can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars,
I could really use a wish right now;

She felt like her world was spiraling.

The plague had settled into her veins long ago, and even though her parents had tried to keep her safe, they had other things to distract them from her. Perhaps not her father, so much, but certainly her mother. Ryatah had been over-protective at first once she realized her daughter had fell ill, keeping her close and refusing to let her leave Tephra. But it didn’t last. As she was so prone to doing, her presence was sporadic at best, with new scents still clinging to her skin, and new eyes – and she would never forget the way her mother had looked at her for the first time with those almost-black eyes, the way they had brimmed with tears and she pulled her so tightly to her chest, and for a moment Evenstar almost thought she was going to stay, for good – that she wouldn’t explain how they had came to be. And then the twins; the twins that were not her father’s, with their impossibly black coats, and it confused her the way her mother cooed over them with virtually no guilt.

She wanted to dislike them, but she didn’t have it in herself. Evenstar was too kind, too caring, and when their mother disappeared – again – she watched over them, filling them with the empty promise that Ryatah would be back soon. She’s probably with your father, is what she never says, even though the thought crosses her mind.

When she comes to the forest, it is an attempt to clear her head from everything else. She felt a little guilty about leaving the twins behind in Tephra, but for now, she just wanted to forget everything. She was still nearly a child, not even three years old, and everything was slowly becoming too much. Perhaps the mindless hum of those around her would be enough to lull her into a false sense of serenity.

The winter sun is high in the sky, and the cool rays strain through the thick trees to caress her jade-green shoulders as she walks. It is oddly quiet, and for a moment, she revels in it. It is not until she realizes that the birdsong has all but ceased, that the sunlight had become suffocated by the shadows, that she stops. She cannot explain the cool prickle of anxiety that suddenly races up her spine, but something tells her she should go back. Slowly, she turns, and when her eyes lock with another pair, a gasp of surprise spills from her tongue before she can stop it. “Hi,”The incredibly softly spoken word almost seems loud in the hush of the forest, as she tries to differentiate the face and body from the shroud of darkness it stands in. There was something oddly un-equine, but in the muted lighting, she struggles to see. “I...I think I might be lost.” She swallows nervously, glancing up at  whoever it was cautiously with her wide, brown eyes.

Her mother had never warned her of what lurked in the dark, and she doesn’t know enough to be afraid.

I'm praying that this stairway leads somewhere like Heaven's door,
and when you get there don't look down

can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars,
I could really use a wish right now;

Evenstar knew nothing of her older siblings. For her, it was as though her mother was two completely different individuals. There was the Ryatah from before – the one before the reckoning, with the kingdoms of old, and with her other children (but the same lovers). But then there was this Ryatah. The one that had returned, that had been reunited with Evenstar’s father, and they had started what was suppose to be a new chapter. Neither of them – Skellig and Evenstar – had counted on the white mare completely going off script. The young girl had watched silently as her mother spiraled, as new siblings were born every spring (how she smelled like a different man every time, how sometimes those new eyes still couldn’t see, and with a peculiar mark scarred into her hip), but still she said nothing. It was none of her business; even if it broke her father’s heart, and even if it lifted whatever veiled illusions she had held of her mother, she said nothing.

When her eyes pierce through the darkness and find the strange, alien face of something that isn’t quite equine, she feels her heart stop. But she thinks of Gilt – the beautiful boy with the dragon head – and how even though he did not look like the rest of them, he had never brought her any harm. It is that foolish, false hope that keeps her standing still; that almost urges her closer. When the creature emerges from the cloak of darkness, the dim light reflecting off the sheen of her eyes, Evenstar can feel her blood run cold. Her legs twitch with the need to run, but something keeps her rooted to the ground. Something tells her that running would just trigger an attack, but as she stands there trembling, she isn’t sure if it matters much.

“I’m Evenstar,” She offers the creature in her incredibly quiet voice; a voice that she tries to keep from shaking, but she knows she has failed. Everything in her body radiated fear, from the rapid pulse of her heart, to the way her muscles were coiled and tense underneath her jewel-green coat. She does not even realize that there is another – the one that is actually her sister. She is only watching the one in front of her, and for some reason that she cannot explain, she takes a tentative step towards her.

I'm praying that this stairway leads somewhere like Heaven's door,
and when you get there don't look down

can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars,
I could really use a wish right now;

She watches the one in front of her, still wide-eyed and too inquisitive for her own good. Evenstar knew that not everything in the world was pleasant and fair, but by her naivety in this situation, you wouldn’t know it. She had been born when the plague struck. She had watched as both her parents fretted over how they would keep her safe, and remembers how devastated they had been when she made the mistake of getting lost outside the protective shield of Tephra and she contracted the illness they had been trying to protect her from. She had watched from a young age as the love between her parents splintered and frayed, unraveled further by her mother’s unfaithfulness and her father’s unwillingness to accept it.

