Beyond Kartharnia's Borders

The first time I saw her, it was like nothing I had ever experienced before in my entire life. She was walking towards me, wearing a long indigo dress that glistened like the night sky behind her. It was almost as if she were floating through the air above a carpet of green moss. Her long black hair flowed out behind her and behind that she wore the mask of a silver owl, with intricate golden eyes. I felt the world stop spinning around me and my heart skip a beat as if to give me one last moment to enjoy this fleeting moment before I could rest in peace forever.

My name is Torran and I am an astronomer.

I grew up on a small planet orbiting a star known as Omicron Persei B3. The people who live here are mostly farmers for want of any other occupation. People say there used to be an advanced civilization on this planet but no one really remembers anything from those times very well. The only thing most people remember is the massive temple at its center where the priests used to perform their religious rites that nobody does anymore. Most of us just go about our business without caring much about all that history because we're too busy trying to survive another day on this desolate rock we call home.

So what would someone like me, who has never seen anything beyond his own little village do when he sees something so incredible? I immediately ran up to the woman and asked her who she was and how she managed to float through the air like that? She looked at me with her big black eyes and said "my name is Sarique" in a soft voice that sounded like a song being whispered into my ear. Then she bent down, taking my hand, lifted me up into the air as if I weighed nothing and carrying me off into the distance as she continued floating through the air in front of me while carrying me in her arms.

We spent hours together that day, talking about everything under the sun. She told me about her family back home, how they were always trying to force her into doing stuff she didn't want to do because they thought they knew better than her just because she was born with different colored skin than them.

My skin was greyish-green but hers was darker than mine and some people didn't seem to think that was very good so they tried forcing her into doing things against her will but she wasn't going to let them get away with it because no matter how hard they tried; they're not going to make *her* turn into someone she's not!

She told me about how every year when an eclipse happened back home, everyone would get excited and run outside so they could see their goddess appear floating across the sky in front of them again but all those rules made it hard for her to join them because she had been told by her parents that she can't do that because it's indecent for women to wear less clothes than men back home which is why I had never seen her wear something like what she wore today even though it was so beautiful!

I told her how my world was always similar except there wasn't any goddess or any such nonsense here and then we both laughed together at how silly some people can be sometimes...

The days turned into weeks and then weeks turned into months until finally we both decided it was time for us to meet each other's families so we could tell them about our relationship which we had been keeping secret from them all this time! We rode on a great big flying machine until we reached Sarique's village which wasn't too far away from where I lived but when we got there, they refused to make eye contact with us or talk to us or even open their door when we knocked on it! Eventually, Sarique gave up knocking on their door and sat down outside their house crying until eventually one of them came out and said "you will never see your daughter again" before closing their door again without letting us in!