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The stars and the moon illuminated the dark night sky with an indigo-silver luster. Not even a sheet of cirrus clouds were to be seen obscuring the view, and the visual pollution from the towns in the horizon was at an all-time line. The naked eye could easily tell even the smallest of clusters apart from the most massive of sky giants. Unfortunately, nearly everyone had long since retired, with the obvious exception of the two very hardworking night owls.
As he was sitting on the grass by himself, Qifrey gazed back in the direction of the atelier. The view was pleasant as is, but he thought to himself that the stars would be far better shared with the girls and Olruggio. He distinctly recalled tucking his four pupils in hours ago, and the bold letters upon Olruggio’s door was enough of a deterrent. A real shame not just for him, but for all of them, as the water serpent was out in full view and it was highly unlikely that such an opportunity would arise any sooner.
Perhaps forgoing just one night’s worth of restful sleep wouldn’t hurt. Qifrey and Olruggio were long used to operating on such upside-down schedules, and if it’s anything a bunch of preteen girls love, it’s being told that they could stay up past their bedtime. He pushed himself up from the ground, shaking off the dirt that had accumulated on his cape as he made his way back.
Qifrey already knew what kind of response to expect from each of them, but nonetheless, he gently knocked on the door of Coco's and Agott's quarters. Annoyed by the sudden interruption, coupled with her dwindling energy, Agott huffed in response while the grip on her pen tightened.
"The moon has long since risen," she complained, "shouldn’t you be in bed?"
"I could say the same for you, dear," Qifrey said.
Not in the mood for dealing with his usual nonsense and excuses, Agott rolled her eyes as she continued writing away, keeping her head propped up with her hand. Coco, on the other hand, had been awoken by the disturbance, and lazily rolled over to the side as her blanket slid halfway onto the floor. Her eyelids were heavy as she forced them open, the bedroom a blur in her half-asleep daze.
"Mmmmh...? Who’s there..." she mumbled sleepily.
"Coco," Qifrey said, "I was wondering if you girls would like to go stargazing with me tonight."
Immediately, her eyes lit up with stars of their own and she fumbled as she rolled out of bed. Agott had tuned out her surroundings, so the thump on the floor caused her to jump out of her skin.
"Stargazing!?" Coco quietly shouted with delight.
Agott's pen froze.
"Mmhm. But only if you feel—"
Coco flung the door open with such haste that Qifrey nearly tripped into her room.
"Stargazing sounds awesome! Staying up all night will be awesome! And it would be awesome if the others could come too!"
With a gentle smile, he placed the palm of his hand on Coco's head to try and get her to simmer down. "Agott," he called, "will you be joining us?"
Agott’s jaw clenched as her grip on her pen tightened further. The offer was tempting, but ultimately, she would refuse. The stars would always be there, but the time she had left in her youth to study was finite.
"I’m busy," she simply replied, and left it at that.
"Alright," Qifrey said, "just know that you’re more than welcome to take a break and join us."
He closed the door slowly, careful as to not further disturb her studies. Once the sound of his steps had quieted down, Agott sighed heavily.
I don’t have time for a break, she said as she continued working away.
With Coco happily pitter-pattering by his side, hardly able to contain her excitement, Qifrey walked to the quarters of Tetia and Richeh. He knocked on the door — gently now — and heard something on the other side tumble across the room and onto a pile of pillows. A brief moment of silence settled, followed by a very sleepy "mmmmmhuh?" He smiled and shook his head, as he knew that someone had already been staying up well past her bedtime.
He didn’t allude to his conclusion, and merely said, "Tetia, Richeh, would you girls be interested in stargazing with us tonight?"
Just as quickly as she rushed into bed, Tetia flung herself out from under the covers and opened the door. Having learned from the previous incident, Qifrey took a step back as she yanked the door open.
As he looked down at her, he could see in his peripheral vision the signs of Tetia already being awake. Hastily pulled back curtains at the window, blanket folded the wrong way three times over, it seemed as if she was well ahead of him with this whole stargazing thing.
"You’ll really let us look out our windows all night?" Tetia said excitedly.
"Why settle for the windows when it’s a beautiful night to go lay in the grass?" he said.
The smile on Tetia’s face became even larger, while Richeh’s head poked up from a mound of blankets.
"Do you mind keeping it down?" Richeh said. "I am trying to sleep."
"Oh, I simply came in to ask if you would like to go stargazing," Qifrey offered.
The two of them looked at each other in silence. The plans that Richeh had for the night and were intent on fulfilling were to sleep through the night despite the abundance of energy rattling against the windows. Though, those plans she were so intent on seeing through shifted in those few moments, and so she slid out of bed.
