bowed and gestured to the raggedy looking sailor he had brought with him.  “This man is a spice trader from Ever Grande City.  We found him stranded at sea in a tiny wooden boat.  My Lady, if you would let him tell you his story.”

The man bowed and began with his name.  “The other men on me ship called me Stubble, for I was never able to grow a beard.” 

That is true enough, the poor man, Luna thought.  Stubble was in his mid-thirties and had oily, thin black hair that fell down over and past his eyes.  He looked as if he hadn’t washed in days, or else he washed himself with sea water, which was no better.  His chin was only covered with little patches of short black hair.  He was very lean, almost skinny, but Luna could tell he had the body of a true ocean man, not unlike her son, Chris. Thankfully for the man, he had bright grey-green eyes that helped to bring the attention away from the mess of a man. 

“I was first mate on a ship called Red Morning,” he continued.  “We were making the journey from Ever Grande to Petalburg when me captain decided to take a shortcut into Sootopolis Empire waters… I tells him he sailed too close to Pacifidlog, and the Sea Bitch and her navy were like to take him.”  The Sea Bitch was what the sailors of the east seas called Empress Glamour, who had notoriously started the Great War by breaking free of Slateport and exploiting the traders who sailed her own waters. Stubble trembled.  “And I was halfway right.  As soon as them floating logs fell behind our ship, the Sea Bitch’s brother he… he…”

Old Chief Granite patted Stubble on the shoulder.  “Go on,” he said.  “You’re safe now, tell Lady Love what happened to you so that you may have justice for your Red Morning and all of its crew.”

Stubble seamed to wipe a tear away from his eye.  Luna was impressed that his voice was without tremble, though.  “The biggest Gyarados I ever seen with me own eyes come at us right under the ship… We was surrounded on all sides by Wailord… And he was there m’Lady.  Ahab, was there.” 

The great hall was silent, even the Marsh’s royal guards had a hint of fear at the mention of Ahab.  Ahab was the Glamour Empress’s half-brother on her father’s side.  It was said that Ahab was the only man in Empress Glamour’s court in Sootopolis that was sad that the Marshes had given up the fight in the east sea, as it meant that his pleasure killings were at an end.  The only man my husband ever hated, Luna remembered. Thank the gods that Lily and John were not here to witness this.

Poor, traumatized Stubble carried on: “There was twenty of us on that ship, and none of us fighters.” Another tear wiped from Stubble’s poor face.  “He killed all of us, well except…” Stubble pulled out a bright red handkerchiefs and laid it at the foot of the sandstone throne.  “He made me kill me own captain.  He put a spear to the back of me neck while he tied up me captain and tells me to gut him…  I can still see it…  I’m not no murderer, m’Lady, they was going to kill me… Then he dips this little cloth in me captain’s blood.

“ ‘Send a message to Slateport for me,’ he told me as he sends me out in one of our little lifeboats, and hands me the cloth with the blood of me captain that I… that I…”

Stubble’s words had blended together as the tears came down his face.  This is a broken man if I ever saw one, pitied Luna. 

“See to it that this man has a hot meal and a change of clothes,” she commanded to her guards.  She strained to listen to the jumble of words as Stubble was gingerly led from the hall.  The only things Luna could make out clearly were “sunk,” “screaming,” “drowning,” “dinnertime,” and “war.”

Chief Granite’s eyes were grave, and Luna didn’t have to have hair as white as his to know that the Glamour Empire and Sootopolis were stirring in the east once more.