Where The Stars Fall

Chapter Two: The Crater and the Creature

The forest at night was nothing like the forest in the day. The trees seemed taller, their branches tangled like fingers laced together overhead. Strange flowers glowed faintly blue along the mossy ground, lighting Lyra's path just enough.

She followed a trail of scorched leaves and warm air until she found it — a small crater in the earth, about the size of a cartwheel. At the center of the crater, glowing faintly and cooling fast, was a tiny creature.

It looked like a fox, but its fur shimmered between colors — silver, then gold, then a deep and tender blue. Its tail was long and feathery, like something between a wing and a flame. Its eyes, when it opened them, were the exact color of the night sky.

"You came," the creature said.

Lyra blinked. "You can talk?"

"All star-born creatures can talk. The question is whether anyone is brave enough to listen." The fox-creature sat up carefully, shaking stardust from its ears. "My name is Solenne. I fell from the Constellation of the Fox — quite on purpose, I assure you — because I need your help."

"My help?" Lyra knelt at the edge of the crater. "I'm just a girl who counts stars."

Solenne's eyes glimmered. "Exactly. You are the only one who has counted every star in my constellation without looking away. That means you are bound to me now, by sky law. And I," she said with great dignity, "am in a great deal of trouble."

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