Columbina wandered along the edge of the island, her gaze sweeping the coastal waters in search of fish.
She specifically chose species with ordinary shapes, dull colors, and what appeared to be thick flesh. Bright patterns might indicate toxicity, so she had to avoid them.
Once she found a target, with a mere thought, she teleported the fish directly from the sea onto the ground of the Court of the Silver Moon. She repeated this over a dozen times before teleporting herself back.
A dozen fish flopped futilely on the rocky ground, their tail fins scraping against the stone surface, making soft thumping sounds.
A few Moon Spirits gathered around, the faint light they emitted illuminating this corner more brightly than elsewhere.
Columbina looked at the wriggling fish and began to calculate how to handle them. She had eaten fish many times on her travels, but this was her first time preparing one herself. She could only try hard to recall Coppelia's actions.
It seemed... one had to strike the head first to quiet them down. She teleported a fist-sized stone from outside, levitated one of the fish off the ground, and then drove the stone to accelerate and smash into the fish's head.
With a soft thud, the fish's body went stiff and ceased moving.
After the strike, she subconsciously turned her head to look at the wooden bed. Coppelia was still lying on her side, breathing steadily, not awakened by the noise. She withdrew her gaze and refocused on the fish.
Next was slitting the belly and removing the internal organs. But she had no knife at hand. Thinking of the word 'knife,' she suddenly understood the purpose of striking the head—having one's belly sliced open while conscious would certainly be painful.
She uncomfortably imagined the sensation of a sharp blade cutting across her own abdomen. Cupping the motionless fish in her hands, she said solemnly in her heart: I apologize for taking your life, but you are truly delicious...
After two seconds of silence, she teleported the entire set of internal organs directly out, casting them into the distant sea.
Next, she needed fire. However, she had forgotten to prepare dry wood. With a flash of her figure, she vanished from the spot. Ten minutes later, she returned with a large bundle of withered branches and dry grass.
Lunar Force could differentiate into various elements. She concentrated her mind, guiding a portion of her Lunar Force to convert into the Pyro element.
Orange-red flames leaped from her fingertips, licking at the dry wood. The pile of wood emitted a series of fine crackling sounds, and the firelight illuminated the surroundings.
The Moon Spirits in the cave were attracted by this dancing mass of light; they drifted closer one after another, gathering beside Columbina and the fire, floating up and down curiously.
Columbina ignored them for the moment, carefully controlling the intensity of the flames.
How did Coppelia roast them again? She looked at the fish, then at the fire, unable to recall many details. A few seconds later, she simply threw the fish directly into the center of the fire.
When a scorched smell mixed with a trace of fragrance wafted out, she made the fish float up from the charcoal fire.
One side of the fish remained almost unchanged in color, while the other was covered in thick, charred blackness.
This is too far from the golden, oily roasted fish in my memory... She tore off a small piece of meat from the charred side, stuffing it into her mouth along with the pitch-black burnt shell.
As soon as her teeth closed, her face scrunched up. She immediately turned her head and spat out the minced meat mixed with charcoal dust.
That black layer is inedible. She peeled off all the burnt shell and threw it aside. The edible fish meat underneath was only a thin layer, completely insufficient to fill her stomach. She went to pinch the meat on the other side, but her fingers sank into a cold, rubbery texture; this half was still raw.
Burnt through on one side, raw on the other. This fish was a total failure.
She carefully distinguished the difference in texture and color between raw and cooked meat. With a trace of disappointment, she teleported the entire fish out and threw it into the sea.
Having tasted only that tiny bit, the emptiness in her stomach surged up even more vividly.
It can't be too close to the fire, or it will burn; nor too far, or it will remain raw... Having summarized her experience, she grabbed a second fish. Processing it in the same way as before, she suspended it above the flames, carefully controlling its contact with the fire while making it rotate slowly.
After a while, an enticing aroma permeated the air once again. She confirmed with her perception that the fish meat was evenly cooked through, then summoned it before her. A pinch of her fingers easily tore off a piece of pure white, warm meat.
Hunger seized her. Unable to endure it, she grabbed a chunk of fish meat and stuffed it directly into her mouth. The piping hot meat rolled in her mouth; she chewed haphazardly a few times and swallowed.
Suddenly, Columbina clutched her throat, her expression tightening.
Something was stuck in her throat. Without thinking, she teleported the foreign object directly from her throat to her palm.
It was a slender, semi-transparent, sharp bone with tiny barbs on the edges.
She scanned the fish's body carefully with her perception, only to discover that the meat was embedded with many similar fine bones.
Why were there never such things in the fish meat Coppelia handed me before? She looked at the sleeping figure on the bed, remembering how the other would always use two slender tools to pick through the fish meat every time...
It turns out she was removing these bones for me... She paused for a moment, withdrawing her perception.
Coppelia considers far more things for me than I realized. From now on, let me take care of her. Let her rest well. She no longer has a mechanical body, so she should need to eat too. When she wakes up, I want her to taste my cooking as well. Columbina made up her mind.
