^ The Sky Is Broken ^ (\o/)

by J.C. Rose Garden / \

Falling. . . . . .

I am falling. . . . . .

It is getting darker. . . . . .

I am falling. . . . . .

Falling. . . . . .

<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>

Thud.

My body had hit the ground.

I ached all over, a totally new experience. This was all a totally new experience. I had never fallen before. I had never felt such a strange feeling. That feeling had so surprised me that I forgot to move my wings. Then, when I realized I was falling I was so paralyzed with fright that I stopped thinking rationally. I fell so fast it took my breath away and I could not scream. My fright soon gave me blessed oblivion. . . until I landed.

The matter my body now rested on was hard, O so hard. I remembered a Wise One had called it ground. I knew now why we scorn the ground. It is so hard and so dry and so hot.

I lifted my head to look upon this place which I had fallen to. . . and my heart was torn in two! Darkness was everywhere. The world a perpetual twilight. The surface so harsh and alien. The air so thick and heavy and hot. And all around the darkness I could feel creep into my skin and bones. I felt my body growing heavy, heavier than a storm cloud about to burst. I arose and looked at myself, and I heard a noise. It came from my mouth! I felt moisture on my face, coming out of my eyes! I learned later what these were called: wailing, crying, tears. At that moment, though I did not know what I was doing, I felt it was right. I somehow knew it was how this body mourned. I mourned the loss of my home. I mourned the loss of my people. I mourned the loss of my beautiful body. I mourned the loss of my sunshine-filled world.

As I cried I looked around and spotted structures nearby. Maybe people lived in them. I started moving toward them, learning how to use this new body, sometimes tripping and falling, sometimes losing my balance and falling. I kept moving though, because I needed to see someone, to hear someone say it was going to be all right. And my wailing filled the air.

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I heard the wailing and I went out with the others to see what it was. Little did I know that what I would see would change my life forever.

When I stepped outside many people lined the street, which was very unusual, because most people were afraid the princess's soldiers would accuse them of loitering or something. But then I spotted a soldier across the street and I was amazed to see that he was staring in the same direction as everyone else.

The wailing had gotten steadily louder and now that I put my full attention to it it almost broke my heart. I felt as if I was about to cry. It was a sound so sad so utterly lost and helpless. It flowed through the air almost loud enough to wake the dead. One could not be alive and not be touched. One could only have a heart of stone and remain unmoved. It was a sound that drew your attention, moved you to care, demanded your sympathy.

I pushed through the crowd to see what being would make such a noise. When I reached the edge of the crowd I looked into the street.

She was beautiful. Neither Kirin nor human, just beauty at its highest form. She had very light blue skin, wavy white hair, white splotches here and there on her body, and the brief clothing she wore was made of a white, fluffy clothe that resembled a thick mist or snow. Her feet were bare and the only other thing she wore was a stone on a cord at the base of her neck. The stone was a crystal and (as I later found out) cold as ice.

The girl was so wrapped up in her crying, head down and arms limp at her sides, that she did not notice the people around her. Then, as she was passing where I stood, either her thoughts or the feeling of so many stares made her look up. She glanced to the left then to the right then she fell to the ground with a wail louder than the rest and sobbed for a good ten minutes. In that brief moment when she had glanced to her right I caught a glimpse of an eye brighter than the edge of our eclipsed sun. As she sobbed I looked at the people she had looked at. They stood immobilized, staring into space. What had they seen? What had it done to them? As the girl's sobs slowly faded those people slowly looked down at her as the rest of us had done. A circle had formed around her, but no one came very close. As her sobbing slowly stopped she gave a great, weary sigh and was still.

After a time I moved to her side (I was a healer) and gently touched her shoulder. I quickly drew my fingers back for she almost burned me, she was SO HOT!! It felt like her skin had been on fire! I lightly touched her shoulder again. It felt as if she was slightly cooler. I felt she was cooling down. I gently turned her over. There were tear tracks on her face, white against the blue of her skin. It looked as if her tears had burned her! I tried to touch her cheek but her face was not as cool as the rest of her. I felt the heat emanating from her face. I felt the cloth she was wearing and I was so surprised! It was so smooth and soft it felt like mist. I felt the crystal that hung at her throat and it almost froze my finger tips. I brought my hand to her face again and it was slightly cooler. I used the finger tips that had touched the crystal to open an eye. What I saw was the most amazing thing in the world. Her iris, a fiery orb, slowly sunk below her bottom eyelid, like the setting sun of the Dominions. If this was any indication, a sunset was a very beautiful thing.

Even though her iris had set, the cornea still glowed with a blueish-white light. This girl was so fascinating, but I knew she could not stay on the road. I would take her to my house. I picked her up and was surprised to find her so light. I looked through the crowd which had begun to disperse and I saw my neighbor's daughter Della. I called her over.

"Would you come and help me, Della," I asked her. She looked with wide, awe-filled eyes at the girl in my arms and nodded. I led the way to my house and place the girl in one of my healing rooms.

"Della, please get a bucket of the coldest water you can find."

"Yes Qinna. Right away." She went out of the room with a purposeful stride and a determined look on her face. I smiled to myself before turning back to the girl on the bed. I braided her long wavy hair to get it out of the way. Then I examined her for cuts or bruises or any other kind of injury but I found none.

