Prompt #13 Part II: What the Stars Saw
Disclaimer: I know, I know, I already did this prompt. But a friend gave me an idea for a shorter, sadder tale that I wanted to try, the idea, the world, the story do not belong to me. Her addition to the prompt: "But it could be kinda cool to tell a story from the perspective of the stars? Looking down and watching events and explaining the difference?"
We danced while our hearts were heavy. Each night we rose above the world, and our feet traced the terrible tale. We looked on the world and we prophesied its suffering.
But we could not look away. The One who taught us to dance was the One who wrote the world's stories. So we watched as we danced.
There were those who watched us. Roonwit the Centaur read our warnings, and they troubled him. We saw him come out, night after night, to watch our dance. We watched him bow his head as we set.
But there were many in Narnia who did not know how to read the footprints we left in the sky. And we rose, one horrible night, to see their eyes had turned to a different truth.
We heard the whispers of the Men and Beasts, the hushed exclamations, the worship offered to a fumbling Thing in a yellow skin. They called it Aslan. Their hopes for peace and prosperity soared, their joy went from whispers to songs and speeches, and none of them, not once, glanced at the stars.
Our hearts grew heavier. We could not lie; we knew what we danced to be true. The higher their hopes soared, the farther they would fall. For they worshipped a lie, so their hopes would prove to be lies.
And all we could do was wait.
We watched. They bowed to the Thing and its friend, and bowed themselves into slavery. The horses before the Calormene carts, the Dwarves to work in the Calormene mines, the Dryads to death as their trees were felled.
How far their hopes had fallen. How far the lies had spread.
Roonwit raced to tell his King. We watched. We watched till we set, and so we did not see the end of his race, but when we rose, we found the King tied to a tree and Roonwit running to Cair Paravel.
All we had danced, we watched fulfilled.
Place by place, Narnia fell. We watched their worship turn to death as they worshiped the wrong thing, too enslaved to see their disaster as evil to be fought. Rather it was the decrees of fate, and they stood helpless before it.
And our dance was not yet done.
Heavier and heavier were our hearts, till our steps felt as if they would break the sky. The King escaped, two small children with him. More and more Calormenes came. We watched them creep through Narnia. And then came the darkest moments. The Narnians felt their hopes turn to ash, and they turned from any trust and hope, save that which was in themselves. Having believed a lie, they now believed there was no truth. Divided, selfish, and jaded, Narnia lay destroyed.
Save for the King, the Unicorn, the two children, a Dwarf, and a Donkey. Later an Eagle joined them. On those lay Narnia's hope.
But our dance had not changed. Aslan, Aslan, how much more?
Night came. The seven went to the stable, the place of false worship, and prepared to attack.
Where was Roonwit? Could they not see that our dance had not changed?
Our feet dragged. They slowed, heavier and heavier, till the dance stood still.
The attack went badly. Some Narnians were roused, joining the seven; some turned on Calormenes and Narnians alike, blood soaking the grass before the false temple.
The Narnians were not enough. One by one, they were taken to that stable and throne in, and something within the stable flashed and shook the ground.
We could only stand and watch as all good died or disappeared, death by death.
And then.
Then the stable door opened.
Then the One who wrote all stories stood in the doorway, the ones who disappeared standing with him.
Then He called us home.
We left the dance, we left the skies, and we flew. Closer and closer, all those who had stood together in constellations or separately in our parts of the dance, we flew together, and we landed behind Him.
We watched as our truth was made fact, made a part of time, and then time ended.
We watched as lies perished and the truth became undeniable.
We watched with the One who was truth.
