A Second Chance

            Chilla paced the small foyer of the Stormhammer restlessly, and a pair of yellow eyes watched her. Eventually the watcher said, "Pacing won't help. The captain will come when he comes."

            She stopped her pacing long enough to whirl on the sandweller. "Shaaah! Who asked you, old man?" hissed Chilla. "This is my brother we're talking about."

            "And it's my nephew," replied Auralias calmly. "Now sit down; you're acting squirrely and it's making me nuts."

            The icewalker glared, but upon receiving no reaction, sat down heavily in the closest chair. Since Auralias is here, Chilla thought angrily, that means Alluro's somehow involved. Alluro had mentioned his uncle a few times. And if Knave is also part of this... If those two idiots were fighting again...

            When the door finally opened, Chilla was instantly on her feet. "Well, Kigrevan, where is he?"

            The Lunar mix ( it was impossible to pinpoint what sort of breed Kigrevan came from. Mostly graviton, but darkling, sandweller, and elyon blood manifested in varying degrees ) almost looked sheepish. "Merzhansee ees breeneeng them. They must have gotten away on her again..."

            Auralias was about to say something when a small, gray figure darted past Kigrevan and Chilla's legs, and was tackled seconds later by a small blue blur. "Cheater," pouted the gray one.

            "Alluro?" There were a few times when Auralias regretted being a heretic. For one thing, there were no good oaths open to you.

            Chilla had no such problem. "Knave! Oh, great Yerith, what happened?"

            The little ice cheetah looked up. "I tagged him and he's a sore loser."

            "You cheated. I'm never playing tag with you again." Now that the two had stopped tearing around, their problem was obvious: Both Alluro and Knave were approximately six years old.

            Merzhansi ran into the foyer. "Kigrevan, they ran off on me and... oh good. You found them."

            Now that the initial shock had worn off, Chilla found her voice again. "What in the Six Hells happened here!?"

            The captain sighed. "We peecked up some weird readeengs from thee surface of New Thundera. Allooro wanted to go eenvestigate, and Knave happened to be hees shuttle pilot. We lost contact weeth them, and found thee shuttle twenty meenutes later, flyeeng erratically and low over thee planet's surface. We peecked them up and not knoweeng what else to do, noteefied you two."

            Auralias looked to the furious Chilla, proud little Knave, Alluro sulking in a corner, and up to Kigrevan. "And what can we do?"

            Kigrevan shrugged. "I don't know. Raise them?"

* * *

            "The nerve of that man! Ooh, I should have iced his sorry..."

            "Calm yourself, Chilla. There must be a way to restore them." The Stormhammer dropped the two off at Chilla's ice warrior base on the Second Moon. While the adults discussed their predicament, Alluro sat in a corner and doodled, and Knave seemed to have devised a complex game involving animal crackers.

            Chilla laughed nastily. "Oh, I can tell you a few ways. Back on Third Earth was a cave that would age whoever went into it. Another way involved some Thunderan trinket and that wretched Sword of Omens. Both ways are closed to us."

            "Then we are again foster parents." Auralias sighed. "Poor Alluro. I'm getting too old for this." Which to a Lunatac was a metaphorical rather than literal condition.

            "This fortress is no place for a child and I already have no time," said Chilla. "Though if I have to pick between my brother and my job, I know which one I'll choose."

            Auralias smiled. "Knave is lucky to have such a devoted sister. The ice warriors will wait for you, have no fear." He stood, tapped his hat ( he would have tipped it, save for the fact that his long gray hair was a wig and attached to it ), and started for the door. "Come, Alluro. It's probably past your bedtime." The sandwellers left.

            "Which means it's your bedtime too, Knave," announced Chilla.

            The ice cheetah looked up from his animal crackers. "I don't want to. Besides, you're not my mother."

            Chilla almost took a step back at the tone. "Knave, it's me. Chilla."

            "Nuh-uh. You're too big."

