Page 6 of Lunar Bound
"It's okay," she said, stepping toward him instead of back, completely defying any survival instincts. "I'm not afraid. You don't have to hide."
Lunar remained perfectly still. Any movement would confirm his presence. The female was likely experiencing a perceptual anomaly, not actually detecting him.
She took another step forward, and Lunar noticed something unusual. The ambient light didn't reflect from her skin in the expected pattern. Instead, it seemed to be absorbed and redistributed, creating a subtle aura effect that his shadow-adapted vision could detect but ordinary human perception would miss.
"I'm Poppy," she said, still addressing the apparently empty darkness where he stood. "You're one of them, aren't you? One of the visitors who arrived today."
The corporation's information had mentioned nothing about humans with enhanced perception. This was an unexpected variable. Potentially dangerous. Definitely worthy of further study.
Before Lunar could decide on a course of action, the female reached into her garment and extracted a small object. She placed it carefully on the ground between them.
"A peace offering," she explained, stepping back. "It's a shadow stone. Black tourmaline. For protection and grounding. You seem like you could use both."
Then, most surprisingly of all, she smiled directly at him before turning and walking away, leaving the small dark object on the ground where she'd placed it.
Lunar remained motionless until she had disappeared around the corner of the building. Only then did he emerge from the shadows to examine what she'd left.
The object was indeed a stone, black and crystalline, cool to the touch. It was unremarkable by interplanetary standards, definitely not the sophisticated technology he had briefly suspected. Just a piece of mineral composite with no obvious purpose.
Yet she had given it specifically to him, an entity she shouldn't have been able to perceive.
* * *
Personal Log, Supplemental:
I have encountered a human female with unusual perceptual abilities. She detected my presence despite shadow concealment. This suggests some Earth humans may possess capabilities not documented in our briefing materials.
The female, self-identified as Poppy, displayed no fear response upon apparent detection of a non-Earth entity. Instead, she initiated a potential social exchange protocol, offering a mineral object of unknown significance.
This requires further investigation. If some humans can detect shadow-walkers, our mission parameters may need adjustment. Additionally, the female's unusual energy signature warrants closer observation. I will consider making contact with her under a more controlled setting.
I will return to the dwelling to evaluate this development. The mineral object will be analyzed for properties.
* * *
Lunar kept the stone and made his way to his skin-suit and clothes before heading back to the Crimson Rock Inn, staying within the deep shadows of evening. This mission had just become marginally more interesting than expected.
Perhaps Earth wasn't entirely without secrets worth discovering after all.
Chapter
Three
Poppy Jensen had been feeling the changes since before dawn.
Something had shifted in Duskrock's usually stable energy field. Most people wouldn't realize it. Tourists visited for the vortexes without truly understanding them, and locals had become accustomed to the steady flow of spiritual vacationers and their crystal collections. But Poppy wasn't like most people.
She'd woken at 4:17 AM, the numbers on her bedside clock glowing as something pulled her from sleep. A disturbance. Not like an earthquake exactly, more like when someone dropped a stone into still water and the ripples spread outward, changing everything they touched.
Something was coming.
By mid-morning, her phone had exploded with texts about a UFO crash near Pete's crystal shop. Normally, she'd dismiss it as another Duskrock spectacle. This town had a UFO sighting every other weekend. But combined with what she'd felt, she couldn't ignore it. Something was calling to her, and she had to go to it.
"Moonbeam, can you cover for me this afternoon?" she asked her coworker at Desert Animal Rescue. Poppy worked there four days a week, rehabilitating injured wildlife. "I need to check something out."
Moonbeam, born Jessica but reborn as Moonbeam during a particularly intense peyote ceremony five years ago, nodded without looking up from the injured jackrabbit she was tending. "The crash vibes calling you, too?"
"Something like that," Poppy admitted.
