GRAVITY: Daughter Of The Moon Pack

It was a beautiful evening in Lheot, a town that had never experienced darkness since the beginning of time. Why? Lheot was a town situated on the moon, and as it is popularly known, the moon generated its energy from the undying sun; as long as there is a sun, the moon has light.

Life on the moon, compared to other planets, will be an easy-going one, but just like every other planet, it has downsides. Due to gravity, Moonians require wings to help them with precise landings; otherwise, they might keep floating until they are in space, which can be unsafe for them on some occasions.

On this auspicious night, the moonstone pack had gathered to celebrate the birthday of their alpha and king, Kieran, the strongest among the moonstone pack of werewolves.

Again, the mention of 'evening' at a place where there is no darkness might sound a little confusing. Moonians call it night whenever the clock strikes twenty hundred. To Moonians, one day is equivalent to twenty hours, which keeps them ahead of the earth they orbit.

At the celebration of every alpha's birthday, the most precious item-turned-idol, the moonstone, is brought in the open to remind the packs that even though they were enjoying peace, it was their job to protect the moonstone and that it was the job of every single one of them to do their honest part to keep it safe.

The moonstone, the sacred stone dug from the very center of the moon, was the god of strength and agility that the ancient and first moonstone pack worshipped. It became an object to be hidden when the vampires struck for the first time.

'Vampires,' the name that carried a mysterious aura with it. According to moon pack history, the vampires craved the moonstone because they could not come out during the day when the moon was absorbing the light of the sun to power itself in the latter's absence. And somehow they held on to the belief that the moonstone god, if possessed by them, could cause them to be powerful enough to darken the whole moon, prevent the sun's rays from reaching the moon, or even more, they would be able to walk during the day while the sun was at its full strength.

At this gathering, the immediate family of the alpha is supposed to line up beside their god, beginning with the alpha, followed by his Luna, and their children from the eldest to the youngest. Today, as their customs demanded, alpha Kieran and his Luna and his two children, Lyra, a female aged nineteen, and Benedict, the eldest, a male aged twenty-seven, and a wanna-be alpha, stood with him.

As Alpha Kieran was giving the history of the stone to the pack, targeting the younger ones mostly, the peace in the environment was distorted by the racing of a guard towards them, yelling, "They're coming! Vampires are coming."

"Brace yourselves!" Alpha Kieran ordered, grabbing the hands of his daughter and signaling his eldest son to go with the pack to defend their territory and make sure no vampires came in to harm them. Luna raced into the house to find her mother and keep her safe.

As the chaos continued, the alpha sent his daughter to a hidden chamber in the palace, demanding that since her wolf had not awakened, she ought to protect herself, for she was the future of the pack. As they spoke, Benedict approached them, a sinister laugh resonating in the air. "What happened to..." Before Kieran and their father could finish asking, Benedict sliced his midsection with a sharp knife in his possession.

"What is wrong with you?" Kieran asked, his wolf fuming with rage and wanting to attack.

"Her," Benedict replied, pointing the knife at his little sister and threatening to take a step towards her, but Alpha Kieran pushed him back with force. "From the moment she showed up in my life, I knew things would get worse."

"What do you mean?" Both the alpha and his daughter inquired.

"Ben? What's going on?" His mother's voice cut through the air. Her voice was wavering as if imitating her hands, which were shaking so fast.

"Award-winning mother of the year," he said with mockery, "don't just stand there. I know my grandmother is dead; I orchestrated her death and have been waiting for you to show up."

"Are you insane, Ben? She was our grandmother."

"Your grandmother, Ly, not mine. These people never treated me like family. They always thought about their stupid little girl, my clumsy little sister, the kind-hearted saint who was loved by all and hailed by everyone, including my father, as having the potential to be alpha someday. A girl, an alpha? While I was there, They despised me so much to the extent that they wanted my little sister to take up the throne and the leadership of the pack as well; they didn't care which rule they had to alter to make you the almighty on our land. What about me?" Luna raced towards him to grab the knife from his hand, but at once she was seized by a vampire. "Hypnotize her," Benedict said. "Tell her to love me and want me king after my father is dead."

"No!" Alpha Kieran screamed. At once, his wolf self took over, and he transformed into a huge, angry wolf. His mate wouldn't be disrespected like that, not by their rogue son. The alpha wolf lunged at the vampire, but the vampire's swiftness caused him to swap positions with the kingdom's Luna, leading to the alpha wolf's paws seeping through Luna's chest.

"Your job was to hypnotize her, not let her get killed; she is my mother!" Benedict yelled out as he came towards his mother. Kieran's eyes. filled with rage, they didn't want to be seized. He advanced towards his son, screaming "Defend yourself" before launching himself into him and sending him flying towards the eastern wall. The vampire hastened out of the room to save itself from an angry alpha, Kieran. Rumors about him struck fear into people in the vampire community, and nobody dared to meet him face-to-face for battle.

"Hit the button," he ordered his daughter as he clutched his wife, investigating her body for hope of survival. The button hit by Lyra opened a space beneath the building where a ship pointing directly to the third planet, looking blue and green, He threw the moonstone into her hands and told her to slip it into the circle and hit a button. The instructions were hasty, so Lyra just hit any button she could find. Before Kieran could ask her to sit in the spaceship, a button she hit caused the ship to take off on autopilot.

“Go after the stone, guard it with your life, and bring it back to us when you become alpha.” Her father yelled as his eyes locked on Benedict. Benedict, now in full strength, transformed into his wolf self and started to fight back. Meanwhile, Lyra, forcing out her wings but finding it difficult, positioned herself in the space shooter, put on a breathing gear, turned an accelerator beside her till it reached its maximum, and hit a beeping green button hard. At once, she was shot in the direction of planet three at supersonic speed.

As she approached the planet’s atmosphere, fear gnawed at her heart when she spread her arms to help slow her down a little while she struggled to find a thought that would help her wings spread out and help her with landing, but none came.

As she continued to look around at the tiny houses, roads, and water bodies on the ground, her eyes started watering, and out of nowhere, one of the ash-flying things, which looked so tiny from the moon whenever she watched with her brother, swept past her with speed, causing the air around her to get very weighty and roll over to change her direction. Upon nearing the ground, her wings tried to respond, but it was too late. She hit a tree and fell into a river, causing her to lose consciousness.

"In the latest news, NASA has announced that the white space stone that arrived on earth in a spaceship eight months ago has so far posed no threat, nor have any radio signals from across space brought information to Earth to claim it. 'It is no sign of the end time,' NASA clarified in response to the ongoing rumors about it being Wormwood. The stone is therefore being taken to the new research base at Alico in Ghana for further observation.”

While the news about NASA and the moonstone on television died out, whispers were born in their place. People shared their thoughts about what they think about the news that has circulated for the past couple of months. Some believed that the government was just making up something to spend on civilian taxes, while the few that did believe couldn't understand why a moon would travel through space in a ship. And then there were the few that were on neutral grounds, like seventeen-year-old Lupiter Leonard.