Faery Tales

Kaylee’s mouth opened in a soundless scream as she shot to her feet, looking around the valley with eyes wide as saucers, her heart racing within her chest.  Songbirds graced the air with their sweet music as some swooped and dove to show off for potential mates, the wind rustling through the leaves and making the tall grass bend so it only reached her waist.  The sun was shining brightly overhead, nary a cloud in sight and an overall feeling of warmth and peace pervaded the vale and yet still, something was wrong.  Something made her skin prickle and sent a chill down her spine, making her take a hasty gulp as she realized she had been holding her breath.

            A puzzled frown wrinkled her brow as she narrowed her eyes and pricked her ears, her sixth sense practically singing for her attention.  There was nothing amiss, nothing to indicate trouble brewing and she almost felt as though it had been her imagination, except for the bitter taste the air held and for the tingling at the back of her mind that made the hairs at the back of her neck stand straight up.  Though there was nothing awry, save for the acrid air, she still felt uneasy.  She swallowed again and grimaced in distaste, it wasn’t the air that was foul, there was something acidic on her tongue …but she hadn’t eaten a thing since porridge and biscuits with honey early that morning.

            The gay laughter of young children met her ears above the chirping of the birds and she smiled despite herself, unable to keep the warning fresh in her mind as the youngsters approached, most hardly tall enough to be seen over the grass, one of the reasons why they loved to play down here.  A vague sense of apprehension gripped her, tightening around her heart like a vise and she had to concentrate on the smile she gave the children as they flocked towards her, their high voices requesting stories and songs from her as they laughed and jostled each other.  She bent down and gathered the two closest her into her arms, kissing both of their foreheads.

            Pushing her worries from her mind she forced her voice to sound light and steady as she greeted the children.  “Kara, Demetre, have you two finished your studies?” The twins in her arms nodded enthusiastically, hugging her.  Kara, one of the youngest of the children and her brother, older only by a matter of minutes, cuddled close to her.  They were all covered in mud and dirt, but Kaylee didn’t mind and she lowered herself to the ground to be nearer to each child, ruffling the hair of one boy, Samuel as she sat down.

            “Lady Kaylee, please, a story?” Janice asked, twisting a lock of her pale blond hair about a finger.

            Kaylee regarded them all seriously.  “Have you all finished your studies?  Your parents are aware of where you are?  You’ve eaten lunch already?” The crowd of children all nodded or voiced their affirmatives and she laughed helplessly.  “Then I grant you one story, for I have to be at the fields before mid afternoon.”

            “We’ll listen, no interruptions!” Janice assured her.

            Kaylee lifted an elegant eyebrow in mute surprise.  “Oh?  Then this is a rare day indeed.  All right, I’ll regale you all with the tale of the day the stars fell from the sky, it’s not precisely a story, but rather the legend that spawned the song of the Dream Goddess and her choir of dreamers …first off, have any of you an idea of why the stars fell?”

            “The Goddess was angry and banished them from her realm?” Samuel suggested. 

            “The Goddess wouldn’t send the stars away!” Kara replied, aghast.  “I think they were weeping …stars die from grief and they were crying for someone.”

            Kaylee nodded.  “They were saddened.  But, as everyone knows, the stars cry all the time.  When a haze of glitter, like earlier this summer, lights the sky it means that the stars are crying.  The only time they fall from the sky in tears however, is when their sorrow is so strong they cannot bear to live.  You see, sacrifice is the symphony of the stars.  The great lady Chiara was once a mortal girl who fell deeply in love with a Shepard named Aslyn.  He possessed a strange magic that allowed him to take on the form of a lion to guard the sheep he was to watch.

            “Chiara longed to marry the young man, but her parents were deathly afraid of magic and wanted their daughter to be untainted by the ‘unpure’ touch of magic.  They didn’t know that there were many forms of magic and they didn’t know that Aslyn’s magic was a good form.  Chiara prayed every night to Selene, the goddess of the Moon, for her parents to allow her to marry the Shepard.  Theirs was a forbidden love and only the stars and the moon served as witnesses to the secret meetings between the two.

