"Even if you flew away, in my soul, you'll forever stay."
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Chapter 7: Among the butterflies
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Leaving the Isle of Dawn felt like a dream, a deserted space that seemed like a wonderland for young ones. The scent of the sea and the sand never left them even when up here in the skies, their hands tapped the clouds as they flew away from Tandi's temple.
Now, flying had never been a problem for one of the sisters, but even being this high up and being pushed around by the clouds have proven to be quite difficult. Either way, the ride was smooth and Unity sighed, trying her best not to deviate into the nearby ground.
Holding on her sister's hand from behind, Infinity gazed at the sight. The shade of pink skies turning into a bright blue and the sandy lands vanished into green grass under them. They were now entering Daylight Prairies, once again. But this time, the adventure didn't end just yet.
They weren't ready to go back home, not yet. They still needed to complete their mission. To restore peace and give light to the fallen sky-children stuck in the realms of Eden. That's why they needed to hurry, all while making sure to take note of all of their surroundings.
Hair splattered all over her face due to the wind, Infinity groaned and tugged on her sister's hand tighter. "Can't you go faster? I see land down there!" She used her other hand to point at the ground below them. Rolling her eyes at her complaint, Unity shook her head. "Not possible, I'm low on light." She retorted.
Infinity looked at her, disbelief showed on her face for a brief amount of time. "Whatttttt, but you have seven wings!" She whined, clearly not focusing when Unity thought her about the laws of aviation and flight knowledge back in their little cave. Unity chuckled, recognizing the same familiar question she'd hear from little moths by their village.
"It doesn't work that way, my flight wedges run out quickly because I'm flying as fast as I can." She explained, feeling more wind attempt to blow them away for good. She dove into the clouds, resetting her wing wedges back to seven and proceeded to speed up the flight even more before running out of them once more. Infinity yelped. "So?" She recovered from the sudden dive.
Unity gave a warning, her smile growing bigger as her hold around her sister's hand tightening. "That means that I need to dive back into the clouds to gather more light, so hang on." She lowered the both of them towards the nearby clouds, ready for her form to absorb more of the clouds' light. Her little sister screeched and looked away, not ready to receive more hair in her face. "Eden you." She muttered a curse.
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The flight lasted about five minutes, Unity receiving enough light to land them carefully on the ground and both sisters slid through the gap through the cave and crossed into Daylight Prairies at last. This was spawn, they had been here a couple of times when they were much younger, it didn't change at all since then.
But one key difference was that this place wasn't empty when they first came here with their parents. There were other sky children here, playing by the ponds, playing music by the hills, some even met by the nearby benches. It all felt so alive, it was Daylight Prairies' social space after all. Now, it was just them and a flock of doves. Both sisters were appalled.
They jumped off from the ledge and looked around the place, wondering if there were any sky children hiding in the caves or behind the hills. But their theory soon dropped when they really realized no one else was around but them. "You think Eden was responsible for this?" Infinity inquired, letting go of her sister's hand and walked off to explore.
She stepped into the pond and leaned down to curiously try and grab the fishes swimming in it. The wind was much softer than when they were in the air and she could feel the sun properly burn her skin, it was warm, just like she remembered. Unity followed her and sat on the bench, instead of walking into the pond with her.
She enjoyed water very much, but first, she needed to rest after flying them both from the Isles. "I think. It's rather sad, isn't it? You're still gonna find arguments to defend that treacherous place even until now?" She raised a brow, leaning back on the bench and feeling the warmth of the sun on her cheeks once again. A part of her missed this feeling.
Infinity stood up from her crouched position and thought for a good second or two. Her sister did have a good point, why was she still defending the Eye of Eden after all the stories she's been told? Why was she still so hyper and excited whenever someone mentioned it? Guess, she never really addressed such an obsession.
