A/N: This fic was written mostly because of my need to see more AUs in the fandom. To clarify, yes, this is a Stardust!AU in the sense that the Huntik characters are in the Stardust 'verse, but also that I will take some liberties with the 'verse itself. Enjoy!
A star fell. This is generally considered by all parties as a bad move and one that, if prevented, would have saved a lot of effort and energy from being wasted. But it fell, and nothing else was to be done but act accordingly.
Stars that fall in the mortal earth do so for no reason other than continuing the natural cycle of things, as no energy is destroyed nor created in the mortal earth. A star falling in Faerie, however, is a sign of change, a harbinger of things to come, for the moon never willingly parts with her children.
In Faerie, there is always a throne to be filled. There is always a chase for power. There will always be a star, falling, setting things in motion.
After all, the last time a star fell in Faerie an old kingdom regained their lost princess and the influence of the dark sisters receded. The night sky mourned, but not for long.
That star's fall marked the last time that the Wall to the mortal earth was fully opened.
This star crashed in a dark forest, ten feet away from a garden patch. They landed with their back on the floor, squinting up at the broken branches of the trees they crashed through.
Crashed…
They-no, he, his new thought process supplied- is now on the ground. In Faerie soil. He quickly stood up only for shooting pain to go up his left arm.
"What in the hells," he says as he flops back onto the ground. Cradling his arm to his chest, the star faintly recalls a story his siblings used to tell him when he was still a cluster of nebulae- of their sister Yvaine receiving a broken leg as a welcome to Faerie soil.
He feels a sinking in his chest as he looks around at his surroundings. He knows that when Yvaine crashed, a crater marked her impact. His landing in comparison seems to be on untouched loam- soft and warm even though sunlight doesn't penetrate the dark copse of tall trees.
A light twinkling at the edge of his peripheral vision catches his attention. Sitting innocently on the ground is the damned ring that propelled him out of the sky, a golden band with a red jewel the size of his thumb. Sighing, he reaches for it and is surprised when his right hand sparks upon contact.
He picks up the ring with his left hand cautiously, and tentatively burrows his fingers in the soil. Magic thrums at the edges of his fingertips.
To add to his uneasiness, he spies purple-flowering plants in the garden patch to his right and sees a cloaked figure stepping out of the vines. The sinking feeling in his chest intensifies as he is hit with the realization that he had the worst luck in the world.
A star landing in the backyard of a witch. A new record, and certainly one that wouldn't be marked down if he were to die in that moment.
The witch comes closer, and the star sits frozen to the spot, clutching the ring in his left hand and sends a prayer to his mother and his siblings even though they wouldn't hear and a curse to be sent on whoever threw the ring and a fleeting thought goes to his mind that at least he lives long enough to feel regret for not seeing his fallen sister before he dies-
"Don't be ridiculous," the witch says, in a lilting voice that sounds off, as though she hadn't had occasion to use it. "It's just a broken arm." The witch kneels down in the soil, uncaring of the dirt. The star involuntarily flinches as his faint starlight reflects on the runes stitched in her cloak.
The witch seems to take no notice of his fear and reaches for his left arm.
"No!" The star then rips his arm from the figure's pale grasp and stumbles a few feet away. "Shit, shit, ow, fuck," he says as he cradles his left arm and prepares to run away, only for vines to shoot up from the ground, entangling his body.
The witch walks towards him as he struggles against the bonds. "Let me out!" This cannot be my end, he thinks. I fell for a reason and I will go back to the sky, I swear, I swear-
"Calm yourself, I'm not going to harm you." The witch sounds amused, further unsettling the star. "You're scattering light all over. The plants are getting frightened."
"Oh, they're the frightened ones?" the star stammers out.
"They've never seen light before, especially one as bright as yours." The star was about to ask of the absurdity of plants growing without light until the witch softly tugs on his wrist.
"Ow!"
The witch made a humming sound, and slabs of wood appeared from the vines, bracing his left arm. He watches as tendrils of shadow slither out from her sleeves and wraps itself around his arm and shoulders, making a sling. "There," she says. "Now if you'll take care not to shine too much, that would be appreciated."
The vines retreat into the ground as the witch goes back to her garden patch, away from the star who is still staring at the sling as though expecting it to constrict around his arms.
"Wait."
The witch keeps walking.
"Why are you helping me? You're a witch, aren't you?" The star asks.
The witch stops next to a wall of creeping vines and tilts her head as though inspecting it. "Yes, I am." She runs her hand on a closed bud, streaked with white. "And you're far away from home." The nightshade flower opens, its petals a deep hue of purple, easily blending in the dark background.
