Claws of fire tore Nathan from the horse’s back. He cried out, desperate to escape the licking flames that caged him. “Leelo!” His voice faded.

“She’s mine, boy,” Kastamir’s heavy words pressed Nathan into the ground like a hand; and the fire ringed him, that growing cage of flame. “Back to the clay with you, human.” The Star Watcher’s great foot dug into to the Sheppard’s chest, stamping the wriggling boy into the cold earth.

“Leave him be!” Leelo shouted, her eyes flaring, darting from the whispering mist like meteors. “I will go with you. I will go!”

Nathanial, desperate to free himself from the heat, lifted Kastamir’s foot with all of his strength.
The Star Watcher grinned, amused by the boy. “Ha! I am the hand of the void. You cannot over power me.”

Kastamir sniffed the smoky embers of a dead fire. The hot puffs from his nostrils tossed swirling ashes into the air. His eyes narrowed. Sifting through soot, he crumbled cinder fragments between his powerful, clawed hands. It was late in the night. Nearly too late, he thought.

The stars above him yawned and sighed, and the faint, pale blinking of the rolling dawn crept over the horizon. It was so faint that no other being on that tiny blue world could detect it. The thrushes and crickets still roosted, cooing and playing their violins. Night still ruled. But Kastamir knew he was running out of time.

The Star Watcher recoiled his hand from the soot, and peered from the bridge over the vast, expansive fields. His gaze pierced the shroud. “Where are you, my loves?” he said, staring into the pitch black.

“The constellations call us home, lady.” Kastamir gnashed his long teeth. His coarse beard hung beneath furry jowls. “Time to take your place again.”

Leelo wept tears of glowing dust, ridden with despair as Kastamir tore her from Nathan’s hands. But the boy would not let go so easily. Snatching Leelo close to his chest, Nathan rolled into a tuft of mulberries. Cringing he tumbled down a grading bank near the forest’s edge. Nathan could not see, but he could certainly hear the heavy, bounding feet of Kastamir tumbling after him.

“Quickly! We must flee to the dawn!” Leelo cried.

Razor weeds sliced at Nathan’s cheeks as he stormed through the brambles, desperate to escape the shimmering strides of Kastamir behind him. Closer and closer the beating feet drew, twigs and figs snapping beneath them.

Nathan crouched near the quivering light, knees muddied by the warm, wet impacted earth. “Who is there?” he said, reaching his hand in the misty cloud. Sheep called to him somwhere in the night, somewhere in the hills. “Who is there?” He summoned all the courage in his heart, and reached deeper into the pit.

“My name is Leelo,” she said, the voice was wispy and light. “You must help me before he comes.”

Nathan’s hand was warm as he gripped something nebulous in the mist. “Y-ou can talk?” Nathan’s mouth was agape. “B-before who comes? I d-don’t understand—what are you?” Nathan was aghast. He felt strange liquid light flow over his fingers. The gelatinous orb throbbed, drumming like a beating heart.