She manipulated her ability, making all the fine bones in the fish meat drill out one by one against the grain of the muscle, floating neatly into the fire and emitting soft sizzling sounds. Only then did she grab the clean fish meat and eat in large mouthfuls.
As the void in her stomach was gradually filled and the intense hunger receded, a deep fatigue surged up like the tide. From escaping the desert to the present—frequent use of teleportation, excavating the cave, creating Moon Spirits... she had reached her limit.
She intended to sleep first. She would carefully decorate this Court of the Silver Moon after waking up. Before finding a way home, they might have to live here for a long time.
She wrapped the fire pile in liquid Lunar Force, extinguishing the embers silently, and quietly instructed the Moon Spirits to keep quiet.
She floated to the bedside and lay down on the side furthest from Coppelia, facing away from her. The bed she had found was wide enough. She had originally wanted to snuggle closer and embrace the other, but thinking that her Lunar Force might leak unconsciously during deep sleep, or that her movements might disturb her, potentially affecting Coppelia's suppression of the power within her body, she abandoned the idea.
The Court of the Silver Moon returned to silence, with only the Moon Spirits slowly cruising in the air.
After wandering for a long time with nothing to do, the Moon Spirits also felt a hollow boredom. They began to find things to do themselves, waiting for their master to wake up.
A few Moon Spirits formed a circle. In the center, one Moon Spirit tossed a small pebble with various fancy moves, while another caught it with equally agile postures. Whenever the tossing and catching actions were particularly smooth or thrilling, the observing Moon Spirits would bounce their bodies up and down in unison, emitting silent cheers.
Columbina had woken up at some point and floated over to watch quietly.
The Moon Spirits turned to her, their bodies shaking rapidly with minute amplitude, their flight trajectories carrying a lazy, repetitive rhythm.
Columbina understood their meaning: Too boring. Boring enough that we can only play tossing stones.
She looked around the empty cavern hall; apart from rocks, there was nothing here.
Seeing that Coppelia was still fast asleep, she led the Moon Spirits to fly out of the underground through the shaft, letting them move freely, while she began to search for flowers, plants, and stones suitable for decorating the Court of the Silver Moon.
Once outside, the Moon Spirits scattered, roaming amidst the dreamlike island scenery.
Columbina began to look for flowers. She arrived at the sea of flowers she had seen when she first landed on the island. The flowers here usually appeared white or pale purple, turning azure blue when Lunar Force was dense. I can transplant some inside.
She teleported the entire sea of flowers, along with the soil they were rooted in, into the Court of the Silver Moon.
In an instant, soft pale purple and pure white light filled the underground space, bringing a somewhat dreamlike atmosphere. Columbina preferred their blue form, but that required maintaining a high concentration of Lunar Force, which might make Coppelia uncomfortable.
Let it be like this. White is also good; it feels very much like moonlight.
She strolled to another rocky cave, inside of which hung many pale purple luminous vines. The top of the cavern hall was still somewhat empty, exactly in need of hanging plants. She sliced off the vines along with the patch of rock wall they clung to and teleported them back. However, she found she hadn't thought of how to fix them—even if she dug a hole in the ceiling to stuff them in, the rocks would fall out.
Temporarily without a solution, she had to place these clumps of vines on the open ground beside the sea of flowers first and think of a way later.
Court of the Silver Moon... there ought to be a 'moon.' I might as well make it first.
She hadn't found any stones outside that naturally emitted moonlight, so she decided to create one herself.
She gathered a massive amount of Lunar Force in the deepest part of the cavern hall, strictly constraining the range of influence to a tiny area to avoid affecting Coppelia.
Subsequently, she guided the Lunar Force to simulate the characteristics of the Geo element, constructing a perfectly round sphere about ten meters in diameter, letting it emit a soft silver-white radiance.
She stepped back a few paces to scrutinize it, feeling that a single sphere of light appeared somewhat abrupt.
Flying close to the sphere, she pondered for a moment before raising a pillar of white rock from the ground on the left. The stone pillar began to curve and grow toward the 'moon' on the right, tracing an elegant arc in the air in a clockwise direction, encircling the sphere of light within it.
She wanted to create a ring surrounding the moon. She had intended for the other end of the stone ring to touch the ground directly, but feeling that lacked charm, she made the stone pillar curve out in a small leftward bend as it approached the ground, tapering to a point and tilting slightly upward, shaped like a crescent moon.
Satisfied with this shape, she added a slightly smaller secondary ring at the rear.
Looking at other places, apart from the sea of flowers, it still appeared empty. It needed more embellishment. Placing stones directly didn't look good, so she shaped many crescent-shaped white stones emitting a faint shimmer and placed them scattered throughout the cavern hall.
The landscape instantly became a bit fuller.
Her gaze turned to the rock walls on both sides of the cavern hall. I can also shape the rock walls into the silhouette of a crescent moon. This way, it would be aesthetically pleasing, and the upturned tip of the crescent could be used to hang those vines that had nowhere to be placed.
