A New Beginning

Isra stood upon an endless field of glassy black rock that cracked outward like a spiderweb. Something huge had crashed into it and tore the whole surface open. Leaving thousands of cracks extending to the horizon.

Streaks of purple radiance were shining upward from the cracks, indicating a massive source of light somewhere below. Isra was standing right on top of the impact point. She peered down through one of the fissures and saw a huge, revolting orb of pure energy calling upon her and everything around her.

The call was so intense that the ground beneath her started cracking. Upon this, she flinched and took a step back, which caused more cracks. She panicked and tried to stay as still as possible, but to no avail, because in the next moment, the whole world gave in to the call of the orb, and she found herself falling straight down.

But somehow she didn't feel any fear or anxiety but instead felt revigorated. The call of the orb had diminished all other feelings except pure hunger for it. To attain whatever was hidden within it. Her silver eyes held reflections of a million diminishing lights.

She kept falling down until a huge shard of black glass flew past her, and she saw something extremely strange. It wasn't her who was falling, but instead a lanky, pale man with scars under his right eye. The man had a vicious grin on his face, and then he collapsed against the orb.

Isra gasped and woke up, breathing frantically. She was already pretty tense about going on a month-long adventure today, and this nightmare, along with other things, really complicated things, Isra had a huge flaw. She just had to think about everything and anything until the root.

And so she started thinking.

********************

It was a sunny and beautiful day. The wind was gentle, and the sunflowers swayed along with it in perfect harmony. Countless bees and bugs were filling themselves up with nectar. Almost all of them were respectful to each other. Except for lady bugs.

Lady bugs chomped on the stalks and talked about anything and everything. For being so tiny and beautiful, the words that came out of their mouth were totally opposite. They were extremely judgy and criticizing.

All in all, the day was beautiful.

#212 was gliding above with his squadron; they were performing an aerial scouting maneuver. Every flower they flew by, bees waved at them, and some even offered them freshly brewed nectar. The squad was gaining reputation, and its fearless leader was emerging as a hero; already, countless rumors about him had spread like wildfire in the colony.

'Did you see how the captain was treating the hostages?'

'I know right. He seemed so calm; I bet on my wings that if it ever came down to that, he could vanquish them in a heartbeat'.

'Did you see how he fought the demon child?'

'Yeah!! The cloud had to pull him away from obliterating her completely.'

'Phew, captain is damn scary!'

Meanwhile, #212, who listened to the rumors as he flew by, smiled and then shuddered. Things really hadn't gone the way the rumors had stated. But who was he to complain? #212 didn't mind some free reverence.

Soon he landed on an especially tall sunflower and spoke in his antenna comm.

"Nector#1, find the cloud and gear up. We're going to retrieve the demon child and Khadija."

"But it's still not noon, sir," the comm said.

"I know, soldier. Do as you're told."

"Roger that, sir."

Soon, a lazy, annoyed cat of pure clouds emerged from the stalks, swarmed by countless annoying bees. The bees had woken him up from deep sleep by stinging on his back. It all seemed very personal. The particular bee who stung him was grinning as well.

"He stung me!" Qatan protested to #212

#212 slowly smiled as well, imagining the scene, but then wiped the mock off his face and cleared his throat.

"Alright, cloud, let's go."

"But it's still noon..."

"Yes, I know. We don't know what we will face there. We don't know if the demon child will come with us willingly or not. Queen Golden has requested that we use all means possible to bring them both here. So, let's go."

"Sigh, fine. Can I at least have breakfast?" Qatan said

#212's right eye twitched on that.

"What do you eat anyway?"

Qatan looked up at the sky full of sparrows and crows.

Suddenly, #212 didn't want to investigate further.

"You can have it when we get back, Nector#1!"

#212 addressed the bees.

"Break up and make two subsquads. Squad A, led by me, will fly ahead and get to Khadija, and Squad 2, led by Qatan, will extract the demon child! "