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The Meteor Shower (3) : It wouldn't be a star festival without a meteor shower! Right on time, a beautiful array of shooting stars graces the night sky. This time of year is unnaturally clear and it's incredibly easy to see the stars. Most meteor fragments appear to be little white or yellow lights streaming across the sky, but if you watch closely enough you may find that some of them seem to be a whole rainbow of colors. The scientists have reported that it's just different components burning up as they enter the atmosphere, but there's something undeniably magical about it.
Jihlava had never expected to feel the call that rang through her soul. Much less feel it with such urgency. Truthfully, she’d resigned herself to slowly fading away in the dark, fighting a losing battle against the Chaos that had infected her home. But the call had woken something up inside of her. Light. Hope. Call it whatever you wanted, it set a spark to something long dormant inside of her.
And it called her towards Earth.
Which was a choice, give the little she remembered hearing of the place ages and ages ago. Still, that sense of ‘Hurry, hurry, hurry!’ goaded her into movement. In a frantic rush, she’d sped through the Great Library, grabbing things: books, portable riches, random trinkets and stuffing them all into a large, cobwebby sack that had lain forgotten in a corner. Once she was done, she fled the Library, feeling almost as if her window of time was rapidly shrinking. She paused on the stairs that led down into the town and looked over everything. She would be back someday. She wouldn’t let her world rot and fade.
Then, with a sigh, she let go and opened her heart to the call, letting it pull her towards Earth. Though the journey was quick, Jihlava still had a distinct impression of being surrounded by hundreds of shooting stars, all falling to Earth with her. She was surrounded by light and color and what felt, most undeniably, like pure magic.
Then, the moment ended and she found herself standing in an area ringed with more trees than she’d ever seen before in her life. Looking up, she could see the sky above, clear as anything. Meteors plunged from the sky, bright and colorful trails of stardust following and fading into the velvet dark. Feeling slightly overwhelmed, Jihlava sat rather abruptly on the grass covered ground. Everything around her was so alive and free of the taint of Chaos. Her fingers scraped and tugged through the grass as she spent a moment reassuring herself that this was real. She wasn’t dreaming. She felt something hard in the grass and picked it up, curious. In her palm lay a small, star shaped charm with a pretty, fuschia center. She had no idea what it meant or where it had come from. But she was choosing to take it as something of a sign. A good omen.
Slipping the trinket into a pocket, she turned her attention back to the meteor shower. It really was beautiful. She could stay here and rest a little longer. The air was comfortably cool against her skin and she thought she could hear laughter in the distance along with exclamations when a particularly brilliant meteor fell. She hadn’t seen anyone else yet and for that, she was profoundly grateful. What language did they even use here? She couldn’t even remember what the people of Earth were said to look like. No, for now, staying in this lovely, secluded little spot was for the best. Even when the stars above stopped falling, she stayed. Eventually, she slept, free for the first time in centuries, to truly rest.
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