Heaven Sent By 2x2

Written for the FF_Friday Challeng 115 – Fireflies Word Count: 453 Rating: G

Fireflies.

At every turn in her life, somehow, it seemed there were always fireflies.

On Sihnon, where she was born, the gardens teemed with the iridescent beetles. They were as abundant as cherry blossoms in springtime, as familiar as old friends.

On her naming day, her mother once told her, a firefly found its way into her nursery. It had paused above her head, perched on the arch of her bassinet, its tiny luminous body emitting a ray of light that had bathed her in its blue-green glow. Her mother declared the insect to be the spirit of her departed grandmother, her Guardian, and had named her on the spot. Inara. ‘Ray of light. Heaven sent.’

Like any child, she had been fascinated by the glowing bugs, her curious mind exploring every aspect of them. She learned why they blinked, the chemical reactions that caused them to glow, the advances in neuroscience gained through that understanding, as well as their spiritual and mythological representations, and the meanings behind their symbolism.

At eleven, entranced by the exquisiteness of a silk kimono, delicately patterned with a sprinkling of fireflies, she had found herself behind the inner walls of a Training House for the first time, having followed the immaculate beauty that wore it, and thus had been introduced to the secret world of Companions that would soon after become her life.

On the day she finally decided to leave Sihnon, it had been the fireflies that had solidified her resolve. The courtyard had been alive with them, calling to her, their twinkling beauty a rival to the stars; those same stars that shone so distantly, only the brightest visible through the dazzling lights of the Great City. Fireflies were commonly associated with stars by the ancient Mayans of Earth-That-Was, she knew. She took it as a sign. When she found the advertisement for the shuttle, she knew she had been right.

After a year on Serenity, she was more certain than ever that her mother had been wrong. The firefly was not her Guardian, heaven sent. They were not the spirits of the dead come back to earth, nor were they a fanciful metaphor for stars. They were demons, there at every crucial moment of her life, sending her strange signals in their flickering language she had, time and time again, failed to understand. Always calling her, drawing her to them, confusing her, enthralling her, until at last, desperately, she had pulled away.

Now, on this distant moon, so far from her beloved Sihnon and the gardens of the fireflies, she stares out into the night, looking for their guiding light. But like her heart, the night is empty, and only the darkness stares back.