Starfall was a carefree young soul. She was always adventurous, and always sought what fell behind the town she felt chained to. She wanted to see more, and to experience it. Sometimes, she’d venture out to find the edge, to see what was beyond, but every time, she never found anything.
Mar was a vocal, opinionated soul. If she had an opinion, the whole town would know in seconds. Mar thought the border didn’t exist. She didn’t think there was anything there, no matter how far she strayed, she never found a fence, or a gate, or anything. She was convinced it didn’t exist.
And when they bumped into each other in a forest, they realized they were more similar than they already thought they were.
Starfall ran as fast as she could, feeling the fresh air across her face, and the flowers dance across her hands, it seemed like she never had to stop. Like she could run forever. The sky was beautiful, every cloud looking like a familiar animal. She felt faster than any bird. That was, until she bumped into someone. She sat up, confused, until a familiar face popped out of the shrubs. “Mar? What are you doing here?” Starfall questioned. She never knew Mar would venture this far. “I could say the same to you,” Mar had deflected. Starfall rolled her eyes. “I was running, and it was going so well until someone bumped into me,” she explained, with a jab at her friend. Mar stood up. “Hey! It was you that bumped into me!” Starfall smirked. “Yeah, right, and Kitsune don’t have tails,” Starfall replied, standing up. “But that’s beside the point, what are you doing here?” Starfall questioned. Mar shrugged. “I wanted to find this so-called border,” her friend answered without hesitation. Starfall rolled her eyes. “Of course you do,” she retorted. “Hey! You’re seriously saying the border’s existence doesn’t even strike you as even a little odd?” Mar snapped. Starfall paused. She couldn’t deny that the question did linger in her mind. She had always been highly careful, and was known for being a good kid, but the thought of finding the edge of their peaceful world seemed intriguing. Finally, she nodded. “I guess you’re right,” she said, admitting loss. Mar smirked. “Then, what are we waiting for?” Mar asked, sticking out her hand, to which Starfall took. “Let’s go!”
As they ran further away from the town, the woods grew thick, and tricky to navigate. The vines were slowing them down every other second. It felt like the forest was trying to stop them. Starfall paused, repeating her thought, “Mar…?” she asked hesitantly, as the other stopped. “What is it?” Mar asked, confused. Starfall couldn’t bring herself to say she was scared, so she just replied with a hasty “nothing,” and continued walking.
Both children were now very distracted, and weren’t looking where they were going. One was incredibly nervous, and the other was completely enamored by the scene. A twig snapped, and Starfall jumped. Mar turned back to her, now walking backwards. “Did you seriously get scared by that small of a noise?” Mar asked, snickering. As Starfall was about to answer, a wall full of sun, star, and moon engravings began glowing. She stared at them, not noticing Mar was still walking backwards. As Starfall opened her mouth to say something, the wall sucked Mar inside. Starfall stood in shock. Then she heard a crack. The engravings now shaking and creating a spider web effect before completely shattering. She stood there, realization sinking through her veins.
“That was the border.”
A fox with the same colors as Mar lay on the other side of the border. She ran over, picking her up. Thankfully, she was breathing normally, just passed out.
The forest air seemed to hold a certain scent. Danger. The air didn’t feel like it did when she ran before. When she ran for joy, the air was soft, delicate, and comforting. But now it was strong, as if it was pushing her forward to go faster until her legs buckled and she fell. So she kept running, trying to get to her mother as fast as possible. The shock was wearing off, and guilt ran through her body. She broke the border. It was her fault.
“Mama!” She cried out, slamming the door open. Her mother looked at her, confused. “Starfall? What is it?” her mother questioned as Starfall caught her breath. “It’s Mar. She’s passed out, and she’s a fox.” She explained in between attempts to calm her breathing. Her mother nodded, and took Mar. Lukka, her older brother, was walking down the stairs when he saw Mar. “Is that…?” he trailed off when her mother nodded. Lukka gave Starfall a sympathetic expression. He then turned around to follow her mother. Starfall didn’t want to believe she had messed up this much. She started walking up the stairs, trying to find her father. He was one of the smartest people in the town. She found herself in front of her parents’ room. She knocked a few times, wondering if her father was even in the room. A few moments passed before the door opened. “Starfall, is there something wrong?” he asked. Starfall nodded. He opened the door wider, and she stepped in, sitting down at the desk. “I think I did something to Mar,” she started, hesitantly. Her father raised an eyebrow. “She wanted to find the edge of the border and I spotted her. She convinced me to go with her. I should’ve disagreed, I know-” her father cut her off. “Listen, Starfall. You couldn’t have expected to actually find the border. Am I upset? Yes and no. I am upset that Mar had to find out the border existed this way. However, I also understand that this is probably the only way to convince her, in the end,” her father explained. She nodded. He stood up, and motioned for Starfall to follow him. “You can explain some of the physical effects on the way to the library. We won’t find what we’re looking for in my limited supply” he explained, as they made their way out of the house. Starfall nodded. “I had gotten scared by a twig, and caused Mar to turn around. She kept walking backwards though, not watching out behind her. I saw these…” Starfall trailed off, trying to place the words. They seemed like runes, but they also seemed mythical. “… Symbols. Suns, moons and stars. Like magic, but I’m not sure,” Starfall finished. Her father nodded. “So she fell into it?” her father asked. Starfall nodded. “Yes, Papa,” she said. He nodded, no signs of anger or annoyance. The rest of the walk was silent. Starfall didn’t have any more information to give, and her father had no more questions. After a few more minutes, they entered the library. “This way,” he said, guiding her to the ‘history’ section. He took a book, and handed it to her. She opened it, and flipped to the table of contents, finding the pages that talked about the border. The information was vague, but it was enough for her to piece together that she, Starfall Deyrdesa, the tribe daughter, known for always being on her best behavior, had messed up. Really badly. She wanted to drop the book like it was poison, but she couldn’t let go. The description of the border *perfectly* matched what she saw. She had cursed her friend, and possibly doomed the whole town. Tears welled up in her eyes, everything blurry. She wanted to run, scream, cry, do anything, but she couldn’t. Her father took the book out of her hands and read it with a focused expression, then at Starfall. He set the book down, and raised Starfall’s chin. Starfall stood there. “Starfall, I can’t just stand here and say it’s just a mistake, but I like to believe in natural repercussions. You made a mistake. A bad one. But, the result was of Mar becoming a fox. We don’t even know if we’ll understand her. And I think that is already much more than any time grounded,” he explained. Starfall nodded. He patted her head, and ruffled her hair. “But Papa, I made Mar a fox, and it was my fault-” she was cut off. “Don’t pity yourself for what you can’t change, Starfall. You know better,” her father began. “You shouldn’t dwell on the past. You’d be better off planning what you can do in the future. Either to be better next time, or to fix your mistake,” he finished. She nodded. Her father went back to looking through history books. Starfall would take certain books and read them, if her father gave them to her. After many lost causes, Starfall found a mildly peculiar book. It focused on the various curses that were inflicted upon the person that dared to cross it. She flipped through pages until she found a chapter named Animalistic Curses. She scanned the text for Mar’s curse. She found a small paragraph on it, naming side effects and changes. One set of information was interesting.
Anyone within a yard is granted the ability to understand the cursed individual. The other person can hear and understand them like they’re speaking Kitski instead of just various sounds.
Starfall paused. There was a chance she’d still be able to hear Mar. She tapped her father’s shoulder, and showed him the paragraph. He gave a small nod of approval. “It seems you’re quite the lucky one,” he said, with a smile. Starfall nodded. “That means I’ll understand what she’s saying because I hear her speaking our language, when in reality she isn’t actually speaking Kitski?” Starfall confirmed, trying to stop herself from getting too excited. He nodded. “Well, I guess you just became our new translator,” he said, with a chuckle. Starfall nodded. “Yep!” she said, practically jumping around. This was a second chance, and she was going to snatch it with as much gratitude as existed in the world.
As Starfall opened the door, she felt something jump onto her. She looked down to notice Mar. She froze. “She’s awake?” she exclaimed. Her mother nodded. “Nothing injured. Just simple exhaustion,” she explained. “Were you able to find anything at the library?” Lukka asked. Starfall nodded. “We may or may not have broken the border,” Starfall said, still extremely guilty. “We broke the what?” a voice yipped. Starfall looked down. “So you can talk!” she said to herself. “Duh, did you leave your brain at the library?” Mar retorted. Starfall sighed. “Starfall, she didn’t say anything,” Lukka said. Starfall looked up, and so did Mar. “Mar only yipped,” he explained. The passage she read at the library resurfaced, and she mentally facepalmed. “Oh yeah! That’s because I was close enough to her when she was cursed. I can understand her,” she explained. Lukka just stared in awe. “Hey, that’s so unfair!” he whined, and her mother just patted his head. “So you’ll be my personal translator!” Mar exclaimed, and Starfall nodded eagerly. “Exactly!” she replied. Her father held his hand up for silence. “Now, because the border has fallen, it does mean we should be more careful. You have all read the history books, people want our borders and our longer lives, we should be prepared to be our own defense systems.” Starfall groaned in anticipation. “More fighting practice, it’s best to have it under your belt when we could be in danger at any point and time.” Starfall nodded, despite hating fighting practice. It was boring and always took too much time, but her father made a fair point, so she didn’t argue, if anything she took it as fair punishment for breaking their defense system.
