Lost in the darkness

Prologue (kind of)

I live in the clouds, with others like me. Others with the body and spirit of a child, but the spirit and power of a star. We form a rainbow of stars, our souls flaming brightly, and hearts pure. A kingdom rebuilt on friendship and generosity, and I happen to be the one who rebuilt it. A skykid much taller than me comes and I turn to see them. It's Bat, one of my friends who helped save the elder spirits. They have a black cape and pants on, with straight hair slightly covering the mask and a staff on their back. "Hi Bat! What's up?" I ask.

"Er," Bat glances around the open room and points out the window, "Buds is causing some trouble with the moths, again."

"Can't you deal with him? I'm not in charge here- oh." I look out the window and see a bunch of brown caped skykids, moths, all laying on the ground outside. I immediately run out the door and jump off the cliff, spreading my dark blue and slightly pointy cape to glide over the sky kingdom to meet Buds. An oversized sun hat, My namesake, shields my head from the bright sun. All around me I see happy skykids, living life and enjoying the warm sunshine and strong breeze. The green grass on the floating islands around me twinkle with light and I spot a swarm of butterflies made of light below me. I dive down towards the butterflies and they lift me up towards the bright blue sky. I use that speed to fly between two pillars and into the flight training ground. As I land, I look around to see a bunch of moths attempting to fly through high rings without even a bit of an updraft. "Buds, why have you taken away the updraft again? This is for the moths, not you!"

"It was too easy, they were getting it first try..." he mutters.

"That's the point Buds, just turn on the updraft and come with me, ok? Also say sorry to the moths."

"Ok fine, I suppose you're right." I feel a strong updraft return to the area and the brown caped skykids return to flying. I then offer Buds my hand, with a warm light coming through the eyes of my mask. He accepts and I fly out of the room and up into the sky once again. The sunshine warm on our backs, the birds chirping, the green grass, the happy scenes below us, all of what makes up the sky kingdom. I let my spirit wander, taking Buds's with it. I feel it drifting upwards, seeing my body as a speck below us, the floating islands in their full glory, radiating happiness and health.

As our spirits keep floating we reach the stars, "This is what I see of our home and I want to share it with everyone. The moths need to have that easy flight practice then move onto harder things so they can properly enjoy this place." I wave at a star as our spirits pass, "You know all this, and I'm just reminding you of it. If you didn't have the easier practice, then how would you have dealt with the silly mantas or playful jellyfish?

Buds looks downwards at the floating sky islands that shelter us, "Yes, I understand now. Let's go back and race again, I'll be able to beat you this time!"

"Ya, that sounds great! Let's race, I'll take some others as well!"

I let our spirits drop back down into our bodies and land on a rock with a group of other skykids yelling about a race.

"Hey can we join? Please?" I ask, "Races are fun, and we wanna join!"

"Sure," one of them answers, "we needed two more anyways!"

"Then what are we waiting for, LET'S GO!" I yell. We all join hands and I let somebody else lead us to the icy slopes of the Valley of Triumph. In our large group, we race down towards the ice rink, brushing past the candles. Still as a group, we land on the ice rink and all do a little spin.

"This way!" somebody shouts, and everybody jumps over to the entrance for the race. As the gates open, we all rush out onto the snowy mountain to race to the bottom. Some make the mistake of flying up where the harsh winds knock them down to the ground, and I can hear many dings! from behind me. In a rainbow of colour, all of us make the first turn, some coming out in front, including me! I can see Buds just in front of me as I pick up speed. I come up beside, just about to pass the red caped skykid. Right before I can I hear somebody slide up behind me and, thunk, I get pushed from behind and start rolling down the hill, I crash into something, probably Buds, and continue rolling in a ball of limbs and capes. We eventually crash into a hard wall, and break apart slightly confused. Dazed, I look around and down the slope I can see a magenta smudge getting farther away.