Froesart

Prologue
A long time ago, our sun decided to try something that had never been done before. He was young, only a few centuries old, and had just become king of the Stars. An idea had come to him a time ago, and now he was free to try.
And so he brought the planet that would be known as Earth close to him.

He concentrated, trying to block out the voices of the other stars, jeering at him from a distance. They would see. In time, they would all see. He would create for himself a legend that would never die, that would never end. It all depended on this planet.

And so, he breathed on it.

Then, gently, for it now contained something precious, he set it into orbit around himself. He shaped a few other planets to orbit with Earth, then sat back to watch.
He smiled.

For now on Earth, the first stirrings of life had begun. The Universe was forever changed.


Chapter 1: CHARLENE
Last night, or rather, this morning, a star fell out of the universe and landed in my backyard. The end.

Just kidding. I mean, about "the end" part. I sort of wish that was the end, or maybe that this all hadn't happened. And yet, I am glad that it did. It changed my whole world-literally. I'm glad that I was the one that Araina chose to reveal her to. If she was here, she would say that it was all me, my own instincts that opened the door from my world to, well, the bigger world that she was a part of.

It all started with the caffeine (bet you didn't see that coming) that I  drank earlier that day. A buzz was sitting there in the base of my skull, not allowing me to sleep a wink. It was the second day of summer holidays, and I had been in the car all the day before since school had gotten out at three o'clock yesterday. We had driven all day to reach my aunt's house right before midnight. My parents had done this every summer since I was eight. They were journalists working for a small magazine called Polar Watch that sent them up to the Arctic Circle every year during the summer to look at and write about the wildlife. I wasn't particularly interested in the cold climate that they willingly subjected themselves too, though I did occasionally want to glimpse at some polar bears, and maybe a few wolves. But the magazine only covered the flight expenses of my parents, so I wasn't really invited to go. My parents didn't have a whole lot of money, so they couldn't afford to bring me along. That was okay with me though, because I loved my summers with Aunt Cassandra.

Aunt Cassandra is not your typical old spinster. True, she did live in the middle of nowhere in Indiana, and she lived in a big old house with tons of spare rooms and even had three cats. She was my father's sister, and she was adventurous. Her house sat on 53 acres of land that was mostly woods. She had a few little creeks running through it, and in my opinion, she knew every inch and acre of everything on her land. Her land had character. It wasn't just land, it was like some piece of nature cut out from the world before humans ever touched it, and dropped here in this tiny town that couldn't even boast a mall. Perhaps some spirit of the Indians still dwelled here, lingering in the old, majestic trees. An Indian chief, brave and fierce, perhaps, had taken root in this land. Anyway, Aunt Cassandra didn't just live on the land, or work it, but she was a part of it. She would spend all day outdoors, only packing some bread and cheese and meat to bring along for lunch. She would pack it up in an old tin pail and hide it behind an old rock or halfway submerged in a stream to keep it cool. Most of the time, she would forget she had brought it, or where she had put it, and she'd simply skip eating. It was as if the land itself sustained her, and she didn't need anything else.

She was a little taller than average, with brown, windswept skin and hair. It was hair that never looked prim or proper, no matter how much she brushed it or pinned it, so she mostly just left it down. She smelled like pine trees, and when she laughed, which was often, you got so warm and cozy listening to it, because she really was a happy person. She never talked about not being married. It wasn't as if she wished she was, or wasn't, but as though she didn't care. As if it hadn't even occurred to her to worry about it. She had beautiful blue-green eyes, similar to mine. She was very pretty in a natural, carefree sort of way, and she loved everyone she met.
I had an especially soft spot for her. I wasn't too keen on many of my other relatives, but I didn't see them very much. They were always commenting on my appearance, or my grades, as if those things mattered. But then, how are you supposed to have a deep, meaningful conversation at a family reunion that consists of an afternoon at the park or a barbecue? The goal is to talk to as many people as possible, learn all the things people are doing that they think define them. Aunt Cassandra never went to such family meetings. She said that nothing important was ever said there, and I agreed with her.

