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Stelle was fidgeting with her phone. She sent Silver Wolf a message to ask how Firefly had been, since she hadn’t answered any text she sent her before the Amphoreus trip…
That whole trip was… More than Stelle could ever ask for. She summoned her pen, spinning it in her hands. She could write in the air and try to summon Mem. She could…
But she knew that she wouldn’t answer. She knew that Cyrene and Mem are not reachable anymore. Everything that happened has pointed to her… disappearance. She had searched every corner of the Eternal Page in hopes she could spot the pink fairy or the pink lady but… Nothing. Nothing at all.
Maybe instead of summoning Mem, she could transform the image of her Stellaron into a memosprite. After all, that was how these pathstriders fought, summoning something tied to their memories. March still has Evernight’s jellyfish and…
She dropped the phone on her face, letting out a long sigh. Thinking about all the events that happened in the last, what exactly? Couple of days for everyone on the Express, timeline after timeline after timeline after timeline for Stelle, Dan Heng and March? She never thought she would be grateful that she had her Stellaron pestering her constantly, but at least it did help her when she was all alone.
They’d been cooperating, as one could say. Borrowing more and more of the power of the Stellaron to fight. Some of the coreflame powers might have boosted their capabilities. Now that they were out of Irontomb and not in an Destruction-infused land, Stelle hadn’t really heard them that much. And that was fine, over all. Maybe they too needed a break. Stelle could definitely use one at the moment.
The phone vibrated on top of her face. She grabbed it, getting herself up in a sitting position and immediately unlocking it. There, she saw the message from Silver Wolf.
> She’s awake. Had a rough time after Penacony
> did our trip to Luofu make her feel worse
> Maybe. Idk
> She’s fine, just give her a bit to answer
> you think she’s in a good state to meet
> Ughhh, just fucking talk with her.
> Not playing middle woman for you, lovebirds.
Before she could reply to another text, she saw the notification from Firefly. In that message, she apologized for the lack of response and succinctly explained about her flare-up. Something about the message felt like it was lacking some context, but Stelle didn’t want to pry more. She, however, really wanted to meet Firefly. She did have an idea of a place that shouldn’t be too much for her girlfriend.
> hey Fly, have you ever been to Belobog
Stelle was sitting in front of the statue in the central plaza, waiting for Firefly to show up. Once she heard that the date would have been mostly a museum trip (and not another ‘let’s go through all of Luofu!’) Firefly immediately agreed. She didn’t want to push her partner too much, especially after how bad she had been feeling for a while.
She seemed fine right after Penacony, so Stelle never imagined that she would feel that awful during the trip to Amphoreus. Her gut feeling was telling her that her girlfriend might not be well but… with everything that happened on that trip… She slapped her face. No need to be depressed about it. She even made sure to leave her feather pen back home (although she could still summon it if needed), just to not think about it and Cyrene and the Demiurge and… She groaned, sitting down on the bench that was in front of the statue.
She picked up her phone, scrolling through her messages. She tried to sort the few texts she got from the Heirs into their own separate folder, so in case of her feeling like shit, she wouldn’t see the farewell messages from her pink companion. Losing a friend like- “no, no, Stelle, we are not thinking about that now!” She had a date to look forward to. And gushing about her Belobog trip, she hadn’t had the opportunity to tell Firefly about everything that happened.
Probably, as a Hunter, she had a vague idea about what happened. Maybe the details around the Amber Lance would have been known by them? Or who knew what Elio even wrote in his fan- scripts. A part of Stelle always imagined Elio kicking his feet and giggling every time he had to add in the script that a couple was having a date. Like a teenager reading about their favorite pairing, that sorta energy. At the same time, the image of a black cat writing all of this was also really funny.
The plan for today was simple: Museum, then some food, then crashing at the local hotel. While she wanted to do another sleepover on the Express, she thought the effort to get there was unnecessary. She’d manage, she already slept there before, it wasn’t that foreign to her. Tomorrow morning they would have breakfast together and then she’d get Firefly back to… wherever she might have to go before reaching the secret Hunter place. Traveling between planets was always weird and something Stelle didn’t want to think about too much.
