Moonshadow begins this chapter of his life with a quote from Percy Bysshe Shelley.
Moon awakes on the battlefield, not dead as he had surmised would be the case. He sees a vision of his namesake, a poet his mother fell in love with. He, like Sunflower's childhood friend, also died in the army in the Vietnam era. Now, his spirit guides Moon to the unconscious Ira, at which point Moon sees his alien G'L-Doses father, who teleports them into the presence of the enemy army, who captures them.
They are sent to a prisoner of war camp, where they are reunited with Rigarollo and Horntoad. Moon is delirious, but the others protect him from the other prisoners--Ira's first altruistic act towards Moon.
Moon eventually comes under the protective aegis of the camp's commander, Darkmeister Ebann, who seems to feel a connection with Moon's innocence and spirit. Moon's friends join with him to put on regular plays for Ebann, and life in the concentration camp is as good as it could be. However, Moon finally asks Ebann to expand his grace of protection to all the prisoners, which is a favor too far: Ebann can't comply and instead feels forced to sentence them all to execution.
Moon sees another vision of his namesake, and finds a certain inner peace, as he is lowered towards a boiling vat.
Log in to comment