Every time I first saw her in the summer, she'd say the same thing.  "Are you ready to live the land this summer?" That meant different things for me every year. Some years I learned about the plants on her land, what was good and bad for eating.  Some years she would tell me about the animals, and their role in the woods. She always told me to respect nature. To ignore it and leave it alone meant it would leave you alone, but you would be missing out. If you ignored the land, you would never feel the glory of seeing a baby bird first cracking its shell, or the way those little babies' parents migrated to the exact same spot every year. You would never feel the satisfaction of knowing that you could survive in the wilderness with just a tarp, a knife, and a flint box for days at a time.  And so she taught me to treat nature right, so that I could make my living with the land.

So I loved my summers with Aunt Cassandra. Nine hours in the car from Kansas was nothing in light of the hours I would spend traipsing through her woods, feeling the sun on my back and aware of everything that she had taught me to see.

I always got the same room every time I stayed at her house. It was in the back, directly over the back porch. Obviously, this meant that I snuck out of my room and onto the porch roof almost every night. The roof was at a slant that ended about six feet above the ground, so I often went traipsing through the night without having to go down the squeaky stairs. Not that Aunt Cassandra would have ever stopped my night time explorations even if I had gone out the conventional back door. The sneaking out through my window was just for fun, to do something secretly. The slight adrenaline surge that came right before I jumped off the roof onto the soft ground below was exhilarating and not to be gained otherwise. I was sure she knew exactly where I landed, because she gardened almost every spot in her backyard around the house besides that spot.

Anyway, I was sitting out on the roof at two in the morning, with a big caffeine buzz from the three cans of diet coke I had had earlier in the day. The first day of vacation was always the same. Swimming in the creek and lounging on the deck, sweating in the hot sun and drinking soda. I usually didn't sleep well the first week I was here. My parents had left that morning for the airport in Indianapolis. They would probably be up in Ontario now, the last stop before heading up into who-knows-where in the Arctic Circle to begin their research. I looked up at the glorious night sky, remembering the lessons in astronomy Aunt Cassandra had given me. I could name almost every star up there, but tonight I was content with just looking.

At first I thought I had dozed off a little. The air suddenly felt different, more like the way it feels right before dawn instead of the middle of the night. The stars seemed to have shifted a little. How could that be? I gazed upwards, trying to focus my mind. I noticed that the middle star in Orion's belt seemed to be missing. What was the name again? I tried to remember the lesson. I peered up at the night sky, determined that my mind was playing tricks on me, when, BAM! It landed in our back yard.

I can't really describe the landing. It was like a shooting star, but coming at me, not across the sky. The light got bigger and bigger, but no brighter. And yet, it wasn't like a shooting star at all. It almost felt like an earth quake in the sky. As if the sky had cracked, and the two sides were rubbing together the wrong way, but creating no sound. I couldn't even put a finger on it, the sky just felt wrong. Then she was there. Glowing dimly in the middle of Aunt Cassandra's backyard was a woman. I was so taken aback, so sure that this was a dream that I just sat there on the roof for at least a minute. Then I jumped down from the porch roof and ran over to her. I was thinking that maybe, she had fallen out of a plane. But that was ridiculous, planes had roofs. A hot air balloon, then? I had never heard of someone taking a hot air balloon ride in the middle of the night, let alone over this part of the world. Maybe she was one of those people who vow to float over the whole world in a hot air balloon or something. It didn't really matter, she was in trouble. Injured, maybe even dead! As I got closer, I realized she was just a girl, perhaps fifteen or sixteen. And she was glowing faintly.  There seemed to be a burn mark around her throat, as if she had been recently wearing a necklace that had grown hot on her skin, leaving blisters. She didn't seem to be breathing.

