Prequel to Aurix
Celeste shivers and looks up. Maybe this wasn't the best idea. Far above her, Aeolus' Point is like a dagger cleaving the heart of the storm in two. Its partially obscured by the torrential rains, buffeting winds and low-lying clouds, but the ever-glowing poplar trees that decorate the Point are still visible. A trail of the trees led down into Lightning Pass, which is just below Celeste, like a glowing scar down the mountain side.
She comes to a stop against one, panting and wiping away the rain. Celeste had been climbing for a good two hours now. Ventus Academy was far below her – if she walked to the far side of the path and squinted, she'd be able to see the lights of her tower, half-sunk into the mountain as it was. That was her favourite part about Ventus, the way it seemed to have been carved directly out of the mountain by some ancient architect who died before he could completely remove it from the rock. It was the most beautiful castle she'd ever seen (not that she'd seen any others in person, but that didn't matter).
After catching her breath, Celeste started off again. The rain was getting harder, and she needed to reach the Point before the path flooded.
Maybe coming here in Autumn wasn't the best idea either. It was the one time of year where it rained hard enough to get through the tree canopy at the bottom of the mountain, but it hadn't been raining forty-five minutes ago. The storm had swept in quickly and decided to stay, pelting the mountain side with a torrential downpour, scattering lightning across the sky. Up here, exposed to the winds, the thunder was deafening. If she had taken the Pericles Pass further to the south, she'd have been covered from a lot of the weather. It worked its way deep within the mountains, actually going through the range, before working its way up the opposite side of the mountains towards the Point. Issue was, it would take her almost a week to travel.
And Celeste wanted to see the stars now.
Lightning Point took most Ventus students about three hours to travel. They were often seniors, around 17 or 18 years old, and they'd do it in summer or spring, when the weather was calmer. Celeste was not quite twelve, inexperienced in mountain climbing, and trying to do it in the middle of the worst storm the Olympus Mountain Range had experienced in almost twenty years.
Yet she was still surprised when she was cleanly blown off the path.
Celeste didn't even have a chance to scream. The path she was following was etched into the mountainside, with nothing to stop skinny preteen girls from falling off the edge. If she had fallen maybe another hundred metres ahead, the glowing poplar trees would have broken her fall. If she had fallen about fifty metres behind, she would have landed in the ravine which made an abrupt turn at that point. She would have been either badly bruised or very wet, but she would have been safe.
Instead, she had the luck to fall in the one spot where the mountain sheared off abruptly, hundreds of metres worth of slick cliff face leading down into mist-hidden trees. Here and there were small outcroppings and hardy bushes, but nothing of substance.
Celeste registered this as she fell. The wind stole her breath. She was blinded by the stinging rains. Her hands became torn and bloody as she scrambled to catch something. Her chest felt tight and cold. A knot grew even as one of her legs scraped past a rock. That knot expanded and burst through her chest. She felt like a firework.
The world seemed to slow down. The wind calmed. The rain dropped at a tenth of the speed. Her own fall seemed to be suspended. Celeste felt a little like time had stopped, like she was floating. With aching slowness, she twisted her head to face the cliff. There. A crack in the rock, a tiny little outcropping just below it.
That firework-knot in her chest pulsed. Celeste reached out. Her hands touched rock.
Time seemed to speed back up. Rain hit her head like tiny pebbles. The wind threatened to tear her away from the cliff. Her fingers ached from where they were clinging onto the rock. It took all of her strength to pull herself up, to haul herself into the safety of that gap. The sudden absence of wind made her skin tingle.
She was safe.
Celeste gasped for breath. The terror of her fall hit her all at once. Tears ran down her face, unnoticeable against her already drenched skin. She curled herself up into a ball, in that tiny crack, and screamed.
"I JUST WANTED TO SEE THE STARS!"
That was all she wanted. The stars weren't visible from Ventus, tucked in the dip between two mountains as it was. Aeolus' Point was her only chance at seeing the stars in person, rather than on a map. She could name every single constellation in the sky, but she'd never seen them.
"It wasn't even meant to be raining!," Celeste screamed into the darkness, "It was meant to rain tomorrow!"
That was one of the reasons she'd come up here today. No chance of Headmaster or one of the other teachers deciding on a trip through the mountain with a storm so close. No chance of Celeste being discovered. Turns out, they may have had the right idea.
Celeste shivered and wiggled closer to the opening. The rain didn't seem to be calming down. There was no way she was going to be able to get back to Ventus now. The thought of being stuck there for hours, if not days, made her chest tight. She felt like screaming again.
It was so dark. There were no poplar trees around, so no gentle glow to banish the shadows. Celeste tugged her coat tighter around her and closed her eyes. Sometimes, if she wished really, really hard, she could make things happen. Things like stopping her fall just enough to reach safety.
She thought about the stars. How, in all of the pictures and paintings and charts, they stood out from the dark sky. She thought about the way they glowed, the bright yellows and whites and silvers and golds they were always painted in. She thought about the poems she'd found about the stars – star light, star bright, first star I see tonight…
That cold tightness grew in her chest. It seemed quieter than before. More like a spark than an explosion. It travelled across her shoulders, down her arms and into her cupped hands. Before her eyes, a tiny star appeared, growing in little pulses until Celeste was literally holding a star in her hands. A smile stretched her cheeks. It's not how I thought I was going to see a star, but…
The star had a white core, from which silver and gold seemed to burst out in irregular, shifting spikes. Every so often, one would stretch out and sink into her skin, a tiny spot of warmth against the cold breeze that would sneak into the gap. Soon, too soon, Celeste grew tired. Her eyes struggled to stay open.
Still holding the star, she curled up on her side and cradled the light to her chest. "Goodnight star," she whispered.
On the other side of Lightning Pass, a creature looked up. He almost resembled a wolf, if wolves were the size of adult humans or almost one and a half metres tall at the shoulder. His form seemed to ripple with the wind, small pieces tearing away and disappearing. He was darker than the shadows, would have been invisible if it wasn't for the pale yellow glow of his eyes.
He was staring at another glow now. Nestled in the sheer face of the mountain was a flickering light, like a star had fallen and taken refuge from the storm. He thought he had smelt a human earlier, but he'd pushed it aside. No human would be so stupid as to travel through the mountains in this weather. Apparently, someone had.
Another wolf-creature stepped up to his side and made an enquiring noise. What's wrong?
He growled and swung away, heading towards the light. Gather the rest of the pack. We have a human to save.
Authors' Notes
Hi everyone! I thought that people might like to see a small snippet of some of the shit Celeste git into before going to Red Fountain – because believe me, she doesn't exactly have the best sense of self-preservation, if you hadn't already guessed. Or at least, you will guess? Anyway, I hope you enjoy this little glimpse into her past, and I'll try to have more chapters of the main fic for you soon! To new readers, go and check out the main story – Aurix.