“Hey Fried, have you ever heard of the legend?” The young girl whispered as she extended her hands closer to the fire.

“Which one?” Asked her friend, a blonde boy barely a year younger than her, as he looked at her with visible curiosity?

“The one about the moon.” Replied the girl with a smile as she pointed one of her small fingers towards the sky.

“About the moon?” Asked the boy, unsure of what she was talking about.

“You know Fried! The one about the lord and the red moon!” She exclaimed as she sat down beside him and straightened her legs.

“No, I haven’t.” He replied, listening to the fire crackle behind him.

“Well do you?”

“Do I what?”

“Do you want to hear it, you dummy?!” She exclaimed. Silence took over as the boy known as Fried thought about her proposal.

“Okay.” He said with a small nod.

“Okay what…?” Replied the girl win a teasing tone.

“Okay, I do want to hear the legend.”

“That’s not what I meant.” She stated, looking straight in front of her into the dark night.

He looked at her, unsure of what to say, before it clicked in his head.

“Oh. Sorry. Yes Mavis, I want to hear the legend, will you please tell it to me?” He asked as he joined his hands and made an imploring face.

“That’s better!” She smiled brightly. “Okay, well then, here is the story of how the moon vanished. It all started on a warm autumn afternoon…”

The young boy listened intently as his red-haired friend talked, he couldn’t help but stare at her delicate face. He would never in his life admit it, but he loved her freckles and how they seemed to dance on her skin and he couldn’t get enough of the gleam in her eyes when she told him her stories. Mavis had been his friend since he could remember, it had always been him and her, often under a similar night sky, only lit by the stars, her talking to no end and him listening attentively. He didn’t always understand what she was talking about, nor what she meant, but he knew that she was passionate about it, he could see it on her face and in her gesture, and simply listening to her sweet voice was enough to make him as happy as can be.

Even though sometimes he lost track of what she was telling him, most of the time he tried to really listen. On the one hand her stories were always very interesting, but on the other hand it was a way for him to have something to talk to her about and an excuse to listen to her talk some more. The air was a bit cold that night and he took the blanket, pulling it around both of them. She snuggled closer to him without noticing it and he felt his cheeks burn as she put her head in his shoulder. It was brief of course, as the next instant she was gesturing widely once more, but he cherished these instants with all his heart.

That night he had to thank the brave Nerio and the Lord of the Red Moon for this, after all they were the ones that had made their history a legend, legend that Mavis was now passionately telling him about. Of course, he had already heard the story a few times, about how a human had presumably defeated the lord of the demons by destroying the moon, but he wasn’t about to tell her that! No, he enjoyed these moments too much. Plus, if he let her talk long enough she would eventually fall asleep against his shoulder and he would be able to listen to her breath. Yes, this was one of those moments he would treasure for a very long time because at daybreak, reality would catch up with them and they would have to run again.

But in the mean time, she was there, peaceful and happy, and he was by her side, able to happily stare at her to his heart’s content. Fried’s face lit with a contempt smile as he pulled the cover around their shoulders once more after she had made it fall again by agitating her arms in the air, it mostly happened when she would point out to the place where the red scar was sometimes visible. Tonight it wasn’t the case, the fire crackled under the sky as the stars shone brightly and he was happy.