# Mooning Over Nothing

Author: StGeorgesHorse
Tags: Human, Plot Development, Story Progression, Werewolf, biker, mystery, silver

#31 of The Moonrise Chronicles

And before you start giggling over the title, it's not the definition you're thinking of...

          "What's the matter son? Do you
recognize that picture?"
"Sure. It's an exact duplicate of
the toy key I had as a kid. Mom and Dad returned it to me a few years back,
before they disappeared."
"Where is it now?"
"You know that box of stuff you
went through?"
Reynaud nodded. 
"Remember that little envelope, the
one that was sealed?"
Reynaud nodded again. "Yes I do. I
didn't want to be nosy at the time. Are you saying it's in there?"
"Yes, I'm afraid so. I had no idea
what it was for. No one ever told me. "
"Unless they did and then had to
mindwipe you. But it hardly was going to do you any good without the box."
"So now I have to go all the way
back to New York City to get the key."
Maggie was excited. "So you think
you have the key that opens this box?"
He hooked his arm around her and
kissed the back of her head. "I'm pretty sure I do. But we'll not know until I
get it and try it out."
She turned and returned his kiss.
"This is so cool!" She kissed him again and skipped off.
Reynaud was shaking his head. "This
is a lot to take in. I don't know about the rest of you, but I think we need to
slow things down. I need to piece together information for the Taborum, and we
need to return to get Edward's key. I hate to think about driving a thousand
miles each way, but if it will help, I'll do it."
Edward raised a finger. "Yeah,
about driving; whose Range Rover is that?"
"Mine!" Maggie said in her typical
saucy tone s she returned to the room. "Of course, I can't drive it, but that's
ok."
Edward lowered his head and shook
it. "I suppose you paid cash for it?"
"Of course. The salesman would have stripped and allowed us to walk over him in high heels he was so delighted."
"I'll just bet he was. Still, it
beats my ride."
"Your ride."
"Yeah. I sort of stole it at the
diner."
"You stole a biker's motorcycle?"
"Yeah."
Maggie climbed up in his lap. "You
so have to give me a ride on it."
He whispered in her ear. "The
motorcycle, or are you talking about something else?"
She giggled. "Maybe both!"
Reynaud ignored their display of
playful affection. "We need to retrieve the key and open the box. Once we know
what's inside, we'll be able to know better the reason for all this secrecy. I
don't like secrets."
Maggie started to say something,
but Marcus interrupted her. "I agree with Rey. We'll have to get this key.
Assuming the mechanism still works, the key is still our best bet for getting
it open. I say that maybe Edward, Verona and Maggie can go back, open it up and
report back to us here."
Maggie giggled. "How? You barely
have electricity out here. I don't see a radio or a television anywhere. You
want us to send a message by pigeon?"
"One of you could leave your cell
phone behind."
She held up her phone. "Yeah, like
that'll work. Look at the reception. I don't think any carriers even know this
place exists. No, I think I have a better idea."
"And what is that young lady?"
"Open it here."
Marcus smiled a bit too
condescendingly. "We'll not have the box destroyed in any clumsy attempts to
open it. I've got tools, but nothing that can pick a lock designed by one of
the most brilliant minds ever known."
Maggie let her legs swing from side
to side. She let the adults talk for a while longer. Then she slid off Edward's
lap and picked up the box. "I still say we don't need to drive across six
states just to get this open."
Lupenia waved her to come closer.
"Why is that dear?"
She held up a small envelope.
"Because I brought father's box of treasure s with me. I wanted something with
me that he had held dear. Call it being sentimental. I didn't know there was
anything of importance in it."
Edward scooped her up. "Maggie
darling, you're the queen of the ball!"
Verona turned a shade of green.
He ripped the small envelope open
and shook out the contents. It was a small ornate brass key, and it was indeed
a match for the image in the book. Edward's hands were shaking as he took the
box and tried the key. It slid in, but balked halfway.
"I think the mechanism is dirty."
"It probably is. Let me find some
toothpicks and maybe some stiff wire. Maybe we can finish cleaning out the
dirt."
For the next hour, the men took
turns carefully working away at the bits of dirt and sand that had gotten
lodged inside the workings of the lock. Time after time they tried, and each
time they failed to make it work. After a while they gave up.
"There's no point in damaging the
box in our impatience, "declared Marcus. 

Maggie went to the kitchen and came
back with a straw. "Give me that!" She proceeded to blow into the mechanism and
was rewarded with tiny puffs of dust and dirt. She shook the box, turned it
upside-down, and then blew in it again.
Sophia stifled a laugh. "You men
folk could learn a thing or two. She's making faster headway than you three
combined! And she isn't risking any damage to the box."
She was correct. After only five
minutes Maggie was able to get the key all the way in. She handed it over the
Edward. "Here father. You do the honors." He turned the key until it clicked.
The lid was stiff, but it opened.
 
