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 Posted: Wed Jan 22, 2020 4:29 pm
 Khurshid stood on the cliffs and looked out across the valley below. Tall trees poked out of the morning mist like reeds out of a river, and the shining waterfalls filled the valley with the dim, distant roar of their waters. It was still chilly, in spite of the sun; but then again, it had only just risen, so it made sense that it hadn't had much of a chance to warm up the world. Still, it was warm enough to warm Khurshid as she stood in the early sunlight, letting it soak into her dark coat and bright wings. Days like this made the world seem like a better place, a lighter place. Mornings like this made all of the world seem worthwhile.
And yet, the world was changing. Khurshid had been born into this world; she had never fallen. In the time since she had been born, she had seen the world change more than she had ever thought possible. Falling Stars changed the world, and while some of them, like Khurshid were good, and kind, and peaceful, it seemed like most of them were instead cruel and violent. War was spreading across the world, and it seemed like herds no longer existed as families, but instead as tools and weapons to destroy each other and tear her world apart.
Khurshid willed herself not to cry. She set herself up stubbornly, and stood still and proud and defiant in the morning sun. She would not bow to the stupidity and violence of the new world. She would not let it fall. She would defend it. If only she could figure out how; because right now, the only solution she could think of was to continue to be good and do good where she could. When she was younger, that had seemed like the correct way to do it, but now...?
Now it seemed too small. It wasn't enough to change the world, and she could think of nothing more depressing than that.
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Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2020 9:24 pm
Visenya had never known the world as anything other than the one it was. She'd been raised by her mother--not the most comfortable upbringing, considering her mother's rather tenuous grip on reality, but it had been enough of an upbringing that she...survived, and came out of it with a fighting spirit. She'd been getting better at fighting lately, actually. Her mother had never been able to teach her. She would start, but then she would get distracted with something else. Usually it was the weather or rocks or bad memories. Bad memories most of all. Mother's head had been full of dangerous memories, memories of death and blood and destruction. Mother had remembered her own mother being murdered, or at least that's what Visenya thought she was talking about. It had been hard to tell, especially as Mother had gotten older and more and more fallen back into the past.
So far as Visenya had been able to figure out, the world was a dark place, and it always had been. The way to survive was to fight for your own place and for your own family. This was the world that she had been brought up in, and as unpleasant as it was, it was the way the world was. The only way to make it different was to make a little bubble around yourself in which things were better--your chances of actually making it good were low, very low.
Still, even in dark times, there was some beauty. Take this long, deep valley, for example--it was full of trees and mist, and waterfalls plunged from the high mountain tops into glittering streams below. Visenya had spent the evening up in a tall tree, listening to the wind and the nighttime bird calls, and this morning she stood as high up in the tree as she could to catch the morning sun on her cold wing-webs. The velvety black skin had warmed up gratifyingly quickly, and before long she was in the air. She flew up the valley and over the misty forest below, stopping only as she soared over the cliffs and saw a dark figure on the cliff edge. It would appear to be another Star. Well, she might as well greet them, after all, get to know who was living here. After all, Visenya quite liked this valley--she might like to stay here for a while, and she ought to know who her potential neighbors were. "Good morning," she murmured to the figure, who turned out to be a dark Lyra with bright gold wings. "It is a lovely morning, don't you think?"
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