Solace
. . .
She allows herself to fall into his story, his reality could only be a fantasy for her. The constellations had been like a companion to her in her childhood, her mother and father both had often turned their faces skyward as soon as the hazy twilight had descended over Tephra. Solace had never been one to seek out adventure, but she could lose herself in the stars when Warrick had told her his stories. Never had she thought of weaving between the stars as she did the wisteria trees of Hyaline, but the reverence in his voice made her feel like an unmoored filly, ready to fall victim to a whim.
"Perhaps one day you will fly among the stars too."
At this suggestion, her smile grows a little bitter-sweet, and his comment works to settle her.
"Hmm," she agrees, "One day I may, but not in the same way you do." Many of those stories her father had told her ended the same way - the hero made the ultimate sacrifice, and his soul to found it's way skyward to materialize as a brilliant new star.
She hadn't given much thought to those stories once she left her parents to find her own way, but now that she is thinking about it as an adult, she hopes in some fashion they are true. The nostalgia stings, and with it comes a thin wisp of dread for the day when her father will become a character in one of these stories of star-bound heroes.
"Astrophel," she repeats so she will not forget it. Shaking her head, she clears her thoughts and tosses half her tri-colored forelock over one ear.
"Hyaline is my home, the mountain kingdom to the west," she says with a nod in that direction. Her suspicion that he was not quite of this world had been correct it seemed, and she doesn't want to make assumptions about his knowledge of Beqanna's current geography. "We are a sanctuary kingdom, and I am the Caretaker there."
She watches him carefully for a moment, not ready to leave him standing in the meadow alone and so ethereal. "I would love to show you," she adds, almost cautiously. " It's the most beautiful place this side of the stars, and maybe someday you could show me your home."
@[Astrophel] So sorry for the wait D: