Chapter Text
The light from the Moon shone brightly through the skylight of the building. It engulfed the room like the comforting glow that might come from a child’s nightlight at bedtime, although comfort was unfortunately not felt by the group standing around the shadow created in the middle of the moon’s shine. The shadow, wavering at the edges, depicted the image of a tall figure that the group was grimly familiar with.
“Well that can’t be any good,” one of the group members said as he crossed his arms, a tall wooden staff in his hands.
A great sense of unease was shared among the group as they all cast wary glances at each other. The situation that they all knew was one day inevitable, but one they weren’t expecting to see rear up again so soon.
One of the girls shifted uneasily and ran her hands over a section of her blonde hair. “I thought that he was locked away. Wasn’t he trapped?”
“He was,” the first boy said again. “But apparently, that wasn’t enough.”
“But question is, how he has strength to have escaped,” a deep, booming voice said. The man stared at the shadow still showing on the floor. The group again exchanged more anxious looks as the silence took over.
After a few moments, one of the other boys stepped forward towards the shadow, looking at it and then back up at the group. “Well, however he managed is irrelevant. What matters now is that we put a stop to whatever plan he’ll be trying to come up with this time. We know that in some way the children will be threatened. We need to do our job and make sure that it won’t go too far before we stop him.” The others nodded in agreement. The shadow on the floor flickered and began to shift into a new image conjured by the Moon and everyone waited to see what he had to say about the situation.
After a moment the shadow transformed into a depiction of two figures of girls standing hand in hand. One was taller and the other was much shorter, like an adult and a child holding hands. After another moment the shadow altered to show first the younger girl with her hands up holding a butterfly, and then the older girl with her hands on her head, as if in pain, facing away from a butterfly. The group returned their looks to each other, this time with confusion, trying to understand what was being told, or rather, shown to them.
“Well, what is that supposed to mean?” the figure like a tall rabbit asked gruffly.
The largest man shook his head, unable to piece it together fully. The others didn’t say anything either, trying to think through what the images were supposed to mean. On the floor, the shadows wavered and disappeared back into the moonlight.
“Are we supposed to figure out who those people are, perhaps?” asked the girl with the long, blonde hair. “Maybe they’re meant to help us?”
“Or hurt us,” the boy with the staff said quietly. No one said anything in response to that.
After a moment of silence, the moonlight shifted towards a circular spot on the floor which opened up and a kind of circular podium began to rise, the top adorned with a massive blue-tinted crystal. All at once the group looked around at each other with surprise.
“Is he doing what I think he’s doing?” asked the other young girl with red hair, looking at the others.
“Maybe…” the boy with the staff replied. “I wouldn’t be too shocked, with the kind of situation we’re dealing with. The question is who he’ll assign.”
Everyone waited with bated breath as the light from the Moon phased through each angle and crevice of the crystal as the shimmering light began to form at the top. The light flickered and at last formed the image of a figure. No one said anything while studying the image, but the four youngest of the group immediately looked at each other with confusion. The boy with the staff leaned forward onto it as he stared, puzzled, at the image the light had formed as the other three murmured to each other, That’s not possible, That doesn’t make sense, How?
The boy frowned as he took a step forward towards the image of the young girl with long hair sprinkled with butterfly clips, her arm raised in a motionless wave.
“Maya?”
