Tower of Stars

The child sat on the flax mat with a small doll. It looked at the doll with a sullen face. Was there something wrong with the thing? It turned it this way and that, checking for any problems. It looked fine on the initial outset but...

"She's beautiful isn't she?" A visitor stood at the door, looking down on the young child.

The child looked up intently. The visitor had shiny glasses. They called the child. The child reached out to the visitor that towered above her.

As if hearing the child's thoughts, the visitor kneeled down in front of the child and looked down at the doll. While the visitor was distracted, the child grabbed clumsily and the joint in the glasses that rested on the visitor's nose. Having not quite mastered her thumbs; the glasses merely flipped upwards under the pressure of the child's fingers, unhooking from the visitor's ears.

The visitor was amused; chuckling, she takes off her glasses and places them on the child's face. Immediately she shakes her head and scrunches her eyes shut as the world becomes blurred from glasses not fit for someone so young. The visitor takes the glasses back and picks up the doll with interest.

"Do you have any beliefs?" The visitor questioned the child.

The child makes a sort of "yeerrrp!" noise and gurgles.

The visitor scrunched her nose and looked back at the doll. "Do you understand belief? I suppose not."

The child whimpered, and looked down at her knees.

"Look at the doll, do you believe in her?" The visitor passed the doll back to the child, who snatched it back and hugged it tightly against her chest.

"I suppose I could take that as a yes..." Sighing, the visitor adjusted her glasses and stood up, looking back out the door. The red, evening light was just beginning to stream into the room from across the snow blanketed valley.

"There is a great deal of difference between accepting a belief, and truly believing." The visitor turned slightly to the child. Again, as the visitor had seen just before, the child was inspecting the doll as if it seems to be missing something.

"Do you believe because you believe, or because it's what everyone else does?"

The child stopped chewing at the head of the doll for a moment and blurted out an incomprehensible word.

The visitor smiled. "Yes, I agree just the same."

There was a time of silence as the two stared out across the snow out the door. The child crawled over to the visitor and held out the doll in her mouth. The visitor took the doll without concern for the drool and placed it at the child's hands.

"More people need to believe, but not for just the sake of believing." The visitor's glasses shone against the sun as it caught them at the right angle.

The child lost interest in the doll. It seemed more interested in the light tricks the glasses kept making upon this mysterious visitor's head. It cooed at them and smiled a crooked smile, with small, newly emerging teeth.

"You need to understand what you believe in. Just as one may understand the way light can make our village glow." As if on cue, the evening sky began to catch against the snow covered valley and transform it. Every building, trading post, cliff-face and ceremonial decoration lit up with a pink shine.

The child clapped cheerfully and babbled words only it would understand.

The visitor looked back to the child, only to spy something out of the corner of her eyes. Walking to a corner of the room she picks up a miniature dress.

The child noticed this, leaping up and down with joy. She ran over to the kneeling visitor and snatched away the dress to put it on the doll; seeing it clothed, she seemed content, and began humming while dancing the figure about the floor.

The visitor chuckled. "I suppose it's even the littlest things can make our beliefs bearable, even if they don't answer our questions..."

The visitor stands up only to meet face-to-face with another resident.

"Oh... oh my... your... Your Majesty..." The father of the child stuttered and backed away a little further into the house.

"Do not mind me; I was merely admiring the young one. I'm just on my way." The visitor made her way to the door. "She is a beautiful child... striking resemblance to..." She stopped, mumbling under her breath. "Never mind... good night."

The visitor headed down the path into the village square, before vanishing from sight.

The father of the child scratched his head, unsure what to make of what he just walked in on. Shaking his head, he walked over to the child and stroked her head.

"Alright; it's time for bed Kaeo."