One week passed, and it was surprisingly normal. Mar just sat on her shoulder or head now. Her parents had insisted on some more fighting practice, just in case anything happened. Her father said that their defense system wasn’t there anymore, so they had to be ready for any attacks. It made sense to Starfall, though she still didn’t like training, it was boring to her.
~~
The mountains were beautiful. The trees seemed magical, and the clouds seemed to glow. It was a family tradition to take yearly pictures as they aged. It was always fun to look back on the pictures. The photographer was always the same. As the countdown began, Starfall fixed her biggest smile. The camera flashed, before a subtle ‘click’ was heard. Mar, Starfall, and Lukka crowded around the camera to get the first look. Lukka giggled. “Mama’s face is funny!” he exclaimed. Starfall gave a playful glare. “Hey! Don’t be mean!” she said, beginning to chase him. Something caught her eye in the direction of the town. Smoke. Her parents walked to where she was standing and sighed. “I’m going to need you two to stay here. We have duties to do,” Starfall’s mother explained. Starfall paused. “Just remember, Starfall, you’ll always shine just as bright as any shooting star,” she said, pulling Starfall into a hug. She didn’t like how her mother was talking. She was talking like this was goodbye. A forever goodbye. Her father walked to her. “Don’t dwell on the past, work to fix the future, okay?” he said, repeating what he said in the library. She nodded, tears flowing. She wasn’t stupid. These weren’t their normal goodbyes. They knew that this might very well be their last time seeing each other. Lukka pulled Starfall into a tight hug.
Starfall checked the time. 15 minutes had passed, and the smoke wasn’t getting any smaller. The three children stood there. With unspoken words, they all knew what they had to do. Starfall gave a small nod to Luka, and he returned it. With that they began running down the mountain, leaving the photographer, who was telling them to come back, but they kept running to the town. It was easily a 10-minute flight. She flicked her wings twice, before jumping up, and beginning to float. She began gliding down the slope. Her brother caught up with her soon enough. They flew as fast as they could, already smelling the smoke.
As they walked into the edge of the town, they spotted flames. She stepped forward, before seeing a person in a flashy red and yellow suit. She immediately snapped back behind the building. She peeked her head out a few moments later. More suited people arrived. Then she heard two familiar voices. Slowly, two people dragging her parents along with them walked into her sight. She watched in horror as another one opened up a hole in the earth, and waved the two people over. They rushed closer, still hiding. She heard a muffled yelp and whipped her head around to see a person dragging away her brother. She wanted to help. She *had* to help, but her legs wouldn’t move. She could only stare as people worked around her, slowly disappearing into the holes. She hadn’t even realized she was crying until she tried to cover her eyes and noticed her cheeks were wet. She then noticed a small photo. She stared at it. It was still in good shape. It was their most recent family picture, taken a moment before the disaster. She ran to the forest as fast as she could. She knew the only reason Mar was still quiet was because she was processing too. She only stopped when they approached a small clearing. She sat Mar down, and then stood there, processing what just happened. “They’re gone… Our parents are gone,” she muttered aloud. Mar sighed. “Yeah,” was all Mar replied with after a few moments of silence. “So what do we do?” Starfall questioned. “I have no idea, but I don’t think we’re safe here anymore.” Starfall nodded. “We can sleep in the forest tonight, then try to get as far as we can tomorrow,” Starfall explained, trying to sound confident. She knew she’d have to keep calm if she were to get out of this whole ordeal. She climbed a tree, and leaned back against a tree.
Sleep did not come easy for Starfall. She had to stay still so as to not fall off of the branch, and she felt the sense of someone watching her. Once she finally fell asleep, she was surrounded by total darkness. She tried to run, but her legs wouldn’t move. After what felt like ages, a figure formed from the shadows. “So, you’re my next subject,” the voice rang. Starfall felt shivers run down her spine. “Who… who are you?” she stammered, trying not to sound as scared as she was. The person stopped walking, and looked down on her. “Oh, this one’s young,” the person remarked, almost like Starfall wasn’t there. She turned around. “I’m your worst nightmare, as some would say,” the person said, her tail flicking side to side as she walked. She bent over in a bow, and tapped Starfall’s nose. “Boop!” she said, and while the words seemed kind, there was something off about this… this creature. “You’re a cute one,” she said, with a giggle. Starfall paused. “Can you tell me who you are?” she repeated, trying not to tremble so much. The person acted shocked. “Oh! I almost forgot! Silly me,” she said, pausing for a moment, before cracking a sly smile. “The name’s Void.”
