Charles
Legacy Name: Charles

In the light of the stars, a baby was born. It was a boy, with flecks of light blond hair and skin as pale as the moon. His parents were overcome with joy, weeping as they stroked his tiny, round face.

That baby's name was Charles, and little did his parents know that he would grow to be something great.

He began as ordinarily as any other boy in his tiny village, filled with mischief and joy. It was only when he began to have fitful dreams, which kept him awake for nights at a time, that his parents began to worry that perhaps something was wrong. They took him to the village witchdoctor, who took a quick interest in his condition. He asked to keep the child overnight, and his parents only reluctantly let him go.

One night turned to three, and three nights to six, and the child's parents began to grow worried. They demanded to have him back in safety of their arms, but the witchdoctor told them, "Not yet, not yet." He kept the child in a bed made out of straw and linen, and watched him sleep soundly for one solid week.

At exactly midnight on the seventh day, the child opened his eyes, and looked at the witchdoctor as though struck by lightning. He jumped out of bed, and peered out of the hut's tiny window, pointing to the stars.

"They said tomorrow the village will be swept by a storm," he said, his voice small and bright. "And on Wednesday at noon the guards from the city will bring their horses and guns, and tell us to leave."

The witchdoctor was startled but ecstatic. He opened his door and called the boy's parents over to his hut, and told them that he had fantastic news. His parents rushed over, and upon hearing the news of their child's awakening, shook their heads in disbelief.

"How is this fantastic?" Asked the mother. "He is hallucinating. You tell me he sleeps for a week, gives you some nonsense about tragedy striking the village, and that we should be happy?" The witchdoctor tried to explain his excitement, but was silenced by the father. They took their boy away from the witchdoctor, and kept him in their arms for the rest of the evening.

But sure enough, the next day a violent storm took the village. Homes were blown away by the wind, and fields were flooded by rain. Crops were destroyed, and sheep were taken from exposure. The village was in ruins, and the witchdoctor stood on his doorstep, shouting at the child's parents across the ruins, "I told you, I told you!"

The child's parents were not convinced. "It's a coincidence," they said. "You hexed the village because we took our child from you." And they kept their child inside the shambles of their home, protecting him from the wind and rain.

On the following Wednesday at exactly noon, guards from the city stormed their village. Their horses trampled their remaining crops, and they brandished their guns in the faces of children. They told the village elder that they were to leave the woods, or else the king would kill them. The village was broken, without a place to call home, and the witchdoctor stood in front of the child's house, shouting at his parents, "I told you, I told you!"

The parents could not deny it any longer. Everything their boy had dreamed about came true. He dreamed of the village's demise, and watched the storm take land and home. He dreamed of the villainous guards, and watched them run the village out of the woods.

The parents were now frightened of their own little boy, and took him back to the witchdoctor. "Keep him," they said. "We are scared of him. We are scared of what he will do."

The witchdoctor smiled and took the boy in hand. "I will keep him safe," he agreed. "You are very lucky. You have given us our first Starseer in a thousand years."

And so the boy lived with the witchdoctor, who told him of his gift, and not to be afraid of it.

These stars that speak to me, they are secretive creatures. They whisper to me in the dark. They touch my eyes with their soft, haunting words. They tell me of the universe, and how it will come to end.

I am Charles. I am the Starseer.

Profile & story by finch
Overlay by PiranhaPettingZoo
Art by rocks