Vaeri arrived quiet as a summer breeze. I wouldn’t have noticed her as soon as I did if it weren’t for Furfur, who tugged at my mind gently. “We’re not alone.” The sound of his voice in my head made me think of a tree, bending in the wind. A low creak always on the edge of cracking. I stopped and turned to look at her. She was just a girl herself. Older than me, of course-- everyone was older than me-- but still a girl. Her youth did not put me at ease, but I found myself more intrigued. And perhaps a little more open.
She called me a snow-child, which brought a small smile to my lips. And she asked if I was lost, which seemed a very strange question to me.
“No,” I said plainly. I was not lost.
I did not know where I was going,
but I was not lost.
She asked if she could help. She couldn’t. I was too kind to tell her that, so I just offered her a smile. It must have looked like the smiles adults gave me, when they thought I wouldn’t understand, and it felt strange on my face. If I thought I hated seeing that smile, it was even worse to wear it. But really, there was nothing she could do for me. There was nothing I was looking for that could be measured or mapped. No path that could be guided by anything but my heart, and my closed eyes, and my flat-palmed magic.
I took a step further into the woods. I would not mind if she joined me, but I did not want to be still together. In my bones there was too strong an itch for movement. “follow me” the sticks and stones and cold earth continued to urge me on. A little pebble trembled as it reached for me and found (to its shock) it had no arms with which to reach.
I knew I must go deeper into the mountain.
I took a closer look at the stranger. Her galactic skin, light-colored eyes, and the small moon she wore like a crown. It was a crescent moon, like tonight’s would be. “Are you a shed star? I’ve never met one before.” I heard the reverence in my voice and I hated how childish it sounded. I had always dreamed myself a fallen star, something from the sky instead of the sea. Maybe then I could reach my magic deep into the night and talk to the heavens. Surely they would have more interesting stories to tell than the rugs and candlesticks and stone walls.
@Vaeri <3
