by Anne Zedwick
***
Stella opened her eyes, her head spinning. She looked around her. She was in a small, lightly decorated room. The walls were wooden logs melded together with dried mud. A table stood by the soft bed that she lay on, a candle burning faintly in a little candle-holder sitting on the dark wood of the table.
The room smelled of pine needles, and she knew that she was probably in a pine forest. When she looked out the little window on the left wall, her guess was confirmed.
Stella sat up gingerly and stepped off the bed onto the smooth wooden floor. She wondered what happened to her deerskin boots. Those boots had been made with her first deer hide.
Stumbling over to the door, she was surprised to find that it was unlocked. Stella opened the door and found herself in a small, yet cozy sitting room.
Soft chairs were set around a small coffee table. A man sat in one of them. His light blue eyes watched her without emotion. His face had a long scar running from his left ear down to the right side of his chin. He had dark tousled black hair that fell into his sparkling eyes, and his face was young—he couldn't have been more than two or three years older than Stella. She wondered how he had gotten the scar. She had to admit though, even with the scar, he was strikingly handsome.
“Sit.” He motioned to the chair next to his.
Stella crossed my arms, and tossed her dark brown hair behind her back. “Not until you tell me what’s going on. Who are you, and why did you kidnap me?”
He smiled, his eyes sparkling with amusement. “Sit and I’ll explain.”
Stella didn’t move.
He sat back in his chair, resting his feet on the table. Reaching for a mug of coffee, he gave a long sigh. “Fine. Be stubborn. I was just trying to help you be comfortable.” He sipped his coffee and pushed another mug of the brown liquid toward Stella. “You like coffee?”
“Not poisoned coffee.”
He laughed. “If I wanted to kill you, I would have done it already.”
She still didn’t move toward the cup. “Why did you kidnap me?”
“I didn’t kidnap you!” He protested.
Stella raised her eyebrows. “Well, forgive me if I don’t believe that, because you knocking me out and bringing me here says otherwise.”
He shrugged. “Well, okay, fine. I kidnapped you.” He took a sip of his coffee. “But I had good reason. If I didn’t, they would have gotten to you first. And you wouldn’t be nearly as comfortable if they had gotten to you.”
“They? Who are they?”
“They are the ones known as the Shadow Beasts.”
Stella wrinkled her brow. “The Shadow Beasts? I’ve never heard of them.”
“Few have.”
“So…who exactly are you?”
“I’m Adrian.”
“What do you do? Why do you have any interest in me? How old are you? How did you get that scar?”
With her last question, Adrian flinched. A pain that went deeper than Stella ever thought possible flashed in his mind for a moment. It was gone in an instant, hidden beneath a thick mask. “I belong to a group known as the Hunters. We hunt down the Shadow Beasts or anything really from the Shadows of Skoth, and we destroy them.
“I assume you understand that you have a ‘connection’ with the stars? That connection makes you special and you are very important in defeating an ancient evil dark lord that is rising to destroy the universe.”
Stella almost laughed. An ancient dark lord rising from some dark abyss to destroy the universe? It sounded like a very tall tale.
“You don’t believe me, do you?”
“Nope.”
He sighed. “Look, there’s a dark lord called…” he hesitated. “We don’t know his name yet.”
Stella noticed that he didn’t make eye contact with her when he said the last few words.
“He was banished long ago to a wasteland called Skoth where he has been writhing in his hatred and anger for almost two hundred years. Now, he’s beginning to break through the magical barrier holding him there. The magic is dying.”
“Why was he banished there?” Stella found herself asking.
“He wanted to rule the whole world. There is a prophecy that told about this happening. It said that one of the dancers would try to destroy the universe. That dancer is the earth dancer. So he was banished to Skoth to avoid the coming of the end. If he had not been banished to Skoth, he would have already taken control of everything. Likely, you would already be dead.” He sipped his coffee, pausing in his story for a few seconds. “Anyway,” he continued. “You are one of the four dancers.”
“I don’t dance.” Stella said with a quizzical look.
“No not dancing like that. The dancers are called that because they are so graceful and beautiful in battle that it’s like they’re dancing.” He cleared his throat. “While destroying all their enemies…”
“Well whatever that is supposed to mean, I assure you that I am not one of these ‘dancers’. Trust me,” she paused and looked away from him before continuing. “I’m nothing special. I’m just a stupid girl that’s too scared of facing the people in my own village.”
“Stella, no matter what you may think, you’re special. You have the most amazing ability to control and use the stars for good. You’re different.”
“Yeah! You’re right! I am different. That’s what makes me the freakish girl that lives in a forest all alone even when I want to make friends and there is a huge village full of people to make friends with. I’m different all right. But it’s not a good different.” Stella stopped herself. Why had she just told a stranger all that? She had to get out of here. “Let me go,” she whispered.
“I can’t do that.”
“Why not? I’m not your magical dancer, okay. Let. Me. Go.”
“Stella—”
“Wait how do you know my name? Did I tell you? I don’t think I did…”
“I know your name because you’re the Star Dancer. Whether you like it or not, you are the Star Dancer and you have to help us defeat the Dark Dancer.” Adrian sighed. “Whatever you may think. Whatever you’ve been through, you are special. Your parents were killed by the Shadow Beasts…”
Stella looked down, pain flickering in her eyes. “They were killed by street robbers…” she whispered.
“No. They weren’t.” he paused for a minute before saying simply: “Your training begins tomorrow. Go get some sleep.”
Stella stood up as well. “What? Training? I am not training here with you. I’m going back—”
“Back to what?” he interrupted. “Look, I understand this is a little hard to swallow, but you have nothing to go back to. You don’t have anything. Not even a house.”
Stella realized he was right. “Well…I…maybe I just don’t want to be here with you.”
“Stop running away.” Adrian said in a quiet voice.
Stella crossed her arms and stared at him defiantly. “I am not running away.”
“Yes, you are.”
“Fine. If you can prove you’re telling the truth, prove it. If you can prove it then I’ll stay.”
Adrian stood up, setting his coffee on the table. “Okay, I will.” He walked into another room and returned with a necklace hanging out of his hand.
Stella gasped. “That’s…that’s my mother’s necklace! She always wore it; my father gave it to her.”
“It fell off when she was taken by the Shadow Beasts and I took it in case I needed it on a day like this.” He held it out to her.
Stella took the necklace and stared at it. “I…I…okay. Fine I’ll stay.”
“Great, your room is that door,” he pointed to a door to his left and then sat down.
Stella opened the door and walked into a room with a carpeted floor, and one window on the east side of the room. A small bed was in the corner by the window, and a closet was on her left. The door was cracked open slightly, and Stella could see several hunting outfits, a few dresses, and some other pants and shi
rts hanging above a pair of tall, black boots. A mirror stood next to it.
She collapsed onto the silky black blankets of the bed and closed her eyes. Her back still throbbed and she welcomed the soft pillows and blankets. Fingering her mother’s necklace, she sighed. Stella slipped the necklace around her neck and rolled over, pulling the blankets up to her chin.
Stella woke to bright sunlight in her eyes and a splash of water. She started but as the shock of the cold water wore off she relaxed.
“Get up, now.” Adrian held an empty bucket in his hands as he stared down at her.
Stella groaned. “Go away.”
“Do I have to get another bucket of water?”
Stella was out of bed in a matter of seconds. “No, no. That’s fine. I’m up.”
Adrian laughed. “You have ten minutes. Be out in the kitchen for breakfast by the end of those ten minutes.”
“I don’t know where the kitchen is…”
“It’s the door straight across from your room.”
“Okay.”
Adrian left her alone in the room.
Stella squinted in the bright sunlight and she walked clumsily to the closet. She picked out a pair of tight black pants and a brown shirt; she quickly put them on. She shoved on her boots, lacing it up around her calves. She found a loose piece of leather and braided her hair into a long braid that hung over her shoulder, tying it off with the leather.