I tried to remember what I had learned in health class about emergency situations like this. Don't try to move her; she might have a neck or head injury. Try to get her breathing by CPR, call 911. I checked if she were breathing once more then locked my fingers and pushed down on her chest, trying to get her heart going. I could imagine a conversation with the EMTs.  There's a girl in my backyard, I don't know where she came from. Her heart isn't beating and she isn't breathing. I don't know, she just fell out of the sky….. Thankfully, on the first try, she gasped loudly and opened her eyes in alarm, as if she was surprised to feel herself breathing.

"You're okay." I exclaimed, standing up fast, "You fell….. In my backyard."  I peered at her closer, noticing that her eyes seemed to be silver and glowing, like the rest of her. Maybe it was the moon's reflections I saw there, but I started to get a little freaked out. She should not have survived a fall from that height. I didn't know how far she had fallen, but at least several stories. Her face was a mask of confusion, then she reached out and touched my temple with a light finger…. And I felt myself lose consciousness.

I awoke to find myself tucked into bed, with the sunlight streaming into my closed window.  I vaguely remembered a dream… a very strange dream. Something about a girl, and a missing star, and a hot air balloon. But that was just a dream. I jumped out of bed and looked out the window, admiring the view. The majestic trees, the beautiful yard, and... a weird mark out in the yard? I squinted at it. What was it? I heard a noise behind me, and spun around.
And there was that strange girl.  She was sitting cross-legged in the middle of my floor, contemplating me quietly. I recognized instantly despite the fact that she wasn't glowing any more, and her eyes were a normal silvery-blue color. She still had the burn mark around her neck. It looked like it hurt. She was wearing a white dress, so light and airy it was almost a shift, but more modest. The sleeves came down to her elbows and the neckline was high, just low enough to see her collar bone and the burn. The skirt came down to mid-calf. There was nothing fancy about the dress, but its very simplicity combined with the obvious fine quality of the material somehow seemed expensive. She was very slim. Her hair was silvery-blonde and waste length, held back by a silver headband with small silvery-blue jewels in it, the exact color of her eyes. The expression on her face resembled curiosity, as if she had never seen another human before, or as if she had expected me to take a different shape.

"Hello." The voice was beautiful and calm. Her eyes twinkled.

"H-how did you get in here?" Next to her gorgeous voice, my own sounded rough.

"By the window." She pointed one slender finger to the window, as if I didn't know that it was there. "I brought you in here and put you in that bed, because I noticed that is how your… aunt? Was resting."
Why had she hesitated when she said aunt? Did she know Aunt Cassandra? Maybe she was a foreigner, she looked it. Perhaps that was why she had difficulty finding words. Her word choice was a little strange, like English wasn't her first language.

"Where are you from?"  I thought how rude I was being, without even offering my own name, or a drink, or even that she could sit in my chair and not on the floor. But it was very early, just after dawn, and I was shaken by the fact that a strange, foreign girl had climbed into my window at some point during the night, doing who knows what in my room. And Aunt Cassandra! What would she say if she knew?

She considered me for a moment. "I don't think that your language has a word for it. We call it the Fiata: language of the men. That is my home."

I was so confused, so I started with a simple question, "What's your name?"

She paused, "Araina."

"Mine's Charlene. I'm staying with my aunt, Cassandra. Does she know that you're here?"

She cocked her head. "She is not aware of my presence." Again with the weird word choice.

Suddenly I was angry. "Well maybe she ought to know. I mean, this is her house, she has a right to know whoever comes in."

This didn't seem to have occurred to Araina. "I am distressed." She said. "I do not want her to meet me. I need to be kept a secret. I do not want the humans to know that I am here. It may cause chaos."
"What, are you like, a fairy or something? Maybe a witch?" I was being sarcastic. "I saw you fall last night. It wasn't pretty. Maybe you have just hit your head or something. We need to get you to a hospital."
She looked at me. "Can you keep a secret?"

