2 Prologue #2

It was about 11pm when the two of them where able to settle down and started dozing of. Safely tied in his makeshift harness with a cushion making the hard tree bearable he soon started snoring quite loudly.

Startled awake by his snoring she sighed and complained inwardly:

"How come it's always the snoring one that falls asleep first?! There's no way I can can fall asleep with this noise."

Giving up on directly sleeping for the next few hours she closed her eyes and at least tried to calm down by emptying her head and tried to ignore all that noise coming from below her.

It worked quite well and she was almost able to doze off when she noticed something strange about her sourroundings. It was too quiet. Not counting his overly loud snoring there was nothing to hear.

Even though she felt a soft breeze on her cheeks she was unable to hear the leaves rustle. Not only that, there should have been the sounds of insects and other critters as well. It was impossible for a forest to ever be completely quiet. And yet this was obviously the case here.

She started to get uneasy. After realizing how quiet it was the ambient trees seemed eerie. Getting nervous she switched on her flashlight and started to climb down. Careful as to not wake him up she slowly reached the ground.

With soldid ground under her feet she decided to switch off her flashlight because she wouldn't be able to see anything outside the cone of light since the contrast was too strong.

Slowly adapting her eyes to the darkness she noticed a very dim light coming from the forest to her left. The light had a bluish-green colour and seemed to pulsate lightly. Or was it just her imagination? She didn't know.

Seemingly unable to decide if she should go her eyes cept darting between her fiance sleeping in the tree and the mysterious light. After wavering between staying and going she firmly took out her phone, made a screenshot of her current location for the case she got lost and decicively took a step towards the light.

"It's not like he's going to wake up anytime soon..." she thought as she continued walking.

But even after walking for more than ten minutes the light didn't become much stronger. It took her almost half an hour to finally reach the source.

She gasped at the sight in front of her. It was a beautiful clearing. Although it wasn't decorated with flowers or the likes, the combination of grass and vines surrounded by towering trees gave her a strangely harmonious feeling. But the most impressive sight was located at the middle of the clearing.

It was ... an egg? No, that wouldn't be accurate enough. In front of her was a mass of meter tall grass, winding around a huge crystal.

The crystal was completely clear, it looked like high quality ice with a tiny hue of cobalt blue. But as all the leaves were tangling around it she could only make out a little bit of the crystal.

As she moved her hand towards the leaves in order to move the aside the leaves started to wriggle aside by themselves!

"So weird" she mumbled while she looked at the grass clearing up, showing her the crystal in its entirety.

No question, the light definitely came from the crystal itself. Since the light had to go though all those leaves the pure blue light was dimmed considerably and tinged with a hint of green.

The crystal was shaped like an egg and reached her knees. It looked like pure jade, though it was blue, but it was without any blemishes...

On its surface she could see tiny white capillaries glittering like diamonds. Light seemed to travel through the capillaries from the base of the egg to the top, giving the image of pulsating light.

While taking all of this in she just stood there, almost afraid of hurting the egg if she were to touch it.

But in the end her curiosity got the best of her and she crouched down in front of the egg.

Slowly reaching out her hand she touched the surface and was surprised by its warmth.

It wasn't cold and hard as expected but warm and almost soft to the touch. It felt alive.

She thought she almost felt something like a heartbeat coming from inside, but it couldn't be. It was impossible.

Judging from the amount of grass growing on it before it must have been here for a very long time. Almost no animal would be able to stay alive inside an egg for so long. Months maybe, but definitely not years.

But if there was something inside she couldn't bear to leave it here. Thinking about cute baby animals she wasn't able to leave an orphaned egg behind and started removing the last bit of grass on it.

"... n ... ou....ear....e?"

"What was that?" Shocked and surprised after hearing something in this silence she flinched and almost dropped the egg she was cradling in her arms.

"Can you hear me?", the voice sounded again, seemingly coming from every direction.

"Who's speaking?" Looking around her she tried to pinpoint the source of the voice.

"I'm speaking in your head, you won't see me. Will you listen to my request?"

"Who are you anyways?"

Stopping her search for the source she stood still and listened to the voice. It was definitely a woman's voice, soft and melodious.

"I am the mother of that child you're holding in your arms. I don't have much time so would you mind listening to my request?"

The voice started to sound impatient and nervous.

Hearing a voice like that made her think that the owner of it should have something really urgent on her mind. It sounded as if she was pursued by someone and tried not to let the hearer realise. Curious as to what that voice wanted from her she answered.

"Of course. What do you need from me?"

~meanwhile at the tree

Even though the harness was rather comfortable it was still made of ropes. And sleeping with ropes wound around your arms tends to constrict the blood flow.

The snoring concert started to recede, it became quiet in the forest with the only source of sound disappearing.

After sleeping for a few hours in this cramped position he started to wake up from the numbness in his arms and legs. Wondering about the silence around him he looked up, only to find the treetops empty with no sign of his love.

Getting distressed he started undoing all the knots in his harness and climbed down on the rope hanging next to him. Looking around at the bottom of the tree he saw the same light as she did, only brighter since she removed the leaves and vines covering it.

Sighing and rubbing his arms the get the blood circulating he started walking to the same direction, hoping she'd be there.

It took him quite a while to arrive at the clearing. Shoving aside the last few branches he saw his fiance holding a huge blue stone replying to something invisible in front of her.

"I see, so that's the case. If you really don't mind then I would be happy to help you in this case. I accept your offer."

"It's a promise then " the voice answered in her head, sounding relieved.

Blinding light descended, bathing her in pure white. Frightened and worried about his fiance he rushed into the clearing.

"Dear, are you all right?!"

Hearing the voice of her beloved she turned around and smiled while lovingly holding the crystal.

"Honey, something great happened! I solved our problem!" she told him while shedding tears of joy and relief.