The Journey through the Starry Realms

Prologue

It was midday, with the sun high up in the sky. Flossy clouds were scattered all over the vast expanse of the heavens. Yet the strong winds brought with them a strange sense of unease; the premonition of imminent transition.

Oblivious to all of this, two girls were happily walking through a forest, calmly enjoying the scenery.
Both of them were tall, lean and beautiful, with long hair and brown eyes, and looked about 20 years old. One of them had straight brown hair, while the other’s hair was black and wavy.

“I see a clearing up ahead, Yue.” said the black haired girl to the other.

“The cave must be close then,” replied Yue. “Let’s move faster, Yan.”

Yan nodded in agreement, and they started walking faster, heading towards the clearing.

After a while, they came out into the clearing. At the far end of it was a cave, and beyond it stretched the forest. The two girls crossed the length of the space and stopped in front of the cave entrance.

“This is it?” asked Yan, tilting her head.

“Seems so.” said Yue, walking forward.

“I expected it to be more….scary-looking.” said Yan, following Yue.

The other did not reply, but gestured for Yan to go in with her.

“Wait,” Yan said, digging into her backpack. “The torches.”

Wordlessly, they took out and turned on their torches, and entered the cave.

The interior of the cave was not different from any other; a wide entrance leading to a tunnel, which in turn lead to a chamber-like space. There seemed to be no exit except through the way they came in.

“Pretty small cave.” Yan whispered, in order to avoid annoying echoes.

“Won’t take us much time to look around,” Yue whispered back, shining her torch around the cave, and added, “The pictures?”

“Yeah, I’m on it.” Yan took out her phone and walked around, taking pictures of everything; the walls, the floor, the roof. At one point, she stopped, and shone her torch on a certain wall.

“Yue, look,” she whispered, turning to her friend. “There’s something on the wall over here.”

Yue walked to where Yan was standing, and held up her torch, peering at the rocky surface.

“Something’s written here.”

Yan nodded. “I think so too.” She stepped forward and began clearing the dust away. Immediately, the scribbles became clearer, and the girls could see what was written on the wall.

“Flames of fire light the way; An endless abyss as bright as day,” Yan read out loud, and looked at Yue.

“Dovelings bring forth a dozen suns, Embrace a future the darkness shuns.” finished Yue.

“What…is this?” Yue voiced her thoughts first.

“A poem. It’s a... light?” Yan looked at the other, a mixture of surprise and disbelief in her eyes.

A bright light appeared in front of them, and the wall dissolved into nothing. A large, loud vortex materialized where the wall had been.

“WHAT IN THE WORLD IS HAPPENING???” Yue shouted through the noise of the wind.

“I DON’T KNOW! I’VE NEVER SEEN THIS BE- AAAAAHHH!” Her words were cut off as the vortex sucked both girls in.

Yue and Yan disappeared, and the vortex closed up behind them. The wall materialized into place, just as quickly as it had vanished, and everything went back to normal; almost as if nothing out of the ordinary had ever happened.