The Night Wind’s Last Hurrah.

The Night Wind stalked her before she could blink. A clear blanket of diamonds dancing (and dying) in the sky had been nature’s most excellent game of misdirection. The Girl’s attention had been fully focused on the beauty unfolding as the dark made its inky way across the galaxy above. As she stood there, thoughts swirling and mixed in with her awe and wonder at the infinite cosmos; The Night Wind crept up stealthily behind her and in seconds swept her up off her startled feet, whisking her away into the black stratosphere.

Gasping for air, the dark irony of which was not lost on her as she fought for every breath that her gusty captor was attempting to steal; she kicked her legs and flailed her arms, desperately hoping to break free. The Night Wind let out a deep, unsavory chuckle.

“Oh no you don’t! You cannot escape your fate. Relax! Lean into it. I will give you your breath back if you promise to stop struggling.”

There was a snap, loud and crisp in the dark, cold sky. The girl could breathe again.

“Why? Why are you doing this?!”

“Because you are meant to be a star.”

“What? What are you talking about?!”

The Night Wind made a low hissing sound as the two, now entwined: captor and captive, hurled further into the sunless void.

“You.Are.Meant.To.Be.A.Star. Did I stutter?”

“But what about my family? My friends? My dog!??”

“They will be sad, but fine.” The Night Wind said this with the hint of a shrug. Winds did not understand human social bonds, and so felt it was best to simply lie.

“That is not a good enough answer. I demand a real answer! I am NOT going to ‘go gently into that good night’.” Though she was only 11, The Girl dearly loved poetry.

The Night Wind sighed an exasperated sigh. Why did humans have such a hard time with this concept?

“Look, this is what is supposed to happen. It is happening now. If you simply let go and ease into it, you will not be so distressed. It is the way it is, always has been, and forever will be.”

“Ease into WHAT? You took me from everyone and everything I love. I’m…I’m just a kid!” And with that, The Girl started to weep. And to make matters worse, this was not a light, soft kind of weeping. This was a honking, snot bubble, blubbering, waterfalls-down-your-face, angry-at-the world wail.

The Night Wind had been serving the galaxy this way for eons: ferrying humans whose time had come to become stars. Wind scooped up old fragile men, young vibrant women, fat squirming babies, and all other manner of the people of Earth. Many wailed. Many tried to flee. Some placidly accepted their fate. Some were confused. Most were angry or bewildered. So when The Girl let out her heart-stomping wail, it wasn’t anything The Night Wind had not yet encountered. On the contrary, the only effect it ever seemed to have was to cause them extreme irritation; for their heart, being made of moving condensation, was formed from water and at its very moment of creation, immediately hardened to ice. The Night Wind would not, could not be moved by human tears.

As the gale and The Girl hurtled through the atmosphere, far from the reach of green pastures, rivers, mountains, and blue skies, through tufts of clouds and occasional sheets of rain, The Girl continued to vocalize her fear and anguish while The Night Wind attempted to simply ignore it. It felt like this was going to go on until they were both nothing but stardust when suddenly Time stopped them both right in their breezy tracks.

The Night Wind felt a surge of lightning rumble internally; it was fury at being prevented from its trajectory. Nothing had ever stopped a Wind from carrying on its duties. Night tried to move forward. Nothing. Then backwards. No dice. The Girl had stopped making any noise at all, she seemed to have gone to sleep, and was nestled soundly on The Night Wind’s back. A small spark emitted from her warm, sleeping body which trickled all throughout The Night Wind’s form. It could not be sure, for it had never felt such a sensation in all of its existence; but for a split second The Night Wind felt the smallest, faintest beat of a heart in its center.

A green glow with flecks of pink had begun to appear before the pair. The Girl was of course, in a deep slumber, so she did not see it, but The Night Wind could indeed see a small green squiggle start to form. Like a slow laser beam, the squiggle began to zig-zag all around the zephyr’s undulating drafts. As Wind continued to struggle attempting to break free from the hold Time Itself seemed to have on it; the green glow, which had started out as merely a small, snakey burst, had started to expand. Now the green glow broke through the darkness until it had completely surrounded both parties, illuminating their strange shapes floating in the vast vault of the heavens. A low buzzing huuum began from somewhere down below, then rose up to greet The Night Wind with an unsparing force. Trapped, angry, and more than a wee bit unnerved, Wind’s internal lightning began to crackle; electrical sparks flitting throughout its semi-celestial body, prepared for whatever was clearly about to happen.