She looked through her bag and saw the snacks she packed and… Right, she did have a copy of “As I’ve written…”. She wanted to give it to Firefly so she could read more about the entire trip. Stelle wasn’t sure when she could open up about some things that happened during that whole adventure. At least she could still visit the Eternal Page and say hi to some folks. Maybe she could…
She picked up a pen she found at the bottom of her backpack. Somehow, it was also pink. Of course it was, she got it not long after she returned. A small Mem-pen, even if it wasn’t that entirely. She opened the first page and… stopped herself. What would she write, even? She spun the pen on her fingers, trying to get herself to focus on the task ahead. It was clear that she wanted to tell Firefly… something that she couldn’t put into words at the moment. But surely opening the book and seeing Stelle’s vent would have not made the experience too good, right? She didn’t want her to not be able to enjoy the book in its entirety, just because of a few depressed words from her girlfriend. Still, a cute message would have fit, right? Something to start this entire book nicely.
She drew a circle. Maybe a message wasn’t the thing she should aim for. She briefly closed her eyes, conjuring the image of the little pink fairy she had around all that time. She scribbled a small simple sketch of Mem. Enough for a person to get a clear idea of the adorable pink creature. At least a better drawing than all of those wanted posters Gepard drew of them back in the days. Now, what would Mem say to someone like Firefly? “Mem-mem-mi, you’re a cutie”? No wait, that was definitely more of a Stelle phrase than what Mem would have said. She giggled to herself. Fuck it, it was amazing anyways. She wrote it down and signed the message, both with her signature and a small paw drawing.
“Ohh, what are you writing?” She heard the upbeat voice of Firefly.
She immediately sat up, being greeted by her girlfriend, right in front of her. Over her usual teal dress she had a long coat, with some fluffy cream fur on it to keep her warm. Stelle hadn’t even considered dressing into something more… weather appropriate. But eh. she survived the first trip dressed like this, surely she could survive the date too. She picked up the book, which ended up on the bench when she almost jumped, and handed it over to Firefly, smiling.
“Well, remember when I mentioned I wrote something regarding Amphoreus?” She smiled before briefly looking away, “I mean, it wasn’t just my efforts. Co-authored a book would be a better term for this.” Shit, was her voice trembling?
She could see the worry in Firefly’s eyes. She didn’t want to admit it, but that whole trip turned her into a mess. But no, she had to keep it together. They would get to talk, maybe another time. Not now at least, now when the wounds were still fresh. She cleared her throat, flashing her characteristic smile to Firefly.
“Your copy is special, actually.” The book was now in her girlfriend’s hands.
“Special, how?” She tilted her head, but then opened the book. A soft laugh escaped her lips, her attention now falling upon Stelle, “Dork.”
“Hehe, you know me.” Stelle wrapped her arms around Firefly, keeping her as close to her as she could. She paid attention to how much force she was putting into this. Not a hug too tight, she did not want to hurt her girlfriend. After all, she just had a flare-up, she couldn’t risk doing more harm…
Firefly broke the hug, giving her a quick kiss on her cheek. She handed over the book back to Stelle. “Do you mind carrying the book for now? I admit, I haven’t bought anything fitting to carry it.”
“Of course I don’t mind.” She placed it back in her backpack, “Would you like me to carry anything else?” Stelle replied, holding Firefly’s hand.
“Seems like you already found something to hold on unto.”
“Oh, carrying you?” Stelle winked at Firefly, “I can do that any time~”
Firefly elbowed Stelle, laughing, “Maybe not now.”
“Alrighty, I’ll keep it in mind for later. Just give me the word and I’ll carry you through the entire Belobog!” She grinned.
They walked into the museum, not that far off from where they were. Stelle helped Firefly take off her coat and place it in the baggage area, where she also had left her backpack. She went back to holding her hand. She quickly greeted the receptionist, which gave her a quick nod, as they walked into the bigger room where everything was exposed.
What greeted them was a room filled with pictures and paintings documenting every bit of history tied to Belobog. Everything regarding the Supreme Leaders, everything tied to the areas and the constructs one could find… and also a picture of Luka’s relative with a young Jing Yuan. Huh, Stelle didn’t notice that it was there. She wanted to point at it, but noticed Firefly’s attention being on a painting.
“Isn’t this the central plaza?” Firefly asked, pointing at it. “We’ve just been there, right?”
“Yup.”
“The artstyle is very pretty. Are all of them made by the same artist?”
“I… think so?” Stelle replied, scratching the back of her head. “Y’know, I helped with revitalizing this place, but I haven’t really asked who even painted these.”
“They do have the artists credited, thankfully. Oh, and they also talk about where exactly the paintings are…!” Firefly rushed forward, reaching a different painting.
