Misplaced

[ImagenAshyun]

              I take control of my own life.

              Me.

---

              "Big Sister! Come down! Mother, Grandmother, and especially Grandfather will be angry!"

              Diwaata continued to ignore her brother. The little draenei girl climbed the tree higher and higher atop of the grassy hill as the moons of Nagrand hovered serenely in the starry night sky. Her bright blue eyes stared straight up, a blissful smile on her blue cheeks despite two missing front teeth. Her hair fell before her left eye, though she brushes it off as she concentrates on particularly shining lights. "By the Naaru's mercy," she whispers in awe. "This is a great view!"

              "Dia! Come down!"

              "Don't be a wimp, Kapre! Be a man and get up here!"

              "I'm only eight years old!"

              "Then all the more you should be growing up, Runt!" Nevermind that Diwaata is older than her brother by a few minutes. "Now start climbing or I'll tell Grandmother you wet the bed again!"

              "Don't do that! You swore you'll keep it a secret!"

              "I can change my mind! Start climbing!"

              Kapre sighed as little hands started wrapping around the trunk. He lacked the physical dexterity of his much larger sister, barely big enough for his arms to grip the bark adequately. He tried digging the toes of his hooves into the bark, but it's no use. He couldn't climb. "I can't do it!"

              "You're a bigger wimp than I thought!" Diwaata says as she hugs the branch with her knees and lets herself fall to an upside-down hang. She reaches for her brother's hands. "Grab on."

              "You'll fall!"

              "I can land on you."

              "You're not helping!"

              "Just grab on!"

              The little draenei boy reached for his sister's fingers and clutched his eyes shut. Dia swung around, her arms flexing as her knees hugged the branch. She swung and swung, her chest heaving and breath drawn as she prepares for.... nothing.

              Kapre's eyes blinked as he stared in bewilderment. "What was that for?!"

              "I was to swing you up here."

              "Who's the 'wimp' now?!"



              The lights flashed brighter, even bigger. Both twins take notice of this, their eyes glued to the night sky. Diwaata released her brother and swung back right up as Kapre rushed before the tree. They were awestruck by the shining stars as their lights shone brighter and brighter. "Wow...." they whispered together. Smiles lit up like the stars above them. the children amazed by the spectacle before them.

              "See?" Diwaata says as she points to the sky. "I told you it'll be worth it! Now Mother, Grandmother, and Grandfather won't have to know!"


              "....Uh...."


              A great bursting sound popped at the side of the hill on which they were on. Diwaata looked about frantically as the stars fell from the sky in streams of white, the grass around them bursting with each star that landed. Kapre already began retreating.

              "Wait!" Diwaata barked at her brother. "Get your bum back here and help me out!"

              "You're on your own, Sister! Help!"

              "I'm gonna kick your butt all the way to Argus, you dirty coward!" Diwaata shouted as she struggles to climb down the tree. Her skirt tore as she grips the bark and slides down, and her hands burned a little as a result. She races after brother as the meteor shower continued, stars raining like a fiery storm. The twins kept dashing towards the bridge that led to Telaar, with everyone in town sound asleep despite the shower. Little hooves pattered, with Diwaata, the much bigger, faster, and stronger of the two, catching up with her weaker and smaller brother. The twins made their way to the town temple, their hands banging on the door. And then, a revelation.

              "We snuck out the window!" Kapre reminded. "We can go back in that way!"

              "You dope!"

              The door opens. The white-skinned, white-haired female anchorite leans out, rings under her eyes and wide awake. A frown on her face tacked onto an weary physique despite the immediacy of the door's opening indicated she has been awake for a while now. And probably searching for the twins.

              "Uh... hi, Mother," Diwaata says sheepishly.

              "It's way past your bedtime! Hours from now, the sun will be rising! You will be having school soon!" the orphan Matron bellowed as she dragged both children by their pointy ears. Diwaata and Kapre yelped in pain as the door slammed shut. "You are writing, reciting, and orating the virtues of the Light twenty times by sunrise as punishment, in front of your foster siblings and the head priest!"

              "Don't make us do that!" Kapre pleaded. "It was Diwaata's idea!"

              "Shut your trap, Runt!"

              Matron Melodi sharply slapped Diwaata on the face for her rudeness. "You are the older sister! You know better than to cause trouble, and dragging your brother to do it too! Shame on you! You are better than that!"

              "But there was a star shower, Mother! You should see it!" Diwaata pointed out the window, but as soon as she did, the skies were clear. There were no shooting stars. "Curses!"

              "Go to bed, Diwaata."

              "But there was a star shower!"

              "Go to bed!"

---

              "Holy Light, we beseech your guidance in these troubled times. We ask that you enlighten us, to direct us to the answers we need for our problems. Please, holy Light, help Diwaata in her time of strife... help her find the answers to her questions, help her commune with the Spirits once more for the glory of good...... we pray that your touch will enlighten us soon, and we remember that your power is infinite, cosmic, and always just. We are grateful for what may be given to us. Amen."

              "Amen."

              Diwaata prayed hard silently along with Cristovao, who vocally led the prayer. The two knelt before the altar in Hearthglen, the interior dimly lit with humble candles and braziers. Both stood up, the grown draenei's eyes cast about the inside. Surely, this temple was different from the one she grew up in Telaar; no runic engravings, no diamond arches or abstract shapes. A simple, humble stone temple. She was humbled just being here.

              "Thank you," she says. "That really helps."

              Her lover looks at her. "Does it?"

              "It does, yes." She smiles.

              Cristovao smiles back and holds Diwaata's arm. "Something will come up. It always does." He pauses, as though a thought returns to mind. "I remember this one Draenei saying..."

              "Hm?" Diwaata says as she tilts her head.

              Cristovao enunciated the Draenic as best as he could. Lordaeron Common still dripped from his lips, but his words remained clear as he said in his lover's tongue: "<Wait, and hope.>"

              "I remember it," she mutters softly.

              "It is a good saying, I think. When you lose everything else, you always have hope. Nothing can take hope away, right?"

              "Nothing can."

              "You truly believe that?"

              "I will make it so."

              Cristovao looks to Diwaata curiously, but says nothing. "Come, let's go get Melodia, and go home."

---

              Little Melodia slept upon her crib. Diwaata couldn't sleep. Her human lover lay beside her, but her eyes stayed open.

              Melodia... she was named after her foster mother, Melodi.

              She looked outside. The stars were flashing brightly, some shining brighter than others. Diwaata stood up and walked lightly to the window, fingers pressed against the pane. She waited there, smiling. Not far from where they were, a tree stood upon a hill. It's not a Nagrand tree, nor is the grass of that of the Land of Winds. But it was close enough.

              "Fall..." she whisper. "Give me that shower again."




              It was not so.


              Diwaata huffed as she laid back down. She recalled the morning after her encounter with the meteor shower. Right after that, she and Kapre truly did rewrite, recite, and orate the virtues of the Light in front of their foster siblings. At the time it was happening, especially as it was occurring before Grandpatron Polore, nobody laughed. But they surely did right after when they played in the streets.

              I was so angry.....

              She looks outside once more. The lights of being millions far, far away reached her despite the distance. She contemplated. She sighed. Her eyes shut, her mind wandering to a time past. A foster mother and foster grandparents. Foster siblings. One single birth sibling. The stars. The Light.

              I will find my way. I will take control of my life without losing my sight.

[ImagenAshyun]

              "I'm going to prove there was a star shower."

              "Dia, Mother told us to stay at home!"





              The twins sat in a study room within the temple of Telaar. Light poured through the colored windows, with frames that formed the sigil of the Naaru. Both siblings sat at a table wherein both were to read a libram and study it. Though Kapre's was opened, Diwaata's was barely touched.

              "We did stay home," Dia says with a grin. "We stayed for two hours. Two hours is a long stay."

              "Mother didn't say how long we have to stay."

              "You're right! That means we can go whenever we like. Come on, Kapre!"

              "You're going to get us in trouble again!!"

              "Oh, pipe down. If we leave while the market's busy, Mother won't be home until sundown. Grandmother and Grandfather are travelling to Halaa and won't be back until supper. We can be quick!"

              The little boy groans as he covers his face with exasperation. "We'll get a paddling, I just know it!"

              "Well, I didn't ask you to come. You can stay home, you little wimp."

              Kapre slams his palms onto the table. "I'm not a wimp!"

              "Oh, yeah?" Diwaata grins. "Then prove it!"

              "Let's go outside to get those stars right now!"






              It didn't take long until other children managed to find their way to the Nagrand fields. Four, in fact. One was a purple draenei with silvery long locks. Both Diwaata and Kapre knew this female, but both ignored her and her companions. While the twins kept their faces buried into the long grasses, the other children climbed the tree atop of the hill to observer. Mahaala, the silver-haired one, stayed close to the twins with a devious grin on her face.

              "Watcha doing?" she interrogates with a playful slur.

