Nono Nexum

Starla Sparks

Star of dream, bright in gleam,
Soar, and let them see.
<Starla>

~

It's a quiet day in Mitis Town.

Of course, Mitis was by no means a large town. Seven or eight houses were sparsely scattered across a large-ish plot of land, and the only way in or out of it was through Route 1, a forested path with scattered patches of grass. The one impressive attraction was the Loomian Laboratory, a building of sleek greys and clear glass with a futuristic design that would look more in place in Sepharite City than Mitis.

The professor there was an amiable woman that was never seen without her lab coat. Her husband, a tech-savvy and well-known archaeologist, with his costume that made him look like John Indian (Silvent City, while still under extensive construction, was not lacking in the film industry in the least), was also there. Their son, Lyndon, was currently on a journey to recover his father's lost archeological remains.

Said son was sort of an elder brother figure for every child in town, and ever since the then eleven-year-old went the entire town had missed him sorely, for he had been a charming and polite person with quite the wit about him.

He had been gone for six years - he'd be seventeen by now.

One person who missed him more than most was Starla Sparks, a thirteen-year-old girl with auburn hair, sapphire eyes, and your typical girl-next-door vibes. She liked turquoise, loved cute Loomians and the like. She was a little shy, but her voice, unlike the typical shy girl, had a reasonable volume range, and her tone hovered somewhere between soprano and alto - not too high, not too low.

She is a normal person, by all means. She wants to be a gardener when she grows up, and she's well on the way to doing so, she believes. She knows the function and planting methods of every flower and leaf in her yard, and she practically runs the Mitis flowerbeds by now.

It is on this quiet, beautiful, sunny day that Starla wakes to the sunlight filtering through the verdant branches just out her window, wind rustling the leaves of the gigantic tree. She laughs and shouts a hearty "Good morning!" Out the window, and then slip her feet into her slippers.

Downstairs, breakfast is cooking, the aroma of pancakes in the air. The morning LoomiNews is on the television, and her father is drinking from a cup of coffee, yawning as he pauses between sips.

Her mother pokes her head in from the kitchen. "Morning, dearie! You up for some pancakes?"

"Mm-hmm! Four please. Morning dad!"

Her father turns his head towards her as if moved by some clockwork spring, smiles weakly, and says, "nrghrnghrnh."

Her mother rolls her eyes. "Not morning people. Can't relate. Anyways, you lazy husband, get over here and get your breakfast."

"I can live on coffee. I shall."

Starla crosses her arms. "No you can't, dummy. You'll get malnutrition if you do."

Her father rises half-heartedly from the couch.

With some more incoherent mumbling, her father sinks into a chair by the dining table, and looks morosely at the cup of coffee in his hand.

"Coffee!" He suddenly exclaims, and takes another sip from his cup.

Starla laughs. Comedic banter is not new in her household, and if she's completely honest she loves it. A lot.

Breakfast goes off without a hitch, the aroma of the freshly made pancakes permeating the dining area. The television is still on, stating the news in the same matter-of-fact tone as always.

"Silvent City completes another impressive structure..."

"Ikazune Productions has released another blockbuster! Set this time in Kanoko Village..."

"Professor Marlon Archai and Professor Jasmine Fluoroma of Mitis files a missing person case..."

Starla blinks. "Wait, pause on that one?"

Their breakfast is interrupted by the news report. "Lyndon Archai, the only son of Professors Marlon Archai and Jasmine Fluoroma, is reported missing after two months with no contact and no eyewitness reports. Anyone with information please proceed to the Loomian Laboratory in Mitis Town..."

Starla's father hums. "Poor Archais. Lyndon was really sweet. Wasn't he your friend, Starla? Maybe we should head over later to see how they're doing."

Starla's mother nods. "Yeah, sure. But that happens after breakfast, Mister."

Starla's father sighs. "Better finish it then."

Starla polishes off the last of the crumbs on her plate. "Well, gotta do what I gotta do. Can I be excused? I'm done with breakfast."

"Sure, dearie. Maybe change so you can go meet the Archais while in decent clothes."

"Okay!"

Starla skips upstairs to her room to rummage for clothes, but then she hears...

Noises. From inside her room.

A break-in?

She cautiously approaches the door. She grabs a broom from the closet on the way, and carefully inches towards the knob.

Wait, is that faint muttering she hears?

She throws the door open, yelling.

"I got you!"

There's a yelp, but what Starla doesn't see...

"Hey wait, where are you?"

She holds the broom out in front of her like a sword, and approaches the sound of rustling.

And under a discarded pile of clothes...

"Woah woah woah put the broom down! If you put it down, I won't have to blast you, and everybody will get out of this alive. Okay?"

"Who are you?"

"Don't freak out, okay? Promise?"

A small ball of yellow unfurls itself on the floor, to reveal a Luxoar about half the size of a normal one.

Its eyes are bright, the colour of gold; its fur is smooth and clean, and a soft ripple of light bursts over its body as it moves in the light of the shining sun. The whiskers twitch, the mouth with its teeth twitch upwards, opening-

"See? Everything's okay, we're fine..."

Did that Luxoar just...talk?

"Ohhhh..."

The world fades to black around her.