Anos, The Starlight Beast

The party started softly; in each home along the river, they lit their fires and played their music, filling the small village with light and sound. Slowly, as the moon rose, the drums from the village grew. Louder and louder, the merriment filled the evening skies with laughter and joyful singing. This was a celebration that only happened once in a lifetime, and not a single soul in all of Sanctum Reach would have miss it.

Carson Faraday was a young man and a captain to a small team of men. They followed him because they believed he could shine a light upon the world. They all seemed to believe the world was heading towards a Forever Endless Night, and that Carson was the man who could herald them to their new dawn. He went with it, because maybe they were right. He had always seen the bright side of life, no matter how dark it got around him. With the Festival of Shining Skies upon them, Carson and the knights took the time and peace of the day to enjoy themselves.

Everyone knew them as the Sightless Knights. They saw no color or creed when they helped. The knights cared nothing for a person’s appearance, only that they breathed. They adored all life equally, and they wished to see the rest of Sanctum Reach see life the same as they did, by spreading their hope and dreams with the world.

The hamlet of Wingston lay along the Elmtry Rill. They had very little, but the people had a hope that drew the Sightless Knights to the place to set up for the festival.

Carson himself had taken most of the daytime hours to rest. He had been traveling for so long now; he had lost track of the days. The festival was a nice rest that he needed. Closing his eyes and giving praise to the goddess of the winds, Iia, Carson left the home he had been staying in.

He stepped out into the night. Turning his head to the north, he marveled at the falling lights. The last time such an event had happened, he had not even been a thought in his mother’s mind.

“You can see them better from the hill.” A village elder was sitting in a rocking chair, a mug of tea in her hands. She had welcomed Carson into her home the moment the knights had arrived. “There's a viewing scope there, one scholar who came during the last festival left. Such a strange thing, but the children enjoy it.”

Carson simply nodded before he headed for the hill. The children were already taking turns looking through the device, giggling and laughing as they exchanged stories of what they saw. Some claiming to have seen magical beings, and some saying they were fey. Some say they saw wings spreading wide and littering fresh embers towards the ground. Carson waited his turn in the line, the children’s stories turning more and more childish as they went.

When his turn came, he hesitated. The children had all dashed down the hill, leaving him alone with the looking scope. The device itself was made of a mesh of different material. Bone and metal woven together, a wonder of science and engineering. It was strange and marvelous. Bone carefully lined with metal and set with glass in an elongated tube. He wished he had time to look at it now, but there would be time in the morning. Instead, he bent down and stared through the glass.

The sight that greeted him made his heart sputter in his chest. The shining lights that were shown throughout all of Sanctum Reach weren’t the fey creatures the children had seen, nor were they the fiery blazes that the older generation seemed to remember either.

Spanning the whole scope’s lens, was a serpentine creature. Instead of snakelike scales, the creature had feathers that reflected the moonlight, casting a rainbow glow against the falling rocks; the shining Lights the whole festival was viewing. The multiple tails flipped and swayed as the beast flew in the sky. Avoiding the falling rocks and casting its light upon them, making them shine brighter.

He was at a loss for words as he pulled back to stare up at the sky and the creature that he could not see with his normal eyes. All he could see were the shining rocks that were falling to the planet, nothing of the creature. Its belly blended in with the deep blackness of the night sky. An endless blackness of scales that shone like stars. When he looked back through the scope, he was right. The underbelly of the beast was black as night. He choked up a cry as he continued to marvel at the fantastic thing he was seeing.

Carson stayed on the hill watching the beast until the night faded away. With it the beast seemed to shimmer out of existence. The daylight being unable to keep the beast’s majestic form within the sky. He wanted to know if the beast would return the following night, but he also wanted to know if anyone else had ever seen the creature before. So, with the dawn upon him, he started back down the hill. He stopped when he noticed a figure, leaning against a cane.

“You saw Anos, didn’t you?” The old woman smiled up at him before giving him a friendly laugh. Carson was speechless as he nodded. “He is always there. Flying around the sky. My grandmother used to say he was the only thing stopping those stones from destroying Sanctum Reach. Instead of affecting the planet, the stones graze of his body, burning to ash before they can harm anything. He is our savior. So few have seen him. So few believe.” She sighed sadly as she looked back up to the dawn sky, and the glittering light that seemed to be reflect of the clouds. Carson knew now that it wasn’t the clouds it was reflecting off.

“They will believe. They will all believe. The Sightless Knights will remember Anos’ light.” He placed a hand over his heart and bowed to the old woman. She gave him an enormous smile and nodded.

“I know.” Carson couldn’t help wonder by the way her eyes seemed to shine in a rainbow of colors if maybe there was more to the elderly lady than met the eye. But he couldn’t get those answers in that moment as his knights were approaching them. It drew his attention to them, and he lost sight of the elderly woman.

When the knights rounded up to leave the following afternoon, Carson went to see if he could find the woman who so kindly put them up in her home. But when asked about her, none of the villagers seemed to know who he was speaking about. The only one who seemed to remember anyone of her description was a young blind girl, who told Carson that a melody came on the wind some days to speak to her. That melody sang a song of a great protector. This story shocked Carson, but he also believed it.

He looked up at the sky as they left the small village. Vowing that, he would tell everyone of the great protector that watches over them all.