Celsetion The Sorrowful
Protector of the lost
Celestion is one of the Ashigoian Gods, he was bestowed upon by Olmarine. He is the Guardian of the Nextworld.
---
Long ago, during the sunrise age Celestion worked as an artist, he was invested in the future of ashigokind. He wanted to create something that would stand the test of time and be seen for generations. Doing his work he encountered the problem of the short azailian days had made it so he could only work during the few sunlight hours, small campfires simply did not give off as much light as he needed. He began to observe other ashigos' daily lives more closely, he saw foragers coming back in the evening covered in wounds because they had been attacked by a predator. Others felt the same about not being able to do much at night, although ashigos had night vision and excellent hearing it was simply not enough to defend them from the horrors of the night.
Celestion began to think of solutions to this problem. Well, if there was light there would not be an issue! He went to work, and after a lot of thinking and experimenting he came up with something. Using a strange flower called the Lumin's FallenStar, it only flowered during the night, he found that if he ground it up and mixed it with a rare type of stone it would create an everlasting glow. He placed this powder into a small container, made them into a string, and hung them over his village. It was beautiful, all the ashigos in the village loved it, and Celestion and some others began to make more and hang them from tree to tree in the forests. Ashigos from other villages wanted some of the lights as well! Celestion was very proud of his creation, he felt like he made a difference in the world, he spent his days crafting these lights and hanging them up in order to light up azailia for long as he could.
As he went to sleep at night, after a long day's work he began to have a dream like no other.
A being of light approached him and told him to make thousands of lights and hang them on the sky from Mount Kest's peak.
When he awoke he was confused, he decided to tell his peers about the dream- they were in shock. They believed that it was a vision from Olmarine! He was unsure though, so he went on about his day like nothing had happened. The other ashigos were displeased by this, feeling like he was ignoring something very important.
However throughout the day, he noticed strange lights appearing in the forest, they felt similar to the one in his dream- when he was trying to gather some string, he heard a voice. The same one in his dream, his vision began to fade and the dream replayed itself. When he came back from reality he was afraid but he knew what he had to do now. That wasn't a dream, it was really a vision from Olmarine!
When he returned to the village the other ashigos all offered to help him with his lights! Word got out to the neighbouring villages and they came over to help! The Lumin's FallenStar and the stone were completely wiped from the area and travelling ashigo were sent out to find more. It took a very long time but eventually, it was done. Now it was time for the hard part.
No grassland ashigo had ever actually been to Mount Kest, it was surrounded by a difficult-to-climb mountain range, Celestion knew that Olma wouldn't have given him an impossible task, so as the peak of the Warm season came he took off with supplies and lights on hand to travel to the peak.
---
Celestion struggled, he never really enjoyed mountain climbing but he had to do this, the weight of the lights made this task even more difficult than it should be. He spent his first day slowly making his way up the mountain, as the sun began to set he knew he needed to find a hiding place to rest and stay safe. As the darkness was beginning to cover the landscape, he saw a small cavern he rushed inside to begin to relax a bit. As he was beginning to settle down, he heard a loud growl from deeper inside the cave.
Celestion jumped up and angled his head downwards ready to strike, his eyes fixated in the darkness looking for any sort of movement. The creature began to approach him, their steps were heavy and their claws scraped against the stone floor. Celestion knew that if he left the cave the creature would follow him or some other predator would pick him off, maybe if he stood his ground they would think he was more effort than what he was worth and leave him alone. The creature's dark eyes were glued on Celestion, full of rage and anger but as they got closer to them they began to move. The glow of the lights had gotten their attention. Celestion saw this, he jumped in front of them and went into a defensive position and snarled at them.
"What are those?" The creature breathed, they were in awe. They bent their head down to examine them closer, Celestion could see them more clearly. They were not some creature- it was an ashigo! The ashigo shook its head and looked up at Celestion, "What are you doing here? Go back home you fool," they snarled at him and turned their back to him.
"I can't go home," Celestion added, a sadness in his voice, the other ashigo looked at him. "I have a mission from Olmarine, I can't let her down." he hesitated to speak with those words, he felt crazy saying them.
"Almarine?" the ashigo turned to look at them. " You've seen Almarine? What did she look like? what did she say to you?" they stared him in the eyes as they spoke.
"they looked like a ball of light, I heard her voice though! She told me to bring these lights to the top of Mount Kest and hang them in the sky," he explained. The ashigo snorted.