              Diwaata rolled her eyes. She sneered at the other girl, who wasn't any older than she was. "What's it look like I'm doing, Fruit Face? I'm looking for stars!"

              "You're stupid. You can't look for stars on the ground. You look for them in the sky."

              "Stars fell on the ground last night!"

              "No it didn't."

              "I saw! Kapre saw! Say you saw them, Kapre!" Diwaata demanded as she tugged on her much smaller brother's sleeve.

              Kapre caved in. "We did saw! We were on that tree when the stars fell. We're looking for proof!"

              "There is no way stars can fall. Daddy says stars are big giant balls of gas that float in the sky millions of miles away."

              "We saw them fall! The stars shined brighter and fell from the sky! They burned some grasses up!"

              "You're probably just imagining things. Daddy is never wrong."

              "Your daddy is stupid."

              "You're just jealous because I have a daddy, orphan!"

              Diwaata has had it. She leaped towards Mahaala and slammed her down before she moved to sit on the fallen girl to grip her hair. Mahaala retaliated by grabbing Diwaata's own hair and kicking as hard as she could. Before long, both girls are thrashing about, punching, scratching, and yanking each other's hair sharply.

              "I'll make you cry, Daddy's Girl!" Dia screamed.

              "You probably cry more, orphan!" Mahaala shrieked as she tried to roll. "Crybaby! Crybaby!"

              Kapre's arms flailed in panic. "Stop! Stop!" He turned to the other children, who were seated quite comfortably on the tree. "Why aren't you stopping them?!"

              "Because it's funny," they bluntly admitted.

              "It's not funny at all! I'll tell Mother!"

              "She's not even your real mother," they teased.

              Before they knew it, even Kapre took offense as the other children began to jab at him. Diwaata soon began shifting her attention to her brother, who stood at the foot of the tree as he wailed. Without much thought, the girl pushed Mahaala away and thoughtlessly picked up a rock to chuck at the kids. The rock flew right onto a boy, who fell off in a thud. The other kids, alarmed at the rock-throwing girl, slid off the tree and ran off. "We're telling the Elders!"

              "Go! Go tell on the Elders, you cowards! You'll pick on a boy but won't take on a fight with a girl?! Go!" She turns to Mahaala and sneers at her. "You go too!" The girl didn't think twice to run off.

              ...And then it hit her that she and Kapre will be in very big trouble.

              Dia pushed the thought aside. She makes her way to Kapre to place her hand on his shoulder. "Are you okay?"

              "No, I'm not!"

              "Relax, I scared them off. Oh, look!" She lowered herself to pick up the rock. “It’s a star! Take a look!” She shows off the meteorite. It was fairly round, with holes all over it, and dirt caked in from the top. “I found my star!”

              ”That’s not a star!” Kapre shouted in exasperation. “That’s a rock with holes! Where are its points?”

              ”They fell off, of course!”

              ”I don’t believe you!”

              ”Let’s show this to Mother! Then we’ll be in less trouble!”

              The boy groaned. “We’re going to be in trouble anyway for hitting Vaanti!”

              ”They picked on you. They’ll be the ones in trouble, not us.” She does frown a little, however. “But you better stop crying every time someone picks on you.”

              ”You pick on me all the time!”

              ”It’s different when someone else does it!” She takes Kapre by the hand, a smile on her face. “Let’s go find Mother to show her our star.”

---

              Diwaata held onto the meteorite she kept to herself after three hundred years. It hasn’t worn out much--it was kept safely wrapped in velvet cloth and preserved through tender care. It has chipped off some due to rough handling growing up, as well as during the years she and her family and friends hid from the orcs during the Purge. Though this grown woman now knows the true nature of the “star” that fell from the sky, she held onto it still with child-like wonder.

              She was invited for the kosh’arg Telah and Jurok held, though by the time she arrived, most everyone has gone to bed. Perhaps another time. Halaa is surely different from what she remembered. A sick feeling entered her stomach as the female wandered about the remains of the grassy land. The wind blew south; she followed it. South of Halaa was her hometown and birthplace, Telaar. It is mostly inhabited by Krokul now. She cannot stand to look at that place.

              Diwaata wandered to the hill that once had the tree where she and the children played. It is not there anymore; in fact, the hill has flattened to a crater. It must be a floating slab of land somewhere in space or the Nether. Her heart felt like breaking as the memories of her childhood inundated her.

              She holds onto the star in her hand. Perhaps, if possible, the little hill where the stars fell have floated high and far enough to fall into another planet’s atmosphere and become a meteorite itself.


              She can only hope and pray.