I squinted at her. Despite myself, I was intrigued. How had she survived the fall? Maybe she was running away from someone.  Maybe she was an illegal immigrant or something. That was interesting, so I nodded.
She leaned in a little. "You saw me fall last night. I was thrown from my place in Orion's belt by two traitorous guards who wish to kill my father, the king. They have taken my necklace," she gently touched her burn, "and so have stripped me of most of my powers. I only have seven days to live on this planet and seven days until my father will be murdered."

Wow. This was worse than I had thought. She was a total nutcase. Definitely a head injury. I smiled at her and said in my best motherly way, "Ah, yes. Let me go make a phone call. Maybe I can help you." Yeah, right, help you get to the mental hospital! I started to head to the phone that was downstairs. This was definitely a 911 moment. Maybe a police car with an ambulance.

"Please do not communicate with anyone else. I will have to modify your memory." She gracefully stood up and moved in front of my door so that I would have to get past her to go downstairs. "You seem like a nice human, I would not enjoy doing that to you." She grinned at me.

I blinked. I didn't know anything about hand-to hand combat, and she looked strong and fit. She was in a warrior's stance that I had seen in a few action movies. She might even have a gun hidden somewhere. So I walked backwards and collapsed on my bed. I had a cellular phone hidden in my desk. If I could get to it, I might still be able to call. "So, what are you?"

She relaxed. "I might as well tell you. My father always said that there are a few trustworthy humans, and you seem nice. I am a star. Some humans already know about the existence of my kind. Normally I am much more powerful, but my life source, my necklace, has been taken from me. So I appear in this miserable human form while I am on your planet. But I only have a few days to live." She looked at me like this was an adequate explanation, that nothing more need be said.

"Uh-huh? You're a star?" Maybe I hadn't heard right.

"Yes. And I need something from your earth. I felt it a little after I landed. It's a specific element, the same element that is in every star's necklace, and the store of our power. There is a deposit nearby, and I need your help, if you will come, to find this element."

"Then what will happen? I'm not saying I believe this or anything."

"Then I may go warn my father about the danger he is in. Simple." Her smile faltered a little. "My uncle is evil. I was wrong about him. He wants to overthrow my father, and destroy the most peaceful kingdom in the universe. But I won't let him." She said fiercely, sounding more confident. "Will you help?"

"I don't believe it." I said. And I didn't. But what I did believe was that she belonged to a mental hospital.

"You don't?" She looked crestfallen, as if she really believed the rubbish she was telling me and expected me to believe it too. Her emotions were very easy to read. She thought for a minute. "Do you have any animals? Around this house?"

"We've got three cats, but they aren't very nice. And the woods are filled with animals, deer and squirrels and birds and stuff. But what does that have to do with all this?"
"They are coming." That was all she said. She closed her eyes for a moment. I asked her what she meant, but she refused to tell me anything.

Suddenly, my bedroom door that had been only cracked a moment ago swung open, and all three cats piled into my bedroom, looking rather dazed. One by one, they walked up to Araina, rubbed themselves around her legs in that cat way, then jumped up on my bed.

"Skittles! Miss Nikki! Ralphie!" I said to them in amazement. They didn't really like me, usually. They regarded me in a superior way, amused at the look on my face. Then I heard something peck at my window. Slowly I turned, and screamed. Every single bird (or so it seemed) in Aunt Cassandra's entire forest was sitting on the porch roof outside my window, peering in. The roof was already covered in little bird feces.  In the yard, I could see assorted four-legged wild animals sitting, standing, grooming themselves, or simply gazing stupidly up at the house, wondering what on earth possessed them to come so close to a human's dwelling place. I even thought I could see a bear on the edge of the yard. I hadn't known there were any bears this far south. I wondered if he was hungry.

"Okay! Okay! Make them go away!" I hissed.
As one, the creatures in the yard turned and ambled off in to the forest, melting into the tree line. The birds fluttered away, leaving a few more splatters on the window pane for good measure. Even the cats filed one by one out of my room, twitching their tails haughtily. I gasped a little, then turned to Araina. "Okay! I believe you."