The room Stelle knew very well. She remembered Cocolia sitting at her desk being all nice with them, while things were still friendly between the groups. “That’s where I’ve got arrested. Or well, almost did.” Stelle replied, remembering very well the events of that day.
“And that’s how you accidentally ended up in Boulder Town?”
“Yeah, we jumped into something and we sorta ended up there. We were chased by some guards, though. Quite a couple of them if I remember completely.”
“I would like to see Boulder Town, once!” She glanced at one of the paintings presenting the mine in the underground area, sighing. “Maybe not now, it might be too much to do a tour of that.”
“So all I hear is more date ideas?” Stelle immediately tried to lighten up the mood. “I don’t really mind, please come with more inspiration, could use it.” She laughed at her own joke.
Firefly smiled in response. Her eyes lightened up as it seemed to notice a new painting. She dragged Stelle after her, reaching the target. Stele couldn’t recognize the area presented in that art. It was a frozen lake, looking like it was in some sort of valley? Then again, she hadn’t ventured too far into the wilderness. Mostly to not turn herself into an ice cube. Sure, she was a cool person but… that was too cool even for herself.
“Ohh, that looks really pretty.” Stelle joined Firefly in admiring the painting.
“I would like to visit it.” Firefly smiled to herself, “maybe we should add this on the bucket list for another date.”
“You sure? It looks very cold.”
“It might be. But it has a specific beauty to it. A nice contrast from the buzzling city, don’t you think?”
“It is a rather pretty place, yeah. We could even have a tent there and see if you can see the stars from there. Can you imagine all the constellations you could spot that were not on Penacony?” Stelle continued in the daydreaming, already imagining herself drinking hot chocolate while sitting on a log with Firefly.
“I can confirm, the stars look very nicely from there.” She heard a voice on… her right? But Firefly was on the left…
She turned towards the source of the voice, getting a surprised noise out of Firefly. She looked around but couldn’t really see anyone… she looked down, remembering all the short friends she had on this planet. Lynx looked up at her, crossing her arms.
“If Pela was here she would have gotten angry.” Lynx replied, giggling.
“Lynx, it has been a while!” Stelle let go of Firefly’s hand and wrapped her arm around the shoulders of the explorer. She petted her head, giggling. “How have you been?”
“Mostly around, looking for new places to discover now that the weather is not that harsh anymore.”
Stelle let go of Lynx and wrapped her arm around Firefly’s waist, dragging her closer towards her. “Right, Lynx, meet Firefly.”
“Hi, it’s nice to meet you!” Firefly gave a polite bow.
“Pleasure is mine.” She looked back at the painting. “So you guys are interested in visiting the Frozen Lake?”
Firefly looked away, shaking her head, “Yes, but we can’t really do it right now. It seems to be quite a long journey, considering how isolated that whole area looks.”
“Long?” Lynx placed a hand under her chin, “it shouldn’t take that long… Oh, the ice on the lake is very thick! You can definitely skate there as well.”
“That sounds lovely.” Firefly replied, smiling. “Hopefully next time I visit we could go there, skating sounds a bit too much at the moment.”
“Too much in what exactly?”
“Firefly had a bit of rough days. You know, the type of ‘body doesn’t want to cooperate’.” Stelle explained, in nonspecific terms.
“Oh, if physical effort is the problem, Clara does have some robots to help people with skating. Or really, any winter activity! Those bots are really helpful.” She shrugged.
Firefly clenched Stelle’s hand. “You think you could handle that?” Stelle asked, reading her intentions.
“Maybe? I suppose it would be more of sitting up and being dragged around?” She questioned the explorer.
Lynx nodded, already tapping something on the phone. “Yeah, Clara is deploying a few there already. I can take you two there immediately.”
“Are you sure we’re not disturbing you? I don’t want to ruin any plan you might have for the day…”
“It will be fine, yeah.” Lynx nodded. “I had a trip planned for today. Was here to actually decide on one.”
“And then we just decided on one for you, hadn’t we?” Stelle laughed.
“Exactly.” Lynx laughed in response.
Lynx wasn’t wrong, the place wasn’t as far as Stelle had initially thought. She was expecting a much longer walk and, honestly, even more difficult to walk through it. It didn’t look like Firefly was yet too tired, although she had a couple of moments when she would lean a bit on Stelle. She made sure to offer her support any time it would have happened.
