Neowalkers: The Guardian of Vir

Chapter Six: The First Neowalker

Lorelei shielded her eyes from the bright sun. The cloudless sky infinitely draped out over the horizon. There was absolutely nothing around her in every direction, just a boundless sea of pale blue that met with the flat, green ground thousands of leagues away. There were no trees, no flowers, no animals: only Lorelei and Nova. Lorelei could feel the heat of the sun radiating off of her exposed shoulders. She was so thankful that wherever she was now had purged the awful gown that she'd had on the day before. She wondered what happened to the wildlife, the grand archway, and most of all, the woman in beige. It was all gone in the blink of an eye.

Nova flopped to the ground in boredom, waiting for Lorelei to finally move from the spot she had been standing in for hours. She wasn't sure what to do now. The woman in beige and everything around her disappeared once the first trial ended. She half-expected Nova to lead her somewhere, but it'd been so long that she was beginning to suspect this trial had nothing to do with following her light.

"Nova, what do we do?" she asked the fawn, finally sitting down next to her. It felt great to bend her knees. She had forgotten how long she was holding her position. Placing her head against the grass, she looked up at the sky. It was almost overwhelming to see nothing but blue in every direction. She felt like she was floating, which allowed her to relax slightly. It's been a crazy couple of days, and the clear sky and the warm breeze felt like a blanket of comfort that she had long awaited for.

More hours passed, but still, nothing changed. Lorelei was beginning to wonder if she was dreaming or hallucinating. She clenched the grass beneath her to make sure it was real. It was at that moment she noticed something: directly in the middle of the sky, a small white dot hovered in the distance. It was so subtle that she wondered how long it had been there without her noticing. Standing, she dusted off her clothes of stray grass and squinted upward. The speck wasn't moving or changing size. It was just there, just as Lorelei had been for hours upon hours. It wasn't a star, or at least not a star she's ever seen: Lorelei had studied astronomy with Plum and Plum's mother, who she referred to as "Nommy" Nina, for the last decade. She and Plum used to go to the hideout and chart stars and constellations, giving them funny names like "Trumpet Fork" and "Undergarments Warrior." As silly as they were, those stars guided the two of them home every night without fail, and whatever this anomaly was was definitely not a part of any constellation she'd ever charted.

"Nova, do you see this?" she asked her fawn friend. She anticipated the small animal to head bump her leg in response, but no head bumps came, "Nova?"

The cold feeling of loneliness overcame Lorelei when she realized that Nova had completely vanished as well. Her breath grew sharper, and her throat filled with a lump of panic. Anxiety crashed into her like a brick wall, causing her lips to quiver and eyes to widen. She looked back to the white dot. It still sat motionless, just staring back at her mockingly. Lorelei could feel the heat in her ears begin to rise as her panic turned to anger.

Lorelei let out a scream of frustration before yelling to the white dot, "I'm tired of this!" She covered her face, trying to block tears of wrath from flowing, "My people need me right now, no more games!"

Lorelei began to pace back and forth, "I need to get home..."

Her anger turned into regret and self-loathing. Why didn't she just kill King Saifer at that moment? Or, at the very least, why didn't she stay to make sure her mother was okay? The thought of her parents forced all of her emotions out of her as her despair evolved into determination. She didn't know what to feel anymore. Her internal conflict of trying to comprehend events that were moving way too fast for her while trying to understand who she was weighed down on her like a ton of stones. Lorelei reached out and pointed directly to the white dot in the sky, "Enough."