The Light in Aquala

The sun had finished rising and it was morning.

As the sisters gazed around, it was obvious that every person in the village was outside. They stood clustered along the beach, between the homes and near the cooking fires. No one was talking or eating and no children were chasing one another through the sand.

Even the dogs seemed unusually still. A large brown dog with floppy ears sat near a group of older ones, trying hard to look brave. A smaller, wiry dog paced near one group of people, its hackles raised, staring into the jungle.

Every face was turned toward Mara and Lena.

Marta, the grandmother who had taught them how to weave baskets, was sitting on a log with her hands folded in her lap. Her face was pale and her eyes fixed on the jungle behind the sisters. All of her adopted children, those whose parents had passed away, were crowded around her, looking up into the sky.

There was Tomas, the fisherman who always had a joke ready, standing near his hut with a fishing net gripped in his hands, not mending it, not holding it the way he usually did, but gripping it like a weapon.

Tavi was near the front of one group and ran up to Mara and Lena as soon as he saw them. His expression made their stomachs tighten. His eyes were wide, and his hands were clenched into fists so tightly that his knuckles were white.

"Tavi?" Mara slowly whispered.

The boy didn't answer immediately. His eyes moved past her, toward the jungle. "You came back." Mara and Lena frowned.

"Of course we came back," exclaimed Lena, her voice slightly louder than she intended.

The boy swallowed hard, his eyes now darting between the faces of both sisters. "You weren't supposed to come back yet. You said that you would be gone longer.” He looked up at them with relief in his eyes. “I’m so glad you came home early, we need you.” His eyes started to fill with uneasiness.

“We need you here because they arrived."

Lena glanced at Mara.

"Who?"

Tavi opened his mouth, but before he could answer, a strange clicking sound could be heard deep within the trees. Every villager turned toward the sound and the dogs started growling.

"Tavi," Mara said quietly. "Tell me what happened."

The boy's eyes flickered between her and the jungle. His voice, when it came, was barely audible. "We were all playing on the beach," he began. "Just like we always do. We were running and I tripped and fell. Then when I looked up, I saw lights in the jungle, above the top of the trees."

"Lights?" Lena prompted gently.

"Little lights, like the ones that float around at night, but not the same. They were brighter and were moving all together in a line like they knew where they were going." Tavi paused, his voice growing uncertain. "I thought maybe they were just fireflies, but then the lights kept changing colors all at the same time”

Mara's heart began to beat faster. "What happened next?"

"I ran back up to the village and told everyone, then we all gathered here and watched the lights come all the way to the edge of the jungle and then stop. They just stayed moving back and forth like they were watching us."

Lena stepped closer. "Watching?"

Tavi nodded. "I think they were waiting for something. And then the older ones started saying that maybe they were waiting for you because you went to Aquala, and maybe Aquala is where the lights had come from."

Mara exchanged a look with her sister. "We didn't see any lights like that on the way back," she gently said as she looked up and saw what Tavi was trying to explain. "Not until just now."

Tavi looked at her, his eyes wide. "And then right after they arrived, we heard the sounds."

"Sounds?" Lena and Mara said in unison. They were both really scared now.

"The clicking." Tavi nodded vigorously. "It started out of nowhere. Click-click-click, and then three fast clicks, and then a long pause, and then it started again. Some of the older ones think it's a message. Some villagers say it's just wind in the trees. But I heard it. I heard the pattern."

"The three clicks and a pause repeating itself sounds like a pattern to me too." Lena admitted.

The boy shook his head, his voice dropping to an urgent whisper. "I couldn't understand it. Not like real words. But I know it means something."

A murmur was moving through the villagers. Mara looked at Lena and they both knew something had already reached the village and was waiting.

While all of this was happening, a sudden shimmer caught Lena's eye, and she turned toward the ocean.

The morning daylight had spread across the water and far offshore, she thought she saw a light. It appeared once then disappeared. Mara followed her gaze. "Did you see that?"

Mara nodded. But before either sister could say anything else, the Neon on Mara's face suddenly brightened. A ripple of Neon blue-green light spread outward across the sand beneath her feet.

The villagers gasped.

Lena's Neon answered. Orange light spilled across the beach and into the jungle. Where the two colors met, that same incredible new color appeared, then turned white and disappeared, just like it had in the jungle.

The village fell completely silent and from somewhere in the crowd, an old woman spoke up in a hoarse voice.

"Lena, Mara," she said, her voice thin but steady. "There is something that has been observed over generations, for as long as anyone can remember. Something passed down in the stories, and it is about the lights. And about the ones who go looking for them."