GRETA
Today I swiped and slashed at many bugs with my sword. It was unusually warm so I remained here. Night finally is coming for the air is cooling and the bugs begin to swarm into my home right through the beaded entryway.
My blanket remains big enough to cover me. I watch the bugs one by one begin to land on my blanket.
They hum horribly, keeping me up into the late hours. My sisters told me to leave a bowl of ripened, rotting, fruit below my bed. It is working to draw the bugs away, but not greatly enough to keep them out.
They are so noisy.
Baloop, baloop! Baloop!
Somehow, the mystical shell still rings louder than the chorus of bugs in here.
Anger makes me stumble out of my cloud as I pick up the cursed device.
"Hello." There's something off about his voice. I go still hearing his chuckle. It's followed by a low whisper that makes me want to hide in the safe puffs of my cloud and never come out, "...I know you're there."
The sharp edges of the shell dig into my palm. I grip it harder, clenching my jaw as I return to my cloud.
"We have returned to shore," he whispers gently like he used to when he tucked me into my noyk. I can almost feel him stroking my back like the times before as I lay on my heavenly bed. Its soft glow gives me great comfort. "The dockyard has been ruined. We are working on reconstruction. Enoch has been very busy. He is building many great projects!"
Silently, I listen as he continues to tell me in detail about his week. I had no idea the dock was destroyed by lava, but it must have happened during the quake.
On a little crate beside my bed, I pick up my fibble from its soaking in soap goop that many bugs lay dead in.
Well, I can just eat them later.
I blow through the loop of my fibble watching the bubbles fly forward.
Free.
In the night, our light does go away. So, I must squint quite a bit to trace their very dark grey shapes. What is most splendid is their glittering shine in the day.
Now, however, they look more like slow-moving rocks...or dull stars.
I don't hear Adler talking anymore. The air is very humid now for it always is in the dead of night. It has made the bugs abandon my room. Sleepily, I close my eyes feeling the humidity wrap its arms around me.
One of the bubbles pops right behind my head. At first, I think it my imagination as my gaze darts to the wall.
A big black mass.
I can see it rising up slowly from my bed behind me in the mirrors. It passes my shoulder, then the shape moves, lurking just over my head. A giant ball silently hovering in place.
Pins and needles hover just a breath away from my heart as I jerk around finding the levitating mass rapidly move back down into the cloudy mass of my bed lighting it up like the sun. My bed warms greatly, and then, strange bursts of light flicker from it with long veins as a horrific crackling sound echos around my chamber along with a hair-raising chorus of screams. Fear fuels me with new energy, I scurry off my bed and squint against the light feeling blood run down my eyes as my bed grows dim.
Tiny little streaks of light still burst from it and it makes a strange dying hum.
"I can hear you crying, my sweet. What's wrong?"
With haste, I pick up the shell. "Something just came out of my bed!" I cry out in terror. My body shakes, disturbed by the creeping feeling in the back of my mind that the giant black orb was watching me.
Was it him?
Adler's voice is so loud I have to hold the shell away from me, "My little pearl! I'm so glad to hear your voice! I wish you wouldn't have ignored me for so long," Adler exclaims in my ear. "You must have been having a nightmare," he babies.
"No! It came out of my cloud! Adler, my cloud, it tried to make the morning," I whisper fiercely. "It glowed and crackled, how could it light up-"
He speaks over me trying to soothe my worry, "It's called a clout my sweet, not a cloud," he explains. His voice softens, "They are treasured across the galaxy for their healing light. Sometimes they may be affected by natural occurrences - such as our star's new climate. Now, tell me more about your little dream-" he has the nerve to say.
Little dream? I am not a baby. I wish he would stop treating me as such. Someone was here in my room!
He speaks rapidly as if reading my thoughts, "Do not be sour. It is only natural you have your little night terrors." Then he tries to change the subject, "You're in a new place on your own...how is your knee?"
"Adler," my voice shakes. "Was it you?"
My heart pounds as I imagine his repressed smile for he does not answer immediately.
"You think it was me?" he asks slowly in a serious tone. "Why would I want to scare my own hatchling? My sweet, please stop crying."
That is far from a straight answer. It probably was him.
With a sniffle, I move back to my bed with caution.
"I'm not crying anymore," I spit back.
"Tell me, what did it look like?"
My breathing settles.
It is very late.
I never did see more than the shadow of its spherical mass.
"A big dark orb. It reminded me of an egg," I whisper while swiping my sword violently through my drifting bed.
The cloud quickly reforms over my slice. There is nothing creepy inside it right now, but that could change the moment I lay back down and shut my eyes.
Usually, my pet shrieks when Adler is near. I walk over to its cage finding it wide awake. My Fluff never made a peep though. It appears calm and remains curled up in a ball.
"Greta? Please tell me what happened."
With a sigh, I hold the shell close to my lips speaking in a whisper, "I was playing with my fibble. I felt a bubble pop right behind me. Adler, I watched the shape come up out my bed and sink back into it!"
"Hmmm...this is very strange. I am always listening so long as you keep my gift nearby," he says. Reluctantly, I lay back down holding the shell close to my chest and my sword even closer. "Well, goodnight, my little pearl. You're in a very safe place! Do not worry," he coos. "Such stardust you sleep on is indeed nebular. I believe you witnessed a celestial collapse."
"Celestial collapse?"
"Yes, sweet pearl. Don't you remember our readings of Sood? The unfortunate truth is we must extract light from healthy stars. Back in Ashtium, my bed could complete the cycle of light extraction. You remember the dials. They coordinated which civilization my clout would collect heat from. My mirrors, especially our great telescope, would collect their star's heat energy, store it in my clout to be transferred into light, and then reflect it across our kingdom at a great rate of refraction."
My heart races. "I never saw any dead stars leave your bed."
"Well, um, I didn't want you to witness such a thing. Please understand it is something we must do to survive-"
"You never told me there were people living on the stars! You tricked me!"
"No, it was no trick. You never asked me about the sounds we heard each day," he says. Then, he speaks quickly sounding nervous, "W-well, I suppose we couldn't hear their sounds as we zapped their energy. My clout's mass swallows such great waves of sound. You must have been given quite the spook. I'm sorry, my sweet."
Endless questions drift around in my mind.
With growing disgust, I demand more answers, "Why did it come out of my bed? How come I could hear their screams?"
"Your clout is much smaller. We cannot live in the dark forever down here, Greta. I've made a new observatory - right in your room. Cephine and I are coming tomorrow to visit. Oh," he huffs while catching his breath in dramatics. "My feet are so sore from walking up this hill. We are halfway there. I can fix your clout so the noise goes away when I arrive!" he finishes in a cheery voice.
This is a surprise. Well, I will give him my own surprise too, I think to myself while looking upward.
All the mirrors, and above them, a great ceiling of glass directly under one of the holes in the cavern above.
I've been too busy enjoying my gifts, and the company of my sisters, to look up at the truth.
☁️
A/N: Which character's point of view do you enjoy reading the most? Thank you for reading:)