Vulpecula et Anser

Chapter 5: Dawn

It was a new moon tonight, and Kit found himself staring up at the dark azure sky. It was like a dark canvas filled with stars that seemed to dot around without a care. The soft breeze carried the sweet scent of flowers from the garden below and caused the grass of the hill he was sitting on to move in a swish-swoosh sort of way. It was a nocturnal symphony, a quiet splendour that comforted Kit's heart.

(He asked Surge whether she would like to come, but she declined because she "doesn't do lame stuff like that.")

"Beautiful, isn't it?"

He looked to his side to find Whisper sitting cross-legged beside him, observing the starry blanket above. How did she sneak up on him without making any sound? Surely she stepped on a dried leaf or two when approaching him.

"I used to pick a star and make a wish. Kept me going. Believing that they were up there, watching over me." She sighed. "It was paltry. Nothing more than wishful thinking. Still," she said as she turned to look at Kit. "Perhaps it may help you. Pick one."

She was right, a star wouldn't be able to do anything. Still, Kit did as he was told and squinted his eyes to look for one. Eventually, his eyes settled on a star. It wasn't the brightest among them—there were many others several magnitudes more luminous than the one he had chosen—but this one just felt right with its polite subduedness.

I wish for everything to be alright.

Well, it wasn't like everything was magically going to be alright. Nonetheless, Kit felt a spark burning within him, a glimmer of hope.

"Surge didn't die."

"Yes."

"I didn't lose her."

"You didn't."

"I'm glad."

A slight pause. "...I'm glad, too."

She picked up a dried leaf by its petiole, one that used to be green like the few trees that surrounded them. "Things...change, sometimes. They're...impermanent."

Somewhere, a Flicky chirped. Whisper twirled the leaf gently with her claws. Kit took a deep breath.

"Miss—Miss Whisper."

"Mm?"

"Does it get easier? Is...is there closure?"

Kit's gaze was focused on Whisper's blue eyes. They were like the skies, cloudy, stormy. Deep in thought, yet all over the place at the same time.

"Closure." The word is drawled out as if it was from a foreign language.

Dried leaves crackled and crunched under her combat boots as Whisper shifted her position slightly. She had a pensive look on her face.

"No," she answered honestly. "But...it is a start. It does get easier."

Whisper threw the dried leaf, and a gust of crisp wind carried it away into the night sky. "Sometimes, someone else is needed to provide guidance. Someone who can offer a different path. Someone that...causes you to have a new perspective."

Kit looked up at the sky again. The stars seemed to glow brighter, the wind seemed to howl ever so slightly, and the trees rustled as some of their leaves fell, not unlike whispers from a distant star.

Perhaps there was some merit to what she used to believe, after all.

"...I suppose I can see that."

They sat under the quiet refulgence of twilight, taking in the serenity of their surroundings, even as the sky gradually brightened and turned into varying shades of red and orange.