The star, thoroughly confused by this event, goes for broke. "Aren't you supposed to kill me?" he says, and immediately regrets it when the witch turns to him, mentally kicking himself for being he cause of his own death.
"I'm not inclined to." the witch scoffs. "Contrary to what you may have been led to believe, not everybody wants to live forever."
The star is (figuratively, as the vines didn't seem to re-appear) rooted to his spot, unable to discern if this is a trap or practical joke. He squeezes the ring in his hand.
"Okay." The star then looks around and registers the fact that he is standing in the dark, even though he fell from the skies in the middle of the day.
"Wait, where am I?"
"You fell in daylight?"
They stared at each other.
"Yes, I fell in daylight," the star says.
"How?" the witch asks, curiosity evident in her tone of voice.
The star contemplates the pros and cons of saying anything to the witch and settles for telling her, "Something knocked me out of the sky. I need to take it back, I think."
The witch hums, satisfied with his answer. She turns back to the vines and continues to remove white streaks from her plants, which he recognized as his stardust.
He looks around at the dark forest and sees a bright ripple of stardust, glowing silver, surrounding the area where he landed. It looks as though someone threw a glitter bomb in the middle of the forest, which, considering his current state, isn't that far off from the truth.
As it seems that the conversation was over- and the witch was fine with letting him go- he would walk away, if not for the fact that he couldn't see where he was going. He considers shining a bit brighter to light up the path.
"Don't you even dare," the witch threatens, not turning away from her plants. "I've kept this forest dark for a reason."
The star sees no other option of escape. Later, he'll chalk it up as a moment of insanity, but one that may have saved his life. He will not stay in this dark forest for too long, for if the witch didn't get him, other creatures may. "Listen, I know this is probably bad form and all, but can I come in your house? I don't know my way around these parts," he hurriedly blurts out, unable to stop himself.
The witch looks at him for a long moment. The star feels the need to fidget under her gaze, although not clearly visible in the dark.
Then a golden glow emerged from under the cloak and he feels a weight on his head. It disappears after a minute.
"The star, faced with a witch of unknown power, asks not for her name or directions to go to the nearest town, but for him to be let in her home," she says after.
Bad form, he thinks. "Sorry, I don't know your customs. What's your name?"
She lowers her hood and stares at him. Through his faint starlight he could make out dark hair and hazel eyes, staring at him with disbelief.
The witch takes a deep breath, and sighs. "You have a lot to learn, it seems. My sisters call me Zhalia." She waves her hand, and the vines move around to form a path. "Follow me, and be careful to tone down your light. The residue is hard to clean."
A pale-haired woman looks up from her paperwork to the window. She sees clear skies above and thunderclouds below, and the occasional raven swooping down to the augury. Nothing out of the ordinary. And yet…
"Your Majesty, the papers?"
She looks back, and sees her quill poised over the letter she was writing, an inkblot staining the paper. "Oh dear," she says, setting the quill down. "I'm terribly sorry Lucinda; I've been distracted as of late."
Lucinda caws, and blinks a beady eye at her. "If you didn't want to grant permission for the Mountain lords to build a bridge on your lands, perhaps you should tell them in person, instead of sending them an incomprehensible letter." It was unnatural for an advisor to talk back to their Queen in such a way, but Lucinda has been with her for years now, a solid presence ever since her husband's death. She's allowed almost anything within the confines of privacy.
The pale-haired woman sighs. "They're not even trying to be subtle about controlling trade. The kingsroad is there to provide free access to any traveler crossing! Nobody will use a bridge in Farrow lake, especially if there's a fee." She stands up then, abandoning all pretense of work, and opens her window to let the chilly air in. "They'll accuse me of squandering their funds, and we'll have another farce of a war on our hands." The thought of sending out an assassin is all too tempting, but the pale-haired woman is tired of resorting to violence all the time, even though cutting the knot has proven to be more efficient than painstakingly untying it.
"For years I've watched human politics and I still don't understand the principles of your squabbles." Lucinda says. "The simple act of saying no has too many consequences."
The pale-haired woman sits on the windowsill, unafraid of falling or the strong winds scattering the papers in the room.
Lucinda flies to her lap, dark blue feathers stark in the pale blue of the woman's gown.
"My Queen, are you alright?"
The pale-haired woman strokes Lucinda's head with two fingers, lost in thought. They stay like that for a while, both unbothered by the winds.
"Change is coming, Lucinda," the pale-haired woman whispers, the words almost lost.
"As it always does, my Queen."
"We'll need to send for Solaris."