The Aurora spoke in a grisled, grey voice that belied its beautiful, soft forest hues and flamingo tints.

“Night Wind, I’m afraid Time has decided to take things from here. Your services have been very helpful, but you are now no longer needed for this human’s journey.”

The Night Wind felt invisible hackles go up all up and down its back. It did not know the word “offended”, but most surely felt so.

“How DARE you take me from my journey?! Why, I have been doing this for over one thousand years, what right have YOU to take it away from me? I am right in the middle of a ferry at this very second. I cannot leave this future star in the air, and I cannot bring it back to Earth. What am I to do with it? This is preposterous!”

There was a pause. The low buzzing huuum from below continued on, and the perpetual whipping gusts that helped keep The Night Wind moving were circling it and The Aurora like a school of fish. Silvery flashes with green and pink ripples flurried all around the darkness in spirals. To an Outsider’s eye, it might look like a painter had fallen only half asleep while continuing to slash at their canvas using all the wrong colors (albeit lovely ones). That painting would have looked like confusion itself. The Aurora made what could only be described as a grumbling sound, the kind you might make if someone had woken you from a deep slumber against your wishes and held no interest in leaving your dreams.

“Yes, and you understand that there were other Winds before you who carried on as you do, and now there will be other Winds to carry on after you. Time will always have his way with you. You had to know this moment would eventually come.”

“Well why was I not alerted? Why was I not warned? You could have at least prepared me!”

“My dear Night, you know that isn’t how it works. How would that be fair to all the other beings in nature who never know when Time is ready for them? Why, we would have no stars in the sky to light the galaxy with! All the humans would be hiding from all the Winds in the world if they knew you were coming for them. Come now, Night, you know this!” The Aurora let out a deep, complicated sigh. Unlike the Winds, The Aurora had spent most of its time carefully observing humanity, not simply ferrying it, and so it had developed empathy. The Aurora’s heart glowed an emerald green filled with the language of understanding. Time had warned Aurora over and over that stopping The Night Wind would never be an easy task. Winds simply did not have the capacity to understand the fact that like the ephemeral passengers they ferried, they too had a set clock. That was the fatal flaw within the soul of the Winds, and why they could not carry on for eternity. When your heart is made of ice, it has no capacity for love. Love in all its Earthly forms, is what keeps you going.

With an attempt at some gentle patience, The Aurora pressed on to help ease the creeping terror that was beginning to chip away at The Night Wind. Thankfully, The Girl was still fast asleep; likely from the stardust that fell like snow all around them. It always had a calming effect on humans, and often allowed them to relax more as they came to the next part of their mortal odyssey.

“Listen, Wind. I know that it is frightening to reach Time’s limit. You have had one thousand years to experience incredible sights and interact with every possible kind of human there has been in existence. You have had more time than most.”

“But it still does not feel like it was enough.” The Night Wind could feel a slight crack in its icy heart. It could feel water welling up inside in a way it never had before. Wind was not a cloud or a storm, it did not rain or sleet or snow. The Night Wind danced on the heels of the sky and FLEW. What was this strange sensation building up from deep within? The Aurora, in its wise way, refracted its light towards Wind in kindness as a sort of nod, recognizing the Wind’s defeated sentiment as that of all creatures who reach this stage.

“Oh, my dear gusty friend, it never is. Not for you, or me, or Time Itself. That is the problem with awareness. Do you feel your sleeping charge on your back? She is not suffering now because she is not aware of what is happening. Soon you will not be either, and you will not suffer any longer.”

“But…but I want to go on. The humans get to go on when they become stars! Why can’t I get a second chance, perhaps even in some other form, like they do?”

“Wind, haven’t you noticed the humans object to this very same choice? What makes you think it will be any better as a choice for you?”

