Luna Bubbles's Arc

Chapter 3 of 4

Axel kept his hand on Luna's belly until the next burp passed. Then he stood and stretched. Luna stayed on the bench and watched the path. A tall woman with blue skin had drifted up to the rise. She wore a loose hoodie pushed high over a swollen stomach. She burped once, flat and loud, and looked straight at Axel. Luna knew that look. She had worn it herself. The blue woman set down a stack of stones near the foot of the rise. She wound a glowing vine around the base and sat beside it like she meant to stay. "Azura," she said, when Axel asked. "I heard a man up here doesn't flinch." She burped again into her sleeve. "Testing that." Axel did not move toward her, but he did not move away either. Luna's belly tightened under her own hand. Luna stood. She had a small metal band in her swimsuit pocket, kept there since the morning Dylan was taken. It had a chip set in the top that blinked when she turned it. She had been saving it for a quiet moment. There was no quiet moment coming. She walked past the diagram and up the rise, past Azura's stacked stones, and stopped at the highest point of the path. She set her hands flat on the dirt and pushed. The ground shifted under her palms. Concrete rose in a gray block, then antenna masts, dishes, a railed platform. The station locked into place above the rise with a hum she felt in her teeth. A burp pushed up her throat and broke loose as the last beam settled. She did not cover her mouth. Azura looked up at the tower and back at Luna. "Yours?" she asked. Luna nodded. "Mine and his." Luna walked back down to Axel. She took his hand, turned it palm up, and set the ring in it. "This is the sign," she said. "You wear it, she leaves." Axel looked at the ring. He looked at Luna's belly, already rounding again. He slid the band onto his finger. The chip blinked once and went steady. Luna burped, full and long, right at his chest. Axel did not move. He set his hand back on her stomach and rubbed a slow circle. Azura watched from her cairn. She stood, brushed off her sweatpants, and burped one last time toward the path. "Fair," she said. "I'll find my own." She walked back down the way she came. Luna kept Axel's ringed hand on her belly and turned to face the station on the rise. Voracia's tower stood across from it now, stone against concrete. Luna had a claim staked and a partner marked. Her belly was already filling again, and she did not look away from the other tower.