Orah lay staring at the ceiling of her room long after the sun had set on her asteroid, listening to the wind play through the wind chime she had hung in the archway of the balcony. With no animals on Ida, it had always been so very quiet... the chimes had been an attempt to bring some life to the place, some noise.
It wasn't really the soft clinking of sea glass that kept her awake, though. Silence alone wouldn't have helped any. What kept her awake was a restless mind and throbbing pain in the cut along her thumb. Today had been bad... probably the worst she'd had thus far. It left her in a dark cloud for the rest of the day and sent her to bed pensive and moody.
Sitting up, Orah wrapped her arms around her knees as her eyes slide along the trail of moonlight along the grain of the floor. Dactyl had just cleared the tree line, shining bright and full tonight. In another life, the moon had been her brother's... her protector. In this life, it was as any other moon... silent and watchful.
After a while, restless and edgy, Orah rose from the bed she had set up in the room she had chosen and wrapped her sleeping bag around her shoulders. Bare feet made hardly a sound on the wood-like floor. It was not long before the young woman emerged from the stairs of her tower into the grassy field that stretched before it. Out here, nothing between her and the sky, she took a deep breath and lifted her face to the moonlight. She fancied she could almost feel it against her skin.
Finding a seat on the ground, sleeping bag a puff of down around her, Orah sat and watched the stars winking above her.
They looked so peaceful... serene and untroubled. Each one, as far as she knew, claimed a senshi of its own. Each had a protector the way she protected Ida. It was... comforting, in a strange way. Even so far from home, she wasn't really alone. She was part of the stars... a senshi. Her asteroid surrounded her, warmth leaking up from the soil under her to seep through her body and relax stiff muscles. It was like being held in the arms of a parent... Safe. Secure.
Rolling onto her side, knees pulled up, Orah curled herself into a ball with her sleeping bag pulled to her neck. She had yet to see it rain on Ida... sleeping under the stars would not trouble her. Rather... it felt nice, to be out here. Nothing between her and existence. Part of it, but also separate.
Orah slipped easily into sleep here, deep and untroubled. No nightmares visited her in the night, only small flowers that glowed all around the nest she had made in the grass.
Word Count: 481
