Anos, The Starlight Beast

The party started softly; in each home along the river, they lit their fires and started their music, filling the small village with light and sound. Slowly, as the moon rose in the sky above, the sounds and lights from the village grew. Louder and louder, the merriment sounded, filling the evening skies with laughing and joyful singing. This was a celebration that only happened once in a lifetime, and not a single soul in all of Sanctum Reach would have missed it.

Carson Faraday was a young man and a captain to a small team of men. They followed him because they believed he could shine a light upon the world. They all seemed to believe the world was heading towards a Forever Endless Night, and that Carson was the man who could herald them to their new dawn. He went with it, because maybe they were right. He had always seen the bright side of life, no matter how dark it got around him. With the Festival of Shinning Skies upon them, Carson and the knights took the time and peace of the day to enjoy themselves.

Everyone knew them as the Sightless Knights, not because they couldn’t see. No. All of them had their sight. Everyone knew the Sightless Knights because they saw no color or creed when they helped. No matter who you were, where you were born, they would offer you a helping hand. The knights cared nothing for a person’s appearance, only that they breathed. They cared for all life equally, and they wished to see the rest of Sanctum Reach see life the same as they do, by spreading their hope and dreams with the world.

The small village was called Wingston, a little hamlet of a village along the Elmtry Rill. They had very little, but the people had a hope that drew the Sightless Knights to the place to set up for the festival.

Carson himself had taken most of the daytime hours to rest. He had been traveling for so long now; he had lost track of the days. The festival was a nice rest that he needed. Closing his eyes and giving praise to the goddess of the winds, Iia, Carson left the home he had been staying in.

He stepped out into the night just in time to see the first lights falling, turning his head to the north, to stare up at the falling lights and marvel at them. He had never seen such a sight before, as the last time such an event had happened, he had not even been a thought yet in his mother’s mind.

“You can see them better from the hill.” An older woman was sitting in a rocking chair, a mug of tea in her hands. She was one elder in the village and she had welcomed Carson into her home the moment the knights had arrived. “There is a viewing scope there, one scholar who came during the last festival left. Such a strange thing, but the children enjoy it. You should go see the lights.”

Carson simply nodded before he headed for the hill. The children were already taking turns looking through the device, giggling and laughing as they exchanged stories of what they saw. Some claiming to have seen magical beings, and some saying they were fey. Wings spreading wide and spreading fresh embers on the ground. Carson waited his turn in the line, the children’s stories turning more and more childish as they went.

When his turn finally came, he hesitated for a moment. The children had all dashed down the hill, leaving him alone with the looking scope. The device was strange to him and yet marvelous as well. He wished he had time to look at it now, but there would be time in the morning. Instead, he bent down and stared through the glass, not knowing what he would see.

What sight greeted him made his heart sputter in his chest. The shining lights that were shown throughout all of Sanctum Reach weren’t the fey creatures the children had seen, nor were they the fiery blazes that the older generation seemed to remember either. What Carson Faraday saw was a flying being unlike anything he had ever seen.

Spanning the whole scope’s lens, was a serpentine creature. Instead of where scales would have normally adorned the serpent’s body, were feathers that seemed to reflect the moon’s light, casting a rainbow glow against the falling rocks that were in fact the shining Lights the whole festival was viewing. The creature should have been able to circle the entire planet as it flew, and as Carson watched, it did. The multiple tails flipped and swayed as the beast flew in the sky. Avoiding the falling rocks and casting its light upon them, making them shine brighter.

He was at a loss for words as he pulled back to stare up at the sky and the creature that he could not see with his normal eyes. All he could see were the shining rocks that were falling to the planet, nothing of the creature. It was like its belly blended in with the deep blackness of the night sky. An endless blackness of scales that shinned like stars. When he looked back through the scope, he was right. The underbelly of the beast was indeed black as night. He choked up a cry as he continued to view the beast. Marveled at the fantastic thing he was seeing.

Carson stayed on the hill watching the beast until the night faded away. With it the beast seemed to shimmer out of existence. The daylight being unable to keep the beast’s majestic form within the sky. He wanted to know if the beast would return the following night, but he also wanted to know if anyone else had ever seen the creature before. So, with the dawn upon him, he started back down the hill. He stopped when he noticed a figure standing there, leaning against a cane.

“You saw Anos, didn’t you?” The old woman smiled up at him before giving him a friendly laugh. Carson was speechless as he nodded. “They are always there. Flying around the sky. My grandmother used to say they were the only thing stopping those stones from destroying Sanctum Reach. Instead of affecting the planet, they grace of their body, catching fire and burning to ash before they can harm anything. They are our savior. So few have seen them. So few believe.” She sighed sadly as she looked back up to the dawn sky, and the glittering light that seemed to be reflect of the clouds. Carson knew now that it wasn’t the clouds it was reflecting off.

“They will believe. They will all believe. The Sightless Knights will remember Anos’ light.” He placed a hand over his heart and bowed to the old woman. She gave him an enormous smile and nodded.

“I know.” Carson couldn’t help wonder by the way her eyes seemed to shine in a rainbow of colors if maybe there was more to the elderly lady than met the eye. But he couldn’t get those answers in that moment as his knights were approaching them. It drew his attention to them, and he lost sight of the elderly woman.

When the knights rounded up to leave the following afternoon, Carson went to see if he could find the woman who so kindly put them up in her home. But when asked about her, none of the villagers seemed to know who he was speaking about. The only one who seemed to remember anyone of her description was a young blind girl, who told Carson that a melody came on the wind some days to speak to her. That melody sang a song of a great protector. This story shocked Carson, but he also believed it.

He looked up at the sky as they left the small village. Vowing that, he would tell everyone of the great protector that watches over them all.