When Stars Fall (NaNoWriMo22)

Chapter 26

And so, Averett and I do what we did in the beginning. We walked to our next destination, with purpose this time. And silent contemplation. We don't talk about us. Or Everly. Or what awaits me once all this is over. I try not think about at all. Instead, I think about First Brother's book. I've always known that he brought an era of enlightenment to Realm Beyond. It didn't cross my mind that his blood was what brought life to the land. The way it did for the Burning Tree.

He wrote that he walked until his feet bled, and even then, he kept going. I wonder, did he ever look back? Did he ever notice the change? In his first days, he was disoriented and exhausted. He didn't have a mortal to guide him the way I have. He was alone. Truly and absolutely alone. Until he wasn't.

"Look at that," Averett's voice breaks me from my trance, "you missed it again."

I look around our surroundings. My eyes search for what I missed but come up empty. "You don't even know what you missed," he chuckles. "Don't look at me like that now, Alcyone. Your so stuck in your head that you're not even paying attention to what lies before you." He points to the side of the road. Beautiful forget-me-nots have sprouted right next to the gravel road. And in between them is a small animal with two even smaller ones. "Rabbits."

They hop away, one after the other. My eyes follow them until they disappear into the thicket. I would've loved to touch them. "Now if you were paying attention, then you might've been able to get close enough to touch them." I glare at him. How can he mock me like this? As if we were the closest friends in the whole world? I hate how he knows how to irk me. I especially despise how he can read my mind like a book. I wish he wasn't so observational. "Come." He grabs my hand and pulls me the side. He plucks small buds from their small stems. "I think they'll suit you."

Averett tucks the flower behind my ear, ever so delicately. His fingers softly grazes the skin adjoining my ear. "I was right," he whispers. My heart thumps faster and faster. I could lean into his caresses...but no! I would rather burn myself from the inside out rather than subject myself to the same pain. I turn my head away from him and pick more flowers for myself. I carefully imbed them inside my braid.

"How long do think it'll take us until we arrive?" I readjust the strands carefully around the forget-me-nots. "With transportation, it would've taken a little over a day." He sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Now, maybe two days. Three, at most." Three more days. I turn my eyes up to the day sky. Three more days. I'm not so sure that this was the best idea, my siblings. It might've been a lot faster to just wait for some other merchant back at port.

I wouldn't dare doubt you, but the fastest option could've been waiting. "I can't for the life of me remember where we are now! How could that man leave us like this!" He kicks the road aggressively, disturbing the dust on the ground. We desperately need a map. A map! I scramble through my bag and pull out the book. "First Brother wrote of a map." I flip through the pages frantically until I get to it. "Here it is! He copied it on the page." The realm is bigger than I what it looks like from above. I truly haven't seen anything at all. I feel a tug in my heart at the thought.

"It looks like we're right here," he points to an area of the map that I can't decipher. Another one of my curiosities. "See the way that multiple road ways cross. The road that the old man took is this one. He's going farther inward. We should go this way." He trails the road all the way down to Market Palace. "Fortunately for us, there's a town on the way." Another town. Another farse. Another day. Is human to feel exhaustion from being one? But, at the same time, feel as though you want to live just another day more? To want to experience something else human? It's a struggle that has begun to consume me.

"How far is it?" I peek over his shoulder. "It doesn't look too far on the map."

He leans his head closer to mine. "It's farther than you think," he grins slyly as if there was something funny about the distance of where we are and the town. "We'll make it to the Wall, Alcyone. Don't worry." His lips are dangerously close to my cheek. "I'll keep you safe." No, Averett, I'll keep your safe. He doesn't know it, but I'd give my life for his if it called for it. My heart wouldn't let any harm come to him. I wouldn't know how to stop it from protecting him.

