Anthem: Hope

Chapter 3

By the time Lily got to the Lake area, it was nearing night time. Lily didn't care though. She was more excited to see her cave.

'Their cave.'

Lily quickly put on her mask as she dove into the water. When she opened her eyes, her heart ached and she felt like crying.

The lake was exactly the same as she remembered. There was still an abundance of fish, glowing corals and glowing algae and even glowing jellyfish The algae were even different colors which made it lively.

The further Lily swam, the worst the air pressure got. Stopping to pop her ears, Lily continued. As she continued she felt herself become emersed with her memory.

Lily saw a younger her with her father figure swimming hand and hand. Once in awhile, he would let her hand go to grab something that he thought would interest her. As they kept swimming, Lily followed them until they're images disappeared. Shaking her head, she swam up and pulled her mask off.

Looking up, Lily saw her cave. It was big and the place still looked the same. Getting out of the water, Lily went to start a fire. Once the fire was made, she started to undress and hang her wet clothes.

"Mmm. I wonder what I should wear now." Clad in nothing Lily went through her bag as she searched for a towel and some clothes. Looking at her clothes, Lily saw a hoodie long sleeve dress which she grabbed. Once she was dressed, Lily walked to one of the walls of the cave.

The cave was huge and had some runes on it. It also had some furnitures in it which Lily was happy to see it alive and well. Tracing the walls of the cave, she smiled. These were stories. Legends of the Gods and Anthem themselves. Some of them contained stories of how the creatures of their world came to be. Walking around, Lily stopped at one story that was ebbed into the wall. It was a story her father came up with.

As she traced it, she heard her father's voice echo throughout the cave.

"Before the beginning of Anthem, the Gods created a being. Two beings actually, they were made to be twins. One was as bright and sunny as the morning sun. While the other was quiet yet soothing like the evening moon. One day, one of the twins grew jealous. Even though she was loved by all, it was shared with her sister. The twin became selfish and jealous. To soothe her sun sister, the moon sister ran away. But even though she ran away, the creatures of the planet fell in love with her.

Consumed by jealousy, the sun sister... killed her. When the sun sister realized what she had done, she cried. Angst filled her as she held her sister's body. The longer she held the body, the more it drove her into insanity... Before anyone knew it, she killed herself just to be with her sister.

When word of this got to the Gods they grew angry and destroyed all of their creations. They then remade everything. After that, the Gods created the Anthem in hopes of getting the two girls back. But in the end... their attempts failed. As a result, the Gods abandoned all of their creations to grieve for the two girls whom they loved the most."

A little girl's voiced echoed throughout the cave as she spoke

"Then... What happened?"

"I don't know my dear. But... It was said that the two girls found each other, only to be separated once again. Thus a curse had been born that had befallen the two sisters. They were forever to be torn apart...  No matter how much their souls long to be with one another."

That was how his story went. Even though he insists that it was a legend, Lily knew better than to take his word for it. Smiling sadly to herself, she started to carve her own legends and stories that she came across. As she was working on it, a hiss echoed throughout the cave. Startled Lily turned back to see where it had came from. Hearing silence, Lily shrugged her shoulders as she went back to carving. A couple of minutes later, Lily heard the sound again. Putting her carving knife down, she grabbed a stick and lit it up. As she did that, Lily grabbed her other knife.