Frostor frowned sadly as he looked at the pile of rubble.  It looked bad, very bad.  Even though the excavation crews had been working nonstop since Mumm-Ra and the possessed WilyKit had vanished and they could get close enough to the ruins of the MoonTower to search for Selene and Psiarik, nothing had turned up yet.  Making it worse was that he was almost sure that if they were found, it would only be two bodies that were extricated from the mess.  For a time he'd tried to convince himself that there was some way they might have survived, but as he stared the mess it was clear that it in all likelihood it was just wishful thinking.  One thought echoed through his head repeatedly.  What do I tell Luna?

Luna had been hysterical when she was told the gravity of the situation.  Her reaction had thrown him, he had never seen her so irrational and upset, not even when Silvian had been killed.  Of course, she'd had five more years to become attached to Selene, so maybe that was understandable... but the intensity of her emotion had surprised him. Except for being angry or sarcastic, Luna was not one for displays of emotion. Right now she was being held (against her will, of course) by some of the royal military guard to ensure that she wouldn't interfere with the rescue crew.  Twice she had tried to have Amok take her into the rubble at the site and search for Selene herself, insisting that she was alive and that she would find her herself if everyone else insisted on giving up.  That of course was out of the question, he knew firsthand that one wrong move could make the situation ten times worse for all involved in such an operation, and he couldn't risk it.  The situation had gotten ugly, but with some effort from the royal guard (with Selene and Psiarik both missing and presumed dead, he, as the head of the military, was now in charge of the entire kingdom) he had been able to separate Luna and Amok and lock them up separately in the officers' quarters at the nearby military base, where the survivors of the Tower disaster were now staying. Needless to say, Luna was less than thrilled about being held against her will.  Frostor knew, however, that it was in everyone, including Luna's, best interests. Yes, she would be angry at him for it, but he'd live through it.  He knew she'd get over it eventually, and he supposed he could live with her bitching in the meantime, irritating as it might be.

Looking at the large pile of rubble again, Frostor wondered for the millionth time how long it would take to find Selene and Psiarik, and if it was at all possible at all that they could have survived.  If they hadn't.... well, he didn't want to think about that.  He'd known Selene since she was a child, and had essentially raised her after the disasters had killed all of her family other than Silvian.  She was like a daughter to him.  He remembered how he and a few other survivors had found the two terrified and half-starved royal children wandering in the woods a week or so after the day the palace-- and the rest of the city around it-- had been obliterated.  The kids had been sheltered all their lives, had been playing in the woods on a day outing, when it had happened.  He and the others had found them while hunting for game, and took them in.  Back then he'd taken the fact that the young princess and prince had survived as a sign of hope.  But Silvian had died five years ago, and now it looked as though Selene was gone too.  So much for hope.

Frostor's thoughts then turned to Psiarik, another one he'd watched grow up, at least in part.  Psiarik was older than Selene, and had been a teenager-- an obnoxious one, at that, he recalled with a smirk-- at the time, but nothing Frostor and the others couldn't handle.  Psiarik had randomly come upon them about two months after Frostor and the others had taken in Selene and Silvian.  He'd been living entirely on his own since the disaster, taking shelter in empty buildings (of the few that still stood) living off of canned food, bottled water and other beverages, and the occasional small animal he could catch for a better meal.  Living alone hadn't been good to him, it had greatly multiplied his bitterness, resentment, and guilt.  When they'd found him and offered to let him stay in the mountain settlement with the other survivors, he'd had a difficult time adjusting, he spent much of his time sullen and withdrawn, and lashing out at everyone in his path.  Nonetheless, Frostor had taken a liking to him and looked out for him.  It had paid off, he'd grown up into a strong and proud man, had found a rare happiness with Selene, and later on, re-established a family, something he'd always wanted and missed since he lost his first one... only to have it taken away now.  What the hell kind of sick cosmic joke was this, anyway?  Frostor frowned and rubbed his white, neatly trimmed beard, deep in thought. How could this have happened? Why didn't they see this coming? Wasn't there anything they could have done to stop it?

