Tulir

Tulir shivered and let out a slight shaky gasp as the falling star streaked through the night sky. The days were getting longer and warmer, but the nights were still uncomfortably cool. Pharisti was tucked close beside him, and her warmth was the only respite from the biting wind.

“Did you make a wish?”

“Hm?” He responded, for the moment too lost in his own thoughts to really understand what she was asking.

“On the star. Did you make a wish?” She gestured with her hands, and the unintentional trail of magical light that streaked from her claw tips mimicked the path of the star almost perfectly, though on a much smaller scale.

“Oh, no. I don’t think that works.”

“Oh come on, don’t be such a curmudgeon.” She shouldered him playfully, and he returned the gesture.

“I’m not being a curmudgeon. It’s just… Look, that star is streaking down from the heavens where it’s been all it’s life. It seems to me it has way bigger things to deal with than granting other people’s wishes.”

“Oh wow.” She stared at him for a long moment. “How is that simultaneously the most pragmatic and romantic thing I’ve ever heard you say?” Her laughter began as silent shaking that then became quiet giggles before finally breaking into full blown, belly deep laughing. With it the magic light that she emitted grew from its normal barely visible faint glow to being so bright she was almost certainly undoing the long moments they had spent letting their eyes acclimate to the darkness.

Even though they had specifically braved the chill to stargaze, Tulir found he couldn’t much care about his ruined night vision. Pharisti’s joy was more beautiful than the night sky ever could be.