Moon Dust

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♡❀˖⁺. ༶ ⋆˙⊹❀♡

Like all love stories, it starts with butterflies 🦋

Two iridescent-winged butterflies unlike anything Sarai had ever seen before, that seemed to dance around her, shimmering magically with holographic near-sacred beauty, that drew her into the wooded area by the crimson flowers. Sarai cooed softly as one of the butterflies landed on her finger, holographic wings changing colour with each gentle near-timid flap, a roiling heat, flames, licking at her feet, planting her into the mossy undergrowth of the wooded area as if she were a tree. 

The fire felt real, her knees wobbly from the heat as the crimson flowers grew to her height, towering over her, or was it her who was shrinking? Did the flowers really smell of blood or was that her fuzzy mind likening their red petals to the body fluid? Everywhere she looked was red, bright burning orange and yellow and hot sweltering red. She felt her throat closing up just as she thought to call out for help, the heat making her eyes blur and her lungs ache for a breath of fresh air. She was getting lightheaded. 

Fading...fading...fading.

Images she'd never seen flashed before her eyes like memories of a lost lifetime, the warmth and softness of a little girl that felt like a part of her, holding a tiny Sarai's hand, laughing, sing-songing "run little moon" in a language Sarai had never heard of before but understood perfectly. Tiny feet padding lightly over sand, hot and pink underneath bare feet, "run little moon" and the kind of laughter Sarai had never uttered from her own lips. A woman, beautiful and dark and tall, taller than the night sky, stars in her skin, calls out to them in the distance, the scent of boabab and drying hibiscus so violent that it almost drowned out the heat around her. Sarai's little hand slips, sweaty and soft, from the little girl's grip but her sister doesn't look back, doesn't notice Sarai's no longer there, doesn't see the pink sand grab Sarai's tiny feet and yank her in. 

"K'Ori!" Sarai's little voice hoarse and quiet croaks out, eyes shutting slowly in the haze of heat, under the weight of the diamond shards of pink sand

"Run little moon." K'Ori sings back, skipping away, towards the tall woman tall enough to be the night sky, to hang the stars and push the sun down the horizon 

"Mama..." Sarai hears herself whimper, weak, all she can get out, hoping the tall woman will hear her, will see her drowning, will reach over and pull her out from the crushing piercing hot hot pink sand eating her alive before she was lost to the flames. Perhaps forever.

"run, little one." a soft voice, firm, unrelenting, hopeful... confident even as the pink sands swallow Sarai alive, gag her mouth and pile into her nose filling her senses with soot and heat and flame... 

and then bamboo and mugwort and ginseng and cherry blossoms, an oasis deep beneath the desert, just underneath the sand, washing over her heat-numb toes. 

She wondered if she was hallucinating, a last ditch effort to make herself feel like she had some semblance of hope but miraculously, she felt strong hands start to cradle her head and she instinctively moved closer,  someone yowling inside of her. 

and then strong arms holding her close. Holding her tight.

bamboo and mugwort and ginseng and cherry blossoms, something new to drown in and a voice like a fresh sacred spring reserved for creatures of another realm whispers to her "stay," so softly she's not sure where the words come from, so close. Too close.

She tried to reach out but her arms were leaden, heavy and painful.

"stay, little moon." the voice grips her tighter than the sand had - as if the very possibility of leaving was insane.