Stars One of the most difficult things, in Orion's experience, was attempting to stay alert when you were practically starving. Even when you knew your life and the life of your friends hung in the balance, the call of one's body wanting to simply shut down and sleep for a time because it had so little fuel was difficult to resist. Still, Orion fought it. He wouldn't fall asleep on his watch. If he was anything, he was stubborn - his back was a living testament of scars in example of that. He stared up at the wide skies above the Reach, bright with stars in a new moon sky, and let his ears do the work for a little while. In any city he'd ever lived in, the stars were a mere scattering, some of the most prominent pinpricks shining brightly and notable constellations easy to pick out.
Out here, though, on a moonless night, the sea of stars was a speckled wash of lights thicker and more varied than his own freckles. He remembered as a child, going camping outside the Colony and looking up to see them, shimmering in a chilly Coerthas sky. The same stretch of stars that were scattered above him now, shining. Unchanging. Was it a comfort? That no matter what happened in life, the stars were always there, always the same? Or were they cold and uncaring? Too distant to want anything to do with his little life and its struggles... The lights were starting to blur, he realized, and he rubbed his eyes again, shaking his head. He couldn't fall asleep. He focused instead on the dark shadows of the canyon below his perch. The stars might not care, but he would make certain they stayed safe, the sleeping trio in the cave behind him. They were all he had left, and he would keep them. He would see them out of this place.
Vierapril Day 8: Stars
In their multitudes, scarce to be counted, filling the darkness…
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