Yam lifted her head, feeling groggy. The light was way too bright and she shut her eyes again, groaning. A sudden noise sounded from her left and she turned to see what was going on.

“YAM!”

Yam blinked, still sleepy. What… was… happening…?

“Yam, you’re awake! Oh my god!” 

“We were so scared, Yam. Are you ok?” 

“Well. I suppose it’s nice to see you again, kitty.” 

And then the chittering started.

Yam sat bolt upright and reached out her paws. Bread leaped into her arms, chirping and cooing and purring. Yam broke into similar purrs as she hugged her fox-crow so tightly he began to squeak from being squeezed too hard.

She didn’t know what had happened just then, but she knew that it was something she never wanted to experience again. With Bread curled in her arms she took a look at her surroundings and realised she was back in her house, on the couch. With a glare, she turned to Aey, who was smirking.

“I said don’t call me kitty. Is it that hard to remember one simple instruction?”

“I can assure you, Ari, she’s back to normal,” Aey laughed. Rolf waddled up to Yam and gave her a head pat, which she neither accepted nor denied.

“How are you feeling, Yam,” Ari asked anxiously, her eyes wide with worry. Yam shook her head to clear her thoughts.

“Fine, apart from a damn painful headache. What are you all doing here? Didn’t I tell you to leave?” A second thought crossed her mind and she swung her legs out from under the blanket that was covering her. “Riya! Where is that god damn-”

“We chased her away,” Aey interrupted nonchalantly, spinning something small around her fingers. Upon closer inspection it was a red shard, and when Yam took a closer look at the Tiefling, she realised another chip was missing from her already-broken horn.

“Sounds good,” Yam yawned, laying back down. Taking the hint, Ari edged out of the room and down the hall to the guest room, Rolf following after her. Aey hesitated for a moment, glancing down at Yam and Bread.

“You sure you’re good?”

“Yeah.” Yam shut her eyes and comfortably stared at the dark void behind her eyelids. “Hey, the chip in your horn; how come you’re not completely dying like me right now?”

“Oh. It’s nothing. I didn’t do much, the ceremony didn’t really start so I’m ok.”

“Alright. Go tell the others they can stay one more night and that’s it. One more night. Nothing more. And you all go tomorrow.”

“You’re the best, Yam.” Yam heard Aey’s light footsteps fade as the Tiefling walked towards the hallway to go pass on the news.

“Yeah. I know.”

==<~~~>==

Aey sat at the kitchen counter on one of the barstools that was neatly lined up along it. It was late, probably around 1 or 2 am, and Rolf was snoring on the couch- Yam had moved back to her room- and Ari was in the little tent from the nights before. Yam had given Aey permission to sleep in the spare guest room, where Gerald was now resting, but she had decided to stay up a little bit longer.

The stars above twinkled with secrets long-forgotten by man but remembered vividly by the sands of time. Secrets that held the key to the mystery, to the past, and even to the future. They were all there. If only one could read such secrets, tales told by the sky itself, messages and hidden meanings and poems passed on through the generations until memory of them finally died out. But the universe would never forget. The planets themselves would always know, would always remember the trials and tribulations of those who had passed. The stars would continue their legacy, telling their stories to anyone who could decipher the clues and was willing to learn the tales of those who had come before. The sky, in its gorgeous sheet of black and blue, would forever blanket the world, clothing everything in silence and bringing peace and serendipity to the still night.

Aey sighed. She enjoyed nighttime far more than the day, mostly because this was the time when everything else was asleep and everything in the world seemed to stop. She took another deep breath, not wanting to disturb the silence of the beautiful night. But she didn’t want to just view it from inside, even if it was from under Yam’s spectacular roof. She wanted to experience it.

Aey stepped outside into the cool night air, shutting the door behind her as quietly as she could and breathing in again. This was where she felt truly at home. Not in the village from her past, the source of all her pain and suffering, or even in the tavern where she used to spend her days drinking away her sorrow. No. This was where she truly wanted to be, under a sky of a thousand stars and just as many myths and legends. This was where she could be herself without needing to put on a facade or cloak herself in lies. She had told so many lies over her lifetime…

She took off her suit jacket and laid it down on the frosty grass, sitting herself down on top of it and staring directly upwards. A rustling from behind made her turn around.

Ari was stepping out of the house, her blue eyes wide and her cheeks pink with cold.

“Aey! I didn’t think you’d be out here. Aren’t you cold, why isn’t your jacket on?” After a moment the Half-Elf smiled mischievously. “Don’t you have sensitive skin?”

“Ah, haha,” Aey laughed nervously as Ari came to sit beside her. “Cold? Me? Noooo. Why are you out here?”

Smooth conversation change, Aey. Smooth conversation change. She could hear Yam’s voice snap back at her, yeah. Smooth as gravel.

“Oh, am I not allowed to be out here too?” Ari teased. Aey flinched before realising that the Half-Elf was joking.