The pale-haired woman straightens as Lucinda's feathers ruffle."There's no need for that, your Majesty," Lucinda says, her beady eyes trained on the door.
The raven's voice almost trembles as she says, "He's already coming up."
The star stayed only to rest for the remaining hours of daylight. Zhalia didn't want him to stay in her house for longer, as his starlight sticks to everything he touches. "Like trailing dirt," Zhalia had said, frowning at the wisps of stardust he left in the doorway and the walls.
He busies himself by playing with Gareon, Zhalia's lizard familiar, throwing bugs around the room for her to chase and eat. He doesn't know how Gareon manages to go around the pitch-black room without hitting anything.
Zhalia's house was as dark as he expected a witch's house to be, but he found it strange that he'd be the only source of light in the room. Zhalia said that she can see normally in the dark, but the star found the need to cloak ones' self- and indeed, one's whole house- in total darkness… unusual.
As tempting as it was to just shine and see the contents of this room, he's still a bit scared of what Zhalia might do to him if he did.
Said witch emerged from the other room, a map in one hand and a cloak slung on her other arm. "This is to hide that blond hair of yours during the night," she says, throwing the garment to him. The star blinks as it catches on the jar of bugs he was holding.
Carefully setting down the jar on the table, he holds the cloak up with his right hand and examines it. It looks like a normal travelling cloak, like Zhalia's only without the runes.
"This is a map leading from the outskirts of the forest to the town of Edifier." She holds up the scroll in her hand. "It's most likely you'll arrive in the town by day, so ask around where the monastery is, and talk to the priest about schooling."
The star's eyebrows shoot up. "What do you mean schooling? I need to go to my sister-"and get rid of this ring, he thinks, "Not an education."
"And you will," Zhalia reassures him offhandedly. "But only after a couple of weeks and only after you've learned how to act normal here in Faerie. I have been informed that the townspeople do not know anything about fallen stars yet. They'll assume you're a particularly strong light caster with no manners." She sets down the map on the table. Gareon creeps up on the edge, swinging her tail, clearly annoyed that nobody was paying any attention to her. "If it looks like you're trying to skip town, they'll become curious as to why."
"And so?"
"They'll think you're running away from something, come back here to investigate and burn down the house."
"They're not going to burn down your house."
"How much do you want to bet on that?" Zhalia scoffs. "Eddies are rather protective of their light casters." She levitates the jar of bugs on a shelf, putting it out of Gareon's reach.
"They won't find your house, for one." The star knows this for a fact, as the magic that seeped through the soil he landed on stretched for miles, covering most of the forest, scattering Zhalia's magical aura. This meant that Zhalia had been here for a long time, which meant that the borders were heavily enforced every day, which meant that nobody had ever crossed here without her permission. Except for him, of course, but he didn't exactly mean to cross so much as crash in her lands.
Zhalia turns her gaze from the map to him, the hazel eyes seemingly glowing in the dark, or reflecting his starlight. "You don't understand. Starlight is a beacon to all casters, light and dark, and they'll sooner find you here in this dark forest than in the brighter areas of civilization.
"My sisters will find you and not only will I have to deal with their magic in my lands," she says and the star thinks he sees her lips quirk downward in the faint light, as though the idea of socializing with other people was simply appalling, "I'll have to deal with them fighting over your heart too."
The star then shuts up about that, reminded of the fear he felt when he thought he was powerless against Zhalia. Instead of making another comment, he puts on the cloak, eliminating any source of light to be found in the room, and takes the map.
She guides him to the doorway. "Gareon will show you the way out of this forest. Do try to keep your eyes on her; the paths like to play tricks on travelers around here."
Gareon jumps down from the shelf and goes to the star, frills faintly glowing. The star then looks back at the witch, and hesitantly says goodbye.
Zhalia nods and her eyes glow golden. He feels a slithering sensation on his neck and he lifts his hands to his neck, thinking that she was going to choke him. The sensation settles loosely around his throat, and he feels the ring he hid in his pockets move.
He looks down, and finds that there is a chain around his neck, long enough for the ring attached to be hidden under his star-robes. He stares disbelievingly at the witch standing in the doorway.
"If you want to live to see your sister, go away and don't come back." Zhalia then closes the door silently, even though the star can make out the rust on the hinges of the door.
He looks again at the cold silver chain. Cat's breath and moonlight, like the one used to hold his sister. "Thank you," he says sincerely to the closed door.
Gareon nudges his foot. He then pulls on the cloak tighter, and sets out to walk.
This story will dabble in a lot of European mythology. I'm not too familiar with it, so if anybody wants to correct my Googled facts or suggest improvements, feel free to send me a message. :D