As time goes on, so does the relative positions of the solar system. As Solaris sped around the sun, it also turned around itself. In short, the sun rose and I was forced into holing up in a carriage again while wishing the cursed sun away. Even when no sunrays hit me, I still felt incredibly weak. Hodling up the sword in my hands was a hereculan task and all of my senses felt weird. At least I had something to look forward to as two mages were accompanying me later on. Until then though …

“The world revolves around me,

a vampire in distress,

unable to free thee,

unable to impress.

She pushes the blame to another vampire,

Hypothetical in nature,

But very real in temper.

May he be forever a useless creature.

Death through fire.”

I was so bored that I started writing bad poems about what I wanted to do in the future. I mean, I had nothing to do and nobody to converse with yet, so it was only natural.

“Vampire … temper … doesn’t fit, does it?” In search of a better word that fitted, I spent two hours leaning against the wall, always thinking about a good rime. I was unsuccessful, but I did manage to waste so much time in the process, that I didn’t even notice how fast time flew by. At least until the carriage stopped, the door was pulled open and brightness enveloped everything. Then, the flow of time nearly came to a halt.

“Ahh, sh-“ And then nothing. It was unimaginable how much I hated the sun for simply existing. I blamed this stupid celestial body for hitting my head on the floor and a rather awkward first encounter with the two mages.

Only after the sunset did I wake up again without having dreamt anything. These mages seriously opened the curtains while I was asleep, and yet I couldn’t blame them. They didn’t know that I was a vampire and as such, their actions were justifiable ... after I saw the teenage mage sitting beside me and my emotions were plunged into chaos again.

“Hi?”

“By the gods, you are finally awake. I was so worried about you. Why did you suddenly fall over? Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere? Can I help you somehow?” Did this blue-haired fourteen-year-old girl ever keep quiet? “I am so glad you finally woke up. My name is Luna Bauer, but you can call me Luna or Lu. I am from the Alzaroth province in the north.”

She gave me her hand which I reluctantly took. Just to confirm my suspicion, I tried to squeeze her hand which I failed miserably at. She had the seed of life which was probably also why I didn’t have any bad feelings towards her.

“Hi, my name is Lucinda. It is a pleasure to meet you.” I said and smiled gently.

“Both of our names start with Lu! What a coincidence! Can I call you … Luci … Lucy?” Her question was surprising, especially for me who never met such an easy-going person before. And yet, I wasn’t put off by her proposal at all but felt strangely happy.

“Uhm, sure I guess.” I replied as I found no disadvantage in being friendly to her.

“Yay! I already made my first friend in the army!” Luna said and went a bit too far in my opinion. I mean, I never had a friend so far, so this development was rather sudden and surprising. Still, I didn’t deny her words but rather turned towards the older one of the duo, a woman in her thirties.

“And you are?”

“That doesn’t concern you.” My opinion of her went through the carriage floor, through the street until it reached the outer core of Solaris. Already being so unfriendly to me when I obviously did nothing wrong to her didn’t feel nice at all. I still smiled rather wrily and turned to Luna again, giving whoever this was the cold shoulder.

“Hey, do you want to have some fun with a few others?” I asked and thought about the boy I met the day before. I wondered if he would come …

“I´d love to!” At least I had someone to spend the early night with, no matter if he would come or not.

“You are supposed to be soldiers, not kids who fool around. Get to sleep, the day tomorrow could become dangerous.” Just to anger the woman further, Luna stuck her tongue out and rushed to the door. The mage didn’t even react as we slammed the door shut behind us.

“What a boring person. Since I met her yesterday, she was always soldier here, soldier there …” Luna seemed quite lonely as she said that and just for a short moment, I felt the desire to cheer her up.

“Yeah, she probably is. Hey, have you seen any large tree as we arrived here?” I smiled as I remembered the favour I asked Arthur for yesterday.

“There is one on the west side of the camp, right over there. Why do you ask?” I smirked and felt surprisingly happy as Luna pointed to a very tall tree a few kilometres away on a desolate hill.

“The fun begins there. Let´s go!” I ran, Luna hot on my heels. Strangely, I felt really good as we ran past tents while giggling. I didn’t even know what was so funny, I just felt like laughing like an idiot and apparently, Luna did too. Maybe calling us both friends wasn’t too far off…

Maybe I wanted to make up for my missed childhood, or maybe I liked the innocence of just running around without a second thought once in a while. The time I spent running around with Luna, sometimes even hand in hand as she couldn’t run alone anymore, was the first time I felt truly free. I didn’t have to worry about making Arthur submit to me, nor did I have to worry about Mary who had an equally tempting offer.

It was just Luna and I. One, happy to behave like a child, and the other one lucky to find something like a friend in this place. I honestly didn’t know who one was who or if there was such a difference in the first place. I just knew that I found someone I wanted to spend the night with.