The star was beautiful. It rained pearlescent stardust upon the violet sky, piercing the darkness with the glow of its heart. The people below would catch the shimmering rain and watch it dance and flutter around their fingertips before winking away. The people looked up and admired the star, awestruck like small children. They adored its light, its love. The star thought to itself, I hope they never think my light will ever outshine their smiles.
The people created a celebration for the star. They danced and sang under the stardust rain, and the star began to laugh. A warm, tinkling sound that brightened its glow, showering more of its light to the people below.
"What is your name?" asked a reveler. "We wish to thank you properly for the light you've given us in the darkest of times."
The star chuckled sweetly and said, "My name is Keirthana, and it is I who should be thanking you. Your smiles and joy shine brighter than I ever could."
Time went on, and with each year the people below would celebrate Keirthana, watching the light grow each year. But behind the light of the star, the darkness grew envious Keirthana's praise. For the world used to worship the darkness, the animals using the blanket of night for safety, the people using it as a place to dream. But now they feared the darkness. They told their children of its evil. Most people didn't even come out to greet it anymore. The people loved their light, and cast away their dark. This will not stand.
One night, after the people had retired to their homes, the darkness approached the star.
"Hello," it spoke in a voice of velvet and cream.
"Oh, hello," the star replied. "I don't believe we've met."
"I suppose we haven't. I am Erebus, the sky when Aurora has gone to slumber."
"I am Keirthana," the star beamed,"what a pleasure to meet you."
"Yes, a pleasure indeed," the inky sky drawled against the glitter of Keirthana. "The people really seem to like you."
"Oh, yes, I've taken quite a liking to them myself."
"Would you like to visit them?" Erebus asked.
"I would love to! But, my place in the sky... I couldn't just leave it."
"Well of course not my child," the darkness said, wrapping his arm around the star's shoulder. "I would keep your place safe, and when you return from below, you'll be able to live here again. What do you say?"
Keirthana considered the darkness' proposal, his voice a serpent slithering through the light.
"Alright," the star said, "I do wish to see their world so very terribly."
"As you wish," said the darkness, the voice no longer a serpent. Now a panther, sleek, cunning, prowling.
The darkness circled the star, the glow fading against the inky clouds. Erebus brought down a blade of darkness upon Keirthana's head, slicing the star in two. The light wavered, gasped a final breath, and dwindled to no more than two spheres of stardust no bigger than a firefly.
Erebus took a flicker of light in each hand and tossed them down. The tiny sparks faded from the Erebus' eyes as darkness stepped into the place of Keirthana. The darkness swirled in watery ebbs and flows before engulfing the sky in the shadow of a raven's wing.
The star is gone. Let the Darkness rule once more.
YOU ARE READING
Keirthana: The Origin of Stars *FINISHED*
Short StoryThe people looked up and admired the star, awestruck like small children. They adored its light, its love. The star thought to itself, I hope they never think my light will ever outshine their smiles.
