"Come on! We've got to get back home! Hurry!" I blindly followed his voice. That familiar sound I knew so well, it was one I trusted completely. The flashes of lightning were our only source of light, and even they were too few to rely on.

In the instant of light, I saw his pale blue eyes looking back at me through the storm. He had always said they were dull, but in that moment, they were the brightest thing I saw. My world had been brighter recently, but I that moment, I realized that the light had been coming from him. When darkness descended again, thunder ripped across the sky and I tripped. The rain slicked ground provided no sturdy foothold and I fell. I called out to him, crying out in fear.

"No!" He screamed. "Dess!" I crashed onto the soaked ground far below him, my head striking a fallen branch. The darkness that filled the world around me could not begin to compare to the darkness that flooded my consciousness… and my memory, drowning out his light.

Light seeped in through my eyelids and I peeked them open to see brilliant, colorful lights far away in the sky above. They seemed to stoop down and rest their shining colors upon me before swiftly returning to the sky.

"Who goes there?" I slowly turned my head to see a figure slowly stepping towards me. I wanted to stand, to prove I had the strength to defend myself if it came to that, but I couldn't. I took a chance and called out to them.

"Help."

"A filly whose stripes I share, but how, and so late at night?" I shrank back as the figure came to stand above me. She was a zebra, like me. "Cease your fright. This forest is dark and chilly, what are you doing here little filly?" I searched my memory, but everything before the last few minutes was gone.

"I- I don't know. I don't know where I am."

"What is your name? Do you know from whence you came?" I shook my head as tears began spill from my eyes.

"I can't remember anything."

"Hush young one, you can stay with me 'till you find the sun." I wasn't sure what she meant, or why she kept rhyming, but I thought it would be better to go with her than to stay out here. She helped me to stand, and for a moment we gazed up at the glowing lights shifting in the sky.

"What are those lights?"

"The northern lights, but I have never seen them so bright." She looked down at me and smiled. "What would you like to be called? You cannot live with no name at all." I met her deep green gaze. I had no idea what I wanted her to call me.

"Will you choose?" She looked back up at the northern lights and smiled.

"Aurora Borealis, another name for the northern lights. Does that sound alright?" I nodded and she kept my slow, tired pace as she led me to her home.