He got his answer in an indirect manner when he went to kick a stray rock and instead kicked the corner of a leather-bound book.  He glanced down at it. "Books from the study were blown out even this far?"  Upon closer inspection, he realized that he didn't recognize the book-- a fact which surprised him. Though his duties as Governer General and military commander kept him very busy, he'd never lost his bookworm-like habits from his pre-disaster days as a historian and university professor, and spent the majority of his free time reading.  He knew most of the books in the royal library at least by title, and many he had read several times, so for him to not know what this one was immediately captured his interest.

He bent down and picked up the book, brushing the dirt and dust from the explosion off of it, and was astonished to see that this book was not one from the library, or even one he had known was in their possession.  As he opened it and looked at the first page, he noticed the writing was not in Lunar-Plundarian, but in native Thunderian.  Luckily he could understand and read it, as Thunderian, Plundarian, and Lunar-Plundarian were all similar and easy to learn if you knew one of them already.  There were those that theorized that was because all three species and the individual races among each one were all of a common ancestor race, and they had only been changed due to millions of years on different planets. It had never been disproven, and the fact that they were different species but could still interbreed (as WilyKit and Darkail had just proven), only strengthened that theory.

Frostor immediately recognized the name on the first page: "Grune the Mighty". So this is that journal WilyKit had been telling us about earlier, the log of Grune's experiences before his betrayal.  He also remembered WilyKit asking Luna about Kalin, since she had been mentioned in it along with Luna and her crew of the old days.  Looking that up held a great deal of appeal to him, as Luna was a subject that had long fascinated him, even before he'd met her in person.

A shout from the crew working below brought him back into the world around him.  They were organizing trying to lift a particularly large section of wall, hoping to uncover something beneath it.  Knowing that he should be paying attention to the rescue and not old and comparatively trivial stuff, he shut the journal.  It would have to wait.  Better yet, he knew where he could bring it until he'd have a chance to go and read it himself... and maybe work his way back into Luna's good graces again, after he'd gotten himself far out of them by locking her up.  He knew she'd find the journal to be interesting reading, especially since parts mentioned her (anything mentioning her would certainly appeal to her considerable ego), and he also knew she could understand and read Thunderian.  Besides, it would be a way for her to pass the time and distract herself from thinking about Selene... an escape he would welcome himself right about now, if he could afford it.

Frostor walked closer and shouted to the crew. "You need me here or can I go take care of something and return in five minutes?"

"Go ahead, we'll be moving this wall for at least another ten.  This thing has got to weigh several tons, and it'll be a while before we can move it." one of the workers called back.

"Right!" Frostor nodded to them, dashed back to a vehicle, and drove back to the military complex.

Luna stared out the tenth-story window from her seat next to it.  She could see the rescue work going on at the Tower site still, but was too far away to see much of anything in detail.  For the millionth time, she wondered if anything had been found.  If she thought she would survive the drop, she would have broken the window and climbed out by now.  Disgusted, she turned away and glared resentfully at the locked door.  How dare Frostor keep her prisoner like this?  He had a lot of nerve, assuming command and then calling her irrational and keeping her under guard so she didn't leave the premises.  Who did he think he was, anyway?

There was a knock at the door. "Go away!" Luna shouted rudely.

The door opened anyway.  Frostor poked his head in. "Um, hello Luna."

Luna's expression was one of pure annoyance. "Oh great, it would have to be you, wouldn't it?  What the hell do you want?  Come to aplogize and let me out of here so I can find Selene, since you and your incompetent workers can't seem to get it right?" she snapped.

Frostor rolled his eyes.  Oh boy, she was in rare form today, just as he had figured.  He entered and closed the door behind him. "You know I don't like doing this, Luna--" he began.

"Then let me the hell out of here!"

"I can't! Not until I can be sure you won't rush down there with Amok and do something impulsively foolish like trying to extricate Selene and Psiarik from the rubble yourself.  It's too dangerous to someone with no medical or emergency rescue training.  You could hurt yourself, Amok, or even Selene or Psiarik if you did find them.  I'm sorry, Luna, I know you want to help, and I wish I could let you, but I can't allow it." Frostor explained.

"If they die because you had to play out your stupid male ego power trip, I will never forgive you." Luna said hatefully.

Frostor sighed.  He didn't get all that mad, he had expected a reaction just like this.  Still, it was frustrating.  Realizing he'd never get her to change her mind, he instead changed the subject to the reason for his visit. "I've brought you something, Luna. I thought it might get your mind off of what happened until we get some news."

