Heroes of Dreamland, Book 6 1/2: The Last Sakuranoki (OLD)

A Visitor From The Stars

That night, the small party stopped to rest in a forest. While Tracker lay down under a pine tree and pulled his beret down over his eyes, dozing off soon after, Cherry found herself unable to sleep since her head was far too full of swirling, confused thoughts to allow her to relax.

After watching the stars come out one by one and finding herself rather fond of two stars placed right next each other in one far-off corner of the sky, she sighed and placed the little sakuranoki against a taller oak tree to rest. Even though the oak tree wasn't sentient, it was still a strong, healthy, big tree, and she was hoping that the little one would somehow find that comforting.

For a while, she just sat and stared at the sky, feeling alone. Eventually, though, she decided to quit feeling sorry for herself and actually try to do something useful. So, she got out her notebook and pencil from the inside of her Dimensional Cape and started to draw again.

Again, none of her drawings seemed quite right. It didn't matter how fancy or elaborate the sketch was, it never struck her as being quite right. Giving a growl of discouragement, she flipped the notebook shut and threw it away from her in irritation. It was pointless, anyway. She'd never be able to make a star sword now that she didn't have Galaxia to study and learn from anymore.

With a sigh of sadness, she flew up into the branches of a tree, landed on a big branch, and curled in on herself next to the trunk. After sniffling for a little bit as she thought about what a terrible day it had been, she finally turned her eyes to the stars again, wishing that they could somehow hold the answers that her questioning gaze was searching for.

With no warning, one of the stars seemed to plunge out its place in the sky and started to fly right toward her. At first, she thought it must be a coincidence and continued to watch curiously. When it continued to fly towards her; however, she finally grew nervous and backed closer against the tree, never daring to look away.

After another minute, the star started to hover just in front of her on the branch, still just a tiny pinprick of light even though it should have been a giant ball of fire. It glowed warmly for a moment, then suddenly changed into the shape of a girl Primaean, a species that her dreams had shown her several times before. (A.N.: Remember that Primaean is Fumu and Tuff's species.) Cherry couldn't see the girl's face because she continued to glow too brightly, but she seemed to be a young girl, probably no older than five or six.

"You're sad. Why?"

The being's speaking made poor Cherry jump, almost falling out of the tree to the ground, but luckily, she caught herself by spreading out and then flapping her butterfly wings several times. This made the girl giggle at her, then repeat, "Why are you sad, Fairy?"

Trying to smile, Cherry sat down again and tugged on a strand of her hair like she always did when she was nervous, upset, or anxious. A minute later, the little girl started to copy her, sitting down and pulling on her own hair in the same fashion. At first Cherry thought she was mocking her, but soon she realized that she was just trying to play.

There was a quiet for another second, and then Cherry sighed and replied, "You don't want to have to worry about it. It's nothing."

Shaking her head, the glowing girl disagreed, "No, it's fine. I like it when people talk to me, no matter what it's about. On my planet, we always have to be very quiet, because we don't want the Nightmares to hear us."

Cherry looked at her in confusion. "I didn't know there was a planet where stars lived."

Giggling, the girl explained, "There isn't. I guess I mean my old planet, where I used to live before I became a star."