Stella looked at herself in the mirror and smiled. She actually looked quite dangerous. Satisfied, she went to the kitchen.
Adrian was sitting at the tiny wood table, sipping coffee and eating a piece of toast with butter. Stella sat down in the chair across from him and grabbed a piece of toast from the plate in the middle of the table that was piled with buttered toast. She took a bite of the crunchy bread.
“Do you want some coffee? Tea?”
Stella nodded. “Coffee is good.”
Adrian smiled. He grabbed the coffee pot and poured the brown liquid out into a mug and handed it to Stella.
Stella sipped her coffee and ate her toast in silence. When she and Adrian were both finished, she stood. “So…what am I supposed to be doing?”
Adrian grinned. “Well, first you can help me take care of the dishes, and then you get to join me on my morning jog.
Stella nodded. “Okay.” She stood up and brought the empty toast plate over to the wooden counter that was nailed to the wall of the kitchen. A bucket of soapy water stood on the counter, so she put the plate into the water and scrubbed off the crumbs. Then she let Adrian dry and put it away.
“Okay, let’s go,” he motioned toward the door.
Stella followed Adrian outside and immediately had to break into a run as he bounded through the pine trees. She forced her legs to move. Faster. Faster. Faster. Adrian was far ahead of her and he turned to look at her and laughed. “Come on!” he yelled back. “Keep up!”
“I thought you said this was a jog!!” Stella yelled back, forcing her already burning legs to move on.
“It is!” he called back gleefully, and then he turned his head away from her and ran even faster until he disappeared ahead of her.
Stella stopped, panting and leaning on a tree. She could only see him by closing her eyes and becoming one with the stars in the sky. Although it wasn’t night, she could still see out of the sleepy eyes of a star above her—just not as well.
She spotted him running through the trees and she planned a way that she could intercept him without having to run the whole way.
Returning to her own mind, Stella darted off into the forest, parallel to the direction Adrian was running. She quickly came upon him and hid behind a tree as he ran closer to her. But then she lost sight of him. He seemed to disappear into the trees. She looked around. Where did he go…?
“Hah!” Adrian tackled her.
Stella fell to the ground with a squeal, trying to bat Adrian off her. “Get off!! I was sneaking up on you! That’s not fair.”
“I’m not a very fair person.” He joked.
Stella rolled away from him, dodging out of his grip.
“How’d you get here so fast anyway?” Adrian asked her, leaning on a tree.
Stella brushed off her shirt. “Easy. I looked for you, found you, and then I intercepted you. It was easy. Even in the daylight hours I can find people easily…well…usually.”
“But…” Light dawned in his eyes. “Oh! You used the stars didn’t you?”
Stella nodded. She didn’t understand her link to them, but she knew how to use it…sort of.
“Well that explains it, you little cheater!” He said jokingly. He moved forward suddenly, grabbing her wrist and twisting her into an arm-lock He held her there. “Now what should I do with you? Hmm…I could tie you to a tree and leave you there… I’m sure I could find some vines.”
“Don’t!” Stella squeaked through her laughter.
“Maybe I should drag you back to the cabin and dump another bucket of water on your head…” he pretended to think aloud.
She squirmed, trying to get out of his strong grip. “Let go!” she laughed. “That’s what you can do to me—let go!!” She pulled away as hard as she could.
“Okay.” Adrian let go.
Stella fell to the ground. “Ouch!”
He laughed. “You said to let go.”
She punched him lightly on the arm. “You’re so annoying.” She felt like she’d known him for years, like she had a friend.
“I know.” He helped her up. “Now come on, let’s get back to the cabin. We have some other training to do too.” He broke into a run.
“Hey! Wait up!” Stella bolted after him.
When she got back, Adrian was leaning on a tree, a smug smile on his lips.
Stella fell to her knees panting. “I hate jogging with you.” But her laugh gave away that she had enjoyed it…even if it had left her winded.
