Terra, deep in the Central Sphere of the Third Realm of Earth.
Present day.
Lumi's life had forever been full of bright moments. Like her name suggested, it was never dull and that was a truth that anyone who knew her could readily attest to. However and despite the myriad of activities that continued to occopy her mind, sometimes, if not always these activities were never enough to keep the dark thoughts that normally to plagued a mind at bay. Hence and more often than not the girl found herself falling into the occasional bout of self doubt that usually approached depression if not tamed early enough.
Like many other girls her age, Lumi had her own fair share of fears and doubts. Her mistakes and disappointments were also many. She was twenty eight, twenty eight summers old having been born in the height of a southern summer. She, like many others her age had been well educated, but unlike many of her peers she was yet to make a name for herself. Where others were excelling working in their careers and launching their own businesses, Lumi had nothing to show save for her meagre earnings, profits that she made from her vegetable sales at the local EPZ and surrounding kiosks.
Every day was a burden as the heavy weight of her failures grew heavier with each passing day. Everyday it grew worse, her frustrations, her disappointments mounting with every passing year. It felt like she was racing against time and for what? She still had no idea. No insights into her purpose or the destiny that had called her into this world. Just the clock ticking, always ticking loudly and reminding her, every day, of what she was failing to do.
On this particular day, Lumi's weary feet had dragged her all the way to the very edge of their family owned land. The patch on which she sat was the farthest corner on the very west side of a very lonely place. All that could be seen was green, green flora that ranged from the little minutest herb or weed to the giant oaks that towered high over most of the shrubbery. Of course there was the occasional animal, a small bird or a cricket that cried out to stamp its presence. Where one was lacking the evidence was always there, the marks of their existence so clear for anyone to ignore. It would either be a burrow, a nest, the occasional chewed up leaf or the cobwebs that indicated that this jungle was also home for many arachnids. The little shack erected halfway down the hill also proved that a human could also be found there. Whether it was to perform an errand or they were just there in a reclusive mood, the land still bore the evidence of their presence, accepting their marks and their branding like it did every other animal.
High on a terrace overlooking the valley below, Lumi contemplated within herself. Her brown eyes gazed out at the river below and at the water fall that allowed the rushing water to cascade down it edges before crashing onto the rocks that were waiting below. She stared, but her eyes did not see anything. Though she looked outwards, her focus remained inwards, her thoughts disturbed and her moods very low.
Was she feeling depressed? The answer to that question was also relative, but Lumi did not like to think that way. She regard herself differently and instead, she liked to think herself as above certain emotions, the dark wirling emotions that crippled, their ugliness murking the crystal clear waters that was the purity of life. For as long as the sun was shining and as long as the sky and the ocean remained blue, there would always be hope and just like her name suggested, a bright light shining at the end of every dark tunnel, lighting the path that was meant to lead to the place that was joy.
'Lumi...' She thought, even as a lone Eagle flew low, screeching loudly from right above her head.
What was it seeking? Her gaze looked up as her thought became diverted. A mate? Probably. A nest full of young ones? Not likely, for in Lumi's eyes the bird looked decidedly male. Not that she knew what it was that she was supposed to look for, but her instincts told her so and she believed it, deciding that it was male and probably full from a heavy breakfast of a nest full of young ones.
'Oh, to be an animal' Lumi thought as spoke the words quietly to herself. However, she soon changed her mind as she reflected heavily upon the plight of many animals she was acquainted with starting with a certain cat, a little Grey feline that she knew was going through a hell living at the mercy of a certain someone's children. Or that chicken, a flightless bird named after a vampire, only because its feathers were black and its eyes red. The list was long and no, there was no possible way that those animals had more peace than her. Not when their future was so uncertain. But then, she reflected sadly, how was their fate any different from her own. Could she truthfully say that her own future was more certain than that of animals. Could she really change her destiny, her fate when she knew next to nothing of exactly what that was? She sighed.
Lumi continued contemplating her own existence in silence. The what ifs many as her mind continued weaving different and different outcomes had she born into a different life. Above all she reflected on what it was that was really special about a human being's existence, that is until a rustling of dry leaves caught her ears and she paused those thoughts for a moment.
Her mind desperate to go back to her brooding thoughts dismissed it as the wind. It was obvious though, or so she believed, being that on that on that slope she would feel the wind harder with the blunt force of the morning breeze being felt by the low coffee bushes and the dead leaves that were rustling beneath them.
More rustling and the sound of a twig snap. Not so much what she had come to expect from the rushing wind, a gale maybe but a breeze? Hence she began to grow cautious. For a moment her deep contemplations were thrown aside and she began turning her head already dreading what she knew her eyes would see. A set of strong fingers grasped her shoulders, gripping her firmly before turning her around still seated as she was. Terror filled her heart as her mouth gaped, brown eyes widening as they stared, taking in the rising figure that had appeared behind her.
It looked ancient, almost magnificent with its face hidden beneath a cowled cloak of white with slight undertones of Grey along its seams. Only the bronzened hand was visible and within it gripp was held a beautiful ivory staff made peculiar by the golden engravings and the markings of a blazing sun alternating with those of a roaring lion carved out on the uppermost part of its circumference.
Unbidden, Lumi's gaze roamed higher now captured by a pulsing blue crystal held within a golden circlet. The arches of which were long, ending sharply into a myriad crystals probably diamonds that adorned spiky tips. The crystal gleamed. A flashing white that enraptured her, drawing her full attention and capturing it in such a way that her gaze was unable to pull away as her mind was imprisoned by the staff's beauty.
'The truth of a heart is in the light within.' Finally, the figure spoke, a strange tongue that had even stranger musical lilt to it. The language, a tongue that Lumi could not place, but could somehow understand despite knowing that it was foreign. All these she knew because of the mindlink, all this new information flooding into her mind without her even knowing it.
'Favour arise!' the words struck her like a lightning bolt, stirring within her such emotions and awakening her senses. As the figure stretched out the staff, her eyes teared, her gaze blurry watching as the pulsing blue crystal touched her forehead. A second jolt racked through her body and suddenly, her senses were clearer, her mind sharper, her thoughts clearer than they had ever been.
'Who... What...' she began to stutter as her mind fought off the daze that had once brought her under.
'To the Fourth Realm.' grey eyes locked onto brown ones, staring hard from beneath the cowl of the white cloak and as the figure spoke these words, the pulsing blue crystal began to fade, draining off as it fed off into the little diamonds at the spikes. The crystalled spike ends glowed a dazzling blue that went on to turn white before lighting up the entire staff into a pillar of dazzling white with gold. The light was somewhat blinding and it engulfed Lumi as the air around her began to shimmer. Time warped on itself and hidden forces began pulling at her from every direction, every cell, every molecule in her body distorted as their atoms contorted forcing her body to transform in ways that she could never understand. Then, Lumi was falling, the sensation weird as her body, her soul and her entire spirit was pulled into a swirling vortex of blue and gold.
Then... then there was nothing as blackness swallowed her whole.