A Destiny City Star Festival Tradition to be held every year; In Town Square, there is a beautiful tree with spreading branches. It is tall, but the lowest branches are easily reached. The city has decorated the tree with small, starlike ornaments and glistening lights. Thick leaves and beautiful purple flowers dangle from the branches, along with a myriad of different colored papers with handwritten wishes. Next to the tree is a stack of blank paper with twine attached, and a handwritten sign that explains:

Write your wish on a sheet of paper and tie it to the tree. Take one wish off the tree and do your best to grant it. When you have granted the wish, bury the paper in the park.

The papers are biodegradable and filled with seeds. There are no rules for wishing, but you are encouraged to wish for something vague enough that it can be interpreted in many ways so that it can be granted; you do not write your name on it, but it is encouraged to write something that doesn’t wish for self gain, but rather something that can make the world a better place. Some wishes dangling from the tree already include things like “I wish there wasn’t so much litter in the park,” “I wish someone would clean the graffiti off the old historic buildings,” and “I wish there were more volunteers at the shelter.”

If you choose to use the Wishing Tree, what do you wish for? If your wish is private, you may write it on the paper and choose a spot in the park and bury it yourself instead of hanging it on the tree.


Six months. Had it already been six months? Had it only been six months. Imagi felt like it had been both years and only days since... since... She still had a difficult time putting words to what she'd seen. She remembered it all in panicked and painful slivers of memory. She remembered shouting and pain and regret. She remembered the way her sister had changed in her arms. Remembered the sting of Alpha's claws as she tried to get away. She remembered begging and pleading and sobbing for it all to stop.

She remembered screaming that she loved her sister and that it didn't change a damn thing.

Her parents were still looking for Aura. It didn't matter that Imagi knew the truth, she couldn't tell anyone anyway. All she could do was make her own search effort. Every night since there, from sunup to sun down. She'd dropped out of school. Devoted every spare second she had to finding her sister. Because she knew that if she didn't then no one else would.

She'd lost her sister and it was her responsibility to find her.

Except that it had already been six months and Imagi didn't have even a single shadow of a lead on her.

Worse, Imagi was starting to give up hope. With each night coming back empty handed she was beginning to get used to the idea that she would live in mourning. And with each passing day her parents were saying the word "funeral" more and more. And she was beginning to believe that she could live with that. Maybe, she wondered to the moon and deep black night, she would be able to move on if they just put Aura's memory in the ground. But then she wondered if she deserved the move on, or if she should be punished forever for what she had done.

Another part of her wanted to join her sister. Maybe the only way to find her other half was to become a monster just like her. But would she remember anything if she did? Was forgetting a sweeter fate than living with the memory of what she had failed to do? Did she deserve that sweeter fate?

It had been six god damned months and Imagi had failed every single day of those months. Failed to keep herself together. Failed to comfort her parents. Failed to find her sister.

Aura had loved the Star Festival, Imagi remembered. Loved the summer events where she could be out in the sun stretching her legs and socializing with everyone and anyone she could find. She loved the fireworks, the food, and the fairs all around town. She even loved those harmless and strange things that happened around the city this time of year.

But the thing that Aura loved most of all was the Wishing Tree. She loved the look and the spirit. She loved making all kinds of benevolent wishes and taking as many as she could to grant with her endless fonts of energy. It hurt to look up at the tree now, alone this year instead of trying to ignore her sisters excited squeals and happy talking.

She’d give anything to be annoyed by that now.

Without thinking, Imagi took a slip of paper from the stack and considered it for a moment. What had brought her here? What did she hope to find? Aura, back to her normal self, squealing with delight as she chose the perfect wish to grant? A lead as to where her sister was? Forgiveness? Absolution? It was hard not to be angry with herself in that moment as she puzzled over her own actions. All she’d been doing was puzzling. Puzzling over her next move. Puzzling over what had happened. Puzzling and puzzling and not getting a damn thing done.

She took one of those tiny pencils and left, her mind moving too quickly for her to be able to process. Thoughts buzzed around like angry wasps, flinging themselves against her skull and angrily stinging her brain when they had the chance. She walked, but she didn’t know where to.

Not until she arrived.

Any trace of that battle had been long since cleaned up or worn away. All that was left now were patches of burned earth and the memory of screams and smoke. Imagi’s legs moved on their own, taking her to a place she knew as well as her own bedroom.

She sat down in the space where she’d last seen her sister and leaned back, listening to the silence of the summer afternoon around her. Leaves in far off trees rustled. The grass shifted around her, kicking her legs as she sat. The breeze cooled her face and dried her tears as they fell.

I wish I had my sister back.

A simple sentence, printed in clear, deliberate lettering.

It was a stupid wish, Imagi knew that. No wishing was going to bring her back. But here she was anyway, digging a shallow hole with her hands and the tiny little pencil. She dropped the slip of paper into the earth without a sound and used the pencil like a kind of marker to remind her where it was.

It was the closest thing to a grave Imagi would be able to make.