Wand’ring Child of the Earth
On the bridge of a starship, a man and woman stood, their postures tense in argument. The woman, porcelain-skinned with glossy black curls, stared out at the surrounding stars, her expression hard. Her name was Cirieldis, and she was far from home.
The man was shaggy-haired and rough-skinned, dressed in the garb of a border world outlaw. His face was tangled with scars, and his expression was angry. His name was Morducai, and he was not so concerned with his distance from home as he was with what the woman had just said.
“You’ve gone daft as a rowsdower if you think I’ll agree to that.” he told her, as he advanced. “A plan’s a plan. Th’ boy stays with me.”
“I don’t know why you think it matters,” said Cirieldis. “He will die, just as the others did.”
“That’s no reason not to give him a good life til then,” said Morty.
Cirieldis was quiet as she watched the stars.
“I do not know why you dawdle in this world,” she said, sounding tired. “The new one awaits us, yet you would prefer to play with your broken toys.”
“I don’t see it that way,” said Morty.
“You do not see anything,” said Ciri.
“Damnit, Ciri!” Morty shouted. “He’s not a fuckin’ toy! He’s as real as you an’ me! No prophecy can justify what you want to do to him!”
“I will be the judge of that!” Cirieldis snapped. She turned to glare at the man. “Go and tell your pretty wife I do not agree to her terms. I have as much right to Callum as you.”
Nearby, a boy of about three sat huddled on a row of seats, clutching an orange stemdragon plushie nearly as big as he. The boy’s expression was sad, his brown eyes wide as he looked between his parents. He toyed nervously with the felt petals of the stemdragon.
He winced as the shouting began again. He pressed his face against the soft fur of his plushie.
Then the bridge and everything in it, including the seat he was sitting on, faded into nothing. The boy was left alone in the dark of a starless void.
It frightened him at first, and he called out for his parents. They did not come for him. But a moment later, someone else did.
She was unlike anything the boy had seen before, tall and slender beyond what any human could be. Her hair shone like gold, and fell around white skin and fathomless glowing eyes. Her gown shimmered as if made of stars, and she gave off her own faint light, as if she herself were reflecting the glow of some distant sun.
The woman knelt before the boy, and gave him the warmest of smiles. Suddenly, the boy was no longer afraid.
