Washed Away

Chapter 8 - Photo Session

"Lanie." Dad whispered, his smile stretching from ear to ear. I giggled and my chubby 6 year old fingers reached out for a hug. He laughed and scooped me up into his arms before whirling me around in the air. A woman's laughter mingled in with my own and Dad paused to let me see a beautiful lady standing in the distance, her mahogany hair flowing out behind her in the non-existent breeze.

Mum.

* * *

I jolted up in bed with a huge gasp and stared around me, my eyes wide open in shock. Amara span round in my chair to face me, a thread a needle clutched in one hand and the teddy bear in the other.

"Elaina? Are you okay?" She asked, her brow creased in worry. I took a shaky breath and nodded, noticing that my pyjamas were stuck to me with a sheen of cold sweat.

"Yeah... I'm fine." I mumbled, wrapping my arms around my knees. Frost whimpered in his sleep, kicking his legs as if he was running. I absently mindedly stroked his head, staring out of the window.

The cages filled with the glowing substances hanging from the top of the cave illuminated the city and kept me captivated at their beauty. To keep my mind off the dream, I pointed to them and turned to Amara. "What are in those cages?"

Amara followed my finger and smiled slightly. "They are filled with, what we call, lux navitas."

"Lux navitas?"

"It roughly translates to 'light energy' in English." Amara explained. "Some of my own is up in one of those."

I stared at her, completely confused. "Sorry?"

Amara laughed, her voice echoing off the walls. "I suppose you already know that we emit lux navitas?"

I thought back to the time when I first met Ky in the forest and he was glowing. "Yeah..."

"Well, we can pass off the energy into our surroundings. Whenever someone is born, a small amount of their lux navitas is kept in those cages."

"Oh! Why do they do that?"

Amara chuckled. "Without it, we would be completely immersed in darkness."

"Can't you all just emit lux navitas all the time?"

"We haven't got an infinitive amount of it. We get exhausted extremely quickly if we use a lot of it in a short amount of time."

"Oh." Was all I could say. Amara seemed to sense that the conversation was over and went back to sewing while I continued to gaze at the swirling balls of light. "Could you show me?"

Amara seemed quite taken back by my question, but nonetheless dropped her sewing equipment and held her hand out in front of her. Her hand started to glow and slowly, a shining ball of light formed. It continued to grow in size until it was about the size of a snooker ball. She then got off her chair and sat crossed-legged in front of me and placed the ball into my hand.

The moment my skin came in contact with the energy a warm feeling spread down my arm and around my body. My veins started to glow and the ball of light seemed to dispel into my hand. Soon enough, my skin had completely absorbed the energy and I was glowing like the sun.

"Now you know what it is like for us." Amara smiled as I stared at my arms in awe.

"Whoa." I breathed as I touched my veins. Light pulsed through them and flickered between dim and bright in time with my heart beat. Someone knocked on the door and Ky stuck his head round.

"Hey, how ar---" He froze when he saw me and his mouth fell open. I blushed under his intense stare. "Whoa..."

"She would make a good Custos, would she not?" Amara said smugly. I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms while Ky walked in.