Title: Stars
Characters: Asuka, Hane Kuriboh||Pair: N/A
Words: 647/647||Chapters: 1/1
Genre: General||Rated: K
Challenges: Diversity Writing: GX canon: B41, 1st meeting; Word Count Set Boot Camp, GX, #30, 647
Timeline: Between episodes 120 & 121, the tail end of their first night/beginning of their second day in Sand World.
Summary: Asuka goes out to watch the desert night. Someone comes to guide her back.

I don't recognize those stars.

Asuka stared up at the scattered points of light, some tiny part of her hoping that she could locate something familiar. She knew better, really, but she looked anyway. Even if they were in another world, the sight of familiar stars could be comforting.

But all that the sky held that she recognized was a moon. It wasn't even the moon of their world: the shadows and lights of it fell differently. Instead of the shape of a rabbit or a man or anything else from any legend she'd ever read, she saw…

Is that supposed to be a dragon? A dragon in the moon?

She shook her head and tried to figure out what other constellations there might be. Had anyone in this world ever given them names? What else could be here aside from Harpie Ladies? They had to be intelligent. Had they named the stars?

I won't know. We won't be here that long. That was something else she had to hold close to herself and believe.

She breathed in the quiet desert air, wondering when the suns would come back up. The sooner they could do something, the better. But everyone around here was either on guard or asleep.

I should get back to everyone else. Asuka didn't move, though.

A faint trill caught her attention and she looked up, seeing brown hair and white feathers. No, it wasn't hair: fur. Brown fur.

Hane Kuriboh.

She'd seen Juudai play the card many times since their first year, but she'd never actually seen it until now. Holograms weren't the same as spirits. Until now she'd never seen a spirit.

Now Hane Kuriboh hovered in front of her, staring at her with large eyes that she thought asked a question. She wasn't sure of what the question was, so she made up one. What would she ask if she were a fluffy puffball?

"I'm just looking at the stars, that's all. They're really different."

Hane Kuriboh tilted quizzically before he turned and stared up at the stars as well. Then he looked back at her, trilling again. This one sounded a little different, so Asuka decided that a different question had been asked.

"No, I didn't tell anyone else. I'm being careful." She made sure to stand where she would get a good look above and yet nothing could come around here to see her. There were monsters that could hide in the darkness. She didn't know if any of those hid here, though.

Hane Kuriboh tapped her on the side of her face with one wing. Asuka tried not to shiver; she'd never been touched by a wing before, warm and soft. A moment later, Hane Kuriboh beckoned her back along the way that she'd come.

"You want me to go back?" This time she was certain she knew what he said. Hane Kuriboh bobbed in agreement.

She glanced back outside to see the horizon starting to change, not deep black and star speckled anymore, but fading to midnight blue and tiny hints of light. The suns were indeed coming up.

"I suppose I better." She'd promised to help put breakfast together. It wasn't her strongest point, but everyone needed to do something while they were here.

She stayed where she was longer, though, unwilling to leave to leave as the night whiffed away and the light grew stronger with every breath. Only when she heard people moving in the large room did she begin to step away.

Hane Kuriboh bumped up against her again and she thought his trills sounded more worried now. Maybe she should go see what bothered him.

She hoped everyone would be all right. This was such a strange world; what would they do if someone caught a cold, or worse?

Just how long would it take them to get home, to familiar stars?

The End

Notes: Just a few days, Asuka. A few days filled with duel zombies.