The Legend of Ajira
Chapter 9: Moon and Star
Ajira was cold. Very, terribly cold. The sun was beating down merrily on the plains outside, and yet she felt as if her heart she had been plunged into a freezer. She felt a searing sensation in her forehead, worse than a headache; it felt like her head was literally splitting apart.
Gasping for breath, she stumbled out of Kark's tent, not saying a word, and painfully made her way to her own yurt, poised (unfortunately) on the other side of camp. Finally Ajira had made it inside. She cried out in pain. What was happening to her? It was her Khajiit1 senses, obviously; what had happened to make them hurt so? She felt freezing cold, then burning hot.
Then it struck her. Death. She gulped, and took a deep breath. No, it couldn't be. But it would explain why my parents were mysteriously absent the last few days, and possibly even tied into the Memory Spell incident. Death. The harsh word rang in her ears tauntingly. Death.
She felt warm tears growing in her eyes. She swiped them away with a slash of her paw. Ajira stumbled to a mirror. What was happening to me? She thought bitterly, gazing with tear-blurred eyes at her reflection.
That's when she saw it. A strange marking had appeared on her forehead…it almost looked like…a star. She wiped her eyes and looked closer, fingering the design on her forehead. It was a star, navy blue in color and with smaller silver stars speckled around it. Did this mean what she thought it meant? Ajira had seen this marking before. She remembered it well…
FLASHBACK to the day Ajira was born
Estella Swhen lay on her back in the middle of a dry field right outside her house. She stared up at the stars happily. She occasionally moved her lips as if she was forming words, but no sound escaped them. She would mouth something, pause, and then mouth something else. Almost as if…she was talking to the sky. But of course that wasn't possible. The sky could not talk, and everyone knew that without really thinking about it. It was just one of those things that is generally accepted without much thought. And yet, it looked creepily like Estella was talking to the sky!
Stella stared, eyes wide open, at a single star in the vast array. She mouthed something to the effect of "the birthmark". She paused, waited. Stella mouthed this time "When will it be ready?" And at that moment, Stella smiled, nodded, and got up. She walked back to her hut, where a small Khajiit babe was crying. Her husband, Mar, looked at her with pleading eyes and whispered, "Well? What did Riona say?"
Stella whispered back, "she said it will appear when she is ready for it, and ready for her destiny."
"Destiny?" said Mar, barely audible.
"Yes. Apparently we have been given a gift, a child who is to one day fulfill a great prophecy and change the land forever."
"Gaia2 help us raise this child, so that she will be ready to take on that challenge, whatever that may be."
FLASHBACK OVER
Immediately Ajira knew what this meant. All those times she had been told to wait till she was ready…Those times were over.
She had gotten her star, and she could finally say that she was ready.
1 Khajiit—A rare race of 'cat-people'. They walk on two legs and talk like humans, yet they have the appearance of a cat.
2 Gaia—supreme goddess in Khajiit lore.