Star Children

Chapter 2

When she woke again, it was warm and soft. The prickly grass was replaced with a lumpy mattress. A blanket was firmly draped around her body, tightly surrounding her like a large cocoon. 

She moved her head slightly and felt her bones creak into life. Her muscles dragged as she stretched her neck and turned her head to the side. The room was blurry, her eyes refusing to focus on anything. The walls were old and brown, and the room, from what she could tell, looked cluttered and messy. 

On the other side of the room was a closed wooden door. In the corner, a small figure sat in a large, brown rocking chair. They fiddled with something in their hands, but she could not tell what it was. She tried to say something to get their attention. A tired, incomprehensible moan quietly escaped her mouth and died in the air. The figure's head sprang up at the sound of her voice and she realized it was a little boy. She tried to move more of her body, shifting her arms to lean on her elbows, but a searing pain shot through her head and joints. Caught off guard, she slowly lowered herself.

The boy sprung out of the chair, pulling the door open and running out into the hallway. He was yelling something unfamiliar, a name perhaps, but she was no longer concentrating on the room. Her arms were stiff, but she was able to push her elbow out of the blanket. Her spine popped loudly in several places as she curled it upwards. An intense pain shot from her legs and broke through her clouded haze. Her face curled and she let out a whimper, hardly noticing that the door to the room had opened once more.

"Oh no, don't move, you poor thing, don't move." Another figure, much taller than the first, came forward from the doorway. She spoke in a soothing voice, and even through her pained and darkened vision the woman's blonde hair shone from the light in the window. The woman knelt down beside the bed and placed her hands gently on the blankets. "You poor thing, you're in so much pain. I know it hurts, it won't last long."

Another voice, a girl's, came from the doorway. "Is she ok? Did she hit her head too hard?"

"Don't be too loud," the woman replied. "She's still fuzzy." 

As the pain pulsed on, she felt the woman's presence thicken over her. "Everything will be alright, child. You are home now, you have reached us. Try to fall back asleep. Let your head clear up. Let us talk when you are ready."

She could already feel herself falling back into sleep. The pain from her head began to settle and she closed her eyes to the sound of the woman quietly singing over her.