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“Are you going to tell me where we’re going?” You ask, unable to keep the smile off your face as your adorable elven girlfriend drags you through the Xadian woods to seemingly no end.
“And ruin the surprise?” She shoots back, tossing her head back to grin at you, her wings fluttering excitedly, “No way!”
You chuckle softly and decide that further questioning is futile. Tripping and stumbling over seemingly every root and stone you come across, you decide it’s cosmically unfair that Astrid can glide as smoothly over land as she can through the air.
“Here!” Astrid announces, stopping so abruptly, you end up smashing your face into her shoulder.
“Oh! Sorry…” She giggles gently, fingers brushing strands of hair out of your face and checking to make sure you’re okay.
You rub your nose, muttering a small ow , but the frown on your face doesn’t linger long.
“Where is… here?” You ask, looking around. It’s damn near pitch black, the moon absent from the sky, but you can tell you and her stand at the edge of some sort of meadow, open to the sky.
Astrid giggles again, pulling you forward just a few more feet, flopping onto her back and yanking you down with her.
You land with a dull thud, but the meadow grasses are thick and soft, and you don’t land near as hard as you’d anticipated.
“It’s been a year,” she says quietly, and your brow furrows.
“No, it hasn’t,” you correct; your anniversary wasn’t for a few months yet.
“Not that year, silly,” Astrid teases, nudging your shoulder with her own. “I mean since I took my blindfold off the first time.”
Your eyes widen. That’s today ? Your heart sinks, unable to believe you’d managed to forget. “I-I’m sorry, Astrid, I-”
“Don’t be,” she cuts you off, waving her hand dismissively, as if she’s not bothered at all. “This is a day for me to share something special with you . Not the other way around. Now, look .”
She points up and your gaze follows the direction of her finger until it reaches the sky, and you gasp softly.
No moon . Of course. The heavens must have decided to smile down upon you, blessing Astrid with a cloudless, moonless night, on the anniversary of the first one she ever witnessed.
The stars are incredible . Here, in the middle of nowhere, you can see the sky more clearly than you had your entire life. You can see the thick band of stars that made a stripe through the sky. You can see the star the elves called Leola’s Last Wish shining bright and proud.
Astrid scooches closer, shifting to lay her head on your shoulder, and you lean in return, your cheek pressing against one of her delicate horns.
She starts pointing out constellations and named stars, giving you the history and myths behind them.
“And you haven’t even seen the best part yet.”
Astrid must come to this specific glen rather often, because as if on silent cue, hundreds of fireflies took off all around them, their lights twinkling so prettily. It feels like you’re surrounded by your own starscape, here on earth.
“It’s beautiful,” you murmur.
“I know,” she hums excitedly.
She continues to jabber on, never realizing that you had looked right at her when you said beautiful.