My examination, though, did confirm my thought of before. Her body was perfect and perfectly proportioned. If I hadn't liked the way I was I would have been jealous. I did not remove her clothes because we had not fabric to rival the softness and lightness of the stuff she was wearing. When I listened to her heart it was beating so fast that I could barely distinguish one beat from the next, but after listening for a while I distinguished a slight decrease; it was extremely small from one minute to the next. her breathing sounded rather normal for such an abnormal person.

When Della came back with the water I soaked three clothes and place them, one on her forehead, one on her stomach, and one at the base of her throat.

"That should cool her down considerably," I said to Della. "Please sit here and watch her. I need to visit a friend of mine. I need to find out if we have any info on this girl's species. If she awakens or talks in her sleep or even moves come and get me. I will be across from your uncle's house. Watch her carefully. I will be back as soon as I can."

As I walked to my friend's house I wondered if I would find what I needed. When I reached the house I knocked on the door and it was opened almost immediately.

"Hello Tochaa. May I come in?"

"Hello Qinna. Yes. Please come in." I heard a little surprise in his voice.

"I know we have not spoken in a while, but I have come because I need your help. Did you hear the wailing this morning?"

"Yes. I think the whole city must have heard it. It was a very unsettling sound. Do you know where it came from?"

"Yes. It came from a girl who is, at the moment, lying in my house, unconscious."

"What was so wrong with her that she would make such a sound?"

"I don't know, but whatever it is, or was, it had enough mercy to send her to sleep. Hopefully this rest will revive her heartbroken spirits enough so that she can tell us where she's from. Tochaa, I think you need to come see her."

"Why?"

"You will know why when you see her. Please, come."

He hesitated a moment before following me back to my house. When we reached the doorway to the room where the girl was lying, Tochaa stopped and stared at her. I entered the room and he followed slowly. While he took in the alien form on the bed I spoke to Della.

"Has she moved at all?" Della shook her head. "Made any sounds?" Again the answer, no. After a moment I continued. "When her tears touched her face I could hear the hiss. And when she cried the sound alone could make you tear your heart out. It reminded me of a windy storm wailing through the trees. Tochaa. . . where do you think she came from?"

"I don't know. I've never seen anyone like this. No one in the Dominions is this color, and I've never heard of anyone having eyes of fire. These white splotches on her skin are very interesting; I wonder if they're a reaction to some thing, no they cant be. They're too symmetrical. You know, I've never seen a body so perfectly proportioned. I am most certain that if she were measured in every way she would be found perfectly symmetrical. Whatever race she's from must have been created in perfection. Even these blotches are symmetrical. Very evenly placed, each one having an opposite. And her face is so young, yet there is something unimaginably old that I can't place my finger on. She is a person of mystery."

We stood there for a moment, gazing at the sleeping alien form. And then, something happened: she moved. She stirred, slightly, in her sleep. (Remember the word slightly throughout all of this.) Her lips moved as of she were trying to say something, but no sound came out. She took a harried breath; her lips moved again. The sound I heard was the voice of the wind. It sounded as if the wind were trying to speak, but it spoke a foreign language. It was as if she had no vocal chords and only breathed the words. But she did have vocal chords or she wouldn't have been able to cry like she did. These are the words we heard: (the underlined words are inhaled the other words exhaled)

Aaaah Faaaah Laaaah

Seeehaaaah Faaaah Laaaah

Naaaah Taaaah Foooohtaaaah

Seeehaaaah Faaaah Laaaah

Aaaah Faaaah Laaaah

After stirring slightly once more, she was still. For a few moments no one moved. Had I imagined it? Had she really said something? Or had she just been breathing? I turned to Tochaa. He had a look of incredulity on his face. He turned to me.

"Amazing," he said in awe.

After standing there a moment longer we went to sit in the outer room.

"What shall we do with her? Is there anything in any of your books that might give us a clue as to where she came from?"

"No. I've never read anywhere about anyone having eyes of fire or skin as blue as the Dominions sky. She is completely and totally alien. The strange words she spoke only confirm this fact."

There must be something somewhere, though, that might give us a clue to who she is and where she came from. I will go home and look through all my books. I will look everywhere I can. Send your little neighbor when the girl wakes." And with that he left. After sitting there for a moment I went back into the sick room to change the cool clothes.

For the next two days I sat at the girl's side. Speaking to her and singing to her while she slept and changing the cloths when they became warm. On the third day, as I took off the cloths to replace them with fresh ones, she stirred and opened her eyes. It was almost like a dream. I watched with awe and amazement as her irises slowly rose to the centers of her eyes. They were indeed like burning flames, so bright were they. I could not look directly at them for too long for a Kirin's eyes are sensitive from having to live in twilight for so many generations. I watched, not looking at her eyes directly, as she looked around and took in her surroundings. When she looked at me I saw her eyes had dimmed as if a storm were coming and clouds were covering the sun. As she looked at me she started to cry again.

"Please don't cry. I'm a friend. Don't worry. You are safe here."

She had been crying silently, but when she heard my voice she stopped for a moment, a surprised look on her face. Then she cried out and the sound was of the wind wailing. She lay back down and cried herself to sleep again. When I was certain that she would not wake I left the room, told Della to watch the girl, and went to bring Tochaa back.