A Night Among The Stars

No! She woke with a start, gasping and out of breath. Within moments she relaxed, once she realized she was safely at home. No, not the old home she refused to talk about to anyone, the new one she shared with the Troop. Nebula sighed and pulled her knees up to her chest, rested her chin on them, and wrapped her arms, then her wings around herself. The nightmares were never going to stop, but that was sort of a given. Before coming to Dremkai City, she had lived a not-so-innocent life on the streets of Port Anida. To be frank, I've seen things that no one else here has. Not that any of them want to see the truth of the shadowlife of Port Anida.

Nebula, now completely over her nightmare fear, stood up. Yes, it was the middle of the night and quite cold, but the stars would be out and she didn't want to go back to sleep just yet.

Quietly Nebula made her way past her slumbering troop mates and into the open. She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply through her nostrils, the midnight wind smelled of the spices of that day's market and quite possibly magic.

I suppose the night isn't going to last forever and nothings going to happen if I just stand here. Nebula unfurled her wings; great feathery devices of the deepest, darkest colors of the rainbow; black, blue, purple, indigo, all swirling together in incomprehensible patterns. It only took a couple flaps to wake up Nebula's sleeping muscles and then she was off, into the night.

Clouds swirled high up in the sky and blocked the stars, moon, and sky from seeing the ground. Well, I guess the sky is still angry at the land after their last argument.

With ease, Nebula made her way up to the normally white but currently purplish-black puffy masses. The dreamer child passed them without very much hesitation; she had, after all, made this trip a lot of times before and as she boasted to Firestarter, when she was annoyed with him, she probably could have done it blindfolded.

All lingering thoughts of that night's nightmare vanished from Nebula's mind when she finally made it past the cloud barrier and the night sky opened up to her. Like a swimmer would tread water, Nebula began treading air with her wings and simply observed. The stars around her glistened, some fell, others played. The moon watched its comrades romp with its old man face lit up into a full smile.

Nebula glanced below at the sleeping city through a gap in the clouds, here and there she could see small lights, most likely fire lamps but with the occasional electrical one. The winged girl knew the night life down below was just beginning, which meant, since both Leafy Wings and Stormchaser liked to roam around during this period, she didn't have much time unless she wanted them to raise the alarm that she was gone. And knowing everyone down there, they'll probably get riled up and think the Roken Mages finally caught me. Nebula's dark blue eyes flecked with aqua and pink went back up to the sky, I'm not quite done here yet, though. She rose higher until it seemed she could reach out and touch the moon.

"We haven't talked in a while" She called out to the celestial objects before her.

"Child Nebula" Came the star, Ondine's rumbling reply "You are of the earthen ground below."

"Yes, I know."

"No, you do not. If you did you wouldn't visit us as much." That was the shrill, high pitch of Petra.

"But it's wonderful up here and why do I have these wings if not to visit?" Nebula inquired the stars in front of her.

"Child Nebula, we care for you and greatly enjoy your visits, even if, at this moment, Ondine and Petra aren't showing it, but tonight is not the best time for a visit." The moon's deep baritone covered all of stars' voices.

"But, can't I see—"

"No. Not tonight."

"Why?"

"A storm is coming."

Nebula grumbled under her breath, but she knew when she was defeated and once the stars and moon decided something, they never went back on that. Restless, she readied her wings and then dove back through the clouds.

Nebula returned to her home as silently as she had left. No one else was awake and her adventure, like so many before it, had gone unnoticed. With a soft smile, Nebula curled up under her blankets and drifted off to a dreamless sleep.

When she woke up the next morning, she found that it had rained heavily during the night.