"Of course. It may be scary to what that kingdom can do to people, like reducing half the freaking population, haha!" She chuckled, her feet stomping the waters, thus disturbing the peace in the pond then stepped out. "But," she paused to inhale a breath of air and turn towards the platform to get off the social area. Unity awaited for the continuation of her explanation.
"I guess I just really want to see how bad that place is, I want to see how it really looks like, feels to be there. That's why I'm so fascinated about that place." She turned to face Unity with a kind smile. "I know it's dangerous. But that's what's so fun about it! The thrills and risks!" She explained in a rather flawed logic compared to her older sister, who much rather protected her own safety more than anything.
She didn't agree one bit with Infinity's reasoning, sometimes even finding her insane for liking such a hellhole. However, she had tried to change her mind since the age of nine and it didn't work in her favour, clearly. Unity sighed and gave a reluctant nod. "I still don't understand you," she admitted with a dry laugh.
Infinity simply lowered her eyes to the grass at her sister's response. A part of her felt an empty smile take over the current one she had, but not quite. She didn't allow it. "Yeah..not everyone can understand each other's motivations and reasons." She whispered. The wind filled the next minute of silence between them.
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Standing on the ledge of the social space and noticing more clouds forming into a tunnel, Unity and Infinity looked at each other. More flying, it seems and Infinity couldn't seem to catch a break from such a trip. There was just so much of it, it seems.
"It's unique that clouds are able to form a tunnel like that." Unity observed, stepping even closer to the edge of the platform. She stopped and glanced back at her sister, extending her hand over to her. "Come on, Prairies is down there." She insisted for her to take her hand, knowing how much her younger sister struggled with flying. But, Infinity's answer surprised the teal-caped Sky child.
"I think I'll try flying on my own, it seems easy enough here since there's a tunnel literally made." She pointed out, proving quite a valid point in Unity's eyes. Again, Unity didn't believe all too well that she'd be able to fly on her own, she gave a sly snicker at her sister's decision.
"Oh look here, little Infi wants to flap her wings and crash." She teased, accompanying Infinity's eye roll with a mocking laugh. All in good fun though, no one really meant it, most of the time. Infi flapped her cape and smacked her sister's shoulders with the red fabric.
"Just watch me," she pouted, her teeth bearing out as she wanted to prove the bragging know-it-all Unity wrong.
She jumped off the edge and began flying off, admitting to struggle in the first early minutes. She zig-zapped back and forth, flapping her wings to try and slow down. Realizing that she was flying head-first into a wall of clouds, she let out a screech and tried to shift towards the left, where the tunnel really was. Unity whistled, placing a hand over her eyes to watch her sister fail. "Oh boy," she muttered.
She knew she had to step in or else she'd lose track of her. Hating to admit it directly to the red-cape, she knew that as the older sister, she needed to be responsible. They may be alone in this world with a bunch of spirits due to the quest they were on but she couldn't afford to lose her younger sibling to the skies know where.
First of all, her parents would absolutely destroy her if she returned home without Infi and second of all, Unity couldn't just give up her sister, one of the only people that were there for her. So, jumping off the edge, she smoothly jumped into the clouds and flew where her sister recently trapped herself in. "Hey, you're doing good in there? Ate any clouds, yet?" Even after thinking about that stunning and heartfelt thought, she never ceased the tease.
Infinity shook her head, raising one hand up in the air as a sign for Unity to not intervene. "I can...do this! Look...at...this!" She even voices out her own wishes, in case she didn't notice the sign. She flapped her cape and managed to turn last minute towards the tunnel. Cheering and celebrating early, she pumped a fist up and practically haloed her next words: "Yeah! Look at me, look at me!" She flew faster, now receiving light from side to side seeing as she was now flying through a cloudy tunnel. "See you on the other side!"
Just like that, Unity lost sight of her younger sister, assuming she's happily enjoying her air-time in that tunnel. Rolling her eyes to brush off any sign of pride for witnessing Infinity's success. She flew after Infinity, flying directly above the tunnel to not encounter any turbulence due to the sudden speed change.