            “One day, Chiara’s father caught her sneaking out to meet Aslyn and he locked her in her room and sent her mother, from whom Chiara had received all of her beauty and looks, to pretend to be the girl and to lead Aslyn to where Chiara’s father waited for him.  Chiara knew that her father was going to hurt her lover and she wept long into the night, unable to leave her room and terribly frightened for Aslyn.  However, Selene had heard her prayers and had watched night after night and had seen the purity within Aslyn’s heart and within Chiara’s as well.”

            “Did Selene bless them and make her parents see the errors of their choice?” Demetre asked breathlessly.

            Kaylee smiled warmly.  “Listen and you shall find out,” She advised, mussing his chestnut-brown hair.  “As I was saying, Selene had recognized the purity of the two and had felt herself the sheer force of the love the couple shared.  She knew the bond between the two for what it was, a soul bond.  She knew that in the case of such a bond, should one of the two die, the other would as well for one cannot live with only half a soul and half a heart.  So Selene went to talk with Chiara’s father, but he would not hear of it and so she went to Chiara’s mother, but she as well was too scared of the magic Aslyn possessed to listen to reason.”

            “How could they not listen to Selene?” Janice asked.

            “She had disguised herself as a wise woman for she knew that if she was to approach Chiara’s parents in her true form, they might listen, but they would be forced into it and so Chiara would never be truly happy with Aslyn knowing that her parents were unhappy.  Selene herself wept with Chiara as Aslyn was lead, unknowingly, to his death.  As Aslyn slipped from life, so too did Chiara and the stars themselves were overcome with misery, sacrificing themselves to bestow the power of the immortals upon Chiara and her lover.

            “Selene kissed the brow of Chiara and sent her into the empty heavens, granting her the guardianship and powers of dreams as that was what Chiara herself had been given.  Selene then went and kissed Aslyn’s brow, giving him the duty and power of the Sandman, the guiding force that allows Chiara to visit upon us sweet dreams and gives us the capacity to believe in our conscious dreams.  Then the Moon Goddess went to Chiara’s parents who were stricken by the death of their daughter.  She went in no disguise this time, allowing the two mortals to gravel and cower in fear as she stood in silence above them, until she at last crumpled to her knees and embraced her children and granted them the sight to see the truth and the magic in the love Chiara and Aslyn shared.  Chiara’s parents wept for their ignorance and were spared their lives to become prophets of the new goddess and they became the first of the Seers.”

            “But we have stars today, if the stars fell …” Samuel began, his eyes watery as were those of the other children.

            “The story behind the song is not yet over, child,” Kaylee advised.  “Chiara was overjoyed at being reunited with Aslyn and he was in turn delighted beyond words to be with her.  But both were sorrowed at the loss of the stars and they were both gladdened and saddened by what the stars had given so they could live together for eternity.  Chiara and Aslyn used their new powers after asking one last wish from Selene, which she granted wholeheartedly.  For each baby born, their first dream gave life to a star and slowly the heavens filled again with stars.  That is why we each have one guardian star up there, our one star who, in return for being granted life, offers wishes in return.  Only some truly heartfelt wishes may come true, but all of the stars watch over us with Selene, Chiara and Aslyn and they all weep with us in the depths of despair and they offer guidance when we are lost, for we can map out the constellations.  Forever the stars have been tied with our lives and we all live together in unity, for without the stars, our wishes would be empty, our dreams haunted by nightmares and we would be lost.  Without us, the stars would not be born.”

            Rosy, a little girl with auburn hair and bright green eyes tugged on Kaylee’s sleeve.  “Lady Kaylee, can you sing us the song too?”

            Kaylee beamed at the girl.  “Of course, little one, after all, the story would never be complete without the song.” She took a moment to recall all of the words and smiled to herself as she cleared her throat and tested her voice briefly.  “This song, in remembrance of the birth of Chiara and Aslyn and in eternal prayer to the stars and the Goddess of the Moon, Selene, is called ‘Symphony of the Stars’ …

“Shattered remnants of a broken heart,

Scattered on the fields of forever,

The echoes of foot steps in the sand,

Blown by the winds into never,

Sleep on, my lady, sleep on,

Wake not for this eternity of night,

Though trouble brews close to thy heart,

Thy slumber shall be of peace and light,

Watching endlessly, the lives of this world,

Caring throughout eternity to their dreams,

Tongues of fire to caress the purest souls,

Falling always through the seams,

Sacrifice is the symphony of the stars.”