Before the Dawn (Draft 1)

Prologue

Sion

Sion's mother had taken some time to fall asleep, so his plan had been considerably delayed, but that didn't stop him. When he got up from his mossy nest to sneak towards their willow dome's entrance, she merely stirred slightly, but didn't wake. Once he was outside, he ran. It felt oddly freeing to run down that wide village path at night, his hooves thumping against the dirt ground, the warm summer breeze and the darkness. Best of all was the lack of all the other fawns hanging around who would look at Sion as he passed and make him feel small. In fact, he had a cut stinging from earlier that day that wasn't healing magically, because an older fawn with an amulet had given it to him. All he'd done was crash into their crude fort by accident, and he'd come out of a patch of ferns unable to see what was ahead of him. Of course he'd crashed, what a stupid place for them to have put their fort.

It didn't take long for him to reach his friend's house. Sion had already told him earlier that day to wait up for him, so he merely came up to the entrance to peek in. Luscin and his parents were all curled up in their nests.

"Luscin," he whispered, ears perked for a response. There was none. Had he fallen asleep by accident? "Luscin...?"

He wandered through the entrance to go and nudge him awake, but Luscin let out a tired "Hmm?" at the second instance of hearing his name, before he opened one eye. "Sion?"

"Did you forget?" Sion asked with a mildly incredulous grin.

"Huh? Oh yeah... sorry, I didn't mean to fall asleep," Luscin apologized quietly with a yawn.

Sion's fur stood right up when Luscin's father began stirring, and they both froze, but he didn't wake up fully. Sion flicked his head to the entrance, eyes wide. They should get out before talking more. Luscin nodded in agreement and stood up, quickly fixing his short fur before following a very excited Sion to the door.

Sion perked up when he remembered something, making a quick exception to the rule he'd just now established to warn Luscin. "Don't look up. Just look at the ground."
"Why?"
"Trust me."

Luscin didn't reply, but he did as he was told and kept his gaze to the ground while they were outside. Sion took in a deep breath and exhaled, before casting his taller friend an excited and very genuine smile. Luscin returned it, and it made the size of Sion's almost double. He lead Luscin through the forest where it was darker due to the canopy. It was silent aside from the soft, comforting rustle of leaves above, and the crunching of debri beneath them.

"Where are we going?"

"I'm not telling you, that's the whole point," Sion answered quickly, still smiling. Luscin would love this.

"Can I have a hint?"
"My mom took me here awhile ago, so I wanted to show it to you," Sion explained

"That is... completely unhelpful."

"Exactly."

Luscin rolled his eyes with a bemused smile.

Once they finally got to the clifftop that looked over a steep side of the mountain, Sion brought Luscin to the edge, minding him to be careful. It was windier up here, and it was warm and comforting and it sang softly in Sion's ears.

"Look up."

Luscin did, and he froze. Sion was watching him for a reaction, and he found that made him just as happy as the stars did. Luscin loved it.

"You love it!"
"I... wow. How have I never seen this?"

"That's what I thought," Sion admitted. They lived in a place called Stellae and yet had gone thirteen years of their lives without properly seeing the stars. Sion wondered how many others there were who hadn't seen them, and he felt grateful that his mother had shown him. He'd reacted just as Luscin was now. Luscin looked over at Sion and gave his real, small smile. Sion gave a nervous one in return when he realized how long he'd been looking at Luscin, and redirected his gaze up at the sky. Luscin broke the silence with a small analysis.