Page 13 of Lunar Bound
"Your perception of my needs is unusually accurate," he observed.
"I told you. I work with nocturnal creatures. I understand the need for darkness." She gestured toward the trail leading away from the vehicle. "Shall we? I want to show you something."
Lunar fell into step beside her as they moved away from the car. Poppy clicked on a small red-filtered flashlight, providing just enough illumination to navigate the trail without disrupting their night vision.
"The red light doesn't disturb most desert animals," she explained. "It lets us see without being seen."
"A principle familiar to shadow-dwellers," Lunar noted. His eyes began to glow with red beams, mimicking her flashlight. "Observation without detection."
They walked in comfortable silence, their footsteps muffled by the sandy soil. The trail wound between massive boulders and through stands of prickly pear cactus, their flat pads like outstretched hands in the darkness.
"The desert seems dead to most people who only see it during the day," Poppy said after a while. "But at night, it's full of life. Kangaroo rats, kit foxes, owls, bats, all moving through the darkness, sensing what humans can't."
As if summoned by her words, a great horned owl swept silently overhead, its wingspan impressive against the star-filled sky. Lunar tracked its movement with remarkable precision.
"Your night vision is excellent," Poppy observed.
"My species evolved in perpetual darkness," Lunar replied. "Light is the abnormality for us."
They continued up the trail as it climbed toward a ridge. The temperature dropped noticeably, the day's heat surrendering to the embrace of night. Around them, the desert awakened, the soft rustling of packrats in the underbrush, the distant yip of coyotes, the whispering passage of a hunting bat.
"We're almost there," Poppy said, pointing toward a dark opening in the rockface ahead. "Cave entrances like this one are scattered throughout the area. Most tourists never find them."
The cave mouth was little more than a crack in the red sandstone, easily overlooked unless you knew where to search. Poppy slipped through the narrow opening. Lunar followed gracefully. Inside, the passage widened, opening into a chamber large enough to stand in comfortably.
"This was a seasonal shelter for indigenous people hundreds of years ago," Poppy explained, her voice echoing slightly in the enclosed space. "There are pictographs further in, but that's not what I wanted to show you."
She led him deeper into the cave, where the passage narrowed again before opening into a second, larger chamber. Here, she switched off her flashlight, plunging them into absolute darkness. His eyes also stopped shining their red lights.
"Wait," she said softly. "Let your eyes adjust."
They stood in perfect stillness. Gradually, impossibly, the darkness began to lighten. Soft blue-green points of light appeared on the ceiling and walls, like earthbound stars.
"Bioluminescent fungi," Poppy explained, her voice hushed with reverence. "They grow in only a few caves in this region. They need complete darkness to thrive, but they create their own light."
The delicate glow cast just enough illumination to reveal the contours of the cave and the silhouette of her companion. In this light, Lunar seemed more at ease, his form less rigid than it had been outside.
"Light born from darkness," he murmured. "A paradox."
"I thought you might appreciate it," Poppy said. "It reminded me of you, somehow."
Lunar turned toward her, his eyes reflecting the subtle glow of the fungi. "You continue to perceive aspects of my nature that should be imperceptible to humans."
"I've always seen things others miss." Poppy moved toward the center of the chamber, where a natural depression in the floor formed a kind of bench. She sat, patting the space beside her. "My grandmother was the same way. She called it having the sight."
Lunar hesitated before joining her, maintaining a careful distance. "On my world, such perception would be valued. The shadow territories reward those who can detect subtle energies."
"Shadow territories," Poppy repeated. "Tell me about your home."
For a moment, she thought he might refuse, but then he began to speak, his voice taking on a rhythmic quality, like the sound of flowing water over stones.
"Zorveya is tidal-locked, one side in perpetual day, one in eternal night. The Lunaris Zone exists in darkness, our cities built in the shadows of mountains and deep canyons. We have evolved to process energy differently from those of the light."
"And the others? Solar and Eclipse?"
"Solar is of the Solarus Zone, where light never fades. His kind absorbs and channels solar radiation as we absorb and channel darkness. Eclipse is of the Twilight Belt, the narrow band between our worlds. His people are mediators by nature. They keep the peace between the dark and light."
Poppy listened, fascinated by the idea of a world divided by such differences. "And you're here to prove your people can coexist?"
