Night Lights

By Kim McFarland

It was a dark and starry night. Above the canopy of the Evergreen forest, two pairs of eyes glowed in the darkness.

Orko and Dree Elle were sitting on a blanket spread out on a treetop. A simple spell had stiffened the cloth, making it as stable as a picnic blanket on the ground. Eternos was a populous city, and one had to be inventive to find real privacy.

"It's so dark," Dree Elle said. "All I can see is your eyes. What did you want to show me?"

He glanced upward. "You have to look at the sky for a little while. So your eyes'll adjust."

She looked at him for a moment, then said "Okay."

He heard the skepticism in her voice. He didn't mind; it would be as much a surprise to her as it had been to him. He felt her hand touch his. He clasped it and squeezed gently.

Silently they looked into the black emptiness of the sky, which gradually filled with more and more tiny pinpoints as their eyes adjusted. After a while Orko pointed and said, "See, over there, that band across the sky? It looks like a thin cloud, but it doesn't block the stars."

She could just see his hand, a faintly lighter shape against the sky. "Where it's a little lighter?"

"Yeah. Now see to the left, the brightest part of the band?"

"Yes," she answered.

"That's where Trolla is," he said softly.

Startled, she looked at him. His gaze met hers. "How do you know that?"

"On Trolla the night sky's packed full of stars. They aren't thinned out like they are here. Trolla's gotta be close to the center of the galaxy. That band, that's the galaxy seen edge-on."

She understood now. "And the brightest part is the core."

"Yeah."

She gazed into the sky. After a minute she whispered, "I don't know if it seems closer or farther away now."

He answered just as quietly, "I don't know. But sometimes it makes me feel better to see it. Even if it's too far away to reach, I still know where it is."

She squeezed his hand. He got homesick sometimes, she knew. They had talked about that. But if he were to return to Trolla, he would be homesick for Eternia. This world was his home now, and, she believed, it would be hers too.

She scooted closer, so her side was touching his. "Is that all you brought me here for?"

He put his arm around her. "Well..."

As she took his free hand in hers, she smiled under her veil. She had guessed right. And she was pleased; it had taken a long while for him to lose his shyness with her.

She raised his hand to her face, then to the side of her hood, where her veil was attached, in a wordless invitation. If he chose not to take it, he could simply misunderstood her gesture. But he did not. After a moment's hesitation, he detached that side of her veil. She turned her head so he could get to the other side. He gave her the veil, and she set it in her lap. Then she reached behind his head for the knot in his scarf.

"It'd be easier just to pull it down," he told her quietly.

He tilted his head forward, and she slid the scarf down to rest loosely on his chest. Warm fingers touched her cheek lightly. She closed her eyes and leaned forward.

Their eyes closed and, for the first time, their lips met. Orko had fantasized about this and, in fact, so had Dree Elle, but for now there was no room for fantasy. This was real, and, they hoped, only a beginning.

Orko and Dree Elle are copyright © Mattel, and are used without permission but with a lot of affection and respect. The overall story is copyright © Kim McFarland (Negaduck9 at aol dot com). Permission is given by the author to copy this story for personal use only.