Starheart

I open my eyes slowly as I regain consciousness. Slowly I can see the roof of my tent coming into focus. My arms and legs ache as I try to move them. After a short struggle, I manage to get myself upright. What happened? Did it work?

Across from me I can see my friend on the ground. She looks hurt. I rush over to her, bones still aching, and try to shake her awake.

“Yana, are you okay?” I say, but she’s not responding, “Yana, wake up! Yana!”

Suddenly Yana coughs and moans as she tries sitting upright to make sense of everything. I can feel the relief throughout my whole body.

“Kynia?” she looks around, “what happened?”

Looking around, I see what she means. The inside of the tent is slightly scorched in places, and there are also some places on both our arms that are marked, but it only stings a little. It seems like my little experiment didn’t work after all. Why didn’t it? Oh well, it was worth a try. Yana looks at my chest with a strange expression.

“What is that?”

Confused, I look down, but what I see is unreal. I feel like screaming as I see a strange small light shining through my clothes. Pulling my shirt up, I see that the light is coming from within me. I start to panic. What is going on? I look at Yana to see the panic in her face as well.

“What is happening to me?” I ask, clutching my chest. “Could this be from the spell?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know!” she says and I can see she is freaking out. “This wasn’t supposed to happen. We shouldn’t have done this. I knew something would go wrong. Messing with this type of magic was a bad idea!”

“Yana, stay focussed! How do we fix this?” I ask, but she can’t stop staring at my chest.

“I don’t know!” she says as she waves her hands around frantically, “We need see Xonu about this. She would know what to do.”

“What?! That witch lives far in the woods. How are we going to get past everyone without them noticing?”

“What else are we supposed to do then?”

I can’t argue with her. If anyone can do something about this, it will be Xonu. I can’t let anyone see me like this. If my father finds out that I’ve been practising a forbidden magic, then he would probably kill me.

“Kynia, the light is getting bigger!” she shouts at me and I see it’s true. We need to move quickly.



Luckily many people are asleep while I’m weaving through the tents with Yana following me close by. I’m wearing a thick cloak to cover the light, but it’s growing stronger and I can feel the heat inside me increasing. We just need to reach the woods. I hope Xonu is able to do something. Just a few more tents and then we are out of the campsite.

“Kynia, where are you going at this time of night?” I hear Kino call behind me. He must not see me like this. He’ll be the first person to tell father.

“We’re just going for a walk in the forest,” Yana shouts back. I walk faster. When I reach the edge of the campsite I make a run for the forest.

“Sister, stop! Where are you running to?” Kino shouts behind me. I quickly look back to see that Yana is trying to stop my brother from following me. He won’t understand. Why would he?

The forest becomes thick. If I keep going straight, then I should find Xonu’s camp. The trees around me are starting to light up as the light shines through the thick coat. The heat inside me is making me dizzy. The trees are all starting to look the same. I’m not even sure if I’m going straight anymore.

In the confusion, my foot gets caught on the root of a tree and sends me flying forward into the ground. The ground is cold against my hot skin. It feels nice and calms me a bit. However, this feeling is interrupted with the sound of footsteps.

“Kynia, there you are. What’s going on?” he asks. I stand up and face him, and I can see that he realises what’s happening.

“What have you done?! You know celestial magic is forbidden!” He approaches me cautiously. Yana appears from behind him.

“It’s because of you, Kino!” He is taken aback by this. “You were always the favourite child. For once I wanted to feel special! I wanted to take that smug look off your face.”

“So you decided to use forbidden magic?”

“I wanted to create a star to show father and everybody what I’m capable of, but something went wrong. So I’m going to Xonu to fix it.”

“It cannot be fixed, my child.” I turn around to see where the unexpected voice came from. It’s Xonu, the old witch.

“What do you mean?! You have to help me!”

“The magic you used is irreversible. My spells will have no effect,” she says calmly.

I want shout and beg, but I suddenly feel that my feet are leaving the ground. Looking down I see that I’m floating. The excruciating heat is making my skin glow. I panic as I’m going higher and higher.

“What’s happening to me?” I ask Xonu desperately.

“You are getting what you wished for… to be special,” she says and I realize what she means.

Kino and Yana are shouting something at me, but I can’t hear them. The world falls silent around me. I’m going higher faster and soon I’m through the trees. The dark heavens are getting closer. My body bursts into flames.

“I’m sorry,” I say softly and then I close my eyes from the searing heat, feeling a bit of regret for what I’ve done as I join the night sky as a star.