[Story] Falling Stars

It was a quiet evening on the docks. The recent unseasonable snow, while beautiful, had quickly lost its novelty as it piled up everywhere. Alleys were left impassible to all but the most determined. Fresh water had frozen over and the wind howled down the streets. Those drafts of angry, biting air seeped into everything. It made going out a chore. Not to mention the crunchy wet sludge underfoot that bit at the skin, and left Cavalli’s joints aching. He always ached, of course. That had started when he was young and only grown worse as he’d gotten older. He was used to it by now, an ever-present nagging at the back of his mind that he rarely paid attention to until it flared, or he thought about it and then could no longer seem to forget. However, here in the warmth of an abandoned warehouse in the nest of furs and fabric that Corax had diligently collected for them both, Cavalli didn’t hurt so bad. At least not today.

The wind was still outside and it was warmer today than it had been recently. He gave a full body shake, starting at his head and traveling down to his tail. It fluffed his feathers, trapping more warmth. His plates of armor grated against each other as he shook, echoing through the warehouse like the sound of a small rockfall. The usual.

He was alone tonight. Corax didn’t seem as bothered by the cold and snow and he was probably out playing in it, as he had when it first fell. Cavalli envied him that. Cavalli envied Corax for a lot of things. His energy, his grace and enthusiasm. His ability to just get up and go somewhere without thought as to how it would affect him in the days to come. Cavalli wasn’t built for such things. The humans that had played God with his genetics had never cared whether or not he would be able to lead a normal life.

Sometimes he was bitter about his cruel fate, but tonight was not going to be one of those nights. Tonight he was going to enjoy the lack of pain, or as close as he ever came to it. He heaved a sigh and hauled himself up, hoping Corax wasn’t far. Corax was one of the few that looked past the terrible-looking beast the humans had made Cavalli into. Cavalli’s light in an otherwise lonely and painful existence. If Corax had gone to the carnival again—he’d been almost every night since learning of it—Cavalli was in for a terrible day tomorrow. It was not particularly close, and the last time he’d gone had put him out of commission for two days and left him aching more than usual for longer still.

The worst part of his cursed existence was choosing between safety—boring, painless safety—and living. Regardless of where Corax had gone, Cavalli would follow. Tonight felt like a night for living. He would regret it tomorrow when he ached and could barely move, but it would be worth it in the moment. That much he had learned from Corax. Merely existing was not enough. He stretched, joints popping quietly. Today, those pops signaled relief as they chased away some of his stiffness. There were days that those pops sent him right back to the nest.

He turned for the exit, ducking through the curtain of fabrics that Corax had pinned over the hole in the wall that served as the entrance and exit to their shared nest. They kept the cold out fairly well. Corax had gotten the idea from some human house, and used Dacen tail spikes to pierce the softer wall, then had Cavalli lean on the spikes to secure them. Cavalli glanced back at the hole wistfully. He had broken through the wall by accident while tussling with Corax, back when he was younger and didn’t hurt so bad. How long ago those days seemed, though they weren’t. It had only been a few summers ago, but he’d doubled in size in those years. Both his size and his pain had brought an end to his tussling with Corax.

The space had gone unused afterward until the winters had gotten increasingly colder. They had retreated to it for the extra buffer to the cold, since it didn’t touch the exterior warehouse walls. What had once been a curse in the hot, muggy climate of the coast was now a blessing in the winter. Cavalli shivered slightly as he stepped off the furs and fabric onto the weird stone that humans built everything out of. It wasn’t as cold as the snow outside, but it was certainly colder than the nest. He shook again, puffing out his feathers in anticipation of the drafts that would inevitably blow through the slowly decomposing shell of the warehouse. At some point, Cavalli knew they would have to relocate to one of the ones further inland. Every storm season ripped away a little more of their home. This past year the neighboring warehouse had lost its roof and one wall. Theirs was more sturdy but for how long, Cavalli wasn’t sure.

It didn’t take long to cross the empty warehouse floor. Unlike some of the others that contained massive machinery, this one had only had crates and pallets. Those had been easy enough to shove against a wall or break apart and clean out. He ducked again through the hole in the wall that lead out to the street. The last light of day had faded away already, though it was still quite bright outside in the light of the full moon. The snow gleamed dully, sparkling now and again when Cavalli looked at it just right. The sparkles were more obvious in the daytime but the glint of the moon had its charm.

At least until his slowly numbing feet reminded him to stop standing in the snow like an idiot. He swayed from foot to foot, shaking them with disgust. He almost turned around and headed back inside right then. The night was quickly becoming one for living inside in the warmth where his feet didn’t go numb for the grave crime of daring to venture outside.

Against his better judgment, a decision he would definitely regret tomorrow, he ventured further out following the fresher pair of tracks that hadn’t been covered by wind-blown snow. At least like this, he didn’t have to bend down to sniff Corax out. His tracks made him easy enough to find. It didn’t look like Corax had gone to the carnival today. These tracks lead down to the beach. If Corax tried to convince Cavalli to go in the water, Cavalli was going to throw him in it. A flash across the sky caught his eye and he stopped, looking up. The sky was still, showing no signs of whatever that had been. Cavalli continued on. He had probably seen the moon reflecting off something metal that hadn’t corroded in the sea air.He ignored the next flash as he followed the tracks down to the beach. As he got closer, he could hear Corax. He was singing to himself, something he had picked up as of late. Cavalli didn’t mind. He liked Corax’s singing. He even joined in sometimes. The singing cut off suddenly with a hushed, “Woah.”

As Cavalli rounded the last buildings that obscured Corax from sight, he found Corax seated and staring up at the sky. The tide and warmth of the sand had melted away the snow here, and Cavalli rumbled contentedly as his feet touched sand that was slightly warm from the sun.Corax jumped slightly, though Cavalli wasn’t sure how he had managed to sneak up on his friend. He was not, by any definition of the word, stealthy. “Cav! You’re up!” Cor was quick to rise and clear the distance between them. “You’ll never guess what I saw.” In true Corax fashion, he didn’t give Cavalli time to respond to the rhetorical question. “A star fell. I saw it, Cav.”

Cavalli looked up skeptically. A star falling? Stars didn’t fall. As he suspected, the stars were in their usual places, twinkling softly. He looked back down, not voicing his doubt.

“If you keep looking at me you’re going to— Wait. What are you doing out in the snow? You said it made you hurt!” Corax began nudging him, as if he could suddenly move him by sheer strength of will alone. “Come on, we can go watch inside that one place with the clear roof.”

“The sand is still warm, I will be fine here.” Cavalli didn’t particularly want to traipse across the city through more snow and here felt nice.

“If you’re sure.” Corax said quietly, settling back down. Cavalli settled beside him, wiggling down into the sand to warm his frozen feet.

“I’m sure.”

“Maybe another star will—” A flash streaked across the sky, then another, and another cutting Corax off. This time Cavalli did see it. What was going on? All the usual stars were still in their places.

“Look at them all!” Corax gasped, eyes wide with wonder. Cavalli wasn’t sure how he felt about the stars falling. They shouldn’t do that. They were always there.

“I wonder what made them fall?”

“I don’t know. Nothing good, I assume.”

“Oh come on, Cav,” Corax huffed, “Not everything is something bad. It’s pretty.”

“Stars are meant to stay where they are. And besides, if the old ones are still in their places, where are all of these coming from?”

Corax looked up, suddenly frowning. He gave a soft grunt, then shook his head. “I don’t know. But it’s pretty, right?”

Cavalli sighed. “It is pretty, yes.”

“So let’s worry about it later. Nothing bad is happening right now.”

Cavalli looked up and then nodded. He would still worry about it, but Corax enjoyed it so he wouldn’t voice his concerns again tonight. Instead, he curled to lay his head across Corax’s back and watch the stars fall.