            The ice woman mulled this new development over. Apparently their memories were skewed from the de-aging process. Alluro could recognize Auralias as his uncle because Auralias had raised him since Alluro was a few months old. Knave, age six, would think of his sister as an eleven year old. Trying to explain to Knave that until a few hours ago he had been a Lunatac in the prime of life would fall on uncomprehending ears. So she lied. "I'm who your sister was named for. I'm your aunt Chilla, your mother's sister." That at least would score her more points than claiming to be related to their father. Of course, Knave's biological mother had been a cheetah slave, but now wasn't the time to argue semantics.

            Knave gave her a critical look. "Well... okay," he relented finally, then peered back up at her. "You do sorta look like Chilla, just too tall."

* * *

            Not having anyone else who she could talk to, Chilla tracked down Auralias after her practices were over. She found him and Alluro in what had been the base's control room. Little Alluro was sitting at a computer, likely playing video games. Auralias, a stack of print-outs on his lap, waved Chilla over and said quietly, "Your Cave of Time would not avail us here. They lost their memories when they were age-regressed. Forced aging would not be enough; we need a restoration."

            "The Thundercat reports we collected in Skytomb said that Cheetara, Tygra, and Panthro were restored by the Cave of Time," Chilla protested. She had already radioed the Fifth Moon and Red-Eye, who kept the flying fortress.

            "After the Sword was used to restore their memories," said Auralias. "I know. I had Alluro break into the New Thundera Cat's Lair computer to collect all information on the Canyons of Youth."

            "But, if they've lost their memories, their skills..."

            The sandweller smiled, though the expression conveyed both pride and embarrassment. "Alluro was always skilled at getting into where he isn't supposed to be. And even if our break-in is detected, what can the Thundercats do about it?" He shrugged. "How is Knave taking things?"

            "He's confused, but he seems happy enough." Of course, thought Chilla, if he has only his first six years of experience to draw on, he'd be happy anywhere that isn't home. Chilla and Knave's mutual father had been a cruel and brutal man, and Knave found himself most days beaten for minor ( and sometimes major ) infractions.

            Auralias flinched slightly. "I'm sorry." At Chilla's confused look, he tapped the side of his head. "Empath; sending and receiving. My brother had the ability too, though Alluro just inherited the sending part." Changing the subject, he handed her a stack of pages. "This is a list of the odd magical areas on New Thundera, and there's a lot of them. Apparently they fixed a few of the more hazardous ones with some magical gewgaws, but places like the Forest of Darkness and Canyons of Youth aren't so much dangerous as annoying."

            The icewalker riffled the papers without actually looking at any. "At least we know restoration is possible," said Chilla, "Though we haven't a magical sword that can do bloody well everything."

            "And since their condition is magically induced, I'm willing to bet that science and technology won't help us. Do we know any mages powerful enough?"

            "I could name a few, but I'd rather scrub myself with rock salt than ask any of them for help."

* * *

            Chilla went back to her quarters, tired, defeated, and feeling much older than she should have. She loved her half-brother dearly, but she wasn't ready to become a mother to him again. Or at all. She was too busy trying to run her fortress to care for a child. But she couldn't just give him to someone else.

            She found Knave quietly playing on the floor with a few old toys she had found amongst the stuff Kigrevan sent with him. Had the circumstances been different, she would have teased him for keeping his 'Mr Spaceman' as long as he had. But at least he was behaving himself. Just because she loved him didn't mean she was blind to the fact his natural temperament was bratty.

            The little ice cheetah looked up when he heard the door open, then went back to playing with his toys. However, his movements were slower than they should have been, and his entire posture spoke of some unhappiness. Chilla went and knelt down beside him. "What's wrong?"

            "When do I have to go home?" he asked, looking despondently at his hands.

            The cold fury and hatred Chilla held for her father reignited and she fairly snarled, "This is your home."

            Small, furred arms caught her off-guard when she found herself the recipient of an enthusiastic hug. "You mean it? Oh, thank you, Chilla!"

            "I do mean it," promised Chilla, hugging him fiercely. "You never have to go back again."

            After a few minutes, Knave pulled back a bit and looked earnestly up at her. "What about my sister? Can she come too?"

            Chilla pulled the child close again so he wouldn't see that she had started to cry. "Your sister is fine. I promise."

