[LotM Roleplay] A Celestial Wish | Seq 9 Astronomy Aficionado

Tide rise, tide fall. Beneath the darkened sky and its infinite glittering stars, a young woman sat alone by the beach. Soft waves crashed onto the shore of white sands, leaving sea foam that quickly vanished into the darkness beyond her gaze.

Suddenly, a burst of cheers erupted behind her. There, the faint light of a bonfire pierced the thick tropical foliage. Light aromas of baked fish and sweet potato wine travelled into her nose with the night wind. The young woman shook her head.

A small village tucked in the depths of the ocean. People rose with the sun and slept with the moon. If it weren’t for a roaming missionary, perhaps she would never have learned how to read and write. People lived with the tide, and that was all there was to it; simple, content.

But it wasn’t enough for her.

Most observed the sky to see tomorrow’s weather. Or perhaps the turning of the currents.

Yet, she saw another form of beauty. The glittering stars and their infinite patterns, the crimson moon and its rugged facets. There was so much out there, so much more than a palm hut and a small fishing boat.

Most, reasonably, would thus call her crazy.

“Minerva?! Where are you?” 

A distant call echoed, Minerva sighed, and stood up to pat the sand off of her palm leaf-woven dress. The young woman cast her gaze once more at the sea with longing. Soon, it would be her time for her to choose a partner from the wanderers and start a family. And free time like this… 

Her thought was interrupted.

The once darkened sky lit up with turquoise. Brighter than the stars and the crescent moon, a meteor arched across the sky and crashed down at the beach before her. Before she could even react, a booming explosion erupted from the shallow water, and steam billowed as the mysterious object sizzled. 

Darkness didn’t return; instead, the turquoise light dyed the sea and the mist. Minerva stared at the scene in a daze. Yet, she stepped forward. Something was pulling her across the sand, into the water. It was as if all of her aspirations were within those cyan mists. 

Beside her waist, fragments of a container with intricate markings were bobbing with the waves. Yet her attention was directed to the water, where dream-like cyan glitter flowed like stardust. As she approached, the glitter converged into a nebula-shaped cloud. Then it shrank once more into a perfectly round orb of cyan brilliance. It still appeared liquid as the pattern swirled within the orb, yet it refused to merge with the seawater.

“Drink- it…”

A whisper that felt infinitely far yet also right by her ear echoed. Minerva shivered as she snapped her head around to find no one. Before she could realize, she was shocked to find that the orb now rested within the palm of seawater she had somehow scooped up. She stood frozen amidst churning waves, and darkness returned once more as the light source now rested within her palm. Minerva was hesitant, unable to move her arms despite a growing desire to consume this mysterious orb. 

“Minerva! Where are you? Are you okay?” This time, the shout was much more worried, and it sounded right beyond the wall of canopy. Snapping out of her daze, Minerva looked at the treelines behind her, then back at the orb.

She drew a breath, brought her hands to her mouth, and drank the mixture in one swoop.

At first, the seawater was salty and bitter, then a hint of fruity sweetness blossomed on her tongue. However, a wave of pain swept past her and interrupted her thought. Her body convulsed and cramped, forcing her to lean back and let out a yelp.

That was when she saw it. The night sky seemed to grow in complexity in her eyes. The once formless patterns now seemed to have meanings. In this pained and delirious state, Minerva’s mind slowly drifted away as the stars grew more and more fantastic.

“Minerva!” A worried shout and a pat on her shoulder broke her out of her delirious state. She turned to see an elderly woman with a concerned expression.

“Mother, I...” Minerva looked around her. The ocean had returned to its tranquil darkness. The fragments of the container were nowhere to be seen, perhaps drifted with the current. Everything has returned to what it was the moment before, as if it were merely a dream.

“... I came to explore the light and explosion… And it seems that I got pinched by a crab.” Minerva hastily explained, trying to spin a tale to soothe her worried mother.

The elderly woman scrutinized her daughter for a moment, who, a moment ago, was standing idly in the middle of the ocean, at night. 

“Alright, just be careful next time, okay? You of all people know the danger of riptides.” Minerva’s mother signed in defeat. Sure, the story was crazy, but since when was her daughter normal?

“Come on, let’s head back. We saved some food for you.”

“Yes, mother.”