"Brother I'm scared!"
A small moth clutches to the arm of a older sky child who's cape reminds her of dawn in how half of the sky is orange with the glow of the sun and the other half is blue with night sky. They dash past falling rocks, on his command they run without flying as the wind would sweep them away. They slowly but quickly make it past to a semi safe place. She sees plenty of places to explore which she would rather go not knowing if those side passageways would bring her safety or death. "I want to go that way! I want to explore!" She begs the older sky child holding her hand. "No, Eden is no place to explore. Only death and dying and rebirth." He replied dragging her along again.
She looks up and sees they are on part 2 of their journey as krill like black dragons of darkness fly overhead with their blue beams of light. She knows from earlier that walking into those beams is almost certain death if they lock on. They wait in the rocks with about two or three others but she can't tell because everyone has their eyes trained on a poor moth trying desperately to rock climb over a ledge as a dark dragon spots them and rips them apart tearing the light from their body and shredding the wing lights from their cape until all hope is lost from the young moth. It was almost too scary for Firefly to watch so she hides her face in her brother's blue and orange cape. Sunny, the short, experienced sky kid next to her whispers to Esther's ear but the wind makes it impossible for Firefly to eavesdrop. "What is that moth doing!? It isn't time yet!" He lashes out. The wind hushes his voice thankfully. His friend pulls him back which yanks Firefly with him. She yelps and cliches his arm tighter. As soon as the dark dragon leaves with nothing but a statue left of the moth, the small group runs for it. Firefly lets her brother and his friends drag her and all she knows is she isn't the only moth in their party but they do have at least a few other experienced kids with them. Her grip on her only support starts to slip. She doesn't remember anything that happened next due to most of it she just walked with her eyes closed slowly stepping wherever Esther stepped. Slowly he drags her to a cave and she feels the wind stop and the warmth of a light source warms her skin. She blinks open her eyes as her brother lets go of her but has to peel her off of him. She immediately pulls out her candle near the lantern now feeling safe enough to let her delicate, weak, scared light shine. Her yellow moth cape is tightly wrapped around her as comfort. Sunny and Esther talk as she and the other moths warm up. "It is time to go, past here we will die." Sunny says to the group. Only two other moths are left alive because they where smart enough to stay with older more experienced sky children who have already done this. Esther had made it his mission before this to collect ALL the wing lights however Firefly likes to call them light boys because they shine like pure light brighter then any star or spirit she has ever seen. To her they are light themself. They grant her the one thing she wants more then completing the constellations. "This is where we come to die." Ominously says her brother to all three moths. "Brother you're scaring me!" Firefly cries. He points to a stone statue behind us that was a sky child just like us not too long ago. "That is what would have happened to you if you where alone just like that moth that was eaten by the dragon and the child here who was beaten by rocks." He speaks. Firefly and the other moths shiver in fear and one starts crying and the other curls into a ball on the ground staring at what might happen to us if we aren't carful. Sunny helps up the two moths as brother Esther pulls Firefly away from the light deeper into the lantern filled tunnel. They start moving again. Soon they see light boys inside the tunnel but they seem frozen in time. It kinda creeps her out because she has never seen light boys doing anything but stand and shine. "What happened to them?" A fellow moth mumbles as they touch one. "They are saying their last goodbyes." Replies Esther. Sunny says something to the trembling moth to ease their nerves. Firefly runs from light boy to light boy to unlit lantern and touches and lights them all as she runs to them playfully. Even tho they are in such a scary place she feels the only safety she has felt this whole trip inside the cave. One moth refuses to move which she has learned their name is Shimmer and the other moth is named Comet. Shimmer is practically dragged by Sunny as Comet just walks along one wall touching the side with one hand. Eventually they walk to a small warning sign. The two experienced sky children ignore it. Esther reminds them "this is where you come to die.".
"I don't want to go to Eden!" Cries Firefly.
"Do you want to get red candles?" Asked her brother.
