Starfall

Starfall

                A little boy and girl – six and eight respectively – were keeping an eye on their parents sheep, to make sure they didn’t wander too far. It was actually their father’s job, but he had bribed them into doing it so he could remain at the village pub until it shut. As such, it was they – not he – who saw the falling star come crashing down to earth not one hundred metres from where they stood, in a small copse of trees.

                “A shooting star!” yelled the boy excitedly.

                “I wonder if it came from the Guides?” said the girl, as they made their way towards it, the sheep forgotten.

                “Of course it didn’t,” said the boy, condescendingly. “Everyone knows the Guides have abandoned us!”

                The little girl pouted, and said, “Not forever! You should know the last message as well as I do by now! They’ll talk to us again when we’re ready, or in a time of need!”

                The little boy stuck his tongue out as the pair made their way into the trees. Between the roots of one of the trees, in a shallow crater, sat a glowing tablet.

                The little girl squealed in shock and happiness as the little boy stared, shocked. “We have to bring this to Mummy!” she yelled, ecstatic.

                It took three weeks for the tablet to reach someone who could read the Star Language. In that time, it passed through many hands – from the children to their mother, from the mother to the village mayor, from the mayor to a local who was still faithful to the guides, and then finally from him to the elderly priest who tended to an old temple dedicated to the guides in a town several days from the village.

                “I was never as attentive in my studies of the language as I should have been, but I believe I can manage,” he said, sitting down as the villager placed the tablet in front of him.

                With a soft hmm he began tracing the words with his finger, puzzling over each. After a while he pulled an ancient book down from a shelf, and flicked through it; looking for this symbol, or that symbol. As he worked he became somewhat tense, and grim.

                After about an hour – during which the villager waited patiently beside him – he said grimly, “This message tells of the imminent return of the Star Guides.”

                “But isn’t that a good thing?” asked the villager, a man even older than the aged priest.

                “If we were ready, yes. But they are not returning because we are ready. They are returning with a warning. The tablet reads, ‘Our light will once again guide your way. You may say, we are unready. And you are not ready. But a fire has been lit in the south, and it burns. It burns ever so bright, and brighter each day. We warn you of it, and as best we can we shall shield you from it.’”

                The villager shook in shock, and the priest said, “It is time for the Star-Led Empire to rise again.”