The Queen of Blood

Ch 12: Sky Mapper

I wake in the middle of the night. Truth be told it could be any time in the night, but judging by how dark it and dead silent it is, I assume it is mid night.

Celestia is gone, that I notice almost automatically. A shy smile finds its way to my lips in the dark, my heart fluttering at the memory feeling of her arms curled around my waist, her soft kisses on my jaw and her sweet purr in my ear telling me stories of her kinds most ancient history until I fell asleep.

I feel a little colder without her.

I wonder if she retreated back to her chambers to give me respectful privacy. After all, she has been very careful not to make me uncomfortable.

Once again I find myself struggling to fall asleep, and after several minutes of tossing and turning and I pull myself out of bed and tiptoe, avoiding a few guards (playing some board game), my way towards the observatory.

I find my map and makeshift equipment hidden where I left them in a chest under a blanket. I resume where I left off, getting lost in the stars once again, my mind wandering into memory lane before eventually drifting off again.

It was a celebration of sorts. A victorious attack on a small vampire town possibly. Four year old Estrella wasn't sure.

Unlike the other kids playing hide and seek amongst the shelters and trees in the dark, Estrella sat upon a boulder and stared at the stars, just outside the outskirts of the camp. She was always a little set apart from the other children. A little more grave, one might say, as if she comprehended the reality of her low place on the food chain in this world.

"Avoiding the feast again, I see," a man in his late fifties said, a half smile on his face. There was something different about this one. Something that would help change the course of the future. He could sense it.

Estrella didn't say anything. The man turned his gaze upwards, all too familiar with the complex of glistening flickers of a million lights in the sky.

"What are they made of?" she asked.

"The stars?" he asked. The girl nodded.

"That's a long story, " he mused.

"What's their purpose?" she asked.

"That's a longer story," he chuckled.

"Tell them to me please," Estrella asked, her green eyes as inquisitive as they'd always be.

"Sure kid," the sky mapper said, after a pause, "come with me."

I wake with a start, the dream freshly engraved. Well, memory. The first time Cole took me under his wing and taught me about star mapping.

It takes me several moments to wake up properly and gather my bearings. I must've fallen asleep because the morning light fills the observatory.

It takes me a further second to realize I'm not alone.

Celestia is standing over the table I was working at, her fingers tracing the map, her eyebrows furrowed in concentration and her eyes solid.

My heart seems to stop and drop like a rock.

Oh fuck.

I stand quickly, not sure of what to do, panic beginning to settle in.