Star Tiger

this is the prequel to From the Island in the Sea to the Stars in the Sky. Read that first probably :)

The water glistened with the light of a sun. It was anything but used to the feeling of warming waters and reached towards the beauty of the star until it crashed down onto the shores of Hidden’s sands once again. The fish were drawn towards the surface, like the sun was a magnet, pulling them near so they wouldn’t ever escape. Even though it had been millennia since the sun first rose, for the first time in a long time, it was still strange. It was, of course, still the best thing that had ever happened.

Not only were there fish, but jellyfish too. The jellyfish were not as spectacular as they were at night, but they were still beautiful things, floating in the tide with no worry. The ocean was equal. It always would be, near Hidden, because no one would ever be there to build on the beaches, except for once, long ago, but never again. A tower stood on the middle of the island, crumbling and aging with the years. It was a stranger to the touch of a human, and although people knew about it, they had never seen nor felt the tower. It was a legend to them.

Soon night came, for it was winter, and the days shortened until they couldn’t anymore. The stars appeared in the sky, the brightest one straight overhead, bringing the jellyfish out, because it was one of them. It was their eye, watching, seeing, everything. It loved the sky, but loved the sea, and longed to return to where it had come from.

The humans barely noticed the new star at first, but soon astronomers saw the change, and adapted to it, learning everything about it. Some thought it was a sign, the end of the world, but not all changes are bad, and some thought it was an opportunity, a chance. They thought it was a sign, too, but for something greater than humanity had seen. It was an opening, a tear in reality.

New stars had been created and seen before, of course, but this one was different. It moved. It drifted across the sky, north, east, south, west, it was everywhere. It was not seen some nights; it was too far away, but other nights it was close enough to be the sun. It was blinding, on those nights, and some lost their sight at the spectacle, the flaming orb of light. There would be no sleep those days. It made them restless, unable to think of anything else.

What if it stayed?

What if it got closer?

What would happen?

What would we do?

They had no answers, no one had answers, but the one that had no face, no mouth, no voice.

⭒☆⭒

Nothing is forever, not even stars. Stars die, but before they die they change. The people didn’t care for these facts, but with the new star, which was beginning to be known as the Mutation, they started to change as well.

The scientists were studying the star, hypothesising about what would happen when it went supernova. So many eyes watched the Mutation, and it was these millions of eyes that it was afraid of. The fear powered it, charged it, filled it with energy, and it ran - it jumped across solar systems and galaxies, from stars to planets, and it destroyed, it took what was taken. It was the only one that knew about if organisms existed in other places, and if there were multiple universes, or only one. The discoveries were not enough. It needed to get closer, it needed to see what it was like to feel sand, gravel, stone. It needed to hear, to smell, to not destroy everything it touched. It loved Earth, because it knew there were people there, animals, so it never got too close, in case it hurt it, or too far, in case it lost it.

Then one day, for the first time ever, it thought. It was a strange sensation of being. When it thought, it hurt. The encounter with pain was only one of many, yet it dulled into a comfort, that it was alive, alive. It thought that it could make it to Earth one day, perhaps death would bring it there. The Mutation did not know if it believed in Heaven, but it was sure that that place - the sphere of water, land, and flesh - would be Heaven. 

It would not be very long before the Mutation did die. It wasn’t sure what to feel, nothing is easy to let go of, but before it died it wished for a name; something it could be remembered by other than mutation. It got close to Earth, not too close, just close enough to peer into its endless waters, and what it saw was not expected.

Sometimes, small things are worth the world.

The jellyfish were called aequorea jellyfish, like crystals in a despondent land.

It decided on the name Aequorea, but didn’t have a gender, or want one, yet. The name to it was bright, yet dim, beautiful, yet displeasing, complex, yet simple. It was everything, everything to it - it meant the worlds, the galaxies.

The place where it would one day live, not as a star, but as an animal.

⭒☆⭒

It was a century after Aequorea decided on its name that it died for the first time. A century seems like a long time, but being alive for millennia, it really is only an hour or two. It died fast, and not like a normal star, it died by storing all its energy, pulling it close, until it was very small. As soon as it did so it plummeted towards Earth, pulled by gravity and curiosity.

⭒☆⭒

When Aequorea arrived on Earth, it had forgotten everything. It landed on a small island, but as soon as it did, everything went black. It slowly released energy into the air, lighting the sky, but its energy did not last forever. The air would be dim for a few days, but that was all. Aequorea, who did not know its name, for it had forgotten, felt that something was wrong, it was always nighttime, and only small holes of light scattered the sky, along with the moon. It felt like it was missing something, so it decided to build itself from a small, helpless tiger cub, with no memory, to a princess, a lost one, waiting for someone to find it.