The Fall of the Jade Star
The beloved of Ixtab were tiny fragile things -- walking about on two long, stick-like legs, with soft torsos holding their precious internal organs. Their arms weren't terribly strong; their bodies were hairless, scaleless, just dark brown flesh relying on the skins of other creatures to keep out the ravages of the natural world.
They were persistent, though. Ixtab loved them for that; loved watching them go after what they wanted, needed, loved. They didn't give up.
During the day she would laze about in the sky and watch them, flitting about in their impossibly short lives, doing things of great importance -- they didn't seem to care that someday they would die, that someday her mate, her brother, would take them from the world, as he did with every living b
