Binary Star

1.

    The forest always looked different at night. Even with the light casting away the darkness, everything had an unfamiliar slant to it. As if the daytime trees and flowers and stones had gone to bed and sent slightly more ominous versions of themselves to take their places.

    Xayah always had a liking for nighttime, sitting outside with her father just as the sun was setting in the sky and watching the stars slowly peak out from their hiding places. She loved the stories her father would tell her, that stars were like beacons of hope for all the lost souls of the world. Such as now, as her father and her sat outside staring up at the night sky.

    "-lba, will you tell me a story?" Xayah asks, her young voice cutting through the silent chitter from the nocturnal nature around them.

    Xayah's father looked down at her, a soft smile making its way on to his face as he thinks for a short minute.

    "Alright, iminha," he says "How about a story about the stars?" he proposed as he wraps an arm around his little girls' waist, hoisting her on to his lap with a slight giggle and quick nod from her, "Yes!"

    With a quick kiss to her forehead, he began,

   "It might not be something that many bother to think about, but stars are in constant conflict with themselves. They rely on gravity to keep pulling them inwards, otherwise the star would just continue to collapse for millions of years until it becomes nothing more than a speck of dust."

    A confused look passes over Xayah's face, but is quickly replaced with awe. "Really? So.. Stars are kind of like us then?" she tilts her head as she asks her father.

    "In a sense, yes." Her father replies, "We rely on magic to keep us afloat, and without magic we would slowly fall. That is why we fight to protect our lands, to keep not only us safe, but to protect the magic that surrounds us."

    Xayah nods, a deep thinking look on her face. "Well, what about stars that lose their gravity? What happens to them?"

    Her father thinks, "Well, most stars lose gravity with age, sort of how humans pass on once they get old." her father answers, "however, there are some interesting stars out there, although quite rare."

    Xayah perks up at the mention of rare stars, a big smile on her face, "Tell me about those stars please!" she begs.

    "Alright, alright" he chuckles "sometimes, a star will find a companion, sort of how we find friends. These stars share a connection greater than us, and are said to be the souls of two lovers that had an eternal bond." he says, pointing up at a stray star in the sky that was seperated from the others. "You see how that star, along with many others only look like a single star?" he asks Xayah.

    She looks up, examining all of the stars that littered the sky, then focusing on the singular one. "Yes." she answers her father.

    "Well, what looks like a single star, can sometimes be two stars. I like to say that these stars are in a dance so close that they appear as one from afar, but close up they're actually two. Their love was so deep to the point where when their souls turned into stars, they were intertwined and spend their years in the sky together." he finishes, staring up at the sky.

    Xayah stares up at the sky as well, letting everything she was just told settle in. Her eyes sparkle as they set on a bundle of stars close together. "What if someone hasn't found love here? Can they still find it up there?" she questions.