"I CAN'T PULL YOU CLOSER THAN THIS
IT'S JUST YOU AND THE MOON ON MY SKIN."
Vela had though being mortal would be more difficult. A strange concept, perhaps, to consider living easy. But Vela had always assumed that there was more effort involved. She assumed, incorrectly, that breathing and walking and keeping her heart beating would require conscious thought. She reveled in the fact that this body did these things effortlessly and without thought. Sometimes, it surprised her. Reflexes were a new sensation - both amusing and useful to one who had never had the experience before. Every day brought with it new wonders - simple things that perhaps those who had always lived here had overlooked.
Much like her departed sister, Vela was very much a nocturnal creature. At nighttime, she didn’t feel so alone in the world because her star-sisters cast their light down upon her. However, her curiosity about the day often had her wandering long before dusk. That’s what lead her to the forest today. The labyrinth of trees was a whole different world in the light of day. Sunlight trickled through thick branches in the strangest of patterns. So many animals darted through the underbrush and scaled the towering trees. A whole different variety of birds twisted through the branches than those who came out at night. Vela was so absorbed in the sheer newness of it all that she didn’t even notice that the sun had already slipped below the horizon.
Since her rebirth here, she hadn’t spent a single night shielded from the stars. Realizing that night had indeed come, she turned her gaze skyward - looking for her sisters. Only she was met with an impenetrable canopy of branches. A canopy so thick that the light from the stars was completely masked. Panic settled into her belly, hot and fierce, as adrenaline poured through her veins. She didn’t understand what was happening to her body, but she was too consumed in her thoughts to even register the experience. She pulled her wings tighter to her starry sides and whirled around, trying to retrace her steps back towards the edge of the forest, but as time progressed she realized she was hopelessly and endlessly lost, with not even her sisters to guide her.
V E L A
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