She stood, with the black star always close by. Every day, she would guard and protect the little stars, each and every one of them. Her blue gown flowed gently in the breeze, and so did her long, light blonde hair. This only made her seem more mysterious. Her left hand was firmly grasping a wand, much similar to a wand a fairy might be depicted holding. Her finger nails were painted a light purple, and her skin was very light-colored, almost making her appearance ghostly. Her mouth was always in a petite frown; almost never let up in a gentle smile. Her blue eyes had sadness and loneliness behind them; she was always very lonely, even though she had all these stars for friends. Her back story is unknown to everyone but her; what is the story of The Lady of the Shooting Stars?
There she sat; as a young girl, sitting under a tree, with teary eyes. The sky was dark and dotted with stars, which sparkled like the girl's tears did. She had promised herself to be strong; but that was one promise she supposed she couldn't keep anymore. She was sad, because her mother was sleeping under the tree, and would never wake up. Every time the girl came to sit under the old willow, the memories would come flooding back...memories of picnics on windy days, bed-time stories, even lullabies on scary, stormy nights. Nothing was ever the same without the girl's mother around. The only thing that remained the same was stargazing with her father on clear nights, and even that happened less often, her father was becoming more and more distant from her. Soon, she'd become a young woman and her father will have missed most of her growing up.
The girl let her gaze flicker around the horizon; and spotted something rather unusual in the meadow at the other side of the hill. She crawled over, almost tripping on her flowing, light-blue nightgown.
Peering down the side of the hill, she spotted an old, rusted spaceship, shaped like a mushroom. Curious, the girl stood up, and ran down the hillside, into the meadow covered in a blanket of flowers. Cautiously, she walked up to the ship, intrigued by it. As she rested her hand on the cold metal, something popped out of the ship, and the girl jumped back in surprise, letting a small yelp escape her lips. Out of the ship had popped a white-colored star child. The corners of the girl's mouth curved up in a slight smile.
"What's your name? Are you lost?" The girl asked the star child. The star flew to her and stared up at her with its big, black eyes.
"I'm Luma, and I'm waiting for my Mama. She's coming to me on a comet!" The star child told the girl. The star child had waited day and night for the comet to blaze through the sky, but so far, the little star had spotted nothing.
"Don't worry, I'll wait with you!" The girl promised Luma cheerfully. "Wait here," the girl requested. Luma did as it was told, and the girl ran back up the hill. Just behind the old willow was a house, simply a summer cabin for the girl and her family to stay in during the warm months. But now they stayed year-round.
The little girl entered inside the house, and careful not to wake her sleeping father, grabbed his old telescope from the desk, and ran back outside to Luma with it. The two stayed up all night waiting for any signs of a comet, but nothing showed up in the dark night sky. The same thing continued for days, even years, but still, there were no signs of Luma's lost mother in the big night skies.
"If we stay here looking much longer I'll be an old lady soon," the now teenage girl said to Luma. Then, the girl came up with an idea. "Hey! Why don't we go find your mother ourselves?" The girl suggested. The Luma happily agreed, and began to fix up the rusty spaceship while the girl ran back to her house. She grabbed a large basket, and packed everything she thought she'd need:
Her father's telescope, a butterfly net, her stuffed bunny, a loaf of bread, a carton of milk, a jar of strawberry flavored jam, and apricot-flavored tea. She stuffed all these in the basket, and ran back to the Luma, who looked as if it needed help fixing up the old ship. The two fixed up the ship with each other's help, and were soon ready to set off on their amazing journey through space.
Days and days had passed without sight of one single comet blazing through space. Instead, all that the eye could see were asteroids extending out as far at the farthest star.
"If I had know it was going to take this long, I would have packed more jam," the girl sighed, above the ever-constant rumble of her belly. She thought she had taken everything she had needed along for the trip...but...
"I forgot to bring water!" The girl exclaimed, realizing her grave mistake. At this exclamation, Luma burst into a fit of laughter, which caused a pout to form on the girl's face.
"As long as I have star-bits, I'll be fine!" The Luma cheerfully said. "Want some?" The girl couldn't stay mad after the star's offer. The Luma continued to laugh cheerfully, and the girl couldn't help but join in. After their little giggle party was over, the girl grabbed her butterfly net and leaned out the window, gathering the sparkling, multicolored orbs in her net. She almost fell out a few times, but she stayed in the ship.
After gathering the star-bits, the girl put them in her basket and gave a few to Luma, keeping a few in her hands for herself to try as well. She was hesitant, but after some nudging from Luma, the girl licked the outside of one of the bits and finding that it tasted like honey, continued to gobble them up. She also found that they quenched her thirst.
