Guide Us to the Other Side

CHAPTER ONE: The Red Dot

Reaching upwards, a small hand extended its fingers towards the stars glittering in the expanses of the sky. Stirs of violet, deep blues, and starlight stretched across as far as the eye could see, shining down upon the dewdrops clinging to the delicate blossoms across the ground. The veenas were illuminated with a soft glow of their own, mirroring the starlight that hung above.

A breeze blew gently, swaying the plants and his hair, blowing his short cloak with it. There, in the sky, rested the one star off to the west from the Red Dot. Clutching his fist, he imagined his fingers closed tightly around that star, his star. He spread open his pale blue hand again, grunting with the effort as he stretched higher, knitting his brows together in an attempt to reach his star.

"Come on, reach higher, you're not trying hard enough!" he gasped out at himself, gritting his teeth as he bent his knees and leaped, trying to jump up to catch it. From the day he could walk he always wished to have that very light in the sky, the one that peered down at him as though it was waiting for his arrival. He understood he would grow tall, tall enough to touch the starlight as his mother swore him he would. Embedded in his breastplate a large azure gem glowed, lighting up brilliantly in response to the determination in his worthless exertion. Finally, he dropped his hand, catching his breath and letting his head fall to stare down at the flowers.

He lowered his short body, crouching down and hugging his knees to his chest as he gazed down at the little lifeform. The purple petals were alight with the same stardust that he could see in the sky, and that was scattered across his mop of white hair. His doe eyes lit up with sentiment once he saw how the plant appeared to be waving at him, and he grinned, his core twinkling in response to his boundless energy.

He always paid attention to all living things, and that included nature. The young moebian couldn't stand anguish, even for the smallest of existence. The minor lives were what he found himself thinking the most of, how easily their precious existence could be crushed out of existence by a stumble in your footing.

He ran his hands through the flowers, mesmerized by how the dew fluttered off of the petals and into the sky, and the few petals that followed it. Another breeze pushed past and the petals flew off into the air, twirling upwards in its ascent until he couldn't see it anymore. The young boy was so transfixed on the wonders of his planet that he didn't even hear the approaching footsteps until they were just a few feet from him. His long ears twitched in the direction of it, the pointed ends perking up from beneath his locks before he turned around.

"Grandpa, did you see? Did you see it? The petals became stars again! I just know they did, because when they go up in the sky they don't come back!" he exclaimed, rushing over to clasp onto his shirt.

"Did you see it?" he repeated, smiling up at him. The endless stars that Strive believed lived up there reflected in his eyes, and inside of him. The gruff man nodded, his eyes crinkling with a smile that hid beneath his white and gray facial hair. He lifted the goggles on his head, sliding them over his bushy eyebrows and onto the cap secured under his chin. Craning his head up, he contemplated the sky to see what he meant. He knew that the child had a lot of energy coursing through him, his vacant mind always taken up by the next intriguing sight.

Leaning down, he picked up the eager child and let him throw his legs over his shoulders, his small hands clutching onto the back of his head now.

"I see it, there must be millions of veena up there," he told him, remaining still for a moment.

"But it's getting a bit late now. We ought to head in," he was soon to declare.

Although the stars and syn never left the sky, they were beginning to dim already. Whining with disappointment, Strive sighed dramatically, a show of his reluctance to leave his beloved field. Out here he could be surrounded by all of the blossoms and get a perfect view of his stars. He loved to map them out, getting by heart where they all stood. It was one of his favorite things to do.

"But the stars!" he insisted, lip tucked out in an excessive pout even though the older man wouldn't see it. He could hear in the young one's voice, shaking his head at the persuasion.

"They won't go anywhere, we'll reach them someday. We still have to make our cakes, did you forget?" Alcador offered, knowing how much he loved to bake with him. Convincing the little one was as simple as that, and he began the trek back to their home while making certain he wouldn't throw himself off of his shoulders.

On this planet, no sun would rise, the sky an infinite blanket of stars to complement their beautiful syn. They told the time by that light, and the stars were their guiding map, leading them to their villages and across the globe. Alcador and Strive left the shining field behind, comfortable in the silence that hushed over them. He didn't word his appreciation for the excitable boy's rare calmness. As he set on the path just free of the flowers littered about the field, there was a deep tremor.

At once the planet shook, trembling beneath their feet, plates not shifting- rather vibrating. As if something was blowing past them with a powerful pressure. Moebius shook as though fear was coursing through its core. Alcador could feel it inside his jewel, something starting to pull at him.

"Here," Alcador halted, squeezing Strive's knees tightly so as not to drop him, hesitating in his steps.

"What's happening?" was all Strive knew to beg, leaning against him with his fists balled up in his hair for balance. With a glare, the Red Dot in the sky began to expand, the youngling pressing his free hand against his sensitive feathered ear in an attempt to block out the jarring rumbling. The Red Dot was enormous now, taking up more and more of the sky as it neared the planet.

Moebians stuck their heads out of their windows in dismay and gaped at what was happening, children, parents, and couples out clinging to each other for security. The Red Dot was not a dot, rather a sharp triangular thing. There was a flash, made up of hundreds of lesser pink dots within the thing, and the fiercest gust of wind swept across the land.

The man stumbled back on his feet, Alcador catching himself and Strive using him as leverage to avoid falling, shortly abandoning his shoulders. The pink dots subsided, and with them, the stars proceeded to be absorbed right into it from the blanket of their sky. The stars they lived by, the flowers they so cared for, all waned with the Red Dot until it was no longer Red at all either. It imposed itself in the dark sky, a black and ominous authority.

He swiveled his head quickly, gawking back at the flower field, a gasp escaping him as they all lost their luminous glow and curled into themselves. It was as though an invisible death had blown through them all at once, sucking out their souls and leaving the dried shells behind.

Cold, salty tears were streaming down his blue face as he swiped fiercely at the snot collecting with his fist. The shaking had long died out, but his body shook up with trembles of its own.

"The stars! The stars are gone, they took the flowers, Red Dot took it!" Strive cried out, pushing his face into Alcador and dampening the fabric of his clothes with his unending tears. He screamed into his shirt, pulling at it as though his little hands could tear it. His core blared an unbearable light in response to his upsetness, growing heated against his grandfather's side, its brightness not dulled by it. The boy couldn't bear to witness the mass death of the stars and the flowers, and the lives he so loved. He turned his head anyhow, watching with horror.

It was as though he had just witnessed a massacre. Grasping out at the space where the stars once were, he was reaching for it as if he could draw them back by that alone.

"No! No no no no! I want to go back to the stars!" he thrashed away from the man's hold when he was taken up into his arms, wrought with all of the intense emotions. From atop his shoulders, he reached out, trying desperately to catch his star, but after a moment it was taken in with the rest. The skies were barren.