Walking on a narrow path through the forest, they reached the valley where the lake was sitting. The sun, almost setting down, was fully reflecting onto the ice, creating a beautiful light show. Lynx placed her backpack down and started looking around. At the edge of the lake, there was one traffic light robot sitting there.
Stelle had a cold shiver run down her spine. She remembered how tough that robot was. Not even that he was strong, just enough to survive if a nuke was dropped on him. She called them the three-colored cockroaches, because of how difficult it was to even destroy one of them. Definitely the kind of creature that would have survived if Irontomb fully activated.
“That’s the robot.” Lynx explained to Firefly, as the three of them went closer to the lake.
“What should I do?”
“You place your arms on top of it and it should slowly drive you around. It only does circles, though.” Lynx waved her hand, calling the robot next to her. It was obeying her commands at least.
“I assume you have some skates stashed around?” Stelle asked, looking at her backpack.
“Huh?” Lynx replied, blinking. “No, just walk on the ice, it’s slippery enough.” She shrugged, “I’ll get the portable stove out and prepare something for you two to eat.”
She left the two of them, occupying a corner further away from them. Stelle looked at Firefly, who looked very excited by the whole concept of getting to skate on an actual lake. Stelle was a bit worried regarding whether the ice was just as thick as she thought it would be.
Firefly gently guided the robot on the ice. Stelle sighed, still not liking the idea of just using her shoes. But, hey, she never really tried that in the first place. Maybe it would end up fine, after all!
Firefly takes a few steps on the ice and rests most of her weight on the robot. The traffic light guy lights up, all three of them blinking in an unknown pattern for Stelle and then the green one remains on. The robot starts to move slowly, Firefly sliding behind him. It didn’t look that difficult, at least.
Stelle took a step on the ice. And then another.
Stelle was now on her back on the ice.
She groaned. She could feel her lower back hurting. Firefly guided the robot towards Stelle, and tried to help her get herself up. She almost slipped, but Stelle managed to catch her and regain her balance. As long as she didn’t take another step, things would have been fine.
“Maybe you can also hold onto the robot?” Firefly offered, smiling.
“Hmm, the guy seems rather small for two people, though.” Stelle snapped her fingers, “I do have an idea though.”
Before Firefly could argue, Stelle wrapped her arms around her waist. Firefly laughed and placed her hands on the robot. Somehow, the little guy realized it had to drag even more. After a few beeps, it started sliding again.
“Hey, it works!” Stelle laughed, as the two of them were slowly sliding on the lake.
“I can’t complain about this, can I?” Firefly giggled. “I’ve missed your hugs.”
“Well, you wouldn’t believe this, but I also missed hugging you.” Stelle stuck her tongue out, even if Firefly could not see her. She wanted to kiss her on the top of the head, instead. But she knew that if she tried to change the way she was standing, she would fall. Again.
“If I knew you were going to fall, I would have offered it from the start.”
“It’s fine, just another bruise to the collection. You should have seen me in Amphoreus. Got so many just from doing stupid shits.” Stelle laughed. “Tried racing the fastest lady in the city and I just tripped and rolled down the stairs.”
“That definitely sounds like something you would do.” Firefly giggled in response.
The robot took them to the other side of the lake. The sun was now even lower, barely able to be seen between the empty trees in the distance. Maybe if the lake wasn’t frozen, they could have watched the sun slowly disappear into the water. Ohh, seeing that at a sea or an ocean would be really pretty, wouldn’t it? Stelle added a new entry on the small bucket list she had for places to take Firefly to.
Well, one of them, sadly, was also Amphoreus. Who knew if they both would still be alive when it actually became a planet. “Fuck, Stelle, this is the worst time to think about that!” She screamed at her brain, once again hating her. She tightened the little hug she was giving Firefly, trying to keep her breathing steady. She didn’t want to betray that a stray emotion has ruined any beauty this moment had.
“Oh, afraid you might fall?” Firefly joked, laughing.
The sound of her laughter was dissipating the rain cloud that settled on top of Stelle. She smiled to herself, looking more at the woman in front of her than at the beautiful place they were in. But of course, the beauty of the area was nothing compared to Firefly’s. In Stelle’s eyes, there was nothing more beautiful than that.
The robot stopped. It seemed that was an entire loop? Maybe it was a blessing Amphoreus didn’t have a frozen lake. Khaslana would have lost it at the mention of a loop. She giggled to herself at the stupid joke for which Firefly had absolutely no context for.