"That's impossible, even us ashigo who live in the mountains would never dare to go there! it's far too dangerous." they scoffed.
"I don't think it is impossible, why else would Olmarine give me this task, I don't think she would set me up for failure." he recited his thoughts aloud. The ashigo turned and laid down. "I will leave in the morning, I won't bother you any longer than I have to," Celestion muttered, he lay on the cold stone floor, looking outside the cave, and he saw the snowflakes fall, tomorrow will be hard he thought to himself before drifting off to sleep.
Celestion was shaken awake, opening his tired eyes he saw that it was the other ashigo, he sprung up and tried to blink himself awake.
"I have seen Almarine, I saw her too!" The ashigo seemed overjoyed, she had a large smile on her face, now that it was daytime Celestion could see them more clearly. They were massive, bigger than any other ashigo he had ever seen, and they also had large powerful-looking claws, "She told me that I should help you with your journey," The smile faded from her face, and Celestion titled his head slightly.
"She did?" He pondered aloud, The ashigo nodded, she tried to look serious as she could.
"We should be leaving now, there is a lot of ground to travel." She stepped back and sighed softly.
"My name is Celestion, what's yours?" The ashigo looked at him, her eyes looked deep into his soul as if no one had ever asked them that question before.
"My name is Adira."
The two have been travelling through the mountain range of azailia for 2 months.
Celestion griped the frigid rock in front of him, the coldness made his paw pads numbs. he pulled himself over the edge, collapsing on the fluffy snow. Adira was tapping her foot waiting for him.
"I thought you grassland ashigos were meant to be good at climbing!" she teased him.
"yeah, we are! I am just not one of them" he joked before he rolled on his back and stared at the night sky, it was a dark abyss. Adira laid down beside him. "soon." he whispered. "the sky will be full of lights."
"It will be beautiful." she got up and shook the snow from her fur, bits of snow got on Celestion's face.
"Blehgh!" he laughed.
"You can see Mount Kest so clearly from here!" Adira breathed, Celestion ears perked up. he looked over from the edge.
"oh wow, it's so big-" he breathed.
"We will have to approach it from the bottom. I say it will take another 2 weeks to climb down there and a couple of weeks to even climb Mount Kest." Adira guessed, her gaze was focused on the mountain. "do we even have enough supplies to last that long?" she turned to Celestion.
"uh, probably not- but it's not like we can get more here easily anyways." Celestion got up and sat beside Adira.
"hmm, I think there are some berry bushes in that forest, but I know Cryospines hunt there." Adira cautioned.
"Cryospines?!" The fur on Celestion's back raised up.
"Yeah, they are pretty much the only things that aren't scared of my claws, we would have to be careful, I don't know if there's anything higher up the mountain though." Adira hesitated
"I guess we will have to find out, it's not like we can turn back" Celestion smiled and nudged Adira.
"I suppose, I am just a little nervous." Adira sighed, her ears were pulled back and she blushed slightly, embarrassed to be admitting her discomfort.
"Everything will turn out fine, trust me." Celestion smiled, and Adira smiled back.
9 weeks have passed since the two started their journey.
The wind was strong however, Celestion's determination was stronger. he pulled the sledge of lights behind him, and Adira was struggling behind. They had an encounter with a Cyrospine while gathering supplies and it had left her back leg to become badly injured. The two were getting close to the peak, soon their quest would be over.
The air had been getting harder to breathe the higher they went, Adira was struggling greatly and needed to rest every so often. At least no predators were this high on the peak..."Just a little further now, we are so close!" Celestion called to Adira, she staggered up behind him, gasping for air.
"We aren't going to make it." Adira faltered and collapsed in the snow.
"oh no, Adira! Don't give up now," Celestion cried as he shook Adira. Celestion began to hear a low rumbling sound, he looked around frantically for the source. There was a pile of snow and debris crashing down towards them.
"Avalanche!" Celestion shrieked in horror, he grabbed Adira by the scruff and tried to drag her to safety. Adira lifted herself up, her body aching in pain, grabbed celestion and the lights and began to run to a nearby ledge.
The snow was hurling towards there was little time to react, Adira got to the ledge, it was high enough so that the avalanche wouldn't whisk them away. Adira threw Celestion and the lights up and tried to climb up, but she didn't have the leg strength to do so, Celestion tried grabbing ahold of her to pull her up, but they were running out of time.
