sol wove the sun to sleep and felt the breeze shiver forebodingly through her entire being. what could be wrong? from somewhere deep in the woods an owl sent out its call, and the night grew colder. what... sol wrapped her cloak of sunflower petals - long past their season - around her shoulders and peered down at the ground from where she floated, suspended in a web of stars.

far below her - a disturbance in the ferns? it could only be fern, searching for aqua within the long agony of the night. yes, sol thought, that was how it must be, she had seen it in the scrolls.

and if aqua were to never return?

with a great sparkling rush of gossamer wings, sol, all a-clad in stars and dead sunlight, drew herself together and swooped down towards the owl's call and the rustling ferns.