Deep below the ocean's surface, a foam cloud hides the enchanted glass villages of the Lumins. By delivering their glass gems to Humans, these creatures maintain the delicate balance between Worlds. When a black-hearted crab, Sarwen, decides to cle...
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Anticipation beckoning her forward, Kora picked up her pace, lightly glowing as she burst through glistening foam. It was her favorite part of the day. Swirling fizz tickled her face and color two-stepped a translucent dance, yet time stood still. For a blink of a moment, she was boundless.
"Let's keep moving!" As lead Cloud Collector, Dirth was always annoyed with Kora's mindless distractions. Broadening his focus he shouted, "Pick up the pace, team, we've got another long day ahead of us."
Kora barely heard him; she was mesmerized by soft popping sounds, rustling, combining, with no rhythm or reason, at least that she knew. She couldn't help herself, she would much rather sit in wonder of the mystery of the Cloud than to be out there fighting off predators and collecting.
She sighed. Just a few more minutes, she thought, closing her eyes and breathing in deeply. A little too deeply, perhaps, as bubbles filled her lungs causing her to cough and chortle simultaneously. It was obvious that Shelby was amused by the bubbles spilling out of Kora's nose. His whole body shook with laughter, despite the Tar that blocked his voice.
They used to have so much fun together growing up, exploring hidden reefs and coves of Alamar, before they had to worry about being responsible. As kids, hide and seek was their favorite pastime; Shelby fit easily into abandoned snail shells as he was a late bloomer with height. Kora, on the other hand, was always easy to spot. Her bright green scales and lavender glow always gave her away. Shelby's brown stripes and fuzzy orange hair seamlessly blended in within the seascape of their Jettison.
Shelby's snapped Kora back into the present. She twirled in the bubbles, glowing lavender, her defenses down. The two of them could barely contain their giddiness, and would have been perfectly happy twirling and laughing the rest of the day just like they had as children, but Derth had other plans as usual.
At this point a dozen other Cloud Collectors had paused to watch Kora and Shelby who always were up to some mischief of one kind or another.
"Keep it moving, we've got work to do," Derth repeated sternly, swimming around Kora and Shelby. "Don't forget how important your job is to Alamar."
Winking at Shelby, the two friends shared another soft giggle together as they continued forward. They popped quietly out of the Cloud and carried on, upwards towards the surface. Every day, the Collectors would swim for hours to the place where the ocean's roar crashed into the rough surface of the jetty and collect foam to bring back to the village perimeter. They swam in darkness, as close to the jetty's edges as possible, trying to avoid being spotted.
"I was thinking," Kora began, she often talked to Shelby as they swam, a continuous monologue. "Maybe we can go explore the rest of Alamar tonight. We've never really gone anywhere further than the neighboring rock, and I'm dying to know what else is out there..." Kora stopped babbling abruptly.
She squinted her eyes trying to see something out through the haze and darkness of the ocean. Of course, no one else saw it yet. For some reason, Kora always sensed something long before it was there. She poked Shelby. She pointed to the left, "Do you see anything over there?" He shook his head no.
Sure enough, a large butterfly fish swam by the Collectors, followed by a dozen more behind it. As one of them swam right next to Kora's face, she felt his fin brush her arm. Kora looked up into his eyes, wondering if he could sense her even if he couldn't see her. He looked down at her and winked, then swam on. Towering nearly twice as tall as she was, his orange and white stripes were beautifully uniform.
The Collectors paused briefly to allow the butterfly fish to pass. This was the danger of leaving the Jettison, after all, the Lumins were some of the smaller creatures in the ocean and danger lurked anywhere that was not protected by the Cloud. pushed onward, swimming through hazy waters towards the edge of the jetty where the foam was greatest - the surface. Kora began humming a favorite song, until Shelby's gentle nudge reminded her to stop. Singing was such a natural part of being a Lumin, that it was hard to not sing when Kora was daydreaming or distracted, but they didn't want to draw undo attention.
As they approached the ocean's surface, the current and salty wash picked up. Kora and Shelby pulled out their fasteners and tied them tightly onto their designated posts in the jetty. Over the years, the Lumins had secured so many glass rope posts on the face of the jetty that it was easy to traverse all around its dark shape without having to worry about what step came next. Slowly, in lines marching one by one, the Collectors inched forward towards the surface. They would often be bumped forward and back by the rustle of the ocean waters, but as long as they kept close to the jetty and tied onto their post with their ropes, they typically did not get thrown too far off course. Today the fetch waters were especially violent. Kora wondered if there was a thunderstorm brewing in the Upper World.
They arrived near the edge of the shoreline where the foam gathered, the current alongshore getting stronger by the minute. Kora followed the line of Collectors until it was her turn to gather foam. The ocean waves burst with life as they crashed against the jetties.
"Stop glowing!" Dusk, Shelby's pet snail exclaimed with horror glaring at Kora, mimicking the look of shock on Shelby's face. A current of energy began swelling within Kora, so strong that she felt like she might explode. She was glowing at full power, and didn't even realize it.
"I'm trying to, I don't know why I can't control it!" Kora exclaimed. She looked down and tried to concentrate, to dim her glow, but it wasn't working as usual. She just kept glowing at full power. Kora's skin was usually pale green with tinges of purple, and bright purple light hues were emanating off her skin, out of control. At full power, her glow illuminated her greenish black curly hair, curving in and out of her braids, reflecting shimmers of midnight blue.
Within seconds, a swarm of small fish purple swam past Kora, attracted to the light. They swam around and past Kora, confusing her in a wave of bubbles and motion. Within a blink an eye, Kora felt something else coming, again long before she saw it. The barracuda's eyes burned like lava, determined to capture its prey. "Retreat!" yelled Kora to the Collectors, "Go to the coves!"
Hundreds of Cloud Collectors started swimming and clambering towards emergency coves sprinkled along the jetty. Kora didn't know what to do. Spinning around she frantically tried to spot a free cove but there was no escaping this predator. Shelby approached her, his arms outstretched.
"Hurry, to the cove!" she exclaimed. "What are you doing?" Before she could understand what was happening, she was engulfed in a blanket of black.
