Castor

His parents,, aren't the nicest, so he left when he was young to persue a life outside of the Wastelands, hoping to move to Starfell Isles and become an astronomer, but things did not end up that way. Go past the art to read his story of how he ended up in the Grove.

Castor sat in his nest, bored. All his litter mates had either moved on to other clans or had begun their apprenticeships and their lives. He usually spent his days trying to find something to do. The young spiral’s universally known clumsiness had gotten him banned from all clan business. As a result, he often found himself flying around in boredom looking for something of interest.

One day on a return trip home from the arcane Crystalspine Reaches, a burst of light screamed past, missing him by mere inches. Slightly affronted yet intrigued, he followed the lights descent to the Starfell Isles. What he found fascinated him. He watched as the Arcanist’s researchers swarmed the fallen star that almost singed him. They performed various tests and seemed to take copious notes. He found himself returning here day after day to observe. One day he even saw the Archanist himself step out when there was a particularly large star, inspect it, and go back in. His followers scurried after him carrying the star inside the Observatory. Castor greatly admired their work and though he did not fully understand it, he wished he could be a part of it nonetheless.

One night, the young spiral was lying atop the tall bones in the Wyrmwound admiring the sky, a hobby he picked up from the Arcanites. He was high enough that the noxious fumes from the cauldron below didn’t block the spectacular view. The stars twinkled above him, as if to a melody he couldn’t hear. Every now and then, he would see a streak of light race across the sky, some falling to the world in screaming glory, just over the horizon.

Feeling rather tired he had just decided to fly home, when the sky above turned very, very bright. Squinting, he looked and saw a falling star close to him. He watched in awe as it sped through the air, crashing into the Tangled Wood. He sat still for a moment, before taking off towards the Shadow Realm, now wide awake.

He had never before left his realm, but had decided that this was his time, possibly a way of joining the researchers and pursuing his dream. His plan was to arrive at the crash site and study what he could, then when the Arcane Researchers came, he would be able to convince them to let him go with them. Elated at this thought, he flew faster and over the border, into the cooler air of the forest.

The star lay in the Grove, a small crater underneath. He sighed in relief. Having heard that the dragons of this region collected flashy items for their homes he had feared that they might have already laid claim to the star. However, mayhap the star was too bright for their eyes as there was no hide or scale in sight.

Unsure how to approach the fallen star, or if he even should, he landed a couple of feet away. He circled it a few times, looking it over, checking to see if anything was out of the ordinary from what he had observed of the stars in the Starfell Isles. Finding nothing out of the ordinary or threatening, he sat down near the star. He needed to study it as much as possible before the Scholars arrived.

It must have been sunrise because what passed as morning here had arrived, yet no one from the Starfell Isles had. The spiral, now exhausted from staying awake this whole time and the workout of flying here, had given up hope on his dream to join the Archanist’s scholars becoming a reality. He had seen the researcher’s retrieve stars from far vaster distances in far less time.

Defeated, he stood up. He needed to find an abandoned cave or a tall tree to sleep in before starting his flight back home. As he passed the star, still shining as bright as it did when it landed, he became filled with a rage.

Why wasn’t this star worthy of the Arcanites? Why did they not even bother looking for it? He kicked a rock at the star in frustration, screaming as he did. The rock bounced off the star, making a clinking sound. He stilled, looking at the rock and then at the star, perplexed. He had overheard the researchers when they crossed through the wasteland that a star was just fire and light. If that was true, then why did the rock not go right through it? And why had it made that metallic sound?

Grabbing a fallen tree branch, he carefully inched closer to the star. Once he was close enough to the star, he poked it with the branch and to his surprise, it encountered a solid object. He dragged it across the star, trying to feel with it. The branch kept catching on something. Dropping the branch he hesitantly reached out. Upon touch, the star was so cold it sent a shiver down his spine. He could barely see due to the brightness so he relied on touch as he blindly felt around, mesmerized by what he discovered. The branch must have caught on what seemed to be a series of dashes and dots that created a large circular pattern on the top off the star. He clambered up to the top the star to get a better feel, but slipped and slammed against the design. It gave under his weight and collapsed inward, causing the young spiral to fall inside.

