Hmm? What's this? C.J. finally posted something? Well, it's about time! But I'm taking a different route this time and writing this one-shot for Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. I've been a big fan of the series since it first came out and was ecstatic when I heard a new game was coming.
Of the new group, Himi is one of the characters that really interest me. Perhaps it may be that she doesn't have many lines, but what if she doesn't speak much anyway? If so, why's that? These questions just drove me to write this little one-shot.
Warning: If you have not completed Dark Dawn, I suggest you wait until you do before reading this.
Keep in mind that I own nothing. I'm just a simple author trying to understand a little girl.
The Vision
The first time the power of prophecy came to her, Himi had been six. It came in the form of a nightmare late at night. The night had been calm, unthreatening. She remembered that she dreamed that she was flying amongst the stars, looking down at the world of Weyard.
Then she had felt a pull and everything became a swirl of color. She had been scared, but a little excited at the same time. When it finally slowed, she found herself in a grainy world. Everything was in a shade of light tan and the sounds echoed. She heard a child's laugh and turned and was shocked to see herself, running to keep up with her brother, Takeru.
She had watched as her other self slowed and then started screaming, pointing to the top of the stone cliff of the mountain. A large boulder came loose from its spot. It fell, little pebbles falling with it. Both Himis screamed as it fell towards her brother.
Then she had felt another pull and was rushing through the tunnel of color again. With a shriek, she woke out of the land of dreams. She had ran to her mother and cried in her lap. Kushinada listened patiently to her daughter's dream and assured her that it wasn't real. Soon after Himi had returned to bed, but she had not fallen asleep again.
When two rainy days had passed by without incident, Himi felt that her nightmare had been exactly that, a nightmare. Late on the first sunny afternoon in days, Takeru took her out to play. They chased each other around the village, laughing, carefree. No thoughts of danger.
Their chase went a few feet beyond the gates of Yamata, even though their mother told them not to leave the village. It was then that Himi remembered her dream. The positioning of the sun, the stone cliff, the joyous and taunting Takeru, it all came to her. She looked up and saw the deadly boulder wiggling in its place, the ground underneath it crumbling.
She yelled, exactly like in her dream. Takeru looked up and dove out of the way, just seconds before the boulder smashed onto the spot where he had been standing. Villagers had come when they heard the screaming and quickly checked to see if the children were alright. The children were escorted home and men checked to see if the incident had been a plan of attack against the royal family. But it was determined that the ground underneath the boulder had weakened from the amount of rain the area recently had.
It was that evening when her mother told her that she had inherited the ability to see the future. Just that morning, Kushinada had received the same vision as Himi, albeit not as clear. She hadn't known when or who would be involved. That mistake of hers had nearly caused the death of her son. But her daughter had known.
Himi hadn't known what to think of it. She was only a young child and almost saw her brother killed before her eyes. She hoped that never again would she see such horrible things. But as years went by, it seemed to her that the gods had different plans for her.
Two months had passed before her next vision came, this time on a sunny day during lunch. When she felt the all too familiar pull, she resisted. However, she was pulled in anyway, back into the hazy world of the future. When she awoke, she was on the floor with her family standing over her. Her mother asked immediately what she had seen.
That night, Himi's vision came true. A fire had broken out in one of the villagers' homes. But thanks to the timely rush for help, the residents were saved. The house was a loss however.
Young Himi had now prevented four deaths. She had driven away panic, fear, and grief. Yet, she had seen it, experienced it. The fear of what could have been never left her.
Over the years, Himi's predictions had saved many lives. She had predicted the increase of the village's supply of fish and that saved Yamata when their crops died from a dry season. When war was threatened by the expanding country of Sana, ambushes had been thwarted and the soldiers couldn't figure out why.
But there were the days when she saw unpreventable deaths. The stubborn child who drowned on the shores of the beach, despite warnings; the elder couple who succumbed to disease; and the hunting party who had been ambushed by many monsters. She saw them all and felt their pain.
When she was eight, Himi came to accept the visions as a way of life. She grew to tolerate the sudden trips to the future, the experiences of things yet to be. It was then that she trained to be a priestess, as every woman in her family before her had. But with her visions, this became a necessity. It helped her to remain calm, allowed the visions to become clearer when emotion clouded them. She became blank as she told of her sight. She felt for those who may suffer, she really did. But she had to remain as the pillar of security. She had to reassure that in the end, somehow, everything would be alright.
No longer was Himi outside playing with the other village children or horsing around with Takeru. She would be inside studying prayers, herbs, and traditions. She learned to read ancient languages, mediate, and build a connection between her soul and physical body so she would be able to tell others of what she was seeing.
A year later, while she was meditating, Himi grew her first plant. It had been a chrysanthemum, the national symbol of the country, Nihan. She then learned of the powers of psynergy, abilities that her parents, aunt, and brother possessed. She moved rock, grew plants, learned to heal, and summon the protectors of Nihan, dragons. Her powers further enhanced when she found many djinn on the island, as well as from traders from other countries. She experimented with their abilities, but found herself more drawn to the spirits of earth. She became known as one of the greatest priestesses of the land, maybe even all of Weyard.
But despite her fame, she didn't allow herself to be swept away. She remained kind, calm, but almost to the point of unemotional. She didn't get carried away in local gossip, participate in games, and at most festivals she stayed by herself or with her family.
The visions were controlling her life, she knew that. But Himi did not see how it could be any different. She let herself be glad in the fact that so many people were happy and well. Nonetheless, she found herself wondering of a life without seeing the pain and fear of what may come.
But then when she turned thirteen years old, the visions came more frequently. Quite often, she saw lands and towns she had never seen before. She asked the gods many times why they showed these places to her. They never answered until her most recent prayer.
Surrounding Himi were two other priestesses lighting incense for daily prayer when she hurtled through the familiar tunnel once again. When everything stopped spinning, she took a look around. She was in a barren land with many cliffs and plateaus, one of which had a house built on it. In the distance was a large erupting volcano. Faintly, she could feel that that mountain had a large amount of power within its depths. But that wasn't what she concentrated on.
No, her main concern was a huge purple and black vortex hovering in the air. Even in a shadow of the future, she could feel its pulling grasp. She heard a yell and turned to the sound. A man with blond hair and a trenchcoat was on one of the plateaus, struggling to stay on his feet. She could see his life force being greedily sucked away into the vortex. Though she had never seen him before, she felt a strange connection with him.
The blond man collapsed just as another man, a redhead, ran out of the house. "Isaac! Isaac!" he yelled.
In a flash, Himi realized who he was. One of the Warriors of Vale! And he was dying.
The redhead shook Isaac and shouted at him, but he would not wake. Forgetting that she was merely a shadow, Himi yelled too and ran to the pair. As she got close, she attempted to use her healing psynergy, but her vision started to blur. She tried to calm herself, but it was too late. She felt herself being pulled away, back to the present. The last thing she saw at the end of the tunnel was the vortex starting to drain the other man's power.
"Isaac! Isaac!" Himi shouted as she was drawn away from the sight. She awoke back home, her fellow priestesses surrounding her. She screamed to the heavens, "Isaac is in danger!"
It was the first in a long while that she had felt such emotion after a vision. Somehow, she knew that Isaac and Garet (she later learned his name) were connected to her. When she told her family of the vision, Takeru immediately got ready to set sail to save the men, as his mother once said he would. No one stopped him.
For the next few days after that, Himi settled to pacing around the palace to praying to the gods in the temple for her brother's and the men's safety. But she felt annoyed to stay and do nothing. She felt that somehow she must do more. This desire of hers grew to the point where she tried to deliberately see the future, a feat that had been unaccomplished before. She meditated for hours, sniffed incense, and even started fasting. But she was unable to cross the gap. Her family grew worried and her djinn told her that hurting herself wouldn't help. But she still tried.
Then came the day when darkness splayed across Angara. On that particular morning, Himi had been feeling a little faint. She ate a little food to keep up her strength and walked to the beach, gazing at the ocean. She sat down in the sand and attempted once more to find a vision.
As the dawn came, she instead felt dark energy rising. With a sudden jerk, she found herself outside of her body and flying up over the ocean. At the other end, she saw a great shadow spreading all over the land. She looked up into the sky and saw that the sun and moon had joined, fighting for control.
She looked back down and was further shocked at the battle's effects. On the ground below, creatures were transformed by the darkness and killing many people. There was so much blood and death that if she could throw up what little food was in her stomach at home, she would. And at the darkest point of the eclipse stood a tower in Belinsk. Was this lone building the cause of so much chaos?
She felt another jerk and mentally prepared herself for the journey home. Flying backwards, over land and sea until she arrived back at the beach. The villagers were around her collapsed body, trying to rouse her awake. But when she drifted over her body, she felt herself being pulled away. She felt the presence of darkness surrounding her, taking her away from life. She tried to resist, but it was too strong. She yelled and screamed, but no one could hear her spirit.
She was drifting up and away from home towards the source of this power, the great eclipse. And then she suddenly found herself in a void shrouded in darkness. Fear gripped her soul and her eyes darted around for something other than blackness, but that was all she could see. To her, it seemed that the dark was feeding her fear.
At last, unable to contain it any more, she shed the calm demeanor she had gained over the years and ran around in blind panic. All the fear that she had hidden away came lose. She hated having to be so strong all the time. With all the things she saw, of what was prevented and what came anyway, it was too much to bear.
After what seemed like a eon and there was no change in her surroundings, she gained the sense that this wasn't working. She felt ashamed of her reaction. What would her ancestors think if they saw her like this? She then chose a different tactic: meditation. After a while, she managed to gain control of her emotions, but no release came.
At last, in near desperation, she pleaded to the gods to help her. She was granted with a final vision.
A group of eight, all from different areas of the world. The nationalities came to her; Vale, Kalay, Imil, Ayuthay, Champa, Belinsk. Two she recognized as the sons of Isaac and Garet. Their auras were so similar that there could be no other reason. All the others, she knew, had been drawn together by fate, despite their many differences.
And then she saw herself traveling with them. Into the darkness, to many lands, in search of the one thing to stop the Grave Eclipse. She knew that it would be them who would free her from this prison. And in return she would lend her abilities to them. It was meant to be; her fate was tied with theirs.
So she waited patiently in the darkness. Waiting for the group of eight that would awaken her to end this dark dawn.
Well, what do you think? See anything that could use some improvement? Did I give Himi character or a reason of lack of? Let me know of your thoughts. Just be warned, this won't be the last Golden Sun story from me. Hopefully.