From Naught But Dust

by DEAD 5HELL

Rating: everyone
Tags: Slice of Life, Alternate Universe
Length: 1096

From dust they were made, to do as they will.

Celestia and Luna, born from the dust of a sunless world.
Alone except for each other they begin to build for themselves a home and a future with nothing but the magic they wield.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2014-11-20 08:13:52 UTC

Nascency

There are beyond countless planets in the universe and a precious few of them are teeming with an abundance of life, each one an isolated and unique ecosystem orbiting their own personal stars completely oblivious to the cold and lonesome cosmos beyond their own world or the small cluster of planets that make up their solar system that they are but a part of.

Some worlds while harsh and cruel are also able to bear life, where every day is a struggle to survive and lives are often brutally and violently cut short, but even as deadly as these worlds can be at least they too dance their own eternal trails around their stars.

However not all worlds are to be so fortunate to be able to support life, some because they may spin too close to their star burning eternally beneath its fiery gaze scorching away any hope life may have on its blistering surface, other planets orbits caused them to fly too far so that they never truly feel their suns life giving warmth enough for the spark of life to ever properly take place, dooming those worlds to forever be nothing but a frozen and inhospitable tundra of icy night.

This planet however had not even the good fortune to have a sun to call its own to warm and illuminate it or tether it to an eternal orbit and so it drifts alone an airless barren rock, it was a rogue planet one of literally an uncountable number of fellow orphan worlds each insignificant and instantly forgettable to any casual observer.

However for this small world the one who cast their gaze upon the planet was anything but casually observing and to them the little dead world was perfect. They landed upon the dusty surface a gentle puff of dust drifting away from the landing individual utterly silent in the airless void, leaving behind a simple five toed impression in the powdered surface the next step a splay clawed imprint whose claws dug deep in the stellar dust, each footfall left a unique and mismatched impression in the soft powdery surface of the cold land.

The cause and owner of the footprints seemed to be in a constant state of flux as their body seemed to constantly flicker like a poor quality film,  every frame a different chimeric creature stood in its place claws replacing fingers just as suddenly as pale white scales were replaced with vibrantly coloured feathers even the beings face seemed to be indecisive on whether it had a beak, fanged maw or even the number of eyes to possess as though the creature simply couldn't decide what form it should have and instead wanted to try them all out, whether this caused them any kind of discomfort or pain was unclear as they strode purposefully across the planets surface, completely exposed to the harsh and freezing vacuum that surrounded it.

The creature eventually stopped walking apparently having reached its destination; an unremarkable and desolate expanse with the creatures varied footprints as the only remarkable feature, they knelt down to the ground with a strange fluid grace that such a chaotically changing body should not have been capable of, sweeping its forelimbs; grey finned and gossamer winged appendages that trailed across the dusty surface efficiently gathering together a sizable mound of the dusty material. Eventually the anarchic being stopped sweeping the grey powder together seemingly satisfied as they were with the considerable pile that now reached about its knee height or at the very least roughly where its knees reached most of the time, on average give or take a tentacle or two.

A smile swiftly formed on the chaotic beings face or on the features that had the physical capacity to hold the shape of one, but after gazing down on the results of their strange efforts the smile just as quickly fell instead replaced (most of the time) by a contemplative frown and a talon that tapped contemplatively against its chin as they pondered upon their efforts and what it lacked.

The frown was suddenly replaced by a wide grin as they leaned forwards and split the pile in half moving them apart and reforming them once more into neat albeit much diminished piles one being slightly larger than the other though not by much. Then taking a finger they drew slowly onto the side of the larger pile gently tracing the digit in a small circle and then onto the smaller one a simple half circle curve was drawn onto the soft powder.

Apparently satisfied with its alterations the creature took in an impossible breath, its chest rising as it did what no living creature had any business doing in the void of space and cupped a miss matched pair of paws around its mouth and blew upon the larger mound. Tiny motes of grey matter drifted away from the circular groove as the edges sharpening until it seemed as though it could have been etched into stone rather than the fine star dust that instead bore it, the faint star light that shone above the cold planet as its only source of light seemed to illuminate the circle catching the honed edges brightening it far more than the pitiful stars glow should have ever been capable of doing.

Once again they inhaled another breath that shouldn't be and repeated the strange ritual as the smaller of the two piles was also blown upon, the half circle becoming more and more defined, however unlike its circularly etched neighbor rather than catching what light there was to see by the curve seemed to get progressively darker until it was as though a piece of the nothingness between the stars had been torn out and placed upon the dusty surface of the pile.

With a satisfied nod of its head the strange being stood to its full height and turned upon a heel and walked away from its unusual works, not once gazing back at them leaving behind first a crescent hoof print and then a paw print and then nothing more vanishing with nothing but piled dust and a mismatched trail to ever show that the rogue world had ever been visited.

After a while a few flakes shifted sliding down the sides of the circularly marked mound followed soon after by the smaller crescent marked one, their surfaces shifting slightly moving up and down exposing the faintest hints of purest white and midnight blue beneath the dusty grey as two somethings drew their first breaths.