* * *

            After much whining, weaseling, and wheedling, little Alluro was duly put to bed. And as most children who adamantly declare they aren't tired, he fell asleep within minutes. Auralias settled back in a chair to puzzle over his own situation. Unlike Chilla, he had plenty of time to raise a child. He just couldn't do it.

            He sighed. Alluro was a child genius, skilled in all things technical. Auralias was a burned-out old man, not much good for anything but being a desert nomad. He wouldn't be able to provide for his charge on a more industrialized Moon, and that would be just as unfair as keeping him in the desert. New Thundera, perhaps. That was a mix of wilds and civilization. Their population was small, so they might not mind one old Lunatac and his nephew... of course, there might still be too much bad blood between the races. They could settle in a Fourth Moon city, if Auralias wasn't forbidden from such places.

            Auralias had been a priest, until a yellow-robed creature that called itself the Phantom of Truth showed him that the Moon Gods were merely dreams of the demon lord Yerith, race-father of the Lunatacs. And because Auralias' duty was to the truth before any tradition, he tried to tell others what he knew. For his trouble, he was branded a heretic and banned from the civilized places of the Desert Moon. Which, come to think of it, was likely due in part to the Phantom of Truth himself setting the others against him.

            He got up, turned of the light, and walked back to his room. Chilla seemed a nice enough woman. Maybe she'd let them stay if he promised to baby-sit Knave.

            He got changed, turned out the light, and lay down on his bed. Sometimes, if he thought hard enough about a problem, it would solve itself as he slept. If only he hadn't met the Phantom of Truth, he wouldn't have this problem! Of course, if he hadn't, he would have been banished from the cities. He wouldn't have been in the desert when that small ship crashed. He wouldn't have known Alluro was even alive, as his nephew was one of the people who collected up that small ship...

* * *

            Auralias slept and Auralias dreamed. And Dreamed.

            He found himself again descending the seven-hundred steps to the Gate of Deeper Slumber. He found himself again in the Lands of Dream and said, "Why here?"

            The answer was, "Why not?"

            Auralias turned to the speaker. Crouched in a tree was what looked like little more than a skeleton draped with tattered yellow rags. Despite its humanoid form, the overall effect was feline, from the easy grace with which it perched, the slitted yellow eyes, and the smile of a well-fed cat in a sunbeam. And despite the rags, it somehow came across as superior and noble. "You again?"

            "Who else?" Yellow eyes glittered under the shadow of the hood.

            The Lunatac scowled up at the Phantom of Truth. "What did you bring me here for? Haven't you run out of things to show me?"

            "In this great, wide universe? Oh, no, there are always more fantastic and more disturbing things. Besides, you came here yourself." With that, it fell backwards, and somehow vanished between the branch and the ground.

            "Loon," muttered Auralias, dismissing the creature from his mind. How did I get here? I used to come here often, when I first learned of the place. I stopped because there wasn't really anything here. It's just an afterlife of sorts for the Lunatacs and the home of the Moon Gods. Nice people for the most part, but still just a demon's dreams...

            But very powerful dreams that he knew personally. If anyone could restore Alluro and Knave to adulthood with memory and experience intact, it would be a Moon God.

            Of course, Knave was only half Lunatac. Auralias had first considered going to Thoth, patron of the Desert Moon, but he might not help an ice cheetah. Igal, patron of the Ice Moon, wouldn't help a sandweller or a halfbreed. The Dark Moon goddess, Artamys, was insane. The First Moon god wouldn't be interested. That left Selene, Queen of the Moon Gods. She was a merciful creature, so she would be Auralias' best bet. With that, he set off in the direction he knew would take him to her home.

            The Phantom of Truth watched Auralias walk away with a sense that could only loosely be called sight. It debated whether to hinder the old priest; it would be an easy task to stop or destroy him, for the Phantom of Truth was powerful in the Dream Lands. But would stopping the Lunatac be to its advantage? It had met the nephew Alluro in the Dream Lands surrounding Third Earth. Did it matter if he became an adult again?

            And what were its duties in the Moons' Lands of Dream? The Phantom of Truth was known as Nyarlathotep around Third Earth, and there it commanded the Other Gods, protectors of Earth's meek dreamgods. But the Moon Gods held the power themselves. And the demon Yerith never liked the Phantom of Truth or its Masters. Of course, there was nothing Yerith could do about Them; They had been to the Moons long before he came.