She clapped her hands. "Great! When can we head off?" Oh right, our search for the mystical element.  "Oh! Your aunt is coming up the stairs." She disappeared. Literally.
"Where are you?" I almost shrieked.

"Right here…"Her disembodied voice came from right in front of me. I felt her invisible hand touch my arm, and almost passed out.

At that moment, Aunt Cassandra came into my room. She must have seen the shock on my face because she immediately demanded, "What's wrong?!"

I tried to make my voice steady. "AH…. Nothing! Nothing at all!" my voice suddenly sounded very squeaky.

"Are you sure you aren't hiding a secret boyfriend in here or something?" She chuckled to herself as if it was a highly amusing thought.

I laughed too, nervous. If only she knew. But Araina wanted to keep herself secret, so I didn't say anything about her. "Nope. Nothing is the matter. I'm fine."

"…Okay, I'm going down to make breakfast now. Holler down if you need anything." She didn't look entirely convinced, and swept her eyes around my room one last time, looking for an intruder. But then left.

Araina reappeared on my bed. She bounced a little. "I like you aunt."








Chapter 2: ARAINA
With a shaking hand I grabbed my necklace for good luck and walked up the marble steps to my father's throne.  He always made me nervous.

"You sent for me Father?" I asked, dropping both of my hands so that they fell by my sides in a gesture of respect.

"Yes Araina, my daughter, come to me." I approached him cautiously and kneeled at the foot of his throne. Looking up, I noticed that his own necklace was not burning as brightly as it usually does.

"Is something the matter, Father?" I asked. A shadow of sadness fell across his face, and he paused for a moment before answering.

"Yes, Araina, in the East there are reports of abnormal numbers of black holes surrounding a fellow governor's planets. This has me worried. My kingdom is not a peaceful place anymore." This was how he always spoke, formal even with his closest family members and advisors. It made me feel impersonal and distant. Something else, a tension in the room, made this formality even more brutally obvious.

I looked around, surprised that he had said so much in the hearing of the servants. With a wave of my hand I sent the others in the room to the court yard to stay until my father and I had finished.

"But father, how can this be? Your kingdom has always been the most prosperous in the history of our kind," I asked. I could feel the tension in him as if he were describing it. It was as if the room was frozen solid with words unspoken and fears untold. He was afraid of something else, something he wasn't telling me. Black holes were very sad and destructive, for it meant the death of a star, but it should not have caused him this level of anxiety.

"Things change, my dear. We should know this best of all." He was talking about mother. Just recently she had died by a strange accident and had been poisoned. My father had had the servant who gave her the glass of holy water, killed.  But we all knew it wasn't just the servant, someone had murdered the great queen. Great sorrow had become of my father, and most of the kingdom.  My mother had been a rock, one of the only points of comfort he had allowed himself. Losing her had altered him greatly, torn away a vital part of his personality.  What joy he had was taken from him. I didn't allow myself the thought that it could limit his abilities as king.

My closest friend and advisor, Etya, had encouraged me to speak with my father about my mother's death. To have some closure, perhaps, would make this burden easier to carry. Yet even thinking about bring up this forbidden subject was too terrible.  Etya was a wise friend, but she did not understand my grief. When my mother's loss could have bonded my father and I against whomever was responsible, we each withdrew into ourselves. I suppose that is how we cope, analyzing and finally discarding our emotions from a distance.

"In the meantime, I am going to the east where the governors of the Andromeda galaxy are serving, and advise him in the manner of the black holes. You, my dear, need to go to your uncle and tell him that I will be away for seven days. Go, and come straight back to wait for the sign of the solstice. Also give him a report of the inventory of our Beyunta." His tone gave the impression that we were done with our meeting.

"Yes Father." I said. I wanted to have the courage to say something more, to force him to be more personal with his only daughter, his last relative besides my uncle. Perhaps some memory of my mother, the joy that had enveloped her and now was so obviously missing from our family. But I only bowed, and walked out of the court, feeling the emotions within me still unspoken.