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Landing on the grass under a bright sun, "Whewww..." Unity Sky grazed her feet against the pavement, sliding down the hill. Daylight Prairies may have been her home kingdom however the Prairies were massive, many villages everywhere. Right now, right here, they were at the very centre of the kingdom, where the notorious temple in the skies was situated.
That can wait though, for now, her main concern was,
"Hey big sister! Unity, over here!" She heard a call from down the hill. Unity raised a brow and placed her left foot ahead, hoping to slow down as she reached the end of the hill. Unity stopped to be right in front of Infinity, noticing that she had a few red flowers in her hands. At least the both of them landed safely and they didn't get separated through the flight.
Recovering from the slide, she observed the flowers in her sister's hands, not really understanding why she pulled them out of the grass in the first place. "What do those flowers do?" Unity was only curious as she beckoned Infinity to hand one of them over. Infinity kindly did so, now both of them had one each. They looked down at the pinkish-red tints, it was rather unique. Back at their village, they mostly ran into buttercups or white tulips. They'd have to remind everyone there of another reason to visit Ayin's temple.
"They don't do anything, they just glow, see?" Infinity smiled, bringing a finger to point at the red dandelion-like flower in her hands. It took a second for the teal-cape to process those words, did they really? Unity's eyes glimmered and looked down at her own flower in her hands. They really did glow, didn't they? she saw it shimmer a lighter pink even though it was already clad in red. A small smile placed itself on Unity's own lips, "They're pretty."
Infinity nodded, so glad that her older sister agreed with her. Then, without another word, she grabbed Unity's hand abruptly, making them both drop the flowers to the ground. "Eh?" Obvious confusion was heard from the teal-caped skykid. It was true though, dropping those flowers made her realize a little something. They've been so focused on pondering how a mere flower can shimmer like that, it was like they forgot why they were here in the first place. Infinity pulled her along towards a small cave shaped like a sphere up ahead.
"Come on, you're forgetting!" She giggled.
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Obviously, the red-caped led them inside of the sphere, where it was completely empty and tranquility inhabited. Absolutely breath-taking, how the grass under them tickled their toes and the cave walls bounced their echos back to their mouths. There were holes in the walls, like a bunny's borrow. Butterflies surrounded the place like it was a new island to explore, they escaped right through from the ceiling, where a hole was pierced.
"Wow! Butterflies!" The little sister gasped, letting go of Unity's hand to run deeper inside. Her running form scared away the winged-insects and they fled to the end of the cave. Infinity chuckled and crouched down to look inside the shallow holes, all of them were in fact empty. Unity joined her, but didn't bother lowering her eyes to search along with her, she knew they were all empty. You could tell when directly coming in. Instead, "Why so surprised? There's many butterflies back home, some even enter our keep!" She insisted.
Of course, their keep referred to the cave given to their family by Ayin's personal authorities. Ah, Ayin, she never met him when she was younger. Only saw a brief sight of him coming down to visit the village when she was 12.
Nodding again, "Yeah I know, I just love them. Not as much as Eden though," she felt the need to remind Unity how much this adventure thrilled her.
And how much she wanted to set foot into the forbidden kingdom already.
Unity rolled her eyes. "Of course.." she muttered with great disinterest and discomfort.
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Changing the topic slightly, both sisters walked pff to return to the opening of the cave and peered to their sides. Compared to the Isle of Dawn, the good weather was evident. The sun was shining and the skies's blues weren't beckoned away by the mist. Most importantly, they weren't no longer in a sandy desert in which gave the impression that the sun was ready to fall into the country.
There were so many caves, in which Unity could just barely make the sight of brimming red candles inside, it attracted her interests like a moth finding a light source. Not only that, but there seemed to be a path right beside the cloudy tunnel at the very beginning. How curious, where could the path lead to? They'd need to check it out a bit later, really, everything here was so inviting.
