Luminescence

The Squirrel and the Star

Moving along the ground with multiple new limbs, Squeak-squeak-trillllll-spit had lost all sense of himself. With the loss was a sense of his surroundings as well. He only knew the flash of darkness and color and the rush of instinctual attack. Ambers, oranges, yellows, and forever that deep black, black, black that went as deep as his fear, for a creature of the light could only exist within fear in this realm.

And then, without knowing what had happened or what had begun, he came to blinking in the morning light with all four of his original fuzzy limbs and his precious bushy tail. Grass rustled in his vision between rocks. He instantly recognized the unnatural pattern as man-made. Sniffing, he caught the scent of water. Lots of it. More than he had ever smelled. With growing bewilderment, Squeak-squeak-trillllll-spit scrambled up one of the stone stacks and peered over the side. Sure enough, far below—much farther down than any tree was tall—was a great sea of water.

He just about fainted. How in the world had he gotten here? Wherever here was? One minute he was sitting on a tree branch holding his sister's walnut as the sky grew gold—

Oh nuts. The walnut.

Though he already knew it wouldn't be around here, he looked anyways, sniffing madly, tail up high. This couldn't be happening. His sister would kill him. Not only that but where by the Great Squirrel was he? How would he ever get home?

And to make matters worse, a noise of large, flapping wings came to his ears. A shadow fell over him, and with deep trepidation he looked up and screamed.

The winged female human had come back for him.

And it had brought along another flying human.

Still screaming, he ran about on the flat wall of stones, leaping down to run some more on the pavement he had woken up to. The shadows were shifting, and the humans were drawing closer. One looked bigger than the other, but both were so gigantic to him he really couldn't tell the difference. Not to mention they were most likely going to eat him, so it didn't matter how big they were.

"I barely remember you, Jasmeen. Why do you expect me to just follow you blindly?"

"Because you have no one else to trust."

"I have Link!"

"Heh. You haven't changed a bit. You know some humans attribute wisdom to the moon. I don't know where they got that idea. Must I remind you that it is because of him that you are in this state? It is his lover—yes, there is something between them, I saw it myself, so squash your silly hopes—but it is his lover that has tricked you into this state. Now, do not speak. You're throat--"

"I don't trust you."

Squeak-squeak-trillllll-spit slowed down as it dawned on him that the monster humans hadn't even seen him yet. With his heart still pounding in his ears, he slowed and crept behind a lose stone to hide. He still didn't want to risk being seen. He didn't recognize the crazy noises they were making, nor what they meant, but he knew it had something to do with the end of the world. There was a reason the Big Squirrel didn't make humans able to fly. Besides, they were like monkeys and could climb well, so they didn't need flying on top of it.

"I know your memories are blurry, but you really should have thought of this before making that deal with the Twilian queen. Your mortal mind cannot handle the memories of an immortal. It is part of the state of mortality—memory is imperfect. Even I know this. But we can fix all that. You brother is looking for a way to get your immortality back from the Twilian as we speak. All I ask of you is that you trust me until then. It will all make sense soon. Now come."