The Forest of New Life

The Lights

Bright blue light shone before Mint's closed eyelids. Mint shuddered, and pushed himself to his knees. He struggled to open his eyes; they seemed to be weighed down by boulders. After forcing his eyes open, Mint immediately closed them. A fiercely glowing orb was floating above one of the gopher holes. 

Mint couldn't look directly at the light, but he opened his eyes and looked a bit to the left of the orb. What was it? Mint stretched a paw out to touch it, and hesitated. What if it was dangerous? It certainly didn't look dangerous.

Mint looked around for a stick. Finding none that would require no effort to get, Mint took a risk. He leaned forward and pressed his paw to the orb's surface. It was cool, smooth, not dangerous at all.

Then, the orb exploded; it's light growing brighter than before. Mint yelped, scrambling back. His paw plunged into a gopher hole. He yanked it back out, squeaking. No other sound could come out. 

The orb wasn't much of an orb anymore. It was more of a cloud now. A sort of blue mist. The mist pulsed, shifting the colors and brightness about, much like a galaxy. 

Mint watched the cloud, fascinated. His eyes had adjusted to the light. What was it doing? It didn't belong here, that's for sure. 

As Mint studied the cloud, it moved. It billowed over, surrounding Mint. The air turned cool. Mint's eyelid's fluttered. There was something in the cloud. It was making him tired. Mint struggled away, fighting to keep awake. But the cloud had rooted itself in his brain. Mint collapsed.  His world went dark.