Even after spending a night in a moldy wagon, he still smelled like soap. The remnants of cleanliness mixed with his own scent is intoxicating. "We should start walking, Averett." I pack my book back into my bag. "As much as I love the nighttime, I'm sure there are dangerous things that lurk in the dark." Yes, many dangerous things indeed. Luckily for me, I have my guardian watching over me.

*****

"Will you tell me what your mother is like?" Averett is surprised by my question. I haven't pushed him out of courtesy since I, too, had secrets that I wanted to keep to myself. But I've spoken more about my own family than he has. One would think he didn't have one. "You've only spoken of her once," I say quickly, "I am a tad curious, wouldn't you be?" He grips the drawstrings of his mysterious bag with his mysterious things. I had just realized that I've never asked what else is in it. So many secrets with this mortal boy whom I have fallen in love with.

Do we even have anything in common? What is that humans say? 'Opposites attract'? Am I his opposite? Or is Everly? I have no idea. "Well," he takes a deep breath, "my mother is unlike any other. She's free spirited. She's kind. She's brave. My mother is the type of woman that has lived without care of what other's think." She sounds wonderful. There are very few men who can fit that description. And even fewer woman who dare to be different. Who dare to defy the norms of such a strict society. At the very least, in the Other realm. "She raised me on her own in a small town that bullied her for it." I can imagine. Unwed with a child. It's very common but not the best case for a woman.

"She payed no mind to it, though. She raised me well among the ridicule that she endured."

It's all starting to make sense to me now. Averett's incessant need to prove himself. It saddens me, really. He deserved much better. "I never knew my father, before you ask." I smile against my best wishes. "My mother had me after her adventures through the realm. When she had me, she sent letter after letter to my father. No reply came, except to say he had died a year later." The flowers grow thicker and more colorful as we come along. "Mother has always been forthcoming whenever I've asked about him. After a while, I didn't care anymore. She didn't push me."

The road flares out in a big cobblestone path that leads on for another miles or so. "Do you have parents, Alcyone? I've only ever heard you mention your siblings." The road is more even now and less dusty. The wind doesn't pick up any stray sands when it blows. I hadn't realized how cloudy my vision was up until now. "No," I answer him, "Stars do not have parents. I'm not even sure we are true siblings but we see each other as such." We've all been together throughout our whole lives. It would've been difficult to not have been family.

"As you recall, I am the youngest," I send him a giddy smile. "In mortal terms, at least. We live in a close cluster deep in the Great Beyond. Our lives aren't really that interesting." Averett scoffs. "I very much doubt that."

"What could I possibly do that warrants it to be interesting?"

"Are you kidding?" I shrug my shoulder, doing my best not to giggle anxiously. "You being here is curious enough, don't you think? One blink and you've got the whole population of men entranced by you." I burst out laughing. 'The whole population of men'? What is he going on about? "I swear to you, that's not true! In all honesty, I don't know much about myself to be able to give such an in-depth answer." Averett shakes his head. How could he not believe me? It is true!

"Alright! Well," I throw my hands in the air in exasperation, "I am called Alcyone. I am Star, new inhabitant of Realm Beyond. I watched mortals, albeit reluctantly at certain times. I like the daytime but I much prefer the night." My legs have started to ache tremendously. I so desperately wish to sit down and rest somewhere. "Nighttime because you're able to see the Stars?"

I trail my fingers over my braid, placing it over my shoulder. "Nighttime because it somehow feels like I'm home," I explain longingly, "The earth and the sky feels like one." A shadow befalls upon us. The sky is heavy with grey clouds. The air itself has gotten humid. There's something in the atmosphere that has shifted the once bright day. "Looks like a storm," Averett observes, "and it arrived just in time. There's the town."

The town is shrouded in the shadows of the incoming storms. This town is unlike the others we've come across on. It is entirely built on stone and brick. The main road we're currently on is intricately made as well with smooth grey stones pushed together in dry mud. Thunder roars up in the stormy clouds. This would be the perfect time to let me know if I'm walking to my death, Maia.