Before they left, the four of them stopped by the door to Olruggio’s work. Despite the blatant threat plastered upon his door, Qifrey knocked, completely unbothered. Unsurprisingly, he was met with a very irritable "What is it?" from the other side.
"I’m taking the girls out to the field to watch the stars. Agott's still cooped up in her room, though," Qifrey said. "You’re welcome to come join us."
"I need to have this thing done in four days. Can’t you read the door?" Olruggio yelled.
"Just thought I’d offer nonetheless," Qifrey said before turning back.
As Qifrey walked away, Olruggio glanced over at his door and stared for a few moments, which was still sealed shut.
So, Agott is still pushing herself, eh? he thought. No surprise there, unfortunately.
°｡⋆꙳★꙳⋆｡°
In a wide-open stretch of the field, not horribly far away from the atelier, the four of them laid upon the grass. Tetia had come prepared, conjuring up a small fluffy cloud comprised of dirt particles to lounge upon. If it weren’t for her already being enamored by the night sky, she would have been in great danger of dozing off on the spot. Richeh stared up at the sky somewhat blankly. It was hardly more interesting than resting in her bed, but the twinkling stars kept her eyes occupied just enough so that she wouldn’t fall asleep. As for Coco, despite remaining in one place resting on her back, was arguably the fullest of energy. She couldn’t figure out where to focus her attention first, from the stars that twinkled red and white to imagining constellations of her own and connecting them in her mind.
Their attention was redirected to Qifrey pointing directly up towards the night sky. They all looked towards him, blinking curiously, until they followed his instruction and looked directly up.
"Now then, tell me,” Qifrey said, “when you first look up at the night sky, what are your eyes drawn to first?"
Immediately, a star glowing brighter than all of the rest caught their attention.
"That one super bright one!" Tetia was quick to point out.
Qifrey nodded his head. "That is Sirius, also referred to as the dog star. It is the brightest star in our sky, and can be seen from practically anywhere, north or south."
"...What about that weird red one?" Richeh asked, pointing up elsewhere.
"Ah, that one is Antares, the heart of the scorpion. A truly unique individual amongst our cosmos."
"The scorpion!?" Coco said, bewildered. "Is there a giant magical scorpion in the sky!?"
"Not quite. The stars merely take the shape of one. A scorpion won’t drop out of the sky, I promise," he said with a giggle.
"Woah..."
While Coco was enamored with Scorpius’s heartbeat, Qifrey scanned the sky until he happened upon a rather faint cluster, and directed their attention towards it.
"That dim little group, a little to the south of us here, forms a dove by the name of Columba. A free-spirited little bird, it is, spreading its wings just as four young girls I know are.”
°｡⋆꙳★꙳⋆｡°
Less then four days, he had remaining, yet Olruggio still found himself struggling to maintain focus. Maybe it was simply very late, and his mind was beginning to falter as the sun grew closer to rising. He intended to check the time, right after the next pen stroke, right after the next note, until a few minutes had passed and he pried his eyes away from the contraption. It was hardly past midnight; the sun and the stars were at their highest. With a heavy sigh, he couldn’t help but be haunted by the thought of Agott apparently explicitly refusing a moment of respite with the rest of the girls, despite her adamant nature for studying being nothing unusual.
Olrugio looked down at his current progress on the order. Where he was presently at, he could spare a few hours, just as long as he made up for it by cramming some later into the day. With a hefty sigh, he pushed himself up from the desk, disturbing the brushbuddy that was curled up by his arm sleeping.
"...Pweeee?" it sleepily chirped.
"...Sorry. Have to uh, be somewhere else right now," he quietly told it.
He made his way to Coco’s and Agott’s room where the door was left cracked open. He pushed it open quietly, careful as to not sneak up on Agott.
"...Hey kiddo," Olruggio said.
"Now what do you want?" Agott said, letting her pen drop to the desk out of frustration.
"You ain’t hangin’ out with the rest of them?"
"I’m busy. Can’t you see?"
"Mmm. And just how much progress have you actually made in the past few hours?”
Agott clenched her jaw. The truth was, she had made none. None at all. If anything, she was only taking steps backwards in her studies, yet she was convinced that if she just kept pushing herself, she would be able to get back on track within the night. The pile of crumpled up paper and carelessly splattered ink suggested otherwise.
"Staring it down won’t do you much good. You really should go out with Qifrey and the others.”
"But I...I need to…"
Olruggio put his hand on her shoulder and rubbed it back and forth. "It’ll still be there in the morning. Besides, you’re too young to let stress kill you. A break will do you some good.”
