The eight small white houses were built in a tight cluster, though only four of them had direct view of the chapel at the bottom of the small hill. The other four houses across from those instead had easy view of the silo. Though the highway wasn't maintained, it had just enough traffic that no grass grew in the cracks.

A passing bird landed on a small dirt mound, spotting a soft-looking piece of straw. The nearby thin river showed no signs of human intervention, which was at least in part what made the bird feel safe enough to land where it did.

The wandering light source continued along. *He hadn't done it himself before, but he had watched others from his previous tribe do something like this. He looked at the dried grasses tied together and propped against one another. He was careful with how he slathered the fresh mud upon it. He would have a home soon.*

Whatever it was that was creating the small amount of nearby light completed a circular path yet again, finding itself just inside the entry door, with the glowing rose behind it. *He just wasn't in the mood to look at it now. He would deal with it all eventually... but for now just putting it with the rest was good enough. He tossed the unopened letter onto the end table next to his recliner, which added to the ever growing pile of unopened bills and unread newspapers.*

The light source reacted strongly to the orb, and though it already contained its contents, experiencing it once again meant something else. It wasn't until another orb passed through it that its meaning became clear. *"Well that's too bad. Do you think I go to work every day because I want to?", the boy's father asked him rhetorically. "You're going to do it", he demanded. "At least it's a small yard", the boy thought to himself as he made his way to the push-mower.*

The source of the light encircled the orbs it had just interacted with, and after a moment they were caught up in the light's wake. It continued its intentional orbit, directing them to the top of the broken path. Leaving them there, it aimed itself at another small cluster of orbs, manipulating their restrained meandering into a pulled direction.

It left the next group of orbs where it left the first, but after it acquired the third group, it noticed that the collected orbs began to drift back into the places they had been found.

A small breeze blew through the dirty ruined neighborhood, and a dry leaf cartwheeled between the path-bordering houses. One of the artificially clustered orbs drifted through the light. *"Look what I found!", the boy yelled as he ran up to his mother. "Yes, that's very nice", she said, smiling. The boy handed the leaf to her, then immediately forgot it and ran off to play some more.*

The orbs continued drifting apart, but the light source spun around them again, putting them back into a grouping. However, now the previously cartwheeling leaf was included. The leaf was held in midair, and the orbs gathered along with it seemed attached. The breeze slowed and stopped, and the leaf fluttered to the ground.

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A few days later...

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Encircling the orbs and coercing them to the light's point of origin was difficult, as it took them awhile to detach from the leaf and start returning to their previous places, but it still happened albeit slowly. The light continued to manipulate the nearby orbs regardless, as the orb's lesson had presented as a requirement, but it was another of the many orbs that showed something else important.

*She placed the leaf on the grass next to her, smiling as her son ran around in the spray of the garden hose attachment.*

Seeing that, whatever it was that was the source of the light realized that something else was necessary. *She took the red gem out of her jewelry box, and held it between her thumb and index finger. It sparkled in the sunlight, and at just the right angle, it grew a star of its own. 'It would be beautiful resting on her finger, but how often did she get the chance to wear a fancy ring?', the thought to herself.*

The light hovered lower towards the ground, now only half the height of the end table the newspapers had been discarded upon; though instead of indoors it was at the top of the path between the houses. It spun around once, and something was present that wasn't before.

It was a simple end table, oft referred to as coffee, simple yet functional. Resting upon it sat something shining and red. The light source went back to the orbs it had collected that yet again drifted away from the mildewing leaf pinned against the outer wall of the house opposite the sliding door, leading them to the new decoration.