[WP09] Lightbringer

[Minsuil]

6. Shooting Star

Lightbringer raised her head and stared up through the tree branches at the sky. It was dark, as one might expect of the night of the new moon, but the darkness was not singular. Stars shone through, bright and pulsing. She was far to the east and north now, the ground had grown drier and the trees more plentiful. (It was a far cry from home.) She was alone, and she must have been for a very long time. Lightbringer could not remember the last time she had spoken. She could not remember how long she had walked, only that she still had very far to go.

She looked to the stars to guide her.

A bright streak ran down the sky and into the northern horizon. Lightbringer watched it descend. A falling star. A sign. She knew.

"I should follow that," she said no more than a whisper, and so she did.  

[Minsuil]

12. Color

A cloud of jelly-fish surrounded her. She'd heard stories of them, but those stories described them as solitary and rare creatures. Neither description fit the image in front of her.

A large sea of jellyfish, like a swarm or a cloud, filled the empty grove. They drifted every which way as if pushed only by the wind. They were every color imaginable. The sunlight shone clear through them and cast a thousand shining prisms of color on the ground.

Lightbringer stood and watched them drift around and above her. She felt the light fall over her pelt, on her horns, her hooves. She too was all different colors! The sunlight was warm, and the colors dazzled.

She raised her head and laughed.  

[Minsuil]

3. Story

Once, there was a doe. She heard the voice as if through a sleepy filter, as if she was half-asleep. It was close but far away. And she was born here, in this tribe. Her mother was fleeting, but her father was strong. He raised her here.

I know this voice, she thought. But she could not open her eyes.

When she was young, she was faster than all the other colts, smarter than all the other fillies. When she was just six moons, she gazed into the Blackwater and saw the stars and she remembered her dream and she knew her name. Her father was so proud. She was strong, but did not like to show off. She was wise, but did not like to speak. The young followed her, they listened to her.

And they loved her. The tribe knew she would be leader one day. How could she not?

But the doe did not know. She did not want to become leader. She got into terrible fights with her father, and then one day, she left.

Lightbringer turned over in her sleep. She did not want to listen to this tale anymore.

Her brothers wanted to track her down. But her father said no. If he knew something, if the seers had told him anything, he did not tell anyone else. The does' family, for that is what a tribe is, all wept at her leaving. They hoped she would come back. But days turned to weeks turned to months turned to years. The doe did not return.

She traveled far and wide, and saw many things. Her only company was a lion, proud and quiet as his master. She never stayed in one place long, but she was happy.

And then, the darkness came. Lightbringer could hear the children, they must have been children listening to this story, draw in a gasp. The darkness came and the doe was chased by it. She passed through mountains of snow and deserts of sand. She walked ancient forests and deep caverns. Finally she came back to the Blackwater.

She stood and her family, brothers and sisters, came to see her. Her father had passed, but there she stood. And the Blackwater reflected a star, but this star was not vision, for on the doe's brow sat a bright pulsing star. And where she stood, the darkness dared not tread. Like this, our tribe drove the darkness back.

And her name?

Her names was --

Lightbringer awoke to Comes Again's tongue. He was waiting for her to wake. When she saw the shadows of the trees, she knew she had overslept. "I am awake now, don't worry. Come, lets make up for the lost time." The lion followed.