“Oh, no, ha, of course not,” Aey stammered, waving her hands around desperately. “Yeah, no, you’re welcome. To sit here,” she added quickly, realising how weird and awkward she must sound right now. Ari rolled her eyes affectionately and sighed, her breath coming out as a puff of steam against the black backdrop. Aey returned her gaze to the sky above. She didn’t know how long it had been before either of them, in this case Ari, spoke again.

“So. Sensitive skin.”

Aey jolted out of her thoughts and turned to face Ari in a panic. The Half-Elf was watching her calmly, eyebrows raised as she waited for her answer.

“Oh, uh. Ye- no. I- that was a lie.”

“But why? You could have just told us you don’t like cooking.”

“It’s not that. Well, I do hate cooking, but it’s not… just that.”

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” Ari explained gently. Aey took a breath and shook her head.

“No… I- I think I do need to tell someone. Well. Um. When I was a kid- like six or seven- I really wanted to play with the other kids in my village. But they weren’t all that nice to me. Because I’m a Tiefling, y’know?”

“Yeah. I know.” Ari turned away to stare at the stars again, her face masked in an unreadable expression. “I… because I’m a Half-Elf, you see- only half, not full- and I lived with my grandparents, who were both full Elves, the other kids in my city were almost all full Elves too. They… would always ask me… who was the human and who was the Elf. It hurt, ya know? It really… really hurt. It didn’t help that my- human- mother disappeared almost as soon as I was born. Last I heard, she’s got another daughter and wants nothing to do with me.”

“Oh… I’m sorry, Ari.” Aey reached out a hand and brushed Ari’s shoulder. A small smile slipped across the Half-Elf’s face. “My parents… weren’t really there. At all. I was raised by a foster family who hated Tieflings.”

“Why’d they… take you in, then?”

“I dunno. Probably wanted some of the pity money that came with adopting. They also took in an Elf and two Aarakocra.” Aey spat out the word ‘pity’ with such poisonous hate that Ari physically flinched away. “But I don’t care. I left so I wouldn’t have to put up with that BS any longer.”

“Oh. Ha. I left because I was dared,” Ari sighed, turning away again. “I used to think I had friends, we were a group of maybe four or five. I see now that it was all a lie, that they were just… making fun of me. But I had friends at the time. Or at least, I really thought I did. We played Truth Or Dare one time. Maybe around a year ago, I haven’t kept track. We’d played it millions of times before, but this time, something was different. One of my friends- ‘friends’- changed the game to what was quite literally ‘Dare Or Dare, you have no choice’ and immediately picked me. Then another one told me to leave the city and never come back. Ever.”

“What… Happened next?” Aey looked at Ari’s expressions under the night sky. All that the Tiefling could see was hurt and betrayal, perhaps a slight mocking aimed at no one but herself.

“I thought she was joking.” Ari’s eyes suddenly filled with tears and she turned her head away completely to hide her entire face. “I really did. I left, but I didn’t go beyond the city borders. I looped back around after a few minutes, planning to jump out and scare them. But then, as I was creeping up behind them, I… I heard them talking about me. I heard them say my name, and I- I hid to listen. Now I wish I didn’t. I wish I never stopped running, I wish I went beyond those goddamn borders.”

Aey didn’t know what to say. She stretched out a hand to comfort Ari but the Half-Elf pulled her arm away and began to swipe away the tears rolling down her face.

“D’you know what they said about me? They were horrible things, they said I was ugly and common and weird- in a bad way. And they… they said… they said: ‘god I hope she actually went and got lost. I hated her’. And they all agreed.”

With that, Ari broke down for real, sobbing her heart out as she buried her face in her knees. Aey awkwardly patted her back, not knowing what on earth to say or do. After a little bit, Aey opened her mouth and started her speech hesitantly.

“I…. think you are pretty quirky, in the good way. I mean, you’re a little strange but you’re cool and you’ve helped us heal Yam’s injuries… And, no one should be treated the way you were. I mean, especially if it’s over race, or personality, or… anything, really.”

Ari glanced up at her, her face wet with tears, the starlight ahead illuminating her eyes with tiny sparkles of light. “Really? Aey, wow. I never thought you’d be the comforting-friend kind of person.” The Half-Elf wiped away her tears with the back of her hand and laughed lightly. “Yeah, don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. The wound just needs to heal.” As Ari lifted her head to look at the stars again, Aey noticed an old, thin scar edging along her chin and jawline.

“What’s… that?”

Ari turned to her, blinking in confusion. “What’s… wh- oh.” She ran her fingers along the length of the scar, evidently rather self-conscious about it. “Nothing. We were just climbing trees one time and one of my ‘friends’- the same one who dared me to leave- was falling so she accidentally grabbed my ankle and pulled me down too. I just caught my chin on the way down. There’s another scar on my hip but otherwise I’m fine. Does it look weird? Whenever people notice it they say it looks weird or bad. I’m pretty sure my old group called it- along with me- ugly when I left.”

“Well,” Aey retorted defiantly, “I think it looks badass. And you, too, by extension. You’re cool too.”

“Thanks, Aey.” Ari lowered her hand and glanced skywards again. “I like you all too.”