A few counties away, a motorcycle
pulled into the parking lot of a now infamous diner. The rider wore sunglasses,
and while his bike looked a bit rough, it ran like it was powered by the demons
of hell. He drove it around the lot looking this way and that, then parked and
dismounted. He cracked his knuckles and headed into the restaurant, smiling knowingly
at the bits of debris that still littered the ground.
He had on enough jewelry to weigh
down a corpse in deep water; reaching from his fingers to his nose and eye
brows. The moment he stepped through the door, the entire place went quiet. He
jingled and jangled like a medieval knight heading off to battle.  Hair bristled out from under his jacket.
He sat down at the lunch counter
and ignoring the open stares, asked for coffee. The waitress brought him a cup,
but as she went to pour, he blocked it with his hand. "Skip the cup. Leave the
pot."
The stares became more intense,
leastwise until he turned to look over the customers. The all eyes turned to
the tables in front of them. "Any of you folks know what the hell happened
here?"
No one said a word. "It ain't what
you think. I ain't here to get no revenge for that gang. If they can't take
care of themselves, it ain't my job to wipe their sorry asses. I wanna know
about that animal."
The waitress tapped the counter,
and not with some trepidation. "Police say it was a bear."
The man guffawed "A bear? In these
parts? Maybe. But I ain't never heard of no bear that could take down that many
men. Anyone here actually see the beast?"
Silence. "I see. Well then, I guess
I'm wasting your time and mine. I'll finish my coffee and be on my way."
He heard a voice from the back.
"Someone said they saw it ride out of here on a motorcycle."
The big man chuckled. "Bears don't
ride bikes."
"They do in the circus."
He nodded. "Friend, you've got me
there. The circus. A bear on a motorcycle heading to his circus.  Sounds a little impractical, don't ya think?"
"I'm just saying what I heard.
Didn't see it myself."
"An honest man is a rare thing
friend. I appreciate your candor. Me, well I have a thing for finding wild
animals. Sort of a family business. So I'll be lookin for this here bear of
yours for a spell. I'll likely be back in a few days time, so if you have any
information, leave it here. I'll be glad to compensate you appropriately."
"How much?"
"How much what?"
"How much money you offering?"
He held up his right hand. "If your
information helps me to find this animal, then I'll strip off every ring I
have, and every necklace I've got, and if that ain't enough for ya, I give you
every coin I've got in my bags. It's all real, and it's all genuine, and as you
can see by the color, every last bit of it is in silver. If you can a better
deal than that, then I'd suggest you take it."
 
The box was empty. There was a
layer of fine sediment, but nothing else. The interior of the box was designed
to hold a ring, if the indentation meant anything.  But whatever ring had been inside was now
gone.
The disappointment in the room was
palpable. Maggie groaned and fell to the floor. Rey took the box gently out of
Edward's hands and turned it over and over in disbelief. He handed it back.
"I don't understand. Shouldn't
there have been something inside the box? Why lock it, separate it from the key
and then bury it? Why was this worth dying for?"
Edward sat down. "I wish I knew."
He ran his finger over the inside of the metal container. The inside was slightly
darkened with age, but he could feel the tiny tool marks left by the artisan.
To think that he was holding something made by the great Leonardo was as
incredible to him as being able to morph into a werewolf. 
Maggie started crying. He handed
the box over to Verona and sat next to her. "What is it dear?"
"I was hoping that it would have
some great wonder in it."
"Like what?" he said, half amused
at her emotional state. To him, it was just a box; old, neat, probably
valuable, but just a box nonetheless.
"The moonstone!"
"The what?"
"It was mentioned in the book."
Maggie was drying her tears as she spoke.
Rey explained "The moonstone is nothing
more than a legend, detailed in the Taborum, but lost for hundreds of years, if
it existed at all."
"Sounds cool. You mean like the
gemstone?"
"No son. The moonstone was said to
have great power for whatever werewolf wore it."
Edward gave Maggie a squeeze. "It's
OK. At least we answered Schrödinger's cat question. We now know the box
contains precisely squat."
She was still sniffing back tears.
It was amazing that the longer he knew her, the more she emerged as a caring
person. It was probably hard to be one with not being able to be with your own
kind. She was now surrounded by what might be the last few remaining werewolves
in the US of A.
Marcus was holding the box. "I
would have staked my life on it that this box was protecting something inside.  Why bother wasting our life over an empty box?"
Sophia coughed to get their
attention. "I wouldn't say wasted Marc. Maybe this was a diversion to throw off
whoever wished to possess whatever was inside. Maybe whatever it was has been
hidden somewhere else."
The old man pulled his wife to her
feet. "I'd like not to think that my entire life has been spent as a red
herring."
"No dear. Don't go thinking like
that! We have had a good life here, we raised a family, and now we have been
reunited with those of us who were lost. There are worse endings to life than
that."
He gave her a tender kiss. "I
suppose you're right."
He made a sweeping gesture. "You
are all welcome here under my roof until such time as you must leave. May the
fates have written that the time is long and the days are filled with
happiness!"
Even the birds in the trees seemed
to sings happier, except where the passage of a certain rider and his
motorcycle disturbed their joyous noise. He was crisscrossing the country roads
and lanes, sniffing the air as he went. Sometimes he stopped and retraced his
path, and only when he got low on fuel did he stop to put gas in his machine.
And then he was off again. As he grew nearer to the old town of Wolf Creek, he
stopped and shook his head.
"It can't be. Looks like lightning
strikes twice in the same spot after all."
He gunned the accelerator, popping
a wheelie as he headed for the town that no longer existed. His silver gleamed
in the sunlight, counterpointed by the black leather riding clothes.  His hair wavered in the wind as his bike
kicked up dirt and debris. It looked like there was going to be a showdown in
Wolf Creek one more time.

Source: https://sofurry.com/view/755436