Project Starfae

~ Chapter 7 ~

Third Person, Following Elora

"But I don't want to—"

Tiergan's exasperated voice cut her off before she could finish her complaint. "Go with your brother before I drag you over there myself and take away your home crystal so you can't leap back until you've both finished."

Shaylie opened her mouth to argue that she could probably steal Wylie's home crystal without him noticing, but closed it when she saw the glare her father shot her. "Fine..."

Begrudgingly, Shaylie grabbed hold of Wylie's waiting hand and shot one last frown of frustration at her father before they leapt away to Starvalley, a silent grassy valley with no trees, which left a clear view of the star-filled sky.

"Okay, bye." Shaylie turned to hike her way to the other hilltop on the other side of the valley.

"Where are you going?" Wylie called after her.

"To do my assignment in peace, you mumble when you do yours, and it's hard to focus with it."

"Wait! I need your help!" Her brother shouted, his voice already sounding further away.

"You can get it after I finish," she shouted back over her shoulder.

Silence ensued as she finished her short hike. Sitting down into the dewy tall grass, she pulled out her bottles from her satchel, organising them into a neat straight line. Once she was satisfied with the bottles, she pulled out her stellarscope and her star list.

Following the star maps her brain showed her as she read the stars on her assignment list, she got to work.

First was Rosine, which gave her a rosy pink hued light. Her next star, she found close by, Fuschaire, which had a more fuschia-coloured light.

Shaylie frowned, was the pattern pink tones? Shrugging, she continued.

Six stars later, she had bottled up aqua, metallic yellow, murky green, navy blue, pearly-opalescent and dark red light from the stars, Aquello, Gildere, Grisenna, Nievello, Peacerre and Scarletina respectively.

Shaylie stared at her list and back at the bottled light until it clicked in her brain. "The pattern is the stars of the constellation Cygnus."

Squinting up at the sky, she quickly mapped out the constellation, leading her to her last star, Sapphilene. Putting her stellarscope up in place, she locked it onto Sapphilene, a dark sapphire blue light flashed into the bottle.

"ARE YOU DONE ALREADY!?" Wylie's voice shrieked from the neighbouring hilltop.

Grinning, she turned towards him before slowly nodding. Unscrewing the sapphire blue light-filled bottle from her stellarscope, she placed it with the rest of the bottles. Writing 'Cygnus Constellation' at the bottom of her paper, she scratched a line through the whole list before packing up her bottles into her satchel.

Skipping over to the hilltop where her brother was clearly struggling, she peered over his shoulder and took a peek at his list. Frowning, she eyed his meagre three bottles of white light.

"Your pattern is solo stars, they all have pure, uncontaminated light because they're so far away from other stars."

Wylie was silent for a moment before he let out a non-committal grunt.

"And your missing star could be any of them, but Valkonian and Gwynaura are some pretty easy to find options."

Wylie sighed, "Thanks Shaylie, but it's gonna take me forever to find the stars and bottle up their light. Just go home now, I don't want a cranky you on my hands in the morning."