The Light in Aquala

Mara yawned, breaking the silence while covering her mouth with the back of her hand.

“So how did the light bring you here, Rivia? Do you know why the light in the waterfall exploded and the sounds we heard, was that Jaxx?”

Hearing his name, Jaxx raised his head from his paws, tilted his head to the side and looked at her questioningly, his eyes intense and curious. The ring of light around his pupils brightened for a moment, and his ears lifted, and then he seemed to decide that the question had not been meant for him after all. He lowered his head back down and closed his eyes, and his breathing became slow and even.

Rivia smiled at him and then looked up at Mara, and the Neon on her face started swirling in deeper purple and golds. She ran her fingers through Jaxx's fur, her movements slow and thoughtful.

"Yes, those sounds you heard must have been the two of us trying to figure out where we were. They were probably distorted as we were traveling and then became clearer once we arrived.”

She looked up at each of them in turn before continuing. “The light is going to be hard to believe, I know I didn’t believe it at first. It is not just a light, but more like a door at one end of a portal or a passage. The light connects places far away, places that you could never even imagine and that are each very, very different."

She paused, her eyes distant.

"I first saw the vibrant blue light surrounded by silver and gold when I was young. I was in my village, playing near the edge of the forest, and I saw something glowing in the distance. It was beautiful. I followed it, but it disappeared. It returned years later and by that time my Neon had expanded across my face and was glowing all the time, swirling whenever I was happy or excited or upset."

"Then one night, my Neon had started glowing brighter and swirling faster all on its own, and that incredibly beautiful, vibrant blue light, with what looked like silver and gold jewels of light surrounding it appeared close by. I knew that this light was something special. I called Jaxx and when we approached it, we were taken to a place I had never been before. A place that was not part of my world but where so much was explained to me by others who also have the Neon colors glowing on them. I finally began to understand how the Neon worked, and why I had it when no one else that I knew did."

Lena leaned forward. "A different world? Your Neon glow was explained? You said that there are others like us too?" She could barely contain her excitement!

"Yes." Rivia's voice was quiet but certain. "The Neon is not just what we have on our faces and hair, and it is not an unexplainable phenomenon. We have discovered that there are scientific reasons why it exists and logical explanations for those who want to learn and have someone to teach them. The Neon is made up of beautifully colored, glowing threads that can combine and lead to portals, which are always a vibrant blue glowing color surrounded by silver and gold. These portals are connections between worlds."

"Those with Neon can see the threads clearly while others will see soft glows on living things, or small colorful lights which are reflections of the threads. Only people with the Neon can see and follow the threads and eventually they can harness and use threads to reach the blue, silver and gold portals and travel to other places.

Sometimes we will be pulled through them without warning and then there are times that we can choose to go through them."

Mara's mind was spinning.

This went against everything she had learned at the Academy. Neon was a natural occurrence, a result of the Season changes in the atmosphere. It was not threads or a portal that connected different worlds. But Rivia was talking seriously and her words had a ring of truth to them. Mara could not dismiss them out of hand.

"Can you show us how the Neon threads work?" asked Mara, her mind spinning with the new possibilities opening up for them if this were true.

Rivia looked at her for a long moment, then she nodded slowly. "I can try but it will not be what you expect."