The Brightest Star

He knew when he looked up high. As always, the vast starry sky spread over the boy's head, so why did everything seem unfamiliar? The stars, the moon, they were all there, but they were also so different.

"Do you think we can save him?"

"I am not sure... He has lost too much blood."

A foreign language he didn't understand, unfamiliar surroundings, since when did the world change so much? The boy felt his eyelids heavy. He was exhausted. The cool breeze caressed his cheek, inciting him to close his eyes.

"He is about to die, continue casting healing magic!"

If only this cacophony stopped, the boy thought as he let the darkness to hug him.

...

...

It was a devastating war, one that plagued the world for hundreds of years. The humans devoured every single resource the planet could offer, and when they realized that nothing had remained, it was all too late. Chasing after short-term profit, humans destroyed their home and sentenced their race to extinction. Was it worth it? Was money more important than the continuation of the new generation? Even animals take care of their cubs, why would humans destroy their children's future? Sirius couldn't understand. He was too young. They could only yield to fate and live in that vast desert that had covered the whilom blue planet, waiting for their end.

He found it then when he was wandering on the scorching sand. In the beginning, the boy thought he was losing his senses as he approached. However, he realized that an unnatural phenomenon was manifesting in front of him. The sand was dancing erratically in the air; his surroundings seemed to alter, Sirius couldn't discern what was real. His eyes turned to his hands, which appeared to reshape and turning back to normal over and over again. A black vortex started forming suddenly in the air, awaking the boy from his daze. When he realized what kind of situation he was in, a deep sense of crisis overwhelmed him. Sirius wanted to move, but he didn't seem to have control over his body. All of a sudden, he felt a sharp pain in his head, a headache that was threatening him to lose his consciousness. The desperate efforts of the boy to keep his eyes open were insignificant. He was helpless again, as he had always been since the day he was born.

"Nothing has changed!" the boy said while he was sobbing.

"Wake up! Wake up, boy!"

The moment Sirius was about to surrender himself to the nightmare, a raspy voice became his recourse, helping him escape and open his teary eyes. Unfortunately, the unfamiliar ceiling that welcomed him didn't allow him to calm down yet. The boy jerked up from the straw bed in which he was reclined and started to look around worried. Although he realized he was inside in some kind of hut, what monopolized his attention wasn't his surroundings, but the dark-skinned man that was looking at him with a smile. The man started to speak again, but the boy could only hear incomprehensible words. When Serius was about to ask him what he was saying, the boy suddenly began coughing violently. He tried to take a breath, but he felt that the air was chocking him instead. Sirius desperately tried to think of a way to escape his predicament, as a deep sense of panic began to overwhelm him. When he started to lose hope, a dazzling light appeared out of nowhere, embracing him and calming him down. The poisonous air until now seemed to return to normal, allowing him to breathe steadily again. Sirius couldn't help than stare at the man with a bewildered expression. Before the appearance of the bizarre light, the man seemed to sing some kind of song. To Sirius, it reminded him of his mother's prayers she chanted at nights. The man smiled at the boy and gave him the bowl with the food he held in his hands. He murmured some words again and gestured him to eat.

Only then did Sirius realize the existence of the bowl. It was real food! Neither colorful pills to soothe his hunger nor processed food in tubes.

I died, he thought as tears started flowing from his eyes, heavens genuinely exist! He began to wolf the food without holding back. As for what was that light previously or in what kind of mysterious place he had ended up, he didn't care anymore.

...

...

Several days passed since then, but Sirius couldn't adapt to this place yet.  The happy sounds of the kids playing outside, the vast green that surrounded the village, were clues indicating that this was undoubtedly a different world than the one he resided. A world that was as it came out from fairy tales, a peaceful place filled with unconcern and peace. Sirius knew there was a time Earth was like that too, that was the reason he thought, in the beginning, he traveled back in time. Although forests had decreased in number on Earth, they weren't still extinct, or every single life would have already disappeared. For the boy, although the surroundings were new for him, they weren't unknown. Ιf radioactivity from the war didn't render impossible the continuation of life on the planet hope might have still existed for Earth to become like that again too. However, this world had something unique that forced the boy to rule out the possibility of time travel. There was magic here!

As for his everyday life, the people in the village welcomed him warmly despite his inability to communicate. Unfortunately, the boy couldn't reciprocate the trust they were giving him. He couldn't since he had never experienced similar feelings before.

"Astar!"

Sirius turned his attention toward the dark-skinned man who seemed to call him. The boy couldn't determine his age since he was the oldest person he had ever met. The man was only wearing a breechcloth as a cloth, though, the boy found his appearance still quite intriguing. Despite his age, he was muscular, his torso covered with countless tattoos representing a mighty dragon flying towards the skies. Some spiral symbols were also decorating his head, starting from the top of his skull--since he was bald, they were noticeable--ending up below his eyes.

"No, I told you! My name is Sirius! The brightest star!" the boy shouted as he pointed his finger towards the sky. The shimmering sea of the universe, although unfamiliar compared to the one he was used to, was the only thing that made the boy feel nostalgic about his former world. If only that geezer stopped calling him Astar, it would be great.

"Astar!" the man repeated as he shook his head and pointing toward the sky too.

"No, I am Sirius!"

"Astar!"

"Sirius!"

The two of them continued arguing pointlessly like that, as though they were afraid of remaining silent, as though they were afraid of losing the warmth they offered to each other.

The man looked at the skinny boy with tenderness and affection. It was a boy that came from the skies, landing in front of his home. The one who was born by the stars, the man decided to name him Astar. A small, frail, weak life that disrupted his lonely world. The man who was the great shaman, a person who was destined to be alone in his whole life, suddenly obtained a son.