Lumina Nightglow's Arc

Chapter 15 of 34

Lumina stood in the freed grove. The dead tree lived again. Green vines climbed its trunk. Beside her, the woman who had been a frost spirit pressed her hands to her chest. Crystal leaves crowned her hair. Vines wrapped her arms. The bitter cold was gone from the whole forest. Lumina felt it through the roots. Every grove hummed warm and awake. She had won. Then the power hit her. It rushed up from the ground into her chest. It was greater than before. She could sense each tree, each root, each sleeping seed. Her leaf-marked wings burned bright. New crystal markings glowed on her skin. She swayed on her feet. Ember Flameheart lowered her flame. Her fire hair pooled on the healed ground. "You carry more than you did," she said. "The whole forest feeds you now." Around them, the starlit host circled close. Their star-flecked bodies glowed strong again in the warmth. One wolf-shaped creature bowed its head to Lumina. The others followed. They looked to her, as they always did. Lumina breathed slow. She pushed the extra power down into the soil, the way she had learned. The burning eased. "The forest is safe," she said. "For now, we rest." She thought of home. Her body ached to sleep. A soft blue glow crossed the grove. Luminara Tidewhisper drifted in on a thread of water, her mermaid tail curled beneath her. Starlight pieces shone in her long blue hair. She had guided Lumina to the heart long ago. Now she smiled at how far Lumina had come. "You did it," she said. "You woke the last cold ground." Behind her floated Aqua Luna, who had once made a river in the air to keep Luminara alive. Her hands still trailed water. "I brought a road home," Aqua Luna said. A ribbon of water curved through the trees toward the great tree sanctuary. It caught Luminara and carried her gently. Lumina followed the water road with her host at her heels. She was too tired to fly high. The forest breathed easy around her, warm and green. At the sanctuary, she lay down among the roots. The starlit creatures settled in a ring, guarding her sleep. But sleep did not come easy. As Lumina closed her eyes, a new pull woke in her chest. The elders were calling. She felt them through her deepened bond with the forest, an old and steady summons. She had grown too strong to ignore it. Luminara Tidewhisper touched her shoulder. "You feel it too," she said quietly. "The elder fairies want to see you. The one with starlight hair leads them. They know what you have become." Lumina opened her eyes. Rest would have to wait. She had saved the forest, but her new power came with a question. The elders held the answer. Tomorrow she would go to them and learn what guarding the forest would ask of her now.