| A DARK SUNRAY By Annie Wang |
| CHAPTER 1 The day she fell from the sky changed my life. I was busy collecting sunrays, for Bonai had told me we were out. I carefully filled each flask with 4 sunrays, sealed them with wax, and moved on to the next one. As I was filling the seventh bag, I had to move, for the place where I stood no longer yielded fresh sunrays. Flying to the next field, I quickly saw that there were no other Gatherers here. How odd, I thought to myself. Usually on a sunny day like this one, dozens of Gatherers would be busily collecting sunrays for their Large Carries. I was there that day for that purpose, also. My Large Carry was suffering from hunger and thirst, and needed nourishment. So I had donned my Small Carry, with not as much of an appetite, and headed for the Fields. Now these Fields are all individual; in the Land of Happiness, each Field was different. No one knows exactly how many Fields there are, but there are quite enough to make your head spin. Of the Fields, the Carries' favorites were those producing Honey-dipped rays and those Bathed in Syrup or Sprinkled with Sugar. These were treats for Large Carries, who, when given such a treat, sang a pure, sweet, melody and flew with greater acceleration. However, a sweet sunray would also make a Large Carry's flight shorter and sometimes unpredictable. The most reliable sunrays were those found in the Plain and Bottled Fields. Most Carries detested the Plain sunrays as they were, well, plain. The bottled sunrays were still unpopular, but better than the Plains because the bottled state of the sunrays guaranteed freshness. Of the other Fields, there were Fast Rays, Acceleration-X, Slow Rays, Musical Rays (which made the Carries sing), Recovery Rays, and many, many, more. The Recovery Rays were rarely used, as the were only needed to heal a wound or depression in a Carry. They could also ward off evil and protect a Carry from it, in case evil did strike, which was extremely rare yet fatally dangerous. On this particular day, I wanted to collect some Bathed in Syrup rays, a few Plain, and many Bottled. I had just come from the Bottled field and, as it ran out, moved to the next field, which was the Plain one. THere I discovered that there were no Gatherers at all. Another strangeness that caught my eye was that there were only a couple of rays left, all of which were scrawny, shriveled, and some were even black! At this, I drew my breath in sharply and hurriedly thought back to just light-years ago. Was there anyone in the Bottled Field? I searched my mind for clues. Yes, there must have been, I thought, half-convincing myself. But were there? Or was I just trying to convince myself? The sky flickered twice. Suddenly, I heard a sound so distressing that I stopped in mid-thought. The sound of a dying Carry. A flame burst uo to my left. Then the sky turned black. Pitch black. Panicked, I turned to sit on my Small Carry to think. It was gone. * I was floating in a substance-- warmth. In a substance that was part of a place I have seen before, but never visited. I know this place. But not its name... What is it called? As I probed through my thoughts, I knew. The Land of Happiness. I looked ar myself; dressed in my nightgown. And I perceived something else: This is a dream. Even as the words formed in my mind, the world around me flickered. I hurriedly said, "It's real!" The flickering stopped. I thought once more about this strange place. A dream. I opened my lips to say it, but, as I suspected, the flickering started once more. My suspicions confirmed, I focused myself on my now fading surroundings and cried out, "I am in a reality!" Again, the flickering stopped. Delighted at my own ability to change things, I whispered the words "Land of Happiness". A large bird flew overhead. I think it was a crane. I aquinted, trying to keep it within my eyes' span of vision. It started to disappear on the pinkish-purple horizon. Angrily, I fiercely said between clenched teeth, "Come back!" At this sudden burst of anger, the bird burst into flames and slowly dropped. It was then that I realized I was falling also, but at an extremely slow rate. Suddenly, the sky turned black. Not a fade, but subito black, like my piano teacher always said. Afraid I would crash into anything, I huddled into a cannonball. Then I thought. Did I set that bird into flames? And what about the sky turning black? Was that my doing? Frightened yet pleased with myself, I pondered these questions. If you were confused about the two different paragraphs, I will tell you this: they were from two different speakers' points of view. CHAPTER 2 no room to write it all.... will be continued!!! click CHAPTER 2 to see the next chapter. Please exit the building at the top of the stairs (if you don't want to read chapter 2) and we hope you enjoyed your visit. |