"Coming from you," she huffed, turning her head away.
“You don’t see me sitting at my desk currently, now do you?”
Agott’s eyes went wide with realization. Come to think of it, it was unusual for him to not be locked away hunched over his desk, especially with an impending deadline that he had been complaining about for the past week. She turned her head around and looked at Olruggio, whose gaze went soft and a little smile appeared on his face.
°｡⋆꙳★꙳⋆｡°
"Flying shrimp?" Coco said. "Do some of the shrimp fly so high that they get stuck in the sky?"
"Haha, maybe," Qifrey said. "Volans has been around before you and I, so really, anything could’ve been possible.”
Qifrey had been cut short by the sound of footsteps rustling the grass. The three girls turned their heads, while Qifrey instinctively rose to his feet to stand against whoever, or whatever, was approaching. He had gotten worked up for nothing and the tension in his body eased, however, when he saw just who it was.
"Oh. Agott. Olly,” Qifrey said, his eyes lighting up. “You’ve decided to join us."
"Yeah...decided," Agott huffed.
"Kid, it’s fine to admit you need to take a break," Olruggio said.
"We saved you a space even!" Tetia said, shooting up from her cloud pillow and presenting the area of grass that they had been laying upon.
With a couple of futile huffs and puffs, Agott sat down on the grass, until giving in and laying down herself. Olruggio, too, laid down in the grass with the girls, propping up his head with his hands and stretching out his legs for the first time in hours.
"Now that we’re all here, where was I?" Qifrey said. "Ah...how about we look over here, where we can see Lupis, the scalewolf?"
"Scalewolf..."Richeh said. "Like…”
"Euini?” Coco said. “At least with the big scalewolf watching him from the sky, he doesn’t have to always be alone out there.”
"Not just Lupis watches over us, but all of bodies residing in the sky watch over us, even if we can’t always see them," Qifrey noted. He pointed his finger upwards and traced it along a string of stars. "Take Hydra, the water serpent. On a clear night like tonight, you can see each and every star that makes up the stretch of its body. It cradles us all with its coils, not just the atelier, but even those in the village, and keeps an eye on your loved ones.”
“…So that means…my mother is still safe under the water serpent’s eyes?” Coco asked.
“Precisely. Just as you all are safe under my wing.~ ”
It was the slightest bit of reassurance, but just enough to quell the worries that always lingered in the back of Coco’s mind. Nothing could shatter her mother as long as the water serpent kept watch, and nothing could bring her harm as long as Qifrey kept her close. As for Richeh, this talk of connecting shapes and watchful stars had bored her, and so she returned to what she had been doing before she was dragged out into the grass: sleeping through the night.
Tetia had tried to keep her eyes open, but despite her great interest in Master Qifrey’s lectures, her eyes were starting to get heavy. The calm ambience, combined with her reputably comfortable cloud spell, was enough for even a bountiful little girl like her to fall asleep. I’ll just rest my eyes for a few minutes, she thought, before a few minutes would turn into the rest of the night.
Agott had thought that she was the only one awake, and so she simply indulged in the time away from paper and ink. There was, admittedly, something soothing about being out in the open with the only distraction around being the stars in the sky. Hell, it was soothing enough to even shut Qifrey up and pry Olruggio away from his work. Soothing enough for even her to give in to sleep…
After noticing that it had been quite some time since the girls had stirred, Qifrey sat up. Olruggio was soon to follow, looking at Richeh, Coco, and Agott peacefully asleep on the grass — and Tetia floating somewhere off in dreamland.
“Well,” Olruggio said, “can’t believe you’ve managed to bore them enough to sleep past their bedtime.”
“Bore? I digress; you should’ve seen Tetia when I went to ‘wake her up.’ I could hear her running across the room into her bed when I knocked on her door.”
“And now look at em’. Completely lights out, and soon to catch cold if we just leave em’ like this.”
Qifrey unfasted his cloak and draped it across the four of the sleeping girls. Olruggio looked at him with an air of concern.
“Y’know, you’re gonna get sick yourself,” he noted.
But Qifrey merely shrugged. “I’ll be fine,” he insisted, laying down beside them at the end of the row. “I’m serious about the water serpent keeping watch of everyone beneath its gaze.”
Olruggio glanced down. The night was fair, but sleeping exposed like that was not good for anyone. He had neglected to bring his own cape out, but after seeing that the four of them were currently in good hands, he started walking back to the atelier.
“Hmmm? Leaving us so soon, Olly?” Qifrey asked.
“I need to go get my cape.”