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BUTTERFLY
The first planet, Stella, in the village of Luxuria
The girl sat beneath the willow tree.
In her hands, she held a wooden tablet, the wax on the surface warmed by the sun. The blunt tip of the writing instrument traced into the wax.
The knoll upon which she sat dipped into a soft valley, ripe with wildflowers that swayed in a gentle breeze.
The lines on the wooden tablet were blocky, and the wax was smudged at the corners from how many times she’d blotted her lines away, deeming them unsatisfactory.
The sun dipped, the sky turning pink and orange—like the heavy, sweet fruits that hung from the fat-leafed trees in her family’s garden.
She tilted her head. Narrowed her eyes. Then decided to tilt the wooden tablet.
It was missing something?—
The girl placed the tablet down and stood, circling it, trying to get a new perspective. She crouched on her hands andknees, nose brushing the wax surface. It smelled faintly of the frankincense sachets her mother had dropped in a stone pot and let burn over the fire that morning.
It hit her then.
The girl sat back, brown hair falling in her face.
She grabbed her writing instrument, one leg tucked to her chest, the tablet resting precariously on her knee, as she added the final touches.
A blooming valley of countless flowers, so many petals that they turned to one large sea. Behind it, the wax was carved angrily to speak of the thick shadows in the forest that bordered her home village.
It wasn’t perfect, but it was hers.
She propped the tablet beneath the willow tree, the long leaves brushing her ankles as she lay down and stretched out on her back.
She dozed, dreaming of steaming bread and woven baskets.
When her eyes drifted open, it was to a chill that had settled deep into her bones. The sun was gone, the twin moons shining above.
Her mother wouldn’t be missing her—as the eldest daughter of five siblings, she was often overlooked.
Her stomach grumbled; that was enough to tempt her away from her small haven beneath the Stars and willow tree.
Just as she sat up, her chin lifted, taking in the night sky with a low, lingering sigh.
A flash of gold and white streaked across the clear darkness above.
She gasped, sitting up fully as she stared. A shooting Star.
Make a wish,her father would always say, holding her hands between his and brushing the tip of her nose to remind her to keep her eyes closed.
She closed her eyes.
What the girl wished for could not be expressed in mere words.
Heat kissed her cheeks and her closed lids. Soft like static.
The girl opened her eyes, and what she saw made her gasp, heart kicking up to a swift, shocked beat in her chest. Her skirts shifted as she stood, a hand braced on the bark of the willow tree behind her. The leaves shrouded her. She parted them and stepped beyond the willow’s embrace.
The Star burned up in the clear sky.