"I don't think-" Adira, gave it one last try, she looked at Celestion and smiled. Celestion looked in horror as the avalanche swallowed her whole.
"Adira!" Celestion shrieked, it felt like time had stopped, he stood there unable to process what happened. The wind howled in his ears, he looked up and saw that the peak was in view. He gulped and began to make his way to it, his steps were heavy. His paw pads were frozen and sore and he was entirely drained but he had come this far, he couldn't give up now-
He dragged himself to the peak, collapsing on the cold frozen stone, his breathing was fast, but like the water pulling away from a beach, it became slow. he was too weak to complete his task now.
The world was in complete darkness, everything was still except for the snowflakes that danced around him. When all of a sudden a bright light appeared, Celestion opened his eyes and stared upon it, it was Olmarine. She had appeared to him in his darkest hour, the being of light lowered itself down towards him.
"Olmarine, I am so sorry I failed you." Celestion cried, his voice was weak.
"Do not worry, I will give you the strength to complete your task." The light's voice was soft and comforting. "However, it will require a sacrifice." Celestion winched, haven't I lost enough? he thought about Adira. "Do not worry, you will see Adira soon."
"Jump into the night sky, I will give you the strength to hang thousands upon thousands of stars on it" Celestion lifted himself up, struggling to stand properly. he stepped closer to the edge.
"Won't I just fall?" Celestion weakly whispered.
"I will lift you up, do not worry," Olma replied, reassuring him. Celestion took a deep breath, he stepped closer to the edge, a thick layer of clouds covered the ground below the peak. he breathed out and jumped, bringing the sledge of stars behind him.
He felt the pressure of falling being lifted from him, Olma was holding him up like she said she would.
He opened his eyes and saw that he was floating upwards. His body felt cold. The clouds cleared and he could see the valley where he used to live, the small dots of light that he had created outlined his home. He could see the mountain range that he and Adira had travelled together on, it looked so small from so far up...
He looked at himself, his fur was frozen together and all one colour, he closed his heavy eyelids and breathed for the last time.
---
When he awoke, he felt light and airy like he couldn't feel his own body. Celestion looked at himself and gasped in shock, his paws were transparent, his fur was pale, he didn't have any back legs but he had a pair of wings! Although he was horrified he was distracted by something else that had caught his eye. The night sky. it was so beautiful, thousands upon thousands of tiny lights dotted it and in the centre, there was a large star. altogether they lit up the entirety of Azailia, he was in awe. Celestion never thought he would be able to see his efforts with his own eyes if only Adira was here... he thought as tears began to form in his eyes.
"You have done well Celestion." A voice said from behind him, it was the voice of Olmarine. He turned his head to gaze into her light, tears streaming from his face."I am sorry I couldn't save you and your friend." the light spoke as it approached him. Celestion shook his head sadly.
"It's ok." he murmured He looked up towards the night sky his head swirling with thoughts of Adira.
"You do understand what has happened?" Olmarine questioned Celestion, he breathed slowly and turned his head to look at her.
"Not really" he admitted, his head fell down in shame.
"Do not worry, I shall explain all to you." Olmarine floated over to the edge of the peak, passing Celestion. "Do you see the largest star in the night sky?" Olmarine spoke clearly to Celestion as he nodded in response to her question. "That is you." Celestion tilted his head in confusion.
"But I am here?" he questioned her.
"Your soul is here on Mount Kest, but your body is what holds the stars up high in the sky."
Celestion looked up at the large star in confusion, he didn't fully understand what Olmarine was saying, he gave her a confused look.
"You are separated from what was your living body, you are dead Celestion," Olmarine admitted to him, their light dimmed slightly as they spoke. Celestion looked down upon himself, I am dead? It would explain the strange changes that had happened to his 'body'.
"What do I do now?" Celestion questioned, there was sadness in his voice.
"You shall guide the lost souls to someplace safe where you will watch over them." Olmarine declared to him.
"How would I even do that? Where would I take them?" Celestion blurted out. his ears pinned back in distress. He wasn't fully sure what Olma was asking of him.
"It will all become clear with time, do not worry." Olmarine comforted him, "How about you guide your lost friend?" Olmarine pointed them in the direction that he had come in. Celestion could see a faint familiar light in the distance.