[Eternal Moonlight]

Chosen: Leah
Partner: Viola
Location: Helsinki, Finland


Leah soaked up the final paragraph of the page and then turned to the next. She should have been asleep a while again, considering what time it was, but putting the book down was no easy feat. They were approaching the climax of the story, and the author was a master at keeping the suspense high. This was the first popular fiction Leah had read in a long time, and she had to admit, it was entertaining.

She was about to turn the page when her bedside lamp began to flicker. Normally, Leah would chalk it up to the bulb dying; however, it had just been replaced a few days back. She shrugged, a little displeased at the apparent defective specimen, but knew there was nothing to do but replace it. Sadly for her reading session, that would have to wait until morning, as she didn’t know her aunt kept the light bulbs. For now, the only real option was sleep…

… however, a blinding flash, quickly followed by an earth shattering bang erased any notion of slumber. Leah’s eyes darted to the window, and despite the darkness outside, noticed a cloud of smoke rising from the nearby woods. There was no way of determining the exact nature of what happened… from here.

The blonde suddenly got an urge to go and investigate. The pull she acquired struck her as odd, as it was rather uncharacteristic, but none the less powerful. After a few minutes of idling, Leah was heading out of the room and toward the closet, not bothering to change out of her pajamas.

Picking out her jacket, even the dim light emitting from the kitchen, wasn’t difficult. It was slightly used and a dark shade of grey, although its colour was the last thing on her mind.
Leaving the condo was a surprisingly easy task. Her aunt was a light sleeper, but wore insanely effective ear plugs and had a mask covering her face, and thus, likely immune to what had just transpired.

Outside, as expected, there were a few curious individuals standing in their yards, looking over toward the woods. However, oddly enough, nobody seemed to be actually making a move toward the smoke’s origin, instead just staying around the compound of their houses.

Moving closer to the forest, the smell of smoke became more apparent, and it became slightly hazy. Of course, this did little to detract the onlookers, who only grew more numerous. Leah did a decent job at avoiding unwanted attention despite this, and it didn’t take her much longer to reach the border of the woods dividing the neighbourhoods.

The atmosphere seemed to change as she disappeared into the trees. It became tenser as the rest of the world vanished. Leah wasn’t afraid, but it uncomfortable none the less. There was little light, the moon was trapped behind a thick layer of clouds, and, not surprisingly, there were no streetlights here. With the haze, and odd discharge from before, it did make for an eerie effect.

Luckily, it wasn’t too cold, nor was the snow all that deep. Despite the occasional frosty gust, it was rather pleasant out, actually. It made navigating the woods that much more bearable.

Despite the lack of density and size, trying to find the source of the smoke and blast in this forest was proving to be difficult none the less. However, after a while, a small clearing finally opened up to her, revealing a fair-sized rock resting in a sizable crater.

The impact appeared to have knocked a few of the trees over, however, didn’t spark any fires or anything of the sort. That would likely have drawn the fire department, or at least, more immediate attention. However, Leah’s focus was solely on the meteorite. It held her gaze for a few moments, its mere presence dulling out the rest of the world.

Finally, curiosity overtook her, and caution seemed to go with the latest gust. The little bit of snow there was seemed to crunch louder than before, the wind picking up slightly, and thick white flakes were now falling from the sky

It appeared to be a textbook meteorite, until Leah saw the backside, which had been split right in half. The darkness had done a good job masking it. However, this wasn’t completely unheard of… what was resting, undisturbed by the collision and break was…

It looked like some sort of egg shaped… egg. And, an amulet as well. Leah was drawn to these objects, despite everything logic and common sense would tell her. However, the sound of a Helicopter, likely belonging to the police or news station, was enough to convince her staying here wasn’t a good idea. Before leaving, Leah grabbed the egg and amulet and headed back the way she came, footsteps already being masked by the wind and fresh snow…

Getting home unnoticed wasn’t too difficult. Most people had retreated indoors, and those who remained outside were in conversations with each other, more or less oblivious to Leah’s presence.

Once safe in her aunt’s guest room, she examined the egg more closely. There were some odd patterns on it that failed to strike her as familiar. It was impossible to tell what this housed, although considering both the possibilities and her usual persona; Leah was oddly calm about it. After a half hour of gazing and handling, she decided it was best to hide it for now.

She got one of her suitcases and, using the thinner pillow, made a makeshift bed for it and put in under the day bed. There was a good amount of room there, and the cascading blankets would suffice in hiding it for now...

Trying to fall asleep after that was a nightmare. Leah knew it wasn’t late enough to give up the notion of slumber, not yet anyway. She tossed and turned, trying to get her mind to a more peaceful place, but that failed to work. However, after a while, the events of both the day and night seemed to finally catch up and Leah was started to feel drowsy. Just as she was falling asleep, however, the young woman heard a sound coming from under the bed.

It didn’t take long for the egg to come to mind. A bit panicked, she climbed out of bed and peeked under, not knowing exactly what to expect. It was dark; making seeing exactly what was there hard to see, but it was obvious there was now another being in the room; she could feel its presence.

“Hello?” Leah spoke softly, not wanting to give the creature any reason to be hostile.

A few soundless moments passed, Leah debating whether or not to try talking again. However, an optimistic “swinub” pierced the heavy silence, causing the young woman to flinch. She, forgetting about the bulb malfunctioning, reached for the nightlight, and as if there had been no issue at all, it came on.

Now, with the illumination, Leah’s attention went right back to the “swinub” or so it had said. Hopefully, the light would help identify it. She lifted the blankets, not quite knowing what to expect resting in the suitcase. There was nothing but shards, which obviously came from the egg. The pillow itself was depressed from the weight that had previously on it… but where was the creature?

“Swinub!” it chirped from behind her, although it wasn’t that close. Turning around, the blonde noticed a furry medium brown… thing eyeing her violin, which was resting on its stand. It then moved a few paces closer, clearly interested in the instrument. Leah didn’t know what to make of this yet-to-be-indentified creature, but so far, it seemed non-violent.

“Do you like the violin?” she asked, pointing to her instrument, making sure to keep her voice calm. It turned her way, and at first its expression was neutral, but it ended up nodding as best it could.

“I do too…” she started, “seeing as you don’t have a proper name, I’ll call you… Viola. Not the same thing, but it makes a better name”

It jumped up, well, tried to anyway, seemingly pleased by what she had to say.

From this, Leah realised it could at least understand a bit of English. Actually, watching making sure the pig-nosed creature didn’t suddenly develop aggression and that it didn’t damage her violin, she realised she wanted to keep it. This sounded strange, having an extraterrestrial as a pet (or what seemed to be on at any rate), but it was the same kind of feeling she’d had going to investigate the meteorite.

Snapping out of her daze, Leah’s gaze went right to where Viola had been… except it wasn’t there anymore. Eyes darting around the room, she tried to locate it… and a small sigh of relief escaped when she found it poking at the closet door.

For something that had tiny feet, Viola sure could move around quickly…

Trying to keep track of it could prove difficult, especially that keeping it hidden. Trying to explain Viola, the strange pendant that had found itself around her neck and their connection to the meteorite… probably wouldn’t go over so well.

Oh well, nothing really was easy… and Leah knew that all too clearly.

00C: This is long. I'll try and be faster (and shorter) on the next one
And, it did get permission to change to Swinub :3