CYGNUS.

They say it is an old thing, an omen, deathbringer and devourer.

This does not stop you from seeking the creature where last it was spotted.

You are but a small wandering bright spot, about to descend into a maw of cavernous shadows where the beast has made its nest this cycle - and consequently all ships have steered well clear of this sector when notified of this,

All but yours, alone as you are with no crew to speak of, for you have sought this out,

You wish what some would name foolish, others would call sacrilege and yet others still would call suicide,

You wish to know,

You wish to understand,

You want to know why - why this beast brought death down upon your once neighbours.

Why one day, a bright spot first reaching out so suddenly collapsed.

The wanderer clothed in white and almost blinding in the nearby star’s light on this rock with no atmosphere, for the light is free to illuminate all it can touch

All save the maw before them

They hold aloft a torch of flickering holo-flame

They descend, fingers trailing in the gouges claws have marked deep into the rock, something has dug this hole - this nest - ever deeper…

.🌌.

Your trailing fingers are tiny in the massive gouges and you wonder at the size of the creature, 

The tunnel’s darkness is all consuming, you see nothing before you only a very distant red glimmer.

You walk towards it, the only path you can follow is straight and true

The air gets thicker, if you pause you can hear something

Something huge is breathing before you, it grows louder, deeper the closer you venture

The red glimmers look like faint stars in the darkness,

Suddenly the breathing changes pitch, disturbed from rest

You stop 

A luminous eye peels open before you - bright white as to be blinding yet split with a slitted red pupil that glows balefully down at you

There is silence between you, the wanderer and the beast, for several long moments

And then it speaks 

“Why are you here”

Its voice is deep, solemn and seems somewhat gravelly as though the other has not spoken aloud in a long time.

It is not a voice one expects from a would-be galaxy eater.

You open your mouth to answer, but words are failing you

It - he? - sighs and in the darkness something massive shifts, the creature no doubt getting itself more comfortable.

“You should have left me be little one, I have no quarrel with you”

Indignant

“Then why did you destroy our neighbours!” You scream at the void before you.

It blinks, surprised perhaps - at the accusation? Or the gall to yell at a creature so far beyond you?

The thing closes its eyes and a long sigh draws out - and even though you can’t see it, you get the idea the beast is very tired, very old suddenly.

“You accuse me of wilful murder” it says - what? - before it continues “I did not kill them but I was their death all the same” it almost seems, sad, at the fact.

You blink, taken aback “that doesn’t make sense” how can one be their death if they didn’t murder them?

It snorts “to your knowledge, yes” it sighs again “but it is what it is”

You eye the darkness, gripping your torch that barely lights the space before you - it glimmers off what you think may be massive claws.

“Then how? Why? What even are you that could do such a thing?”

The creature’s luminous eyes Tilt - it probably tilted its head in question - as it hums “you are a curious one aren’t you”

Something shifts, the claws barely illuminated before you shift as the thing seems to - settle down? - and suddenly what looks like large paws come into view and cross over each other in your light as it lies sitting up before you.

“You wish to know of me? Very well then”

Warily, you sit on the cavern floor, as the creature begins its tale.

.🌌.

My birth is the same as all of my species,

I am a Luminite, born from death - the death of stars to be exact, when what once was a bright light inverts into a hungry maw, all consuming

but in my and my species case, that all consuming maw that so frightens you and those like you, they are our hearts - our souls - and within us we carry that star’s death child - and the echos also, of that same star’s inhabitants.

I see you begin to realise what must have happened.

But my visitor, know that even I among my kind am a rarity, one of Ill omens.

For I was born to a dead star system - all was barren, save for one small sector, 

That small sector that had only just begun to reach out - your neighbours you were so excited to meet and in turn we’re so excited to meet you,

But then I happened

And those fragile - so very fragile - flicker-lives were snuffed in the wake of my first breaths.

And for this I am sorry, for I could not have prevented it nor could I have warned them

What newborn can?

Take solace though that for them it was quick, there was at least that mercy.

But for my kind, to be born only to snuff new lives in a system so long barren, it is often - though not always - seen as something of an omen on the luminite it birthed

So I wander instead, the guilt and the infamy for my mere existence to keep me company.

Yes visitor, now you know the why, there was no malicious inclination, it was merely a cosmic roll of the dice, yet one I will bear the guilt for all the same.

Their echoes exist still in my memory, their curiosity colours me - and so I wander, an outcast with no home flitting from system to system - those that know enough avoid me with the stories that have instead drawn you here, your own curiosity a mirror to mine.

You should go back home little visitor, leave an old monster to his sleep, I will move on soon enough.

You’ll not see me again.