Lumina Nightglow's Arc

Chapter 2 of 34

Lumina flew from the grove with Luminara Tidewhisper cupped in her arms. The mermaid fairy needed water, and Lumina had none. Water dripped from Luminara's tail and struck the dry moss below. With each drop, her light grew thinner. "The forest ahead has no streams," Luminara said. Her voice had gone faint. "If we cross the dry ground, I fade. Then you have no guide, and the heart stays dark." Lumina set her down beside a shallow puddle. Luminara's glow steadied, but only a little. "I cannot carry enough water for a whole journey," Lumina said. "And I cannot leave you behind." She looked into the dark trees. The dry stretch ran farther than she could see. Her firefly wings drooped. A soft neighing broke the quiet. Between the trees stepped a unicorn with a coat like a night sky, stars drifting inside it. A golden horn rose from its brow. Wide angelic wings shimmered at its back, and its tail spread like a fish's fin. A second unicorn followed, smaller, white, with a golden mane and wings patterned like a butterfly. "You struggle," the star-coated unicorn said. Its voice was low and warm. "We felt your friend fading from far off." It knelt on the moss. "Water lives inside me. I am made of it, and of light. Set her upon my back. My body will keep her wet across any dry mile." Lumina hesitated. "You would carry her? Both of us?" The golden-maned unicorn stamped a small hoof. "That is why we came," she said, gentle and quick. "Climb on. We fly over the dry ground together." Lumina lifted Luminara onto the star-coated unicorn's back. At once the mermaid's tail pressed against the flowing galaxy of its coat, and cool water rose around her scales. Luminara gasped, then smiled. Her light flared bright and full, brighter than it had been in the grove. "It works," Luminara breathed. "I can shine here. I can shine anywhere he carries me." Lumina climbed onto the golden unicorn's back. The two unicorns spread their wings and rose above the dead trees. Below them the dry stretch rolled on, black and endless. But Luminara's light poured down now, steady and strong, and it fell on a faint path winding deep into the forest. "There," Luminara said, pointing. "That way leads to the heart." Lumina's chest lifted. She had solved it. Luminara would not fade. The guide was safe, and the path lay open at last. Then she looked closer at the path. It did not run smooth. Far ahead, the trees pressed together in a black wall, and Luminara's light stopped dead against it. No glow passed through. "The way narrows there," Luminara said, her smile fading. "Something blocks it. My light cannot reach past that wall." The unicorns flew on toward the dark, and Lumina gripped the golden mane tight.