We moved through the snowy forest, opposites in many ways. My horn pointed forward, her’s back. My skin pale and plain, hers dark and deeply complex. A wolf at my side, in companionable silence; but she was alone, at least until she came across us. The thought hit me suddenly: I’ve never been alone before. There had always been Avesta, or my family, or later on Furfur. I was not sure if I pitied her or was jealous. I suppose, being my father’s daughter, I was a little of both.
I never could pick one side of the coin/blade/mind. I had to have it all. (there, see, I am my mother’s daughter too!)
I was fairly well versed in the history of the shed stars, although it was a vague and hazy kind of history-- as all ancient, mysterious ones are. I was also well versed in myth and fables and legends, perhaps too well. I sometimes got them all mixed up, and the end result was my inevitable disappointment with reality and its dullness. But the shed stars were real, or else the girl was crazy, and I grinned, triumphant, as though I had personally added a little more magic to the world.
“Really?” wonder tightened in my throat as I imagined myself a star, so very far away. If I shouted my sister’s name across that distance, would she hear me? I liked to think she would. I glanced to the sky. “What’s it like up there?” It seemed lonely to me, but maybe that’s because I wasn’t a star.
She told me about reading my future and I stopped walking, hesitation furrowing my brow. “Isn’t that cheating?” It seemed like cheating. And why do anything at all if your future was already writ? But I was deeply curious, and she must have seen it in my face. The future, at that moment, seemed so big and wide and unknowable. I enjoyed not knowing, but I was also devilishly tempted to flip forward, take a peek at the ending.
I didn’t believe in happy endings, but I still yearned for one anyway. It was just childhood angst, but some days it tore me in two.
Eventually I kept walking, but I offered her a small smile. As far as monikers went, snow child was actually a pretty good one for me. “Can’t your runes tell me my name?” A little playful, a little earnest.
“I’m Aspara,” I said eventually, feeling, oddly, like we were already friends. “What’s your name?”
@Vaeri I love her <3
