The Gathering (Sky: Children of the Light)

~Chapter Seven~

SUNNY'S POV

The four children tumbled out on to a sunny meadow in Daylight Prairie. A shimmering yellow butterfly hovered over them in a confused manner, sprinkling energy from its wings. Sunny blinked at the sudden brightness and swatted the butterfly away. Looking around, Sunny saw her tent circle in the distance. Launching off the ground, she glided over and landed in the center of the circle. Everyone else silently landed next to her. Rayem was the first to speak. 

"Uh, guys? Not sure if this is the best time to say anything, but I left Ao at the Forgotten Ark," 

Sunny mentally smacked herself for forgetting the baby dark dragon. 

"We'll get her later," She said, "For now, we should practice light magic for the next Gathering." 

"I'm not sure if I need to practice," Edna said, "And I can prove it!" She scrunched her eyes closed and snapped her fingers. Suddenly, Ao the Dark Dragon was standing on her palm. All three of the other children's mouths dropped open in surprise. Edna handed Ao over to Rayem, and started explaining "In the home space I got to actually meet spirits! They taught me lots of magic!" 

"How did you have time to learn all that?" Rayem asked her.

"I was in there for a really long time, don't you know? I was there for three weeks!"

"What?" Sunny exclaimed. Edna shrugged 

"Time must move differently here, so yeah, I had a lot of time to practice." This set Sunny thinking and she had an idea. 

"You could teach us magic!" She exclaimed. 

"I dunno... there were a lot of complicated things to do to get your mental strength to the right level and stuff," she said 

"Might as well start now!" Sunny said cheerfully, "We all are more than ready!"

✵

Turns out they weren't. Each sky child had to go through a lot of extensive mental exercises such as meditating, basic telekinesis, and telepathy. By the time they were done, only Sunny had managed to make any sparks of light, and they didn't move as planned. When Edna started teaching them how to summon light sparks, she warned them that as soon as you 'unlocked your inner light', you couldn't lock it up again. Apparently, it reacted to emotions and was always growing stronger and more powerful. That explained why Sunny had set the grass on fire. 

If a sky child was peaceful though, they could master light magic in a matter of days. Edna told each of them to 'reach their inner peace' to unlock their light. 

As they were meditating, Sunny started playing piano, and she summoned her light. Dark blue sparks had flown out of her fingertips and played along with Sunny. She freaked out at the foreign magic, and couldn't summon her light again. 

✵

"Have you summoned your light before?" Edna called up to Sunny. She was flying in loops above the long grasses and flowers of the Butterfly Fields, sprinkling her light down on the flowers. 

"Nope!" 

Suddenly, they heard a shout from Rayem. 

"GUYS! I DID IT!" A star of glittering green light floated across the grassy valley. Rayem waved his hands and the star changed shape. Eclipse and Zaira ran around it, and Sunny made a dark blue star and danced it around Rayem's. Rayem's floating light piece suddenly darkened and he collapsed onto the ground.