Light of Stars [2]

Chapter Three

The Arms of a Mother 

The cold wind brushed her cheek in a way that reminded her of her mother's fingertips as they touched her forehead before bedtime. But her mothers' skin was always raspy and hard against hers, and this, this was barely distinguishable. The touch of a ghost studying her skin.

Aubrette felt the world opening up in a thousand directions. She felt, for the first time ever how the moon shifted form the sky to look down at her, lightning her path through the darkness of the woods.

She stood up brushing her clothes from the dirt of the floor and ran. The branches crooked in strange ways that made the trees feel like they had faces. Aubrette felt her bottom lip tremble as she tried to keep her sight straight on the floor and not look anywhere but her feet. She did not want to be scared of them.

The night felt darker and darker, and she expected to feel that familiar fear on her chest every time her blessing ignited but it didn't come. She didn't feel frozen or scared, she felt confident and reassured. She was home. Aubrette stopped running at the realization. She was home.

Her eyes looked up to the sky her hands grasping up to touch the glow of the stars around her.

She felt herself falling. Her skin ignite awake.

Aubrette waited for the dirt and stone to touch her palms, but it never came. Instead she felt wind and light and something stronger that settled on the bottom of her stomach, the feeling begging her to open her eyes.

When she did, she found herself surrounded by a nightsky, moonlight and stars almost at the reach of her hands. She laughed, not caring how high she'd portaled, or if she never managed to come back down at all. She relished on the world around her and realized darkness could never be something to fear if its heart looked this way.

She could not be anything bad if she'd been made out of this.

Aubrette fell and fell for hours on end. Never hearing anything but the sound of her laughter strong and melodic. She turned back, desiring to watch how small the world look from the distance, only to find the branches of the crooked tree holding her up, wrapped around her horse gently, so that she could still enjoy the sky, as it expanded over her, the sight pulled out of a lullaby.

She felt safe. No longer scared of the trees that appeared to have strange faces. No longer lost but found.

Her eyes lost themselves on the sky, counting the stars and the way they seemed to shift in color. Out of the dark, making its way like a torn-up fabric, the sky above her ripped open and fire spilled out of its center right before her eyes.

The fire burnt through every star and cloud that was in the sky, and Aubrette felt her skin burn and burn like never before. The branches of her tree where nothing more than bright flames covering her skin in ashes.

She screamed.

The flames made its way to the edges of the moon and lit it in fire, turning it into a smaller sun, one that would eventually burn out. Aubrette cried, cried as she felt her heart burn and shatter. Yelled as she felt the moon fading away, its light disappearing from her eyes. She cried and cried and felt herself falling again harder. Faster. Spinning out of control.

She reached the ground and hit her head, and nothing was there to catch her as something inside her cracked open.

When she stood she was surrounded by a circle of fire that grew and grew until the flames touched the sky and created new clouds above her that were filled with nothing but ashes, ashes that started falling onto her like pouring rain, choking the air out of her lungs until there was nothing left for her to breathe but smoke.

"Daughter" she heard. And the voice that sometimes haunted her dreams had never before brought her so much comfort.

Aubrette turned, her mother a few steps away, her arms open waiting for her. And she was again just a small kid again, running to her side for help. Running to her arms to have someone to cling onto.

"Its over now. The trees can't hurt you anymore" she whispered as Aubrette hugged her tightly. She did not have the heart to tell her it had been her fire and not the trees that scared her. Did not have the heart to let go as she hugged her for what felt the first time, even if her words cut deep into her soul.