The Smaller Things (Sky: Children of the Light)

Chapter 4: That Would Be Funny if it Weren't So Sad

Vionn didn't want to waste any energy flying towards the eruption site. It was better just to run. The red shards grew closer until Vionn could visibly see the dark plants that had sprouted from the crystals. They counted three smaller protruding shards that vibrated with an aggressive energy. Touching them would zap someone of their a bit of their Light and leave them stunned. None considered it to be very enjoyable. No dark plants were floating, no stray shards were either, so this would be a relatively easy clean up.

Vionn's stride towards the nearest growth was temporarily interrupted by a stinging pain under their foot. Staggering backwards, Vionn realized it was a miniature red shard, which slowly sapped something of its Light. The sandy shore of the lake had prevented it from being visible. This would certainly be an inconvenience, but Vionn could endure it as long as they cleaned up the fallout in quick time.

Making sure to avoid any more mini-shards, Vionn summoned their candle and let its flame melt away the dark plants. A large leaf hissed while it melted into a more acidic form at it retreated back to its roots. Vionn burned those too, as failing to weed out any dark plant would result in catastrophe, but it was not hard to burn the roots, so it never really happened.

They rinsed and repeated the process of burning the dark plants and their roots, occasionally accidentally stepping on a mini-shard. Vionn breathed a sigh of relief when the darkness had fully been cleansed, causing the protruding red shards to vaporize into light, and then into air, and the giant red crystal in the middle shattered into a small crater.

As per usual after a red Shard event, a hologram-like diamond would descend from the sky. If one would sit near it for long enough, they would be transported to a Memory of the Eye of Eden. A simple reward for cleaning up an eruption would grant one a look into the past. Which one will it be?  Vionn pondered as they sat in front of the diamond. Perhaps it'd be the Memory of the manta flock, to which was larger than any present flock. To see what Eden had looked like before its peculiar downfall was truly fascinating.

It wasn't any Memory Vionn recognized. Not the one of the whales, the krill, the crabs... even that of the Elders. In fact, this memory had a stark difference from the grayscale, somber, and sometimes megalophobia inducing shots of time. Those memories were still. Simple frames of action of whatever was in the moment.

No, this one had an environment like none other. This Memory had a limited landscape, unlike the endless void of the others, with the memories fossilized like stone, to which there was none here. An oval like terrain extended for a couple of meters, and had a floor with cold, ankle-deep water. Flowers sprouted out of it. It felt like a peaceful memory. The only biological life Vionn had ever seen inside of a Memory were living creatures, not... plants. Sure, there was the crab Memory that had dark plants, but Vionn wasn't sure that counted. Waltzing around the Memory, Vionn took notice of the stars in the sky.

This was no ordinary void. When looking up in any other memory, one would see the cold light above. Not here. The air- and the sky by extension- felt oddly warm.

Maybe something new could be discovered if they stayed a little while longer.

Vionn sat themself down on the cold, shallow-watered floor, grimacing as the two contrasting temperatures of warmth and cold clashed against each other. And there, up in the sky, were enough stars to ponder upon.

Where was he now?

It was a train of thought Vionn usually avoided boarding. A friend, long ago, Vionn's very first, had departed for a greater mission: to go back home. It wasn't that Vionn blamed him, it was a noble cause. Perhaps they just wished they could've known for sure whether his goal was met or not.

"It will look as if I am suffering," they remembered him say, "do not come to see that."

There was no use dwelling on what could not be changed, Vionn thought. He had left, and that was that. An attachment had been briefly formed, and then it had been shattered. But, over time, the pain of losing that friend grew to be less. Vionn remembered the way he asked too many questions that did not have ready answers, how his monologues would contain stories of impossibility, and how wonderfully absurd everything was about him. Even if he had never given Vionn his name, and the same way around, those memories provided a foundation for a new path to be forged.

Grief had come and gone. Vionn had long since moved on, but it was that still aching in their heart, like a freezing hollow, that yearned to see that friend one last time.

...

Vionn was out of the Memory without warning. They were back at Home, the realm that served as the hub for all Skykids to socialize, with ready portals for easy access to all the realms, including Aviary Village.

Vionn had to tell someone about this. About that Memory, about what it meant, anything.

Perhaps the elder of the Isle of Dawn could understand. Though he was aged, he carried more wisdom than all the other elders combined.