Magic of Etheria

Chapter 29 | The New Routine

Silence.

An entire, painstaking month passed by.

Nothing.

We returned to Bright Moon the day after Catra confided in me on the beach in Salineas, immediately setting up patrols around the nearby settlements and their supply routes. I also reconnected with Hordak, who filled me in on the situation in Dryl.

Entrapta was obsessed with experimenting with the refined Etherium, leaving Hordak to keep an eye on the signals. He had been monitoring the airwaves of Etheria non-stop while also working ever closer to completing his observatory. I checked in with him everyday, and everyday he assured me that he would contact me as soon as anything changes.

Catra has been very understanding. I expected her to tell me to take it slow, take a break, not to worry so much - but that didn't happen. She's been as motivated as me to find our phantom attackers, those that destroyed supplies and took innocent lives. Knowing she felt this strongly about it reassured me that this was right, that we were doing the right thing.

Since our talk, Catra and I were much more comfortable around each other. The passion we had toward one another at the beginning of our new relationship two months ago has been evolving toward comfort, solace, a loving warmth that I wouldn't trade for anything. That's not to say there weren't still moments of passion... And of course, I still hadn't asked her to marry me. It hadn't seemed appropriate considering the reason for these apparently endless patrols.

There was a meeting scheduled with all available princesses, which wasn't many, for later that morning where we were to be given a new patrol route for the next week or so. The week before, we had been patrolling around Plumeria since Scorpia and Perfuma moved on to the Fright Zone.

Catra kept in contact with Scorpia throughout, checking in on them to see how it was going over there. From what Catra told me, the Fright Zone sounded like it was in a shambles at first. Before Scorpia and Perfuma arrived, Lonnie and Rogelio were trying to hold the whole place together on their own, Kyle being about as useful as he can be. Many of the Horde soldiers still refused to accept that the war was over, that Etheria was actually at peace now. Most of them had been raised in the Fright Zone or were zealots that joined of their own will. To have their ideal, their only way of life, stripped away after utter defeat had been hard for many of them to accept. Perfuma had started leading meditation sessions, which were not popular at all at first, but as the days turned into weeks more and more ex-soldiers began turning up and participating. It was a slow process, but the Fright Zone sounded like it was finally beginning to turn around. Catra also agreed to go and over there to visit them for a time once everything in and around Bright Moon calmed down somewhat.

Looking up from the tracker pad on my lap, I observed Catra sitting at the vanity in our room. We had woken up not too long ago, still not fully dressed, and needed to get ready for the upcoming meeting. Catra gazed intently at her reflection in the mirror, tugging a clump of her hair down her face, apparently trying to see if it had grown any longer.

I put the tracker pad to one side, having finished reading the reports from the other patrols from the day before, and picked up the book that I had been writing in on and off for a while. Mostly, I just wrote random thoughts. But today, as I watched Catra staring at herself and messing with her hair, I felt like sharing a bit more than usual.

-

Hi Book, it's me again.

I've been writing about our patrols, how we still haven't found anything, but I haven't written about Catra in a while. So, here goes.

I love her. So much. We've been close this past month, ever since Salineas, and I've loved every second with her. I know I should be focusing fully on finding what it is that's attacking, but it's been a while, so I'm allowed to let my mind waver a bit.