Influences of Stars

Part 1- Before

Chapter 2

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He arrived later than they did. And perhaps that was why he was always the one they teased.

"Children are precious," Agnes used to tell them after Constance whined about having Theo trail after them everywhere. Her bony fingers were always wrapped around a wooden cross she always carried close to her chest. "We must treasure all the ones that come as God told us to fill the earth with them. So that is why he came, and that is why you must be good to him. He is part of God's vision."

"He should be with the boys," Charis said in an attempt to be pious, but she was already half in love with him. Her eyes never moved from him when he first came into their lives, a dark haired creature with eyes far wider than his face.

"He doesn't suit them. He suits you," she told them. What did she mean by that? They didn't know then.

Agnes had a way of talking in riddles. She answered them either indirectly or with reference to the Bible, neither of which they understood yet. She had been among the first on the boat, or so she says, and had begat the man who would one day become Constance's father.

They liked listening to her speak. She was melodic and soft even thought her voice had become nothing more than thin paper stretched above a surface of water.

***

Perhaps they should have know she would be the first one to get caught. The first fallen. The first person to be found harbouring an incurable disease that had to be purged before it could spread any further.

According to the elders, it is spreading. It does nothing but spread. A fire. Can Constance feel it within her?

***

"Well, I like him," Tibby declared. "I think he shall be fun to play with."

"We don't need anyone else to play with. Three is plenty," Constance said, though she said it mostly to establish her authority. She liked to think she was in charge. Therefore, when she changed her mind later that day, it felt like her decision even though meeting him in the woods was always going to lead to one thing.

After all, what could four children do if they met in an endless expanse of woodland but play together?

"Theo, you must be the damsel and I will be your husband," Constance said, the winding branches a frame around her stage. "Tibby, you are the monster and Charis, you can be the woodland spirit."

They all sat at her feet, keenly listening to her instructions and ready to take on their role. However, as the others stood up, ready to project their imaginations into the world upon which they stood, Theo somewhat awkwardly raised his hand to catch their attention. "I should be the husband, really," he said.

"Why?" asked Constance, who tended to take the games that Tibby made up and allocate herself the most heroic role. None of the others ever minded. Tibby preferred to be a creature of darkness, to submerge herself in the earth and smother herself in a naturalness with the excuse of the game to justify a connection to the animals and the nature she adored so much, and Charis was amenable to anything passed to her.

"Well, a husband is a boy...and so am I," Theo pointed out.

"Don't be silly," Tibby said dismissively, before pushing off her outer skirt and throwing it at him. "Here. You can wear this and Constance can wear your breeches."

He barely questioned it after that. As they all swapped clothes, Charis adopting Constance's dress which was suited for the more ethereal spirit she intended to play and Tibby taking on Charis' rags to play her monster, their laughter rang throughout the woods, the branches tossing the sound upwards until it reached the sky.