Shadows of Stars

Chapter 9: The Highers

It did not know what to expect. After all, it was only following its instincts, but strange as it was, Soul could not help but enjoy the peculiar sensation. Travelling through the air, it could actually feel the rushing air tugging at its pelt. Blue faded to black as it soared impossibly upwards, far, far beyond imagination. By the time it stopped, it reckoned it was at the edge of the world, almost in the legendary emptiness called Space. But how? Nothing should exist this far upwards, and beneath its paws was blackness. Yet it was not falling, so something must be there. It took a tentative paw-step forwards, testing the mysteriously solid air. Resistance met it, so it took another step, and then another one. There was an invisible floor to the sky.

It wandered round for a while, exploring this new place. The plain seemed to go on for forever. As fascinating as this phenomenon was, it couldn't help wondering why it was here. A bright glare appeared a few paw-steps away, as if in response to its thoughts. Seeing as it had nothing else to do, it walked into the blinding light, slitting its eyes to try make sense of the mass of colours.

Through the light was a whole new world. A meadow suddenly sprung into existence; grass swaying in the breeze, familiar scents drifting over the peaceful setting. It went for mildly confused to confuddled in a heartbeat. Meadows were not supposed to randomly appear from nothing, let alone in space. Somebody or something must have created it, but it had seen no-one since it arrived. And the place was so realistic, so crazily real, only extremely powerful beings could have made it. But where were they?

Here.

Soulblaze started. It had thought it heard a voice.

We are the Highers. Welcome to our domain.

"Where are you? Show yourselves!"

We are all around you Soulblaze, we are the stars and the void itself.

"Why have you called me? What do you want?"

So many questions you have, but we cannot answer them. Follow us, and perhaps you will find what you seek.

"How will I follow you if I can't see you?"

In answer, a small, brightly coloured bird swooped into reality, staring meaningfully at the spirit with intelligent eyes. It circled above Soul's head, before flapping off towards a clump of trees. After a slight hesitation, the spirit trotted after it. When in doubt, always follow the magic bird.

Darting above the long grass, the bird lead it on a merry dance through the meadow. It could have sworn it was purposely making the journey twice as long as it should have been, more than once they seemed to be going away from the trees. This wasn't helped by the bird's insistence of performing complex aerial acrobatics and the fact it almost seemed to be laughing at Soul. That was fairly irritating, but it would restrain the temptation to swat the feathered nuisance out off the sky, as the trees were pretty close.

Suddenly, the bird swerved to the left, heading not for the forest, but towards a stream meandering beside it. This threw the spirit, who for some reason, had assumed the 'place' was in the trees. They followed the stream for a bit, watching as it widened until it was more of a river. Then it just stopped. Cautiously, it edged forward, wondering where the water had gone. Soul looked over the edge of a large waterfall, the bottom obscured by a cloud of spray kicked up by the torrent.

Jump Soulblaze.

"What? No way!" The spirit was aghast. It wasn't going to kill itself for no reason.