Elune

"Look at how the moon bathes the sleeping landscape in its silvery glow, isn't it so amazing?"

"Uh huh. And the quiet, cool breeze makes me wanna cuddle someone, could you move a little closer, I want to feel you."

Leon turned his starry gaze towards his dreamy companion. It's the first time he spoke of such openness towards him ever since their nightly vigil began.

"Fuck you! get away from me you faggot!" He gently punched his arm before wrapping his around his neck.

"Damn you Avicenna, seems like our blissful spot is turning you on huh? What if someone finds us?"

"Who cares!" Avicenna leans his back against Leon's shoulders. "What matters is you're here with me."

"It will be a long night you know, and watching this patch of land with you is the only moment I got before things return to its hellish state tomorrow."

The landscape around them appears to enjoy the eerie calmness on this most elusive of nights as well. It's been months since the vast swaths of primeval forests, pristine lakes and snow-capped hills surrounding their fortress basked in such tranquility. Even the nearby city of Lumina shimmers from its artificial lights. A few weeks back and its searchlights would be beamed towards the sky, watching for any Pathallasa fighters appearing on the horizon.

"I wonder when will this all end?" Avicenna mumbles.

"If the fighting is over, it might be the end of us as well."

Before this crisis happened. Avicenna and Leon lived on the opposite sides of the realm. Avicenna was in his early-twenties: tall, slim, fair-skinned and with droopy-sad eyes that attracts sympathy of whoever gazes at them. He was a pre-school teacher before his creche was burned to the ground by the first enemy assault.

Meanwhile, Leon was a farmer: buff, dark-skinned, and with arms as big as the logs he burns at night. His hut sits on the edge of a grass-covered cliff overlooking the sea and the distant volcanic peaks of St. Agnes Island. When war was declared, he was conscripted by the then Girharde government. Unfortunately, that government fell within weeks and it its place now heads the military dictator Mabushke. The Mabushke regime is known for its brutality to any opposition. For Leon and Avicenna however, it never mattered. Their time being the nocturnal guardians of the east watchtower is all that is important to them.

"When the fighting is over, we will have to return to our former lives. That means you will become a pre-school teacher again, and I..."

"Lets live together," Leon insists. "I don't think anyone will raise a question about it. Even the great leader Mabushke is known to keep a harem of fine, young ladies and she's a female."

"But she has the power and we're just pawns in her army."

"Who cares?!?!" Leon held Avicenna's right hand tightly. Sweat slowly dribbles from his face as he tilts his head closer to his.

"Time is of no essence, I just want to be with you forever."

Before their lips were able to lock on to each other, a sudden flash of light blinds everything in sight. It is followed by searing heat which tore both Leon and Avicenna's olive-green military uniform hugging their muscular bodies. Their flesh then begins to melt like wax exposing the muscles and bones beneath their skin. With both of them weak and unable to speak, they embraced each other as the flames of death consumes whatever is left of their being.

Their inhuman remains were discovered a few months later, together with the 200,000 unsuspecting souls from the Gallente Fortress and the nearby city of Lumina. Whatever is left of their existence was their titanium-zylon dogtags stacked on top of each other.

They were the victims of the Khorasan sneak attacks: a sad period in their nation's history, which was authorized and later denied by none other but Mabushke herself. It was said that she let the enemy penetrate the most insignificant parts of her country to have a pretext of launching a solar-burst airstrike against her enemy's heartland.

The sacrifice met its purpose.

A few months later, peace was sealed between the warring factions.