My Time in Teyvat [Tales of Luna, Book 2]

Chapter 3 - The Man with the Eyepatch

"What?" Luna heard Yuji asking from somewhere behind her as she started to run.

She was glad to see that Yuji kept up the pace despite Luna's sudden take off.

"Dvalin, Mondstadt's Dragon of the East." Luna explained, continuing to sprint in the direction that the dragon had gone. "He's a frien- we uh, we have mutual friends."

"Well, your friend sounds and looks terrifying!" Yuji exclaimed. "I hope they are friendly!"

"He will be, one way or the other." Luna said, fully aware of the possibility of Dvalin having been corrupted.

But as if on cue, something exploded ahead of them. The sheer loudness of the explosion was enough to make the two of them stop running, only to be hit by a shockwave soon after. Luna put her arms up to protect her face and saw that Yuji had the sense to do the same.

"Was that Dwarvin?" Yuji asked as they regained their composure.

"You mean Dvalin. And I don't know." Luna admitted, not remembering any explosive attacks in his repertoire of moves. "But we- we uh, we should probably check it out."

"You mean we should go towards whatever made that big noise?" Yuji asked, looking a lot more worried than she did a second ago.

"Yeah." Luna said readily, though she realized her feet didn't seem to move.

She looked down at her feet wondering if she was under some spell, but she knew deep down that she was simply too afraid to go. She couldn't even remember all of the countless explosions she had heard and gone through in Domino City. But she definitely remembered the feeling she had when the dust cleared and someone she cared about was no longer with them. All that pain, physical and otherwise.

"Luna?" Yuji called out, bringing Luna's attention back to the present.

She realized she had been hyperventilating, but she couldn't seem to stop.

For a second, Luna thought she saw Marik kneeled in front of her with a hole on his chest once again.

"Luna!" Yuji quickly approached and held her just as Luna's legs gave out. "I got you."

Another explosion happened somewhere further away.

"It's going to be okay." Yuji said, sitting down on the ground and laying Luna's head on her lap. "Breathe with me. Time your breathing with mine. In, out, in, out."

Luna tried to focus on Yuji's breathing, but it was as if several people were yelling inside of her head, keeping her from focusing on any one of them. A tear escaped her left eye just as Yuji's hands started to glow pink.

"Shh." Yuji said soothingly, as she moved a strand of hair from Luna's forehead and tucked it behind her ear. "It's going to be okay. Breathe in. Breathe out. Just like that."

She felt a tingling sensation go through her entire body and a warmth deep within her chest, but it wasn't unpleasant. To Luna's surprise, it was working. Her breathing was slowing down.

They heard another explosion much farther away from the first two.

"How did you do that?' Luna asked when both her breathing and her heartrate had calmed down a bit.

"Oh, I knew a little girl once." Yuji said, her smile turning slightly sad once again. "She also used to have overwhelming thoughts. Along with several other things. I could do nothing for her, but I always wanted to."

Luna took a deep breath. She didn't really understand, but she didn't think this was the place to have a heart to heart. She slowly got up and suddenly felt awkward.