And just like *that*, The Night Wind realized something in all its centuries of ferrying it had never realized before: the true reason why the humans (regardless of what kind of life they led) did not want to leave their old lives behind, even if being shining beacons for those below was their reward. In all its journeys, The Night Wind had been made endlessly frustrated by humanity for its constant need to cling to their world. Now, as Night felt the sweet, sleeping Girl on its back, it had become startlingly aware that humans did not want to leave just because life was better on Earth than among the stars (although it was); but most importantly because they LOVED their life on Earth for so many reasons being stars could never offer. They loved the people and the other creatures in it. The connective tissue surrounding their lives was what made their lives worth clinging to. They LOVED the fiery sunsets, the gentle rivers, the crashing of the ocean’s waves, the cerulean shorelines, the caw of a murder of crows flying overhead, the purr of a cat in one’s lap when it is most full of joy and comfort, the mother hugs and the father laughs. The Night Wind had never experienced any of those things, and knew now it never would. How could it be possible to miss something you never had? And yet, it was and The Night Wind had missed it all.

The Aurora started to shift into a wispy neon mist which branched out around the sleeping passenger. While The Aurora and Time Itself were distracted by trying to steal away The Girl, The Night Wind realized it had regained the ability to move. Before The Aurora could engulf The Girl, without even a second’s hesitation The Night Wind was shooting down below faster than sound can carry; breaking through the clouds into the golden early dawn the atmosphere had welcomed. Above those clouds, hanging over the rays of the sun and the vestiges of last night, the curses being emitted from The Aurora could be heard echoing throughout the other Winds, clinging to their gales like ports in the storm (which in a way, they were.). It didn’t matter. The Night Wind knew it could not save itself, but it could at least, save The Girl, who had started to squirm in her sleep. Wind knew it would not be long before the effects of the stardust wore off and The Girl would be conscious and terrified. Night could no longer ignore any more human tears. Time would indeed have his way with it; but not this young human still purring with life, still grabbing hold of those grass blades and soft soil with her small hands in her dreams.

The spot where The Girl had been standing was still there. There were still foot indentations on a patch of grass from where she had stood before The Night Wind had coldly stolen her from her own yard. With great effort, since the forces that cause these events to happen in the first place are quite powerful, The Night Wind tried to calmly, carefully, and quietly slide The Girl off its back without fully waking her. She slid, still curled up in a slightly cranky slumber, back onto the backyard Earth she was supposed to have left for eternity, nestled near a tree with the tire swing her little brother would eventually use after he was born.

As The Night Wind hovered over The Girl’s snoring form and readied to leave, it stole a last glance at its last passenger. Within that moment, an iceberg-sized crack ripped clean through the chest of this ancient, sentient patch of currents. Water began springing out in rivulets. They started to fall in fat drops on The Girl’s face and head. Her nose twitched, and she started to awaken. The Night Wind felt its icy heart burst into a small waterfall, suspended above The Girl; and with a rush that felt like a hurricane hitting at full force: love overcame The Night Wind. Love ran all through its breezes. Just as the Wind felt it might burst from such a feeling, it simply dissipated into thin air as if it had never been; like paper disintegrating in water.

As Night had predicted, The Girl woke up and started to cry, feeling startled and alone from what she would later come to believe (and be convinced of by her family) had simply been an extremely vivid nightmare. As this happened, the water from The Night Wind’s heart, the only evidence that remained which could tell the world it had ever existed, had pooled around The Girl’s legs, absorbing through her skin, and shot up into her own heart, sinking into each chamber. This of course, did not hurt The Girl; she was not the least bit aware of what was happening. Humans had too much awareness as it was.

The Night Wind’s final act however, cloaked those watery remaining vestiges of its presence from The Aurora and Time Itself. It would also protect The Girl all her life, and shield her from the worst of the world’s ugliness. It would watch as she crossed the street, it would blow her forward before she fell. Every time The Girl got a hug from her mother, or heard or father laugh, or played with her baby brother, The Night Wind’s spirit would glow within the Girl’s heart, for it had finally found another force of nature to become; the most powerful force in all the heavens and all the hells and all the reaches of every part and parcel of every land: the force of love.It was a force so strong, not even Time Itself could stop it.