Shanty of the Stars

Step after step, the sorcerer approached Lennac. Without haste.

     Around them, their comrades cast interrogative glances at him. Not a sound on the deck, the crew empathising through their silence.

     Lennac had lowered his gaze, his tense features letting guess how much he held back from shouting, from vomiting a pain which gnawed on him. What to do of time he couldn’t share any more?

     Once mere steps away from him, Henox stopped. He considered Lennac for a long while. Somehow, the sorcerer trusted him enough to think he wouldn’t commit the same mistakes as he did. Lennac only had the heartache, not the bitterness. And he wasn’t alone.

     With the hand he had left, he enclosed it toward his head to grab the hood of his coat. The little fairy flew away while Henox took off his goatskin.

     Lennac raised an incredulous gaze towards him when he felt the sorcerer lay the coat against his shoulders.

“As long as it may take, a phoenix always revives from its ashes. I am sure there’s still a chance that she gathers her pieces together. Though to this end, you have to let Kemishi enough time to come back to you…” He paused before adding with a smile. “Especially since she may need to cross the universe.”

     A while. What Lennac needed to find enough might to answer him.

“You can’t offer me such a gift… What would happen to you…?”

“What would happen? Well, time will regain its hold on me.”

“Henox…”

“Don’t take this conflicted expression. I think it is time for me to make sure each of my moments counts.”

“Are you sure you won’t regret it?”

“Absolutely. If she still had been there,” he pondered “maybe…”

     Shaking his head, he chased away his foolish thoughts before reaching out his hand to press it against Lennac’s shoulder.

“Just make me a promise.”

“Which one?”

“Take care of the memories you have of her. They make us what we are, and we can’t rely on our world to seek them there any more. Don’t forget what ties you to her.”

     To these words, Lennac yielded. Bringing his hands to his face, he began to sob. He creamed, he cried. Without concealing it.

     Hope was the most beautiful gift he could offer him.

***

“Ooohh!! It’s like clouds!” Gretel exclaimed.

     Quietly seated on the ground, it was with starry eyes that she gazed at the painting Tomoo showed her. He had put many ones out of his satchels, leant against barrels.

“Indeed they are! Imagine that around these waterfalls, there were clouds rings all along.”

     In addition of Gretel, many Bergfolks had gathered, seated in half circle.

“And if you look closely enough,” he added “you’ll see that, every now and then, small shapes jump from these clouds.”

      Gretel leant forward, her hands pressed against the deck.

“That’s true! There are little fishes!”

“Yes! And, when the sun rays reflect upon their scales, then, then,.. they take rainbowish hues!”

     As he spoke, the bespectacled little man made enthusiastic gestures. It was barely that he avoided stammering.

“I would have wanted to see this with my own eyes.” Gretel regretted.

     To these few words, Tomoo slowly lowered his arms. As him, the gathered Bergfolks took on a saddened look. Their world was no longer.

     By the time their ship had moved away, the last sight they had of it was a cluster of brambles snaking, annihilating any form of life.

     Silence.

“There are also big brambles on the painting.” Gretel added.

     Tomoo nodded.

“Yes, it was the last painting I could make. And even so, it’s a miracle there are so few of them.”

“But you could have not painted them.”

“It’s true.” The bespectacled little man admitted. “But whether you want it or not, they had been part of our world. We saw them every day for a year. It would be a bit like lying to ourselves if not representing them. And also,..”

     He hesitated a few moments to address the rest of the assembly as much as Gretel. To paint was easier than to speak to the others.

“…can you imagine if we forgot how our world ended? All that is left of this world it’s us! So, it is a bit us who have to carry the burden of keeping alive its memory. So that what is left of it doesn’t wholly disappear.”

     Several dwarfs nodded. One of the stone puppets – which had joined them – was even applauding with both his little hands.

     It stopped when it noticed the many curious glances turned at it. Keeping a low profile.

     Bursts of laughter.

     Musical notes soon slipping aboard. These of a violin. The dwarfs gathered around Tomoo stood up to approach the makeshift musician, Gretel fluttering around him.

“You don’t join them?” The sorcerer asked, having enclosed Tomoo.

“Oh, no I… It’s not among the situations at which I excel.” He sheepishly confessed, shrugging.

     The bespectacled little man cast a glance at the sorcerer. The latter observed the members of the crew, rhythmically clapping in their hands as they followed the melody of the musician. To his surprise, he noticed a sparkle there he had never seen before.

“Henox, do you miss the world?”

     Turning his head to him, the sorcerer addressed him a surprised gaze. Bold of him to suggest such a thing.

“I guess so. Even the absence of your worst enemies is at times sorely felt.”

     Sarcasm?

     The bespectacled little man gave him a smile in return.

“I don’t know where our journey will take us, or even if there’s a destination awaiting us. But, you know what they say, as long as there are fairies there will be life.”

     The sorcerer was about to reply when out of a sudden a long sticky tongue wrapped around Tomoo’s back. Drawing his attention in the most worrying manner.

“H-huh?!”

     Barely he had the time to exclaim that Molok pulled him to her, closer to the joyful gathering.

     Soon, the sorcerer felt a pressure – closer to a tickling then a pressure, to be perfectly honest – around his index finger.

“What are you doing? Come dance with us!”

     Gretel cast him a smile, pulling on his finger as if she imagined she had more strength than a miserable little mouse.

     Nevertheless, Henox the sorcerer offered her a smile in return while he had the great kindness to let her believe she managed to pull him.

     As the moon-reflected sails bathed the deck in a reassuring glow, at port as at starboard spread a sea of stars. Golden trails of dust crossed at times the vast expanse.

     A first voice raised, intoning lyrics to which the remainder of the Fairy’s Hope crew rapidly echoed.

     They became in no time the first shanty of the stars’ crew.

“Behind us we left our folk, our heart

Among the stars we soar, we sail

As our world fell apart

We wander following a stardust trail

Searching for a land to get

Would it be for a second or the eternity

We won’t forget

Our dearest memories in the starry sea

Until we meet our death

Together we’ll travel through nebulae

Until our very last breath

Following through space our cosmic fae

Searching for a land to get

Would it be for a second or the eternity

We won’t forget

Our dearest memories in the starry sea”