❝ What's left to lose?
What's won is won
But it can always be undone ❞
Doctor Stephen Strange saw fourteen million six hundred and five possible futures. They lose. They fail. Thanos wins and half of the population is gone. Out of all the possible f...
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ONCE UPON A TIME, THERE WAS A LITTLE GIRL WHO BELIEVED WISHES CAME TRUE. Her mother told her stories of magic and kindness and happiness. Stories of adventurers escaping death as they searched for relics lost in history, some of which turned to legend and were said to contain magic, contain enough magic to grant you wishes– or a wish.
The little girl clung to her mother's stories. To her every word and hope. Magic is real, she knows that much, but for wishes to come true– oh how nice that would be. She could wish for anything she wanted. Her head filled with ideas and soon she began to think the impossible because if wishes are real then she can wish for anything in the universe.
One day, one beautiful, warm and cloudless day, the little girl was playing outside. The tall green trees providing ample shade for her to have a tea party with her dolls. Her mother was in the house preparing treats for the tea party, her father was at work and won't be back home until later. The little girl sang and danced under the trees, she talked to her dolls, poured tea in cups, placed napkins on their laps, and soon her mother joined her with cookies and cakes. The little girl and her mother dressed up accordingly for the tea party, drank their tea, ate the cakes and told stories of adventure, magic, and wishes.
It was a normal beautiful, warm and cloudless day.
It was a warm normal day.
It was a beautiful day.
It was a cloudless day.
It was the day her planet came under attack.
They saw it from outside the house. The large ships flew over them and down to the city where they began to shoot. They got out of their ships and began to fight on ground. The people from the planet fought back. Their ships shot the attackers, the sirens were heard around the city signaling an attack so the people can hide and protect themselves. The little girl stared in horror as buildings fell and the city caught on fire. Even from where she stood she heard the terrified screams emanating from the city.
Her mother grabbed her arm and ran to the house but it was too late. Half of the house was shot by a ship over them, the attackers are on the ground and once they saw the mother and daughter, they aimed their weapons at them. The mother picked up her daughter and ran the other way. The little girl screamed and cried when the shot missed them and hit a nearby tree. She clutched onto her mother, buried her face in the crook of her neck and asked for her Papa.
She can still hear the screams of the people, their cries. She then heard her neighbors shouting and she dared to look up only to see them shot down. Again she cried but they were still being chased. They made it to a thickly wooded area where the terrified little girl was brought down and comforted by her mother. She wiped her daughter's tears, calmly spoke to her as she tried to be brave for her little girl.
"I want Papa!" The little girl cried.
"I know, honey, I know" her mother softly said as she passed her hands through the girl's soft hair. "But right now we have to hide. We have to hide and we have to be really, really quiet"
She looked around where all she saw are large trees with no good place to hide. She kept looking over her shoulder in case they were followed, she doesn't see anyone but she can hear the shooting and the screaming. If she doesn't hurry then they'll be found and killed. Her eyes landed on a large tree up ahead, a tree she knows for a fact has a hole in it. A hole big enough to fit her daughter– to hide her.
"Come on. Come on" her mother ushered her as she took her to the tree where tall grass is hiding the hole. She parted the grass and told her daughter to get in. The little girl did so and sat with her knees pulled up to her chest.
"Mama, I'm scared" her wide eyes are glistening with tears, her bottom lip trembled and her voice is laced with fear.
"Just think about this as the first step of your adventure. All those adventurers were scared at first and they got scared while on their adventure. So it's okay to be scared. It's alright. You stay here and be very quiet, can you do that for me? Be very quiet. And if you're lucky, maybe this tree has treasures"
"Magic treasures?" The little girl asked full of hope.
"Maybe" her mother smiled. She heard rustling and her head shot up and looked around. She has to get away from the tree if she wants her daughter to be safe. She looked back down at her scared child and her heart broke. "Now be still and quiet. Okay?"
"No!"
"Shhh. It's alright. I'll be back. You're safe here. Stay in the tree. Don't come out. Whatever happens, don't come out and stay quiet. Just think of the stories. Think of them and you'll be fine. I love you. I love you so so much" She gave her daughter a tight hug, a kiss, let the tall grass hide the hole in the tree and just as she stepped away from the tree, she spotted the attackers and they all ran. The last thing she wanted to do was leave her daughter alone, and although she knows her child is safe, she's still scared for what could happen.
Why is this happening? Why is their planet under attack? They're not in war, they don't have strained relationships with other planets. They're calm and peaceful. So why are they attacking them?
The little girl sat in the hole in the tree where she can still hear the shooting and the screaming. She wrapped her arms around her legs, buried her face in her knees and cried.
"Let me be brave" she whispered to herself. "Let me be brave." She thought of a story, any story, and when she began to tell herself the story it helped her ease a little but she's still terrified. Oh, how she wishes she had the Bow of Whispers, or the Stone of Ventus. Even the Soul Splicer would be nice. But she has neither of those. Those objects are somewhere in the universe, objects of a story her mother told her.
The little girl stared at the tall grass and could barely see outside, but her eyes landed on a couple of grey stones on the dirt inside the hole. She remembered a story her mother told her once. A very old story of magic stones and when they come together they make a decision whether the person holding them can be granted a wish or not. It's just a story, a story of silly magic stones but she believes. She's just a little girl who believes in the impossible. The stones in the hole might not be the ones of the story, but the little girl hoped with all her heart that those really are the stones so she can make a wish.
Wish that everything would stop. Make the attackers go away and leave them alone. Wish for her Mama and Papa.
"I wish..." The little girl tightly closed her eyes and flinched when she heard a scream outside. "I wish..." She heard a shot and then a ship flying overhead. "I wish..." Tears ran down her face and she sniffled. "I wish..."
Once upon a time, there was a little girl who believed wishes came true. She had tea parties in a house that no longer exists, overlooking a city that no longer exists. She lived on a planet that no longer exists, now known only in history throughout the galaxy. Her wish didn't come true but she fiercely believed in them, because if magic exists, why not wishes too?
