The stars were shining - he had never seen anything quite so beautiful, like a thousand silver tears strewn across the sky. When he looked closely, twisting his body so he flew upside down, struggling to balance, he could see spots of color way off in the distance. I wonder, he thought absently, as he shifted around to face forward and continue his flight, how long it would take to fly to them? In his dreams, when he was blindfolded and hobbled and perched, the stars had been white spots against a black sky, bleached and sterile looking. But oh, his dreams had sold them woefully short! The sky was not black, but a blue so deep and so dark it swallowed the light. And the stars were not white, but every color imaginable thrown together, burning so brightly they threw light into the void of the sky without caring that it would be snatched away - they just kept shining. He could stare at them forever, if only the sun wouldn’t chase them away. His wings were starting to ache, but still he didn’t stop, wouldn’t stop. The terror on the filly’s face as she fell from the air, chased down by one of the other falcons haunted him. The stars urged him on; keep going, they whispered, and they seemed to burn brighter when they spoke to him, you’ll know when it’s time to land. So he flew. He flew farther than he’d ever flown before, farther and higher than he’d ever known he could. And he didn’t stop, not until - - Look down. He didn’t want to - he’d been stargazing again, losing himself in the endless constellations on display above him. But he did anyway, because the stars told him to, and they had brought him so far already. The sight below was breathtaking, almost as breathtaking as the cosmos. Hundreds, no thousands of flowers glittered like gems strewn upon a field, turned silver in the moonlight so that they too, seemed made of stardust, kissed by heaven, blessed by whatever god had saved him. It was a sign, the sign he’d been looking for, the sign to land. He almost didn’t see the silver mare who walked among them. Sirius hovered overhead, afraid to land, hardly daring to breathe, and unable to look away as he drifted on silent wings. She looked like a ghost, hardly stirring the flowers that she walked past. She walked amongst them like she belonged there, like this was her land, and they were the intruders. When she finally turns away, he lets out a sigh of relief. A cold draft pushed him lower, and he lets it; in wide, spiraling circles, Sirius falls slowly down to earth. He lands amongst the flowers, hearing the soft music whistling through their petals; but it’s to the stars he looks. You’re here, they whisper to him, and he can almost feel them smiling down at him. Welcome home. He doesn’t know of the blood that’s been shed here, that’s soaked the earth these flowers now grow upon. He doesn’t know the horses who have lost their lives, the battles being waged as he stands here beneath the stars. He thinks of the silver woman, finds himself standing in the very spot she’d been staring at (the spot she’d nearly died in, although he doesn’t know it yet.) He only knows that he’s free, and here is where the stars have sent him. |
***STAFF EDIT
@Sirius has rolled a 4! He has been awarded +100 signos for interacting with the flowers.