She began to work, using her teleportation ability to precisely 'slice' the rock walls on both sides. The remaining parts presented smooth, undulating crescent curves. At the top of the curves, she cut horizontal narrow slits inside the rock, then firmly embedded the rocks attached to the vine roots into the gaps. The vines hung down like curtains of pale purple light.
Finishing all this, she came to the entrance of the cavern hall to inspect her results.
She looked at Coppelia again. The other was still sleeping peacefully.
When she wakes up, she will surely be pleasantly surprised. Columbina felt very satisfied with her work.
Just then, a Moon Spirit dove rapidly down the shaft. It was very fast, turning horizontally abruptly as it approached the bottom and crashing straight into Columbina's back.
Columbina turned to look at it. The Moon Spirit jumped jubilantly in the air, the rhythm of its flickering body carrying a sense of joy, as if it had discovered something incredible.
Columbina understood the Moon Spirit had made a discovery. She signaled it to lead the way.
They flew out of the shaft, skimmed over the beach, and arrived at the edge of the central main island of Ilha Hiisi. The Moon Spirit drifted toward the mountainside, and Columbina followed closely.
Halfway up the mountain was a lush forest. There was a clearing in the forest where several deer with massive blue antlers were pacing, bowing their heads to graze on the moss and tender grass on the ground. Their movements were slow, their hooves stepping on the accumulated leaves making dull sounds.
Columbina's attention was entirely on the Moon Spirit leading the way ahead. They penetrated a distance into the forest, unaware that after spotting them, the surrounding deer herd was slowly and silently gathering toward them.
Passing through the edge of the forest, a relatively flat open area appeared ahead. A complex of stone buildings sat there.
Columbina stopped immediately, reaching out to block the Moon Spirit. She took it to hide behind a rock half the height of a person, poking half her face out to scan the area quickly.
Those buildings used a large amount of unpolished gray-white stone and pale wood. The roofs were covered with thick meadows similar in color to the surrounding moss. Their contours were low and gentle, their tones quiet, as if naturally grown from the earth and forest, blending as one with the scenery of the verdant woods.
Inside and outside the buildings, many human figures were walking, carrying things, and conversing. They wore clothes mainly in pale blue and gray-green, the texture of the fabric appearing soft, like mist in the forest. Some had small white flowers adorning their collars or cuffs. Further away, there were people whose cloaks were embroidered with concise deer antler patterns on the edges.
Humans... Is this what the Moon Spirit wanted to show me?
The experience in the desert underground made Columbina maintain a distance from any strange existence. She dared not approach easily.
Observe first. What if they are enemies again? Her gaze locked onto those figures, trying to memorize more characteristics, intending to ask Coppelia after she woke up. Who are these people? Are they good or evil? Can contact be made?
However, the Moon Spirit beside her suddenly moved on its own accord. It leaped lightly over the rock, flying straight toward the direction of the building complex.
Columbina's heart tightened. She reached out, and an invisible force instantly dragged the Moon Spirit back, scooping it into her hand.
"No running around," her voice was suppressed very low.
The Moon Spirit struggled twice in her palm, clearly very reluctant. But under her scolding, it quieted down, nestling against her arm and also poking its round head out from behind the stone to look into the distance.
Seen enough. Columbina grabbed the Moon Spirit, her body sinking slowly, her back against the rock. She muttered to herself, her voice so light only she could hear: "I hope they aren't bad people. I hope we can get along well."
Just then, a touch of pale blue appeared at the edge of her vision.
A deer with massive blue antlers walked up to her. It lowered its head, a pair of gentle, clear large eyes observing her curiously.
Seeing this deer, Columbina felt a trace of inexplicable closeness. Animals ought to be simpler than humans. She looked at it and asked softly, half-jokingly, "Deer, oh deer, do you know who those people are?"
The deer gently raised its head.
At the same time, a peaceful voice, without warning and with absolute clarity, rang directly in the bottom of her heart, as if it were a thought originating from herself:
"They call themselves 'Children of the Frost Moon'..."
The moment the voice sounded, the fine hairs all over Columbina's body stood on end.
This voice was not heard by her ears. It came from inside her heart.
She immediately spread her perception to the surroundings—within fifty meters, apart from the deer, there were no humans. She immediately sank her consciousness into the Ley Lines, using the flowing information stream to conduct a wider search—still, she captured no traces of human 'speech.'
An icy chill shot up from the base of her spine, rapidly spreading to her limbs.
An existence capable of sending words directly into my heart without me noticing at all. This exceeds my understanding, and exceeds the scope of what I can handle.
Her expression changed. Her fingers tightened, clutching the Moon Spirit deathly tight against her chest.
Without a shred of hesitation, she activated teleportation.
Behind the rock, the air distorted slightly, then returned to calm.
Only that blue-antlered deer remained standing in place. It blinked, tilting its head in some confusion.
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