With a thunk, he landed inside. Looking around in confusion he saw a circle of light shining down from the hole he fell through. The interior of the star seemed to be made of bits of what could only be some type of metal that was highlighted by the new skylight he’d made. The inside was rather cramped, even though the star looked big outside. He stood up as much as he could, his body winding around, his limbs finding purchase where they could. He lifted the piece that fell in with him and shoved it through the hole, hearing it clatter as it slid down the side. He let his eyes adjust to the lighting inside, and then started to take in what he could. Underneath where he had fallen was a small crushed chair, empty. One side of the interior had to be a control panel of some sort as it was covered in small buttons and levers and had dim blinking lights all over. But there were other things he couldn’t really understand, or even comprehend around him.

Swiveling his head around the small enclosure, his arm slipped, causing him to fall once again, but this time onto the control panel. He smashed against the buttons, breaking several of the levers off. Suddenly the star started to hum loudly, the interior lighting up a bright red, flashing obnoxiously faster and faster. The spiral began to panic as the lights and hum got louder and overtook his senses, making him once again blind and his ears ringing. He ran around the star breaking more things as he tried to find his exit. The star had started to scream so loud, he couldn’t think. All he could do was pin back his ears and pray to the gods to see him through his own stupidity. He curled up as tightly as he could as his final defense from whatever was about to happen. His surroundings got hotter and hotter, the light shining even brighter even though his eyes were shut tight, and he could no longer feel his ears from pressing down so hard.

Then, he felt nothing.

The young spiral woke to find himself in a crater, deeper than the one where he had found the star, cold. He opened his heavy eyelids, and gazed at the sight above him. The stars shone above, just as they had the night before, yet they looked different. They felt different. He could see them more clearly, the stars more brilliant than ever before. He was so enraptured by this, he failed to see a small creature hop its way towards him into the crater. The creature rammed itself into him, breaking him from this trance to look down. It was a small purple rabbit with glowing eyes, and it looked as furious as a rabbit could be. It quickly ran around the spiral a few times, then tried to dig underneath him, as if searching for something. That’s when he noticed something was missing: the star. He stood up and looked around himself, searching for the star and sidestepping the angry rabbit.

What had it gone? Did the researchers come and take it while he was knocked out and just left him!? He frantically searched for any foot prints that could confirm this theory, but couldn’t find any. He tried to climb out of the crater to search further, but he felt a tug on his tail as he did. He looked back to find the rabbit biting and pulling his tail, which surprised him since the rabbit was small, yet so strong. He lifted the rabbit out of the crater with it attached to his tail, and held it in front of his eyes for a closer look. He abruptly placed it on the ground when he noticed something troubling.

His tail was different.

The scales on his tail gave off a shimmer they hadn’t before and were decorated in a familiar pattern. He frantically looked himself over, seeing that indeed, the rest of his body had this same pattern. He started to hyperventilate at the change, wondering why this had happened. He whipped his head around, looking for something he could use to get a good look at himself with and saw nearby pond. He rushed over in a panic to meet his new reflection, only to recoil as soon as he did.

He sat at the bank of the pond, breathing heavy after what he had glimpsed. When he collected himself, he slowly peeked back into the water. His new hide blended into the reflection of the sky and stars above, the only difference being that he was red. Not only were his scales different, his eyes were too. They glowed from within as brightly as the star did in the last moments before he passed out.

He sat back in disbelief. What had become of him? He couldn’t fathom what had happened, or even how. All he knew was the star had lit up, then disappeared, leaving him changed forever.

While he sat staring into the water, contemplating his new look, the rabbit made its way over. It sat down next to him, still looking irritated, but not as violent as before. The spiral reached his hand out to the rabbit, inviting it to smell him. The rabbit gave him an odd look and huffily complied.

They sat in silence for the rest of the night, gazing at the stars above.