            The Phantom of Truth sent its mind to the consciousness of the universe itself. Through the mind of Yog-Sothoth, the Lurker at the Threshold, it saw many possible futures for Alluro and Knave, and none affected the Phantom of Truth itself.

            Had it lingered longer with the universal consciousness, and had the universal consciousness emotions, the Phantom of Truth would have heard Yog-Sothoth laugh.

* * *

            Auralias walked for what could have been hours or could have been years. The Dream Lands were, after all, a dream. Eventually he arrived at the ornate palace of the goddess Selene. He knocked, and a beautiful Lunatac woman opened the door. Her hair was palest blonde, her skin snow-white, and her dress shone like silver. Only her eyes were dark, a deep and endless blue. Auralias bowed. "Selene."

            "Auralias," she smiled, extending her hand and leading him inside. "What brings you here?"

            He settled himself carefully into one of the plush chairs. Most people in the Dream Lands looked how they wanted or believed they did. Auralias, the truth-seer, was stuck with his old, creaky body. "I have a strange problem, Selene. My nephew and another were caught in a magical area of New Thundera. Both were regressed to six-year-olds, with the memories and experiences of that age. I wish to ask you to lend me your power so that I may restore them."

            He couldn't ask her to do it from here; the Moon Gods' powers didn't extend outside the Lands of Dream. Selene continued to smile, though her eyes showed some sadness. "I could not monitor your actions when you returned to the Moons, and much as I love my people, I cannot trust those from outside the Dream Lands."

            The Lunatac gave her a sympathetic look, though he did wish he could offer more comfort. Selene was perfect, a demon's dream, and Auralias knew one could not help but love her. The goddess was an ideal, though the ideal of another man, formed of memory and through the skewed vision of love. Selene was too perfect, thus could never be a real woman.

            The Phantom of Truth told Auralias the goddess' story as well. Long ago, there were a race called the malachim. They were basically a warrior race, and as such one day erupted into civil war. Some left peacefully under severe conditions, but others did not. A faction of the malachim wished to be free of the rules that bound them, yet wanted to keep their power.

            War began, and on the side that wanted to split were Arakiba and Behira. For the malachim were not only warriors, but chaste warriors, and Arakiba and Behira did not wish to remain so.

            The dissenting faction lost, and one of the casualties was Behira. The Fallen were cast out from the place of the malachim, forced to create even stricter rules to prevent total chaos and destruction. Arakiba fled the company of the Fallen, eventually settling on one of a system of moons.

            He renamed himself Arakiba ha-Yerith, Arakiba the Moon Monster, and created his children, the yerin. And as his people grew and developed, he realized that they needed certain guidance. They needed what Arakiba hated: religion. For the malachim were holy warriors as well.

            Arakiba discovered the Dream Lands, and created gods for his people based on the people themselves. The Ice God was savage, the Desert God thoughtful... but of the Queen of the Gods, he created a companion. From love and loss and might-have-beens he fashioned Selene, Selene in the image of Behira.

            And Selene loved Arakiba; she could not help but love him. He created her to love him, after all. But in the end, Arakiba was a free-willed being, and Selene was not, and Arakiba could no longer love her. She was too perfect, and he left her for a fiery yerin queen...

            "Is there another way?" asked Auralias, leaning forward. "You gave us the Lunar Blade, long ago. Just a temporary magic is all I ask."

            Selene looked him over carefully. "I could give you the power to restore two, and only two things. That way, using it frivolously would harm only yourself."

            "I would never waste any gift you would bestow." Auralias spoke from love, even as he knew such love couldn't last. Eventually he would leave her, even as Lord Yerith left, because she was only a dream. And even grief-laden demons knew they couldn't live in a fantasy forever.

            The goddess smiled sadly again, for she knew what he thought. Wordlessly, she extended a hand and a tiny sphere like the sun shone gold light on the Lunatac. When she stopped, she cocked her head to the side as if listening. "One calls you. You must awaken."

            Auralias stood and bowed again. "Thank you, Selene. I will not waste your blessing."

* * *

            Auralias awoke.