She knew, more than most her age, that the world was full of shadows and unjust moments, but it had never occurred to her that someone would want to physically hurt her.

There is a flicker of movement behind the strange creature, and like a cat to a string, her attention shifts.

She can’t even react fast enough when the other creature launches from behind her.

Instinctively, she startles away from her, a reflexive cry trying to scream from her throat but her fear seems to paralyze all sound before it reaches her tongue. She nearly collides with the other creature in her flight response, which causes her to dart forward and to the side. It is only her quick, deer-like movements that causes her to narrowly miss both their jaws, but even then, she already knows it was useless. Even as she runs, even as she weaves in and out of the tightly packed trees, she can feel them running up her heels. Her speed would be nothing compared to theirs, and it is only on adrenaline alone that she manages to keep the minuscule gap between them.

I'm praying that this stairway leads somewhere like Heaven's door,
and when you get there don't look down

can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars,
I could really use a wish right now;

She can feel the way her lungs begin to sting, and the way the air burns her throat as she gasps for it. Her muscles her aching, and her legs are beginning to tremble as they scream at her to stop. But without even glancing back she knows the monsters are closing in, and already all she can dare to hope is that when they kill her, it is fast.

Ripley’s jaw finds her back leg, and it’s enough to make her stumble, and when the teeth are sunk into her thigh, she is powerless to fight as she is ripped to the ground. The screams that are torn from her throat are swallowed by the trees and shadows, and she knows they are useless; there is no one around to hear her. Somewhere in the back of her mind she has already accepted that this was where she was going to die – completely alone, with nothing left of her to ever be found. Her parents will never know what became of her, and this, more so than the teeth being sunk into her muscles and the acid that drips and burns her skin, is what causes the tears to spill down her cheeks.

She has no way of knowing that somewhere in the forest, something else is running towards her. She has no way of knowing that Casimira, curious of where her old sister was going, had followed her.

The young white girl trips through the underbrush and bramble, having lost sight of her sister some time ago. As usual, she had snuck off without Cassian, which secretly, she always found to be a little bit hilarious. He always got so upset when she did something fun without him, but he was also never paying attention. In her opinion, it served him right.

Casimira was still too young to fully understand why there seemed to be an invisible wedge between her and her older sister. She didn’t understand that she associated herself and her twin brother with being the reason their mother didn’t always get along with Evenstar’s father. And delving even further than that, Casimira could never begin to understand the illusion of a perfect family that her sister had been living with. She herself has never met her father; her mother rarely spoke of him, and she found it difficult to miss something she had never had. It confused her why Evenstar seemed to care so much, but she also desperately wanted her to like her. To actually like her, and not fake like her the way she usually did.

When she hears a scream, she almost doesn’t recognize the voice. The sheer pain and fear that it carried with it sunk inside the marrow of her bones, and she knows for certain that her heart stopped.

For a moment, she almost turns back. She was not meant to be heroic or brave, and she is so certain that it couldn’t possibly be her sister making that sound. But the sound comes again, and this time, there is a note of familiarity to it. It’s not something she can pinpoint, but it makes her blood run cold.

When she rushes through the forest and follows the trail of broken branches and destroyed brush, she begins to shift without realizing it. It was typically an awkward and ungraceful process, but this time she does not notice when her sleek coat morphs into hardened scales, or when the dragon wings erupt from her behind her shoulders. In another two strides, her equine form is entirely replaced for that of a white dragon.

She hardly has time to register what she sees when she comes upon the trio. All she sees is a flash of green buried between two large, strange looking creatures, and all she hears is her sister’s desperate cries. For a moment, she almost opens her mouth to unleash the flames that form in her throat, but somehow she manages to think it through. There are too many trees, and she knows she lacks control in her dragon form to not accidentally burn Evenstar. But she is larger than them – not by much, since she is not full grown, but it is enough.

She goes for the bigger one first, colliding her larger form directly into her in hopes of knocking her away. With a snake of her reptilian head she snakes around, trying to be mindful of her sister’s delicate equine form as she reaches over her to snap at the smaller beast. Back and forth she goes, snapping and lunging, letting her powerful tail swing as she turns from one to the other. Her hope is that they will decide this prey is not worth it; that trying to take on a dragon that was hellbent on protecting what was hers was a waste of energy. She has been so good at controlling the monster that clawed inside of her whenever she shifted into her dragon form, but already she knows without question that she will lose herself without hesitation if it meant saving her sister.

I'm praying that this stairway leads somewhere like Heaven's door,
and when you get there don't look down