☆ursa minor
little bear☆

Stella woke up to see a pair of bright blue eyes staring back at her.

"Hello." The earthling said carefuly,"I'm Darcy."

An earthling. A real earthling standing in front of her. Stella scrambled back suddenly feeling afraid.

Earth had just been a small planet at a distance, but now she was on it.

She was physically on a planet. Not just floating in space.

Oh stars, what was she thinking when she made the wish?

She must have inhaled some sort of stardust, they were supposed to cause the most realistic of hallucinations and simulations.

And this could not be real.

But yet it was.

"You're a really pretty angel." The small female said tucking her brown curls behind her,"Isn't she B?"

Stella focused her eyes on the earthling behind the one named Darcy, he was a male, a handful of years older than her but there was mistaking the blue eyes both of them had in common.

They were siblings.
They were Earthlings.
She was on Earth.

What had she gotten herself into?

Stella was this close to losing it. Stars rarely went off trajectory, forget falling, they had been taught to fly since they were born and they were very good at it.

In fact Stella couldn't remember the last time she had actually used her feet.

"Darcy get away from her." He said tugging his sisters hand and stepping in front of her. He peered down at Stella unsurely.

"Umm.. Are you hurt?" He asked,"And do you have a flashlight somewhere?"

Stella stared.

By the sun, an Earthling was actually addressing her.

No not one, she thought as she looked at his little sister, But two.

"B! Stop it!" The sister, Darcy he had called her said,"You're scaring her. Don't scare the angel away."

"What?" Her brother shrugged,"I just asked her if she was hurt?"

Stella flipped through her mind trying to remember the meanings of the terms they were using.

Before being posted to any planet a star had to train for at least a decade, learning all the terms, histories and customs. It was tedious work but Stella loved it, she pored through each and every book related to the planet.

Flashlight: a small portable electric lamp.

Angel: A celestial being of God.

"No, not an angel." Stella said her voice alien to her own ears,"I'm a star. And-I-I don't have a flashlight."

They boy's mouth fell open and if anything Darcy looked even more excited.

"You're a fallen-"

She couldn't finish the sentence because all of a sudden some of the rocks came free tumbling down into the crater.

"Darcy!" The boy yelled trying to grab her but it was happening all too fast for him to do anything to save her.

And for once Stella didn't hear a wish from some ordinary earthling who was requesting for a new car or some new video game but a desperate plea from a brother who would do just about anything to save his sister and she wondered, truly wondered if her brothers would do the same for her.

They wouldn't, not if meant granting an unauthorised wish.

So without hesitating or even checking the Asteriameter (which probably would be glowing an angry red telling her just how unauthorised this wish was) Stella pushed her palm forward using whatever starlight she had left to protect the girl and her brother.

For a second the world illuminated a bright white washing over everything and then it disappeared just as suddenly.

Stella sunk back into the ground. She felt like she'd run a billion light years at one go and could barely see anything in front of her, her vision was spotty.

At the corner of her eye she saw both Earthlings slowly absorb what had happened. Darcy was all too excited yelling something along the lines,"Ha! I told you so."

While the boy just looked shocked, pale and confused.

Piece by piece he must have put together the whole picture as to what happened because after giving Stella yet another confused glance, he grabbed his sister and hugged her as tightly as he could.

Stella smiled and turned her gaze upwards to the sky. The stars were shining in the deep velvet sky, like diamonds.

She tried to remember that poem all the little children used to sing as they looked up to them.

Twinkle, twinkle something.. Most stars found it offensive, how dare did they say that stars twinkled? After all they didn't twinkle but shine.

But now on earth she could see it. All the stars were so far away from the planet that true to the children's words none of them shone brightly, they were just a twinkling far away in the sky.

With a pang Stella realised she would never be able to go home.

Suddenly the boy appeared in her line of vision. He was a good looking Earthling she had to admit, his copper hair was all over the place and his deep blue eyes, they reminded her of new born star whose light was a deep intense blue.

In Stella's opinion, starlight looked best when it was of that color.

Then Darcy's head popped up, she was grinning streaks of dirt all over her small face.

"Thank you." She said grinning,"For saving us."

Stella wanted to say something back, like how earthlings would, a welcome or something but she didn't, more like she couldn't. She was far to tired to do anything now.

"B, she stopped glowing." Darcy asked her brother,"Why is that?"

Her brother gave her unsure look,"The flashlight ran out of batteries?"

"Thats it!" Darcy clapped her little hands,"Batteries! She's tired! We have to take her home B! Please, please?"

He looked highly uncomfortable glancing back from Stella to his sister back to Stella again. Everytime his gaze fell on her Stella suddenly became conscience of how filthy she must be looking covered in soil and completley haggard.

I'm a shooting star, she thought to herself, Not one of the silly suns who like parading around in their starlight, showing off.

"I don't know Darce we can take her to a hospital or-"

"Come on B!" Darcy said,"You saw what she did, she saved our life. We have to help her and the meanies in the hospital will just experiment on her."

Experiment.

Stella had heard in not so many words as to what happened to stars on planets below T grade and Earth was Z.

They didn't know what stars really were or for that fact aware of any life forms except themselves which lead to natural tendency of wanting to cut things up and figure out what was in them.

Stella gulped.

"No." Stella managed to say shrinking back from them,"Please no hospital."

Darcy looked at her and smiled. It was not a bright one this time but it was one that Stella would remember for the rest of time.

It was soft and reassuring and at that moment Stella had not trusted anyone more, even if the person in question was an extremely young earthling she had never met before.

"No one will take you to any hospital." Darcy said,"I promise."

And by the way she said it Stella could only think that the word promise really meant something to Darcy.

"B, I don't care she's going home with us." Darcy spoke to her brother,"Or I'm going to stay right here with her."

"You're like a stubborn little bear you know?" The boy said clearly frustrated with his sister. He glanced back at Stella and held her gaze with his unnerving blue eyes.

And then slowly he put his hand forward and gave her the smallest of smiles,"Do you need help getting up?"