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It was the dead of night. Everyone was asleep, save for Aaravos, who couldn’t let himself relax.
He was sitting with his legs drawn close to his chest and his arms hugging his knees. Throughout the day, he had made sure to keep his bare skin from touching most things. A tree branch flicking him in the arm or ground beneath his bare feet would overwhelm him, he knew it. So, all day, he had avoided touching anyone and anything as much as he could.
He looked down at the soft Xadian soil. Not daring to look at the stars just yet, he had kept his gaze earthbound all day. More than anything, Aaravos wanted to look upon them, but he couldn’t bring himself. Not alone, anyway.
The elf’s starry markings made a faint glow in the camp, enough light for him to make out Viren’s resting face a few feet away from him. In the days Aaravos was an apparition, he often watched the man sleep, having nothing else better to do while the man recharged. In those times, the human slept troubled and restless, most days waking up more tired than he fell asleep. But now, he looked peaceful. Relaxed. Free from burden. Even though he had nothing, the man seemed happy. Or maybe he was just so exhausted he slept well.
He wanted to go somewhere. Do something . Still filled with energy from the adrenaline of being freed, Aaravos itched for some sort of activity. He looked over at Claudia. Though he enjoyed her, the girl’s near-constant questioning had nearly driven him insane during the day. She’d most definitely turn a walk into an interrogation.
Terrestrius. The elfling seemed to be scared of Aaravos, and he supposed that waking him up for a midnight walk would do him no good.
His gaze moved back to the man beside him, sleeping like a baby despite his circumstances. Aaravos moved closer. “Viren.” He didn’t want to touch him. “Viren, wake up.”
When the man did not wake, Aaravos drew a green rune in the air and commanded a small stick to poke him in the cheek. Viren gasped and sat up.
“Why are you still awake?” The man adjusted his clothes, which had gone awry from his slumber.
“I can’t sleep.” Aaravos answered, in full honesty. “I’m not used to being back in Xadia yet.”
Viren wiggled out of his bedroll and gazed at the fallen star before him. He felt really well-rested, and doubted that he’d end up going back to sleep.
Aaravos stood up beside him, making sure that his hands did not touch the ground, and leaned his clothed shoulder onto a tree.
“Wanna go on a walk?”
“Sure.”
The two got up and wandered around a bit, the soft light from Aaravos slightly leading the way. They weren’t going in a particular direction or to a certain place, but just enjoyed the walk and hoped they would find somewhere pretty to sit.
After trekking along for a while, Aaravos stopped as the grass beneath his feet seemed longer. He looked ahead and saw a meadow, small enough for it to be ridiculous. Viren walked up behind him.
He looked over the elf’s shoulder. “You want to sit there?” He looked up and saw the clusters of the stars through a clearing in the thick tree branches. “It seems nice for stargazing.”
Aaravos nodded, unmoving, and let Viren lead the way into the patch of tall grass. The elf startled when he heard a series of tiny squeaks and a shriek from the human.
Viren was hopping on one leg, while trying to shake some little creatures off the other. They were round, and fuzzy, and impossibly sticky.
Giggling, Aaravos carefully stepped into the grass to help the human. “It seems we’ve stumbled into an adoraburr meadow.” He smiled as he approached the man with maybe ten of the little monsters clinging to his leg. “Hold still.”
Viren watched Aaravos draw the familiar rune, Aspiro . Without needing to say the draconic word, the Startouch elf blew a breeze at the adoraburrs to encourage them to hop off. They did as such.
The human man sighed his relief and lowered his leg down slowly as to not trample any of the animals. “Adoraburs, huh..” He brushed himself off and pretended like he didn’t just scream out in terror. “I’ve never heard of such a creature.”
Taking the lead again, Aaravos stepped cautiously to the center of the meadow, having Viren follow. The adoraburrs parted where the men stepped.
“That’s because they’re practically useless for spells, unless you wish to make your hands shimmer.” Ironically, the elf’s hands did shimmer as he beckoned for Viren to stand beside him. “But they are so cute, aren’t they?”
Viren shuffled his way over to the Midnight Star. “’Cute’ isn’t quite right, is it…”
Dismissing the remark, Aaravos blew another Aspiro , clearing an adequate space for the two to relax.
The human was the first to sit down in the sweetgrass. The elf looked down at him, before taking a deep breath and letting himself sit.
The grass tickled his forearms, and he shuddered. It wasn’t nearly as prickly as he thought it’d be.
“You okay?”
“Yeah, it’s just been a while.”
Aaravos kept his eyes closed as he fell to a laying position, with Viren following suit. Some adoraburrs tried to climb on them, but were quickly discouraged when the elf drew another rune in the air, threatening to blow them again.
After a while, he dared to look up at the sky.
He gasped. They were beautiful. Even more amazing than he had imagined.
He had been held in a prison at the bottom of the sea, at the lowest depths of Xadia to disconnect him from the stars. In all his centuries imprisoned, that was the one thing he wished for most.
And now, they were there, blinking at him, ready for the taking.
Aaravos despised them. How dare they cast him out? How dare they send him down to the earth to endure and witness enough suffering or a thousand lifetimes?
Yet he missed them. Seeing the cosmic beauty above him set his entire body ablaze, and he started trembling.
He didn’t realize he was crying until Viren sat up and leaned towards him.
Grass crunched beneath Viren as he turned towards the elf. “Are you alright?”
Well, obviously not. Aaravos took a deep breath in and wiped at his eyes, but the tears didn’t subside. He kept his eyes focused on the stars above. And he reached a hand upward, reaching for them, just as the humans used to.
Instead of answering Viren, he pointed a glowing finger to the brightest star in the night sky. “That one is Leola’s Last Wish.”
The man didn’t pry, thankfully. “We call it the South Star.”
Aaravos chuckled. “I know. You humans call it that just because it points south. A lack of creativity, in my opinion.”
“It’s practical!” Already, Viren was getting defensive over something that had nothing to do with him. “It’s crucial to our navigation and it doesn’t need a fancy name.”
The two both looked at the shining star above them. While one saw a means of navigation, the other saw a story and history, older than any artifact or bloodline the world knew.
The elf sighed, amused. “Humans adore practicality so much. No creativity.” An adoraburr bounced up his leg, and he gave it a good pet before shooing it off. “Now, what do you call Garlaath, the Annihilator? “
After pointing out which constellation it was, Viren gave his decree. “It’s called the Big Spoon.”
“So imaginative…”
“It looks like a spoon! And I don’t need any annihilators looking down at me!”
Aaravos wiped away the last of his tears. He doubted that he’d sleep for the next few days, just so he could sit and stare at the cosmos. After pointing out a couple more constellations and arguing over the names, the two lay in a comfortable silence, the only sound being that of the chittering adoraburrs.
He enjoyed this. He enjoyed being back in Xadia, and seeing all he had missed in the past 300-some years.
The world would come to burn beneath his vengeful touch, but not before he got to savor his freedom first.