            "Uncle? Uncle Auralias?" The voice had the slightest edge of panic under its accent, and two small hands shook him. "Uncle Auralias?"

            "I'm awake, I'm awake," he grumbled. He never was a morning person. "What's wrong, Alluro?"

            Alluro calmed slightly, though the child's eyes were still a bit wide. "You should have been awake long ago. I tried and tried to wake you up, but..."

            "Shh, it's okay," Auralias assured him, patting his nephew's head. Poor kid, he thought with a slight smile. He has to lose his hair a second time. Baldness was a running gag and a curse in the Katalaepsy Clan. Alluro's father Ash was bald, as were his grandfather, great-grandfather... basically, as far back as Auralias could remember. Auralias himself had lost all his hair long ago, and had at the same time discovered the joy of wigs. Even though it was supposed to be what was inside that counted, the Katalaepsy Clan also tended to be rather vain.

            He pulled himself to a sitting position and gave the child a gentle push. "Now scoot. I'll be out in a few minutes." Alluro nodded and ducked out, followed several minutes later by a fully dressed Auralias.

            Alluro blinked up at him. It suddenly occurred to Auralias that he had no idea how to access his new abilities. He sighed, closed his eyes, and concentrated. Then opened his eyes again.

            Alluro blinked down at him. "Uncle? This isn't the Stormhammer. How did we get here? And why aren't I wearing clothes that fit?"

            The older sandweller almost laughed with relief. "We're in Chilla's ice warrior base. Your stuff is in the next room. I'll explain everything else in a few minutes."

            Once Alluro was dressed ( and still badgering him with questions ), Auralias went down to Chilla's quarters. He knocked, received no answer, tried the door, and found it unlocked.

            Auralias smiled slightly. Alluro wasn't certain what to make of what he saw. Chilla and what looked like a child version of Knave rolling around on the floor, laughing. Auralias coughed and Chilla looked up. She was on her feet in seconds. "Auralias... Alluro? You're... you're... you're going to be one sorry Lunatac if you don't wipe that grin off your face right now."

            "Sorry. Nervous twitch," said Alluro, not changing his expression one bit. "I'm not sure which I like better; you smiling or Knave a manageable size." He mentally retracted his comment when a blast of cold caught him just above the knee. Little Knave glared back.

            "I have a way to reverse the process," Auralias said excitedly to Chilla. "I could do it right now if..."

            Chilla held up a hand, then gestured Auralias to follow her to the next room. To Alluro she said, "Watch Knave for a couple minutes."

            "I won't turn my back on him," Alluro assured her, still glaring at the boy.

            The icewalker closed the door behind her. "I don't want Knave restored."

            Auralias blinked. "What?"

            "I don't want him to be an adult again. Not yet," she amended. "He's done so much for me, and now that I've got my life together, I can pay him back. I can give him a good childhood, Auralias. It won't be easy, I'll have to rearrange my schedule severely, but I'll manage. He's finally happy. I won't inflict his true memories on him again."

            The sandweller nodded slowly. "I understand. You will do well, Chilla."

* * *

            Auralias settled back in his seat and watched the planet below. He still had Selene's power; since Knave remained a child, he still had one shot at restoration. But what to use it on? Was it powerful enough to restore people's faith in him? Or could he just use it to forget what the Phantom of Truth told him, forget what he knew, be accepted back into the desert cities?..

            Kigrevan, captain of the Stormhammer, seemed happy enough when Alluro asked to be picked up, even though Knave would not be going. After that, however, Kigrevan went sulky again. Auralias couldn't understand why. The Fourth Moon wasn't out of his way or anything.

            The reasons started to click into place when he found that the pilot who would drop him off at his oasis was his nephew, and that said nephew had a knapsack with him. Auralias sighed. "You won't like the Desert Moon," he warned Alluro. "Even in the cities it's pretty backward."

            Alluro stuffed his bag into a storage bin. "I'm coming with you, if you'll let me."

            "Of course, but..."

            "I've been to the Dream Lands too, Uncle, back on Third Earth. I've never known your Moon Gods, but I know the Phantom of Truth and I know you're right.

            "Teach me."

 

The End.

 

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