After a good night's sleep, the girl awoke to a beam of blue light piercing through the ship's windows. Thinking it was the morning sun, or a star, the girl rubbed her eyes, peering outside. She was very surprised to find that the light was a comet, and not a star. She shook the sleeping Luma awake, and pointed outside.
"We have to get to that comet!" The girl held Luma's little hand as the descended out onto the comet. The comet was slippery, for it was made from ice. The pair searched high and low, but nowhere was the Luma's mother to be found. exhausted from searching, the girl plopped down onto the ground, to exhausted to take but another step.
"Look!" Luma suddenly shouted, pointing to the icy ground. Peering into the ice, the girl noticed clusters of star-bits encased in the ice.
"Pretty good, huh? Finding star-bits is my specialty!" The Luma praised itself. "There's ice here, but it's so warm, I bet there's water here too," Luma guessed. The pair decided to stay on the comet for awhile.
One night, while sleeping, the girl dreamed of her own mother. It seemed that they were walking on clouds, and in the girl's right hand, she firmly held her stuffed bunny. The girl's mother was walking away, and this made the girl feel sad, to see her mother leave.
"Where are you going?" The little girl asked her mother, her tone of voice that of a little child's, not that of her current voice.
"Don't fret, dearest," the girl's mother began. "I'm always watching over you, like the sun in the day and the moon in the night." A wave of sadness washed over the girl suddenly.
"But what about when it rains, and I can't see the sun or moon?" The girl asked her mother, sadly. The girl's mother thought for a moment before responding to her daughter's question.
"I will turn into a star in the clouds and wait for your tears to dry." The girl called out to her mother as her dream faded away. When she awoke, tears were streaming out of her eyes, and her face was already damp with the salty water.
"You have star-bits in your eyes!" Luma exclaimed, observing the crying girl. The girl wiped her face and replied.
"These are tears, not star-bits, and I'm crying because I'll never see my mother again!" The girl began to sob, sadness welling up inside of her. The Luma began to cry too.
"Mama...oh Mama...waaah!"
Throughout another year, the pair traveled more, and saw many more comets, but none of them held Luma's lost mother. Luma was worried it'd never see its mother again, and continued to cry.
"Now, now Luma, the rain clouds won't go away if you keep crying," the girl comforted, hugging Luma tightly. "I'll give you a present if you stop!" The girl promised. Luma stopped crying, and all though still sad, became a bit happier. The girl closed her eyes thoughtfully.
"I'll take care of you," she said, having that be the present for the star missing its mother. With those words, she felt a spark of happiness in her heart.
"The kitchen will go here, and the library will go over there," the girl said to herself busily. Ever since Luma had come into her care, she had been bustling about at a feverish pace. "It's a lot of work, but it's worth it to make a happy home."
As it turned out, star-bits weren't the only thing buried in the ice. Deeper down were tools, building materials, and furniture unlike any either had ever seen. The girl was using them to build a home upon the ice-comet. The girl and Luma built for days and days, until the house was compleated. Luma looked around.
"Don't you think it's a little big for just the two of us?" It remarked. With all the rooms, it certainly was spacious, but something was missing...
"If only my father, brother and mother were here..." the girl wished. Indeed, the house was quite too big for the two small residents.
That night, the girl fell asleep, clutching her stuffed bunny, and feeling sad, wishing for her family.
One day, an apricot-colored planet appeared on the horizon. From it, came a star child of the same color. It came up to the comet-home, and the two Lumas stared at the girl.
"Do you two know each other?" The girl asked gleefully. Despite the girl's happiness, the Lumas seemed uneasy, and just stared for a bit, not moving, until the first Luma the girl had met broke the silence.
"My Mama!" It exclaimed. The apricot Luma joined in, chanting: "My Mama! My Mama! My Mama!"
The two Lumas danced around the girl cheerfully, not showing any intent on stopping. This gleeful sight made the girl giggle, then she broke into a fit of laughter. Then, something even stranger happened. More Lumas began to come from the planet, in all different colors, all chanting "My Mama! My Mama!" This just caused the girl to laugh more, and it was quite an adorable scene.
"What am I going to do with all these children?" The girl exclaimed, still in her burst of laughter. "I guess I'll just have to name you all!"
The next day, when she had finished naming them all, she began moving them into the new home.
After seeing their one-hundredth comet, a sudden thought popped into the girl's head.
'I wonder if my home planet is still as blue as it was...' she wondered. Remembering her father's telescope, she grabbed it out of the basket and peered into it, focusing on a tiny blue dot, no bigger than a star-bit.
'It's so far away, yet it feels so close...' the girl thought. Twisting the knob of the telescope, the planet came into better view, and eventually, a grassy hill with an old willow tree came into view. She remembered it as being the place where she would stargaze with her father, and began to feel sad. Remembering her home, the girl burst into tears.
