She Who Treads Amongst the Stars

Chapter 4: The Dream

After storing a satisfactory amount of Star Bits in their spacecraft, Rosalina sat down on the floor, crossing her legs. The stick of the wand rolled slightly in her outstretched palm as she examined it once more. Despite the miracle she'd wrung up earlier, she wasn't really sure how to control or use the thing. The idea that the wand even was usable still felt too strange for her to fathom.

Well, just use it the way you would pretend to play with a wand at home and go from there, she thought. Magic didn't really have rules, right? Whatever she did should work. Or so she hoped.

How strange her world had become.

She closed her eyes, breathing in and out carefully. Slowly, like her mother had taught her, to calm and steady herself. Maybe that would increase her chances of "resonating with the pulse of the universe," or whatever Luma said. Silently, she pictured her star friend and made a wish.

Please show us this Luma's mother and how to find her. Rosalina waved the wand a few times in varying circles. She wasn't sure exactly what she was expecting, but whatever it was, it didn't come. Perhaps a vision, or some sort of manifestation of imagery that would answer her. But there was nothing. Seconds stretched into minutes as she waited for a sound, a flash, anything. It quickly became clear that wasn't going to happen.

"Okaaaay... be that way," she huffed. Rosalina felt disappointed, but she knew it was only her first try and she shouldn't give up quite yet. Maybe she just had to do something different?

Rosalina proceeded to try everything she could think of. Waving her wand in different ways, asking her question using different words, saying her plea both silently and out loud, even begging for someone to listen. Yet not a single thing changed – the ship remained as silent and unmoving as ever. Frustrated, Rosalina let out a growl and angrily threw the wand to the floor, barely minding the light clunk sound the impact made. Trying not to pout, she brushed some loose hair out of her eyes and adjusted the lopsided crown on her head. Then she grabbed her bunny and ran her fingers in its fur absently for a while. The comforting and familiar sensation of the scraggly fluff slowly brought her back to earth.

Maybe I'm asking too much. Maybe I need to start with something smaller.

Rosalina pictured the loaf of bread and the jam she packed into her knapsack before boarding the ship. Tasty as the Star Bits were, she missed her strawberry sandwiches. Her eyes closed, her wish became thought, and her arm moved the wand in a giant s-shape, just as it had many times before. And when she opened her eyes, she nearly fell over – there sat a loaf of her favorite bread, still steaming as if freshly taken out of the oven. The jam, too, was there, packed lovingly in a glass jar. The jar was even adorned by a bright pink bow with white polka dots.

"Awwww, yeah!" Rosalina screamed in victory, pumping her fist in the air. Fresh food! She could have real food again! Jubilant, she eagerly tore into the bread, her fingers warmed (but not singed) by the perfectly cooked loaf. She devoured it straight from her hands, too impatient to consider opening the jar and spreading the jam with her fingers. Though, she would definitely save it for later. Perhaps the magic could help preserve the goods longer, too.

"It is strange, though," she said to no one in particular between hearty chews. Why would this work and not finding Luma's mama? She could only conclude she needed to get a better grip on how all this magic stuff worked first.

Admittedly, she had no idea how to do that.

* * *

As the comet rode through space, Rosalina and Luma set up a "home base" on their ship. They kept their supplies stored there, but they left often to traverse around the comet. The search for Luma's mother on the comet was long abandoned – instead, they looked for different vantage points to efficiently search the heavenly skies. With each station they agreed upon, she carved a crude star into the ice using her magic. Rosalina also marked their locations on a map that effectively drew itself, also thanks to the magic. Once they felt satisfied with the number of survey points, the pair determined a rotation schedule that would maximize their efforts. At least two posts would be manned at all times; those without would have active projections of various galactic regions that Rosalina could view from afar.