When Light Collides

Struggling Dreams

His eyes fluttered like a startled chicken's wings. A faint voice called his name, it was hoarse and raspy. Whoever it was sputtered and intertwined their fingers with his. Solace, out of confusion, went to sit up when a pain shot through his chest like lightning. His arm instinctively flew up, only to grip an arrow's shaft. In horror, he felt the feathers and hard wood of the arrow. It was deeply buried in his chest, pinning him to the dark earth beneath him. Using some of his strength, he turned his head. Aura smiled weakly at him, a thin stream of blood pooled on the ground near her chin.

"Solace..."

"Aura..."

She squeezed his hand, her head shot to the side as she coughed up bright red specks. His fell upon the arrow that also penetrated her heart. It rose and sunk with her tortured breaths.

"Aura..what happened?'

"I'm sorry..." She sniffed, not even turning back.

"Did you..."

She sighed heavily and tried to face him, her mouth open and ready to speak, but she was already fading. Her pale hand reached up to touch his face. He closed his eyes awaiting her dying stroke of his heat deprived skin. But, it never came. His eyes opened once more, and she was gone.

= =

With a large gasp, Solace bolted up. He rubbed his eyes, almost immediately retracting his hand after feeling something soft that was not his own skin. It was his cape. His hands were completely wrapped in the fabric and made it impossible to rub the sleep from his tired eyes.

"Solace..?" A small beam of light pierced the dim room as his sister gently pushed opened the door.

"I'm awake, Aura," he groaned.

He glanced up at her as a tear, glinting brighter than the sun, fell to the planks beneath him.

"Aura?" He tripped over his tangled limbs as he stood, wrapping her tightly in his arms, "Aura, are you alright? What's wrong?"

"I'm so sorry..." She weeped into the crook of his neck. "Oh Solace, I'm so sorry.. I-I've done nothing but cause trouble for you...because of me you got hurt."

"You got hurt too," he chuckled, hoping to cheer her up.

"It doesn't matter y-"

"Hey!" He held her by her shoulders and looked her straight in her glassy amber eyes. "Don't say that ever again. You matter to me, and it does matter when you get hurt."

"But, if I get hurt you do too.. There isn't much we can do about it," Aura sniffed.

"It lets me know if you're hurt and how you feel," Solace expressed his happiness and love, planting a kiss on her forehead. "It lets me know that you are here with me."

He wiped her tears away and hugged her once more. Preston's glowing magma form lit up the guest room as he peeked through the door.

"Hey, dudes. I uh, know that there is so much stuff going on right now for you guys, but your father really wants you to get an 'overworld' education," the door pushed open further to reveal a familiar minion staring at them.

"Brutus?"

"Your father sent him. He really wants you to go to school." The minion growled, and hot steam brushed the back of his neck, making the lava runnier.

"Okay," Aura turned to him and smiled.

The twins followed a nervous Preston out the door and down his stairs. Since Solace had left his map at home, Preston had to show them the way. Brutus nodded at them before returning the portal after receiving a hug from them both.

"So.. Brutus?"

"What about him?" She danced around on her healed leg.

"He works for your father? I mean obviously he does but.."

"He won't hurt anyone unless he was ordered too." Mischief flashed across her eyes.

Preston cleared his throat and tugged at the collar of his suit.

"Calm down friend. Brutus only takes orders from father. He is very loyal," Solace leaned closer to the magma creeper's ear, "He and his fellow minions wouldn't dare do something that isn't a direct order, for fear of being punished by our father."

"Wow. I forgot-"

"My father is the reason they are alive. If it weren't for him, they would be burnt piles of ashes or restless souls that died in our oceans."

"You're father isn't what people believe him to be, huh? Everyone here," he gestured at the passing people, "thinks he's some merciless ruler of the Nether, but you, your sister and I know him differently."

"Yes, we do.."

After that, they walked in silence. They neared a large, brick building with a huge, stone courtyard. Water poured down from the top of a quartz pillar in a fountain. As Aura walked passed, a droplet leapt from the water and landed on her arm.

"Agh!" She slapped her hand across where it landed. The drop burning her skin. Solace winced at feeling it too.

"This is why you can't touch water," Preston steered them away from it and to a quiet area.

"It burns, is that what lava feels like to over-worlders?"

"Trust me it's much worse," Preston stopped them at a secluded entrance. A few kids lingered by or sat on the ground with a book and quill scribbling away.

"So, what do we do in school?"

"You listen to the teachers and do what they ask you to do. Okay?" He pulled two sets of book and quills from his suit pocket. "This is if they ask you to take notes. I've got to go now, a friend on the south side of town needs some help. Good luck."

He ran off, leaving the twins standing at the open doors of the school. Solace opened his mouth, planning to say something witty but Aura had already perched herself on the fence/railing. Her quill wrote smoothly across the paper.

"What are you doing?"

"Writing my name."

"Oh," he strode over to her and did the same thing. He flipped through the practically infinite pages of the book. Aura toppled off the railing when a loud, coordinated series of note blocks went off. They looked around, and quickly realized it meant the beginning of class. They filed through the door behind several others and found their classroom. They sat down in the back row, side by side and ready for their first day.