"I want to go home! I want to go home right now!" The girl cried. The Lumas, surrounding her, didn't know what to do or how to comfort the sobbing girl.
"I want to go home! I want to go back to my house by the hill! I want to see my mother!" The girl continued crying. She was shouting now, her face wet with her salty tears.
"But she's not there! She wasn't there all along! Because...because..." the girl paused, her voice becoming more quiet.
"She's sleeping under the tree on the hill and will never...wake...up..."
A hush fell over the area. The girl continued to cry and cry, crying for her mother, whom she would never see again.
Normally after that the girl would be quite cheery, but one day, about another year later, the girl became sad again. Luma came over to try and comfort her.
"Mama, you still have me! And don't be sad about your Mama, because she's a part of you! That means she's always close by! It's like me. I love star-bits because they remind me of my Mama."
"No...no..." the girl said quietly, unable to stop her tears from falling. A flash of loneliness flickered across Luma's face, but if it had a mouth, would have been replaced by a wide grin as it came up with an idea.
"I have an idea! I will transform into a comet, a soaring comet that will carry you all on this journey!" Luma exclaimed. It then flew high up in the sky, training bands of white light. Just as fast as it had gone up, it went down, and smashed into the ice with a loud BOOM!
The bands of light twisted together to form a comet tail, and Luma emerged out of the crater, reborn as a comet. The girl could hardly believe her eyes.
"But...how..." the girl kept on asking. A few more Lumas flew up to her, a red one answering her repeated question.
"Our destiny as Lumas is to transform into different things," it said. A green one continued its explanation.
"Planets...stars...comets...we can become all of these things! When I grow up, I want to become a star that makes someone special smile!" A blue Luma chimed in.
"That Luma turned into a real cutie of a comet, didn't he?" All the Lumas joined in, saying:
"No more crying Mama!"
"Thank you..." the girl said in a whisper. She hugged all the Lumas tight, and from that day forth, star-bits no longer fell from the girl's eyes.
The comet was quite a sight to behold, with all its Lumas and telescopes. The Lumas and girl were proud to call it home. One day, as a welcoming party for a new Luma, the girl gathered everyone in the kitchen, and said:
"All right everyone! Let's make a cake! A cake sprinkled with star-bits, then it will be a star cake!" As the Lumas gathered the ingredients together, the girl smiled to herself.
'This is my family now, and I'll stay with them until they leave the nest. And when they do leave, I'll see them off with a smile, because that's what makes a mother happiest.'
Decades later, when the girl had grown into a young woman, the comet stopped by a green planet that looked as if it was also home to many Lumas. The woman, awed by the sight, went onto the planet to look around. She gazed at the flowers and star-bits and playing Lumas.
'What could this place be?' She thought to herself. Not looking where she was going, she bumped into a large, purple Luma wearing blue pants. This was the first Luma she'd ever seen wearing clothes!
"And who might you be?" The Luma asked, in a caring voice. The girl hesitated to answer.
"I'm...My name is Rosalina," the girl introduced herself. The Luma thought for a moment, in which Rosalina took the opportunity to gaze around some more.
"Could you be The Lady of the Shooting Stars Rosalina?" The Luma asked. Rosalina stared at the Luma, puzzled.
"Explain your story," the Luma requested, and Rosalina did so, explaining everything from her home planet to where she ended up now. The Luma listened intently. The Luma then introduced himself as Lubba, a great Luma who guarded all the Lumas living on his planet.
"So I am correct...you are Rosalina, The Lady of the Shooting Stars," Lubba confirmed himself. Rosalina still looked puzzled, so he explained himself.
"Long ago a prophecy was told of a girl who would set out into space and become the adopted mother to many Lumas. She was told to have the same name as you. So, based on your story, you must be her!"
Rosalina nodded in understanding. She followed Lubba around the planet, and they came to rest in a patch of flowers.
"Rosalina, I have two gifts for you," the chubby Luma began. "Here," he offered, holding out a silver wand with a golden star on the top. Rosalina took in delicately in her hand, and studied it. She was surprised that when magic came into her mind, the wand glowed brightly.
"With time you'll learn how to posses its magic. Here's my second gift: Polari! Come on over!" Lubba shouted. Over flew a black Luma with blue eyes.
"This is the Elder Luma, Polari. He will guide you."
Those were the last words Rosalina heard Lubba say before she was again off on her great journey.
Now, she still stands, watching over the Lumas like a mother. The loneliness behind her eyes is unmistakable, but will never be filled, because her destiny is to live like this. Even though she promised herself that star-bits would no longer fall from her eyes, some days, when she's alone in the library, she'll let one or two tears escape. She may be lonely, but she'll be forever satisfied in the presence of her many children.