Though, snapping out of her thoughts, Unity caught the sight of a blue light by their left, guarding a set of red candles by the ball's main entrance. She recognized that sight, saw two of them in Isle of Dawn earlier in fact. "Hey Infinity," Unity called her sister over and pointed at the trail of blue light that almost caressed their cheeks. Infinity nodded and glimpsed at the light. She raised a brow at Unity, wanting her to continue.
"How much do you wanna bet that's another spirit looking for our help?" The teal-caped eagerly followed the trail of light, accompanied by the red-caped, following along lightly. They both followed it until it retraced back to the main entrance of the cave where they met with a sitting woman, about in her late thirties. She bore a yellow cape, but with this mysterious blue light that most spirits were sprinkled with, it seemed almost transparent to the Sky sisters. "Well uh, I guess we never decided on what to bet on the first place, hah!" pointed out Infinity.
All jokes aside and something to really bet for later, the Sky sisters were quick to grasp their task. It seems that not only did the prophecy ask for the sky children to deliver the light to the fallen ones in Eden, but to save the astray spirits and help them return back to wherever they came from. The Sky sisters could have avoided to light the spirits up to relieve their memories however, saving them was almost like an instinct.
The spirit disappeared and wandered into the cave, peering from hole to hole. She looked really happy. Unity and Infinity found it hard to believe that spirits were considered as the deceased. They could have wondered what happened to this one over here. Then the answer was revealed before their very eyes.
They saw another individual walk in, this time it was a bearded man. He didn't look like a spirit whatsoever, a grown Sky kid it seems. He bore a yellow cape and quietly stepped inside of the cave. It was if a breath of his scared away the rest of the butterflies in this cave, replacing it with an eerie mist screen. "I have returned for another deal." The man pronounced these cold words.
The spirit stood up from the ground, her sandals scraping against the grass and moved her way forward to the man. She recognized him, knew him even. "It's great that you've returned, I have more butterflies to-" she inhaled a breath of air as pain down on her stomach submerged.
"...what?"
She couldn't process what exactly had happened to her, but as far as she was concerned, there was pain. And blood. The woman looked down to her stomach where the pain seemed to begin to spread onto her chest.
"...why?"
The man glared down on her, pulling the spear out of the butterfly enthusiast's stomach and backed away. "We made a deal, Maryse and you've cheated." He spat quietly. The woman fell on her knees and looked up at the man, a client of hers who bought butterflies from her all the time.
But a sin came into existence.
Once upon a time, a merchant and a client made a deal. Twelve butterflies for six candles. The client paid his end respectfully meanwhile,
"You don't remember? I asked for twelve butterflies—you sold twelve of them! But I paid my six candles and only receive a bag of three! What am I supposed to do with three butterflies, my farm is ruined."
The memory all became a blur,
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Unity and Infinity gasped, opening their eyes and glanced around. Yep, they were in fact back in the present time. The grass never rot, the holes in the wall remained empty and the butterflies still roamed these lands. But what stood in front of them now was a husk sitting body, waiting to be lit up.
They raised their candles and burned the bits of debris off the corpse's head and there bloomed a spirit all clad in yellow. Unity blinked. "And you are?" The oldest sister approached the spirit. The spirit smiled amiously. "Maryse, I've been trying to catch butterflies all my life." She responded.
Yes, they already knew. They saw her memories.
"Nice to meet you, Maryse. I'm glad we restored your memories." Infinity joined in, giving a small wave at the spirit, who now looked at the ceiling and rose a hand up in the air. A butterfly landed on it and she turned to face the sisters once more. She lowered her hand back down, setting the butterfly free.
Taking the sisters' hands in her ghost-like ones, she gave a warm smile at the two successors of the prophecy, it was if she knew what their roles really were.
"I'm just glad that someone finally knows what happened to me, I don't feel so vulnerable anymore." She admitted softly before disappearing into a mist of blue particules.