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# The Second Sky (part 1)
- URL: https://www.smallfailuresofreality.com/the-second-sky-part-1/
- Published: 2026-08-09T21:43:25.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-19T22:37:57.000Z
- Author: Evan Mercer
- Tags: Second Sky, Leah, story, illustrations, confessionals

I’ve been thinking about Leah more lately. She loved this story, and she loved telling it to me.

It’s a folk tale passed down in her family for generations. Since Leah can’t pass it on herself, I’m going to pass it on for her. I hope she’d approve.

It begins with her grandmother telling it to her when she was a young girl.

![Young Leah asks her grandmother about the aurora during a cozy winter evening. Her grandmother replies, “The first lights.”](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/88/e88830a3-d951-4682-b91c-ff9b3de17f28/content/images/2026/07/second_sky_part01_page01-1.jpg)

![Pale-haired villagers work beneath a vast green aurora in a snowy coastal settlement, carrying fish, wood, baskets, and sleds.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/88/e88830a3-d951-4682-b91c-ff9b3de17f28/content/images/2026/07/second_sky_part01_page02.jpg)

![Under a bright aurora, pale-haired Sela directs workers, checks supplies, settles a dispute, and notices a troubling shortage.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/88/e88830a3-d951-4682-b91c-ff9b3de17f28/content/images/2026/07/second_sky_part01_page03-1.jpg)

![Even this guy has more fans than I do.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/88/e88830a3-d951-4682-b91c-ff9b3de17f28/content/images/2026/07/second_sky_part01_page04.jpg)

![Aurora-lit northern villagers share meals, mend tools, and welcome frost-covered Rovan home before settling in for the night.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/88/e88830a3-d951-4682-b91c-ff9b3de17f28/content/images/2026/07/second_sky_part01_page05.jpg)

![Under a blazing aurora, Sela notices a birdless shore while Rovan finds an inland stream frozen too early.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/88/e88830a3-d951-4682-b91c-ff9b3de17f28/content/images/2026/07/second_sky_part01_page06.jpg)