"What?" asked the still-annoyed Luna.

"This." Frostor replied, and handed her Grune's journal. "I found this in the debris near the Tower. It must have been in WilyKit's possession when she came here on the diplomatic mission.  She'd asked us about parts of it, actually, before that first ghost attack in the study.  It's the journal of Grune the Mighty."

Luna took the book, but didn't really look at it.  Instead she kept her eyes on him.  "And why would I care what some long-dead traitor Thundercat wrote about?"

"He mentions you. He mentions your friends. You knew him. Doesn't that interest you, seeing his take on things that you experienced yourself?"

"Not nearly as much as getting out of this damned prison you've got me in would." she remarked.

"And that is out of the question." Frostor argued, then sighed again. "It would seem we're at an impasse, Luna. Whether you think so or not, I am doing what is necessary."  He looked at his watch. "I've been gone too long, so I am going to head back out to the site now. If I find anything, you'll be among the first to know."  With that, he turned and walked out of the room.

Luna could hear the door close and lock again behind him.  "Oh, aren't you generous? Jerk." she muttered, and sat back down.  She glanced at the journal and shrugged, then turned the cover.  "It's not like I have anything else to do. What the hell, why not?"

She thumbed through the first two pages.  Grune's handwriting was readable enough, and translating the Thunderian into Lunar-Plundarian wasn't difficult for her.  She read the first bit, and was not all that impressed.  It was mostly stuff about his girlfriend Scarlette and how he couldn't bear to be apart from her while she was away.  "Ack, love, such a nauseating emotion!" she remarked, and quickly flipped past the pages outlining it.  There wasn't even any naughty or sexual material in there to spice it up, and reading too much (and in her current mood, two words was too much) mush would make being trapped in this room even more intolerable than it already was.

Luna went farther and farther into it.  There were a few things that caught her eye, an entry that mentioned her name being one of them.  It wasn't all that significant, only a description of the palace banquet she and some of the others had attended.  She remembered that night, Chilla had been in a worse mood than usual and had been in some sort of tiff with Kalin, also along for the fun that evening.  Alluro had brought his date, the one who had later turned out to be Psiarik's mother, and RedEye had tagged along as well.  The banquet had been a little on the dull side, though sticking it to Lunaro and Siliera by showing up just to annoy them had been fun.  It made Luna snicker to read Grune's description of Sileira's reaction to her.  The past queen never had cared much for Luna, and neither had Lunaro, despite the fact that she was distantly related to the royals.  Of course not, they had been threatened by her.  Back in those days, everyone was.  Luna scowled thinking about them, and how much she hated them.  Even though they were Selene's parents, she was glad they were dead.  It was their fault that she'd been sent into exile in the first place, having to give up the life she knew for a miserable life on the run, all because they felt a need to declare her a conspirator against the crown.  That charge had been filed merely because her own network of crime had more control over the people in the capitol than they did, and they couldn't have something that *gasp* looked that bad.  It had nothing to do with justice at all, just offended egos.

Her mood once again soured by thinking of Lunaro and Siliera, she moved further on into the book.  She came across several pages where Grune did nothing but complain about how much he couldn't stand Kalin and how manipulative she was.  Those entries she found rather funny... mostly because to anyone else, it was obvious he was only mad because she was getting to him.  Luna also had knowledge of something Grune probably didn't... that Kalin had a similar reaction to him after that night he had come to the club.  She'd been so angry about his rejection that she'd taken stills from the building's security cameras that showed her and Grune in a compromising pose and messengered them anonymously to Cat's Lair, addressed to a cat named Scarlette.  Luna had recalled Kalin saying something about there being "more than one way to skin a cat" and proudly announcing that her action would easily take care of the "little girlfriend" back home.  Luna remembered this because it only then occurred to her that Kalin's planned seduction of the Thundercat might have gone farther than the hunter herself even wanted, and that it was not only him, but her as well, that could not control their attraction.

Again Luna turned the page, now curious as to what else was in the journal. There were pages upon pages worth of entries after that, so she knew that Grune had plenty to say about something.  She wondered what it was.  When she began reading, she got her answer.