[PAST] Memory Lane

[Wish Star]

(The below series of posts will be recorded as if from Wish's past. You are free to join in here and contribute to past events, though I may jump around a bit to different scenes/memories.)

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Summer, 241 AoN

With an elbow firmly on the desk and hand cradling her chin, Wish displayed a face that appeared totally glazed over and uninterested. Her father, Serynthe, had been pointing repeatedly at a dark blue colored map that was decorated with the sky's night stars. At first, the lesson had gone well, but eventually young Wish had grown increasingly bored and her head was in danger of slipping from her hand. Perhaps it was the summer heat and humidity of the jungles that had made her exhausted, but she desired - despite any sleepiness - to go out exploring.

Thud.

Wish fell forward, elbow slipping off the edge of the desk, her face making impact with the wood. Immediately, she looked up, sitting as straight as possible with wings plastered against her back, trying to recover elegantly as if she had not been the one who fell asleep here. It was not as if she could convince Serynthe it was not her when it was only the two of them in the room. In fact, any effort to point the finger elsewhere would have been useless as he had his arms crossed over his chest, mouth twisted in a disapproving frown, gazing down at his daughter.

Ah, shoot.

"Sorry, da," Wish said with a sigh and shrug of her shoulders. There was no getting around it. She had drifted off and they both knew it.

To which he replied, pointing at a cluster of stars on the map, "Wish, do you know where this path leads to?"

"Domrhask?"

"Way off. No," Serynthe answered his finger gliding up and down along the stars. "This path leads home - to Ajteire. How do you expect to leave home if you cannot ever find your way back to it?"

Wish opened her mouth as if to object at something, but figured changing the subject might be a better tactic. "Could we... maybe... do something different? Sing me a song from ma? Weren't her songs about getting home or traveling? Oh. How I'd love to go to Verdant Row. Didn't she go to Verdant Row?"

"Your mother went a lot of places as a singer. And you know I'm not great at singing her songs." Serynthe waved a hand and pointed back to the diagram. "Besides, it's not as if you understand the words. At least not now anyway."

That much was true. Wish's mother, Anrisse, frequently sung in unfamiliar dialects. It was elegant, almost Elvish-like, but not. The Kerasoka had confirmed it for her. So, what were those foreign words? Wish wondered if she should be proud or offended by what her mother was singing. There was no way Wish would figure it out though. It was merely best to turn her attention back to the stars with the promise that upon completion of her lessons, she would be free to climb among Ajteire's trees.