Hope for a wild child

A soft breeze rustled the leaves of the trees, whispering through the ancient branches and travelling to the ears of a little girl, lying in the middle of a clearing. Her short dark hair lay around her face in a halo and her large blue eyes stared straight up at the ethereal display of constellations and galaxies high above. The whole scene seemed frozen in time. ----- It was moments like these that were Aurora's favourite. Moments where she could escape from the world around her. Where reality doesn't exist, and she can get lost in the swirling colours of forever. But it has to end. Dreams always have to end. ----- "Aurora! Auri, please wake up!" Aurora was shaken awake by the feeling of sharp fingernails digging into her shoulders. Hovering over her, fear etched into her wild green eyes, was Aurora's mother. "Momma? What's happening?" "Auri, we need to get out of here!" Aurora's mother heaved her out of bed and pulled her downstairs and out the door. Aurora was confused. She was scared. They ran into the barn and Auri's mother covered them with an empty potato sack. Aurora covered her mouth to prevent her whimpers as she heard two pairs of footsteps enter the barn. Her mother wrapped her thin arms around Aurora as she cried silently and prayed. The footsteps got louder and louder until they were directly in front of Auri and her mother. And the sack was pulled away. And then she heard it. GUNFIRE. And her mother dropped like a stone at her feet. ----- Army camps were never a good place to be. Especially with the whole 'war and death' thing, but to an orphaned 'wild child' like aurora, it meant food. Her pale, sunken face peered around the tree that she was hiding behind and her bony fingers curled around the thick trunk. Aurora can't remember the last time she ate. She could smell chicken. And peas. And soup. Glorious soup. It made her feral. Having no food. No-one to talk to but her own thoughts. No contact with humans at all. She was going to survive this. She was a WILD CHILD. ----- Its funny how, no matter how much everything changes on earth, the stars will always be there. They will always light your path and they never go out. Nothing is forever. Life ends. Wars end. Love even has a breaking point. Nothing is forever. Except for one thing. HOPE. Hope is the only thing left. The only thing that the war hasn't taken from Aurora. So, as she lay under the stars, breathing her last shuddering breaths, her skeletal body trying to stay alive for just a bit longer, Aurora had hope. It might not happen now. The war might go on for the next fifty years, but if one person has hope, one little girl, dying under the stars with no-one there to help her. There might be a chance. Is this how it will end?