“Should we go for another one?” Firefly asked, ready to tap the robot again.
“It would be fun, yes. Ok, yeah let’s-” Her stomach rudely interrupted her. “... right we did skip the food part of the schedule.”
She heard the sound of a pot being hit. They both looked up, seeing Lynx hitting the pot with a ladle. At least in the food department they were fine for now. They both made their way back to Lynx, sitting down on the two pieces of plastic she had placed down instead of chairs. Stelle could feel her ass hurting from the fall. She wasn’t going to complain out loud, she was strong enough to endure a damaged asset.
She got up and helped Lynx with putting the stew in the bowls. She handed one to Firefly and a plastic spoon. Without waiting for the other two, Stelle dug into her bowl immediately. She hadn’t eaten since she woke up ages ago.
“Shit, Lynx, this is really delicious.” She replied between slurps.
“Thank you! I got to perfect my recipe while traveling around.” She smiled, taking another spoonful of stew.
They sat in silence for a while, enjoying the warmth emanating from the stove, as it kept the stew warm. Stelle went for seconds and thirds, in the time Firefly finished one bowl.
Firefly yawned and leaned herself a bit on Stelle. She was shivering a bit. Stelle hadn’t even noticed that it got much colder than it was in the city. The sun was no longer in the sky, their only light being the one emanating from the fire. Stelle couldn’t see any tent around so maybe they were heading out soon?
Before she could ask Lynx, she got interrupted by the explorer. “Hey, look at the sky!” She pointed upwards.
Aurora Borealis is something Stelle only read in articles about. She hadn’t expected to see one happening right in front of her. She was surprised by the fact she hadn’t seen any during her first trip on Belobog, but considering how that went… She wrapped her arm around Firefly’s shoulders. Her girlfriend took the invitation to nestle even closer to her, resting her head on Stelle’s chest.
Lynx gave her a blanket that she had in her backpack, placing it on top of Firefly.
“Sorry, I’m not really handling cold weather that well…” Firefly immediately apologized.
Stelle held her even closer to her body. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep you warm as well.”
Even if she was shivering, Firefly’s body temperature felt burning against Stelle’s body. Maybe her regular high inner temperature made her unable to deal with the cold, the difference between values being too high… That definitely sounded more like a Dan Heng thought than a Stelle one.
Stelle pointed upwards at a very bright star, “Hey, that looks like the North Star you mentioned.” She said to Firefly, placing a kiss on top of her head.
“It does! Although I’m not sure if it really is the same.”
“That one points to the south”, Lynx quickly explained. “Still points in one direction, though.”
Polaris had been rather quiet, hadn’t they? Usually they’d have some witty comment about Stelle’s actions. Her Stellaron wouldn’t have skipped the opportunity to make a joke about their fall as well. Maybe they still needed to recover. After all, they were one of the reasons Stelle didn’t die back then…
She leaned her head on Firefly, sighing. Stargazing, no more thinking about Amphoreus. Firefly placed her hand on Stelle’s face and turned it towards her, following up with a kiss on the lips.
Stelle blinked, surprised by this sudden attack. “What was that for?” She giggled. “I don’t mind receiving kisses, just that-”
“Well, consider it payment for later.” Firefly winked, smiling.
“Payment for what?” Stelle asked, pinching her cheek in response.
“We should be heading out…” Lynx tried to join into the conversation, but Stelle couldn’t catch half of what she was saying.
A very powerful smell reached Stelle’s noise. Lynx opened some sort of can of fish to catch her attention. However, she also immediately ate the can, making its stinky contents disappear.
“Do you guys require a break or can we head out?” Lynx asked again, packing more things into her backpack.
Firefly looked down, sighing, “I’m not sure I can move much in the cold.”
An opportunity to carry Firefly had appeared. It was time for Gentlewoman Stelle to enter the scene. She wrapped the blanket tightly around Firefly and picked her. She placed a kiss on her head.
“Would this make you a Fire-rrito?” Stelle asked, laughing.
“Are you trying to apply the same logic of a Purrito?” Firefly replied, laughing as well.
“Yup. You’re my burrito now. I’ll unwrap you when we’re in the city. It’s much warmer there.”
“It’s a bit embarrassing to be carried there like this…”
“It’s only two people seeing you.” Lynx reassured her, “and I’m in front so I can’t look much.” She continued further, guiding Stelle back into the city.