"Yes... but... ok..." Firefly whimpers as she gives in and slowly walks past the sign that she just now realized said 'no coming back beyond this point'. She shivers as she looks up into the red sky that is opening from the cave mouth. The eye of Eden greets them harshly with wind, rocks, explosions, and mostly all death. She is paralyzed in fear. Soon she is dragged by her brother and she loses sight of the other moths and Sunny. "BROTHER IM SCARED!!" Screams Firefly but her loudest yells is drowned out by the howling wind and exploding rocks. She feels her brother let go of her. "NO COME BACK!! HOLD MY HAND ESTHER!!! please..." she cries in pure fear. The fear of unknown and fear of death and fear of becoming like those dark sky kids her brother told stories about and her biggest fear of losing her light starts to become real. She hates it. She wants to go home to the safe and sunny and green prairies where you can fly forever but at this moment she forgets all of it like a dream. Safety is not a word anymore. Scared and not knowing what to do she tries to fly and is thrown into a rock that then explodes into her back knocking a wing light out of her chest and the pain becomes too real. She screams and cries and makes as much noise as possible as she looks around for light. Like a miracle she sees something shining in the distance and she limps towards it. She soon finds herself hugging the lantern and looks around for the one who lit it. She can't find anyone but sees Sunny and Glimmer ahead of her giving their wing lights to statues of fallen sky children. She runs to them and trips several times. At the worst time the red rocks around her explode again and before she can get to the false safety that is the lanterns the explosion shatters into her feet and back again but she keeps walking. She is terrified as she sees a wing light break away from her. She grabs onto the poor statue nearby and she knows somehow that she has to give it the only thing she wants so desperately to cling to. She is losing wing lights left and right anyway. She doesn't know how but a wing light leaves her body and the statue glows little. She hobbles to the next then the next giving light and facing her fears but she still feels alone and scared through it all not knowing if one is one of her friends. She feels pain shoot into her body almost every second as rocks explode around her and the wind keeps her grounded. Every time she tries to run she gets knocked over and onto the hard rocky surface where more pain shoots into her body. Every once in a while she sees a lit lantern and hides next to it waiting for a break between the exploding rocks and the howling wind. She occasionally sees Sunny flicker in and out of view and she thinks she saw Esther once or twice but is unsure and every time she tries to step towards him he disappears again. Finally she reaches the last lantern she can find ahead of her. Firefly has no idea where to go now and too scared to move she just sits there arms around the warm glowing lantern. It reminds her of all the things she doesn't have at the moment; safety, warmth, light, fire, and soon she looks back and sees that now she is finally all alone as Sunny looks up at her, smiles, waves, then opens their arms and welcomes death. The once bright figure of hope and light turns into a stone statue, arms outreached, welcoming death with literal open arms. Firefly loses it and breaks down in tears at her friend now knowing that she is truly alone as there is no way Comet or Shimmer are alive. She looks around desperately for her brother and runs into the painful red rain. All sense is out the window. She jumps around trying to fly but her last three wing lights break and shatter in front of her every time she trips or the wind throws her into rocks that explode in her face. On her last light she crawls forward on the rough ground and the last thing she sees before joining her friends is her brother just sitting in the rain content letting the rocks batter his body and light to the ground. His tall body crashes hard every time he is hit. A tear and a hopeless gaze stares as darkness and shattering pain and relief cover her at the same time. Her body freezes unable to move. All she sees is darkness....
Firefly wakes up on the ground of a reflective, smooth surface. She can't feel anything. She can't see very well. She can only get up and walk. A bright light is ahead of her as she walks hopelessly towards it. She knows she is dead but she doesn't know if she will ever see her brother or friends ever again. Firefly didn't even know she had friends until now when she is missing them so much. She is alone and hopeless. She only gives off a soft glow that lets her see herself against the void around her. She thinks she has become one with the darkness. All her fears are really actually real now; no light, life, or hope is left in her body. As Firefly approaches the light child she is all too happy to finally touch something that reminds her of her old self. She embraces the light and the light embraces the darkness of what is left of her. Something tells her that everyone has different symbolism of what is happening here. The light and darkness inside her meet and she awakens....
Firefly wakes up back home on the soft familiar grass with a HUGE headache.
"Welcome home." Her brother greets her with arms open. She looks up from the small platform she was laying on and she jumps into Esther's arms. Her long white hair and yellow wing like cape wrap around her brother's half orange half blue cape and she feels the soft fur on his back as her arms wrap around his neck. She shoves her face against his silly fish hood to hide tears. He isn't one for hugs but she needs this and he obviously knows that. Tears from the trauma roll down her face as he holds his little sister and she clings to her big brother. "Welcome home" echoes in her ears. He whispers to her "you have been reborn..." the end of a life... and hello to a new beginning.
((This took 2 hours and 10 minutes to write with almost no breaks. Including what I estimate is about a 5 minute break total broken up into a few minutes at a time.
