Her mother's midnight blue tear shined with the twilight and the forest around them slowly darkened. The three Aishas looked at it, amazed, as it slowly began to shine with all the colours of the rainbow. Then, a huge golden beam erupted from it and it twisted and turned along the narrow path of Palamor Forest towards what seemed to be the center. Without thinking, Lukinonia and her friends Panika and Granion ran alongside it. Soon, they caught up with the end of the beam, which was leading them to the very heart of the large forest. Turning one corner, left, right, right, left, no one could really keep track. The late afternoon was slowly darkening when they reached the center.

It was a small grove which was cleared of trees. The small rays of sunlight left just dimly lit a small shrine right in the middle. It looked like no one had been there for a long time; it was covered with moss and a small breeze could probably knock it down.

The beam of light seemed to be swallowed up by an unseen opening in the shrine, and it disappeared. They were left in the semi-darkness. Sitting down, they waited until the first stars began to twinkle and all that was left of the sun was a faint glimmer. Then, the moon began to brighten and it was an impossibly amazing sight; the Moon, Sun, and Stars all up in the sky at the same time.

Then, the three Aishas had to cover their eyes, because the small Shrine had begun to glow! First, it was a brilliant golden, then a shining white, and finally a mysterious midnight blue. And from the rickety structure came a large archway, filled with light. It almost seemed like the night had turned into day.

Still without speaking, the three friends slowly walked into the light. It seemed to envelope them... to devour them... to swallow them...

And then they were in.

It was only hours after Lukinonia's mother, Karolina, passed away. Before she did so, she had sent her daughter on a perilous quest: to piece together the pieces of the Gem of Fyora and save the Cities of the Sky from their ignorant peace and bring happiness back to the heavens. However, each city held a piece of the Gemstone, and they doubted that they would be able to get it and survive to tell the tale.

Along with Luