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Stardust had ran. As fast as his legs could carry him.
He had a mental breakdown earlier, again. It was a common occurrence at this point for him. To get overwhelmed with emotions and have an existential crisis over his accidental existence. Even with the wizards journal Blueberry Pie had showed him, with the flower that Sugar Glass had left behind. Stardust still had that lingering feeling that his existence was meaningless every once in a while. A mere coincidence, something the wizards had no interest in loving like they did his sister.
Stardust had ran for so long he’d left the City of Wizards, past the barrier that guarded the World of Dreams. For hours he sped past villages, springs, even flew over mountains. Before finally stopping to catch his breath in a random forest. His legs felt as if they wouldn’t work anymore as he collapsed to the ground, eyes puffy from tears he simply couldn’t stop no matter how hard he tried. From his spot in the grass, Stardust had curled up in his cape, and began to weep. So quietly that it didn’t dare break the surrounding sounds of the rustling trees and the peaceful rush of a nearby stream. For a while Stardust lay there, contemplating his existence. Wanting to convince his mind to throw himself back into the void of space where he could never be found again. Or to lay in the dirt until the soil reclaimed him. For now he simply wanted to lay down and look at the stars. As if they would shout loud enough from thousands of miles away and give him some sort of reasonable answer.
After a good hour of having a pity party on the forest floor. Stardust finally had gathered himself enough to stand up. Wiping the dirt off his clothing with his hands, he looked around just to realize he had no idea where he was. He simply had run away with no agenda, no destination in mind. As Stardust started to walk aimlessly in a random direction. He admired the trees and the new smells that were definitely never present in the City. The trees were a light lavender color, the leafs draping down as if they were decorative ribbons at a gala. Not that he really knew what a gala was, only seeing pictures from books that Blueberry Pie lent to him. Stardust wandered, mesmerized by his discovery of the forest. The small breeze and the soft murmur of the night was quite comforting to him.
At some point he has stumbled across a lone lake. The water a beautiful bright blue with colorful fish swimming around. Stardust felt like a small child, running around the lake chasing the fish as they swam away from his shadow. He felt the void of sadness in his chest slowly go away as he focused on the environment around him. Eventually he’d run into the lake until the water was up to his ankles and the end of his cape was soaked. Unbothered by the fact that a stranger was resting at the center of the lake. Quietly slipping onto a large rock in the center well Stardust wasn’t looking.
“You have some nerve coming here and disturbing the peace of Galaxy Lake.”
Stardust had immediately spun around to face the stranger. And oh mighty earthbread had his eyes laid upon the most beautiful being he had ever seen in his hundreds of years of living. The stranger was as elegant as he was scary, decorated with white and purple feathers. Eyes a faint purple and green that Stardust felt was another galaxy he could loose himself in it’s beauty.
Stardust thought his heart would leap out of his chest. Not from the sheer beauty of the stranger, but from the stranger pulling out his bow and arrow, drawing back and aiming straight for Stardust.
“Are you here to harm the Millennial Tree as well? Pick the Desert Paradise of all it purity? I will not allow it!”
Stardust ran backwards in shock, tripping from the waters resistance and false footing.
“N-no wait! Please!….”
His voice was still scratchy from crying earlier. It didn’t help that there was a huge lump in his throat forming from the pressure of the situation.
“You’ve got it all wrong! I’m just… lost…”
The stranger did not put down his bow and arrow. His expression only seemed to become more serious. He clearly didn’t believe Stardust’s reasoning immediately.
“State your name. Who are you?”
“My name is Stardust…. Please I mean no harm. I was just trying to find a peaceful spot away from home for a while.”
The beautiful stranger cocked his head to the side in a bit of curiosity, but never breaking his stoic yet scary scowl on his face.
“Alright Stardust, where are you from? Are you one of those kingdom dwellers?”
Stardust sat there in the middle of the lake in silence at the question. Purely because he didn’t know how to respond. Was he from the City of Wizards? From the Sugar Swan constellation? The void of space? Even he didn’t know the answer, but he also didn’t want to push the buttons of the person in front of him with a loaded weapon.
“I-I’m from the City of Wizards. My younger sister is the Slumbering Moon. We both are the sole residents there.”
Well that was a lie kinda. Sure Blueberry Pie was always there, but she never left the archives. To Stardust she might as well be a ghost, but she’s nice enough to read to him once in a while when she isn’t working.
Almost instantly did the stranger rest the drawing string of his bow at the mention of Moonlight and the City.
“You are acquainted Moonlight?”
“Yes, we are both creations of the wizards. Do you know her?”
“Not to an extensive degree apparently. I didn’t know she had a brother.”
The stranger signed, putting his arrow back in the pouch behind him. Stardust got up and started to wring the water out of his cape with his hands. Still shaking from the shock of being held at arrows point moments ago.
“I’m… a new addition to the family.”
“I see.”
The swan like stranger respectfully bowed to Stardust, as a way of apology.
“I am Wind Archer, loyal guardian to the Millennial Tree, the flow of life, and this forest. I apologize for my… inappropriate and over extending behavior earlier.”
“It’s… fine… Wind Archer.”
Stardust had finished squeezing as much water out of the fabric as he could. Only for it to get wet once again when he let go of it. He was annoyed by the cold dampness to say the least, but still tried to speak in a calm voice.
“I did come into your territory uninvited. I should apologize as well, I know better then to disrespect the boundary lines of another guardian like the Slumbering Moon.”
Sometime went by as the Archer and Stardust got to know each other. They laid next to each other in the middle of Galaxy Lake upon that same rock, talking for what seemed like hours. Wind Archer had asked about the current state of the City of Wizards as he had not visited the city or Moonlight for a very long time. Stardust seemed to talk on and on about his time visiting the observatory and the green house. How the greenhouse held memories that could be played back to anyone that lay a finger on it. Stardust talked about the many dreams he and Moonlight saw of random strangers young and old. Wind Archer simply laid on the rock besides Stardust, intrigued by how much of the vast non-physical world the other has seen. As he himself couldn’t begin to fathom what the world of dreams was like.
“Stardust…” The Archer finally spoke in between the others rambling. “I don’t mean to sound nosey, but…. Were you crying earlier?”
Stardust immediately stopped his rambling and looked at his purple haired friend. He immediately tried to beat around the bush, not wanting to make the situation awkward.
“What makes you say that?”
“When you came out to the lake earlier, before you stated chasing the fish, you looked… sad. Your eyes were all puffy and red too when you first came over here to talk to me.” Wind Archer reached out his right hand, cupping the side of Stardusts face. Stardust could feel the archers thumb rub his cheek in a comforting way.
“Please don’t lie to me Stardust, why are you really here? The City of Wizard’s is hours away. There is no way on Earthbread you casually found your way here or were just going for a stroll.”
Stardust tried to look away from Wind Archers gaze. He was never one to fully express his feelings of anger or sadness. Not after he blew the City to bits quite some time ago. Had Moonlight not pulled them into a dream the city and the world of dreams would ceased to exist. Not only that, but he would have died, and taken others down with him. Moonlight, Blueberry Pie, the visitors, they all would have been gone had it not been for his sisters instincts and magic.
“I…I…”
It was all Stardust could let out, other than a few broken words and mutters. He felt his voice crack again as his mind started to revisit his past mistakes and regrets. His vision becoming blurry as his eyes wanted to cry once again. Stardust tried to keep himself together, he wanted to stay strong.
(Don’t let him see me cry…)
Stardust had thought to himself, he didn’t want to burden the archer with these confusing emotions even he himself didn’t understand.
(Whatever happens…. just don’t let him see me cry)
Stardust didn’t even last a minute before he felt a warm tear fall down the side of his cheek. Despite this he still tried to hold it together even as his voice started to crack. Wind Archer had wiped away the tear in response, continuing to rub his thumb over Stardusts cheek. The tender feeling of Wind Archer was new to Stardust. The archers hands made Stardust feel safe as he started to wail uncontrollably.
This feeling was confusing to Stardust who started to feel a warmth in his chest. Even past his sobs and and occasional hiccups Stardust felt fuzzy. He’d been comforted by his sister before, but this was…. different. The warmth only getting stronger as Wind Archer pulled Stardust into an embrace.
“Shhh… It’s ok Stardust, let it all out. Please don’t feel embarrassed, I want to help you…”
Stardust let his head drop to the archers shoulder, his feathers were soft and helped to ease him. He was trying to say something, anything past his sniffles.
“I-I’m sorry…”
“Don’t be, a close ally of Moonlight is a friend of mine. All guardians go through a periods of depression like this at some point.”
Stardust wasn’t shocked to say the least by this information. He figured that beings with immortality like himself also saw the downsides of living on and on forever. Never being able to pass on with your mortal loved ones, not until the sun explodes and the abyss swallows them whole. Stardust had seen a dream like that before, a young boy who was immortal like himself, crying in his sleep and calling for a friend who died of old age recently. Neither Stardust nor Moonlight willingly visited dreams like that.
“Is it weird to be comforting a complete stranger like this?” Stardust let out after painfully long moments of silence. As embarrassing as it was to be semi-snuggled up to the archer. The feeling of the soft feathers was therapeutic enough to make his body refuse to get up and walk away.
“Not really, I’m use to it, I’ve comforted Moonlight and others like me before. Granted they weren’t upclose and personal to me like this, but I didn’t know them that well either the first couple times around.”
“Others like you?”
“Oh yeah, the Lady of the Tides had once washed ashore nearby in major mental disarray. I found her laying face first in the sand, she looked completely done with life that day.”
Stardust laughed a little at the remark, the mental image of Sea Fairy completely wiped out on Wind Archers doorstep did seem quite out of character for her. Considering she would always speak in flowery language that any normal person would deem too formal on a normal day. Imaging her not speaking like a hopeless romantic poet for once was humorous in a way, but also deeply saddening.
“We all have our moments, Stardust. It just comes with the roles we play in this world. We learn eventually to deal with any hardships that are thrown at us, but that never means you have to do it alone.”
Some more time went on as Wind Archer continued to comfort the sulking Stardust. This time the Archer shared many stories about his time as a guardian and devoted follower of the Millennial Tree. He told Stardust about the many many shenanigans that were caused by the Cookiemals and their naturally curious personalities. Which often or not landed themselves in some sort of peril that Wind Archer had to dig them out of. Additionally, he told Stardust about the other guardians of nature, their roles and any missions or interesting events the archer had shared with them.
“So… the Frost Witch isn’t actually a witch?” Stardust asked in curiosity at the mention of the mysterious Snow Lady and her more recent Frost Spirit counterpart.
“Nah.” Wind Archer continued to slowly stroke Stardusts hair, feeling his fingers glide through the others soft locks. “You might mistake her for one with how cold she acts. Sheltering herself away from society and never leaving her domain. If I were a local village resident I’d think she kidnaps children to add to her witches brew, but she’s harmless and means well.”
“And the Lord of Flames? Is he as scary as the legends mention?”
“HA! That hot head is more bark than he is bite. He tries to be threatening and all, but if a handsome man stumbles into the Dragon’s Valley he’s suddenly too gay to function!”
“Pffft! Seem’s he’s not the only one.” Stardust sarcastically replied with the biggest shit eating grin on his face.
“Hey, didn’t your sister ever teach you that bullying isn’t ok?” Wind Archer laughed back playfully punching Stardust on the shoulder, he didn’t even try to deny it.
Their playful teasing was suddenly interrupted by the skyline above the forest tree’s turning a bright shade of pink and orange. The sun was rising, had they been chatting away all night?
“Oh sweet stars!” Stardust immediately jumped out of archers lap. “How long have I been here for? Blueberry Pie’s is going to have my head if she finds out I was gone-!“
“Do you need to leave?” the Archer responded.
Stardust had jumped off their spot in the middle of the lake, landing in the water with a soft splash. “Unfortunately… duty calls I’m sure you know the feeling.”
Oh, was Wind Archer all too familiar with that. A part of him ached at the sight of the Stargazer leaving, but the Dessert Paradise wouldn’t protect itself. It’s a shame, but duty calls and with that Stardust had turned around getting ready to leave. Not without saying one last goodbye however. "Will I ever get to see you again?”
Stardust glanced at the Archer one last time, his feathers flowing in the early morning breeze. Wind Archer took Stardusts hand in his own, rising it up and bestowing a kiss onto it.
“Of course, I’ll be here waiting for your return. You’re welcome in this forest and Galaxy Lake anytime Stargazer.”
Wind Archer had then let go of Stardusts hand, smiling softly at him well bidding his final farewell. In the blink of an eye the archer had flew off, leaving Stardust a blushing mess in the middle of the lake. He figured now was not the time to process what had just happened. Yet he would find later that Wind Archers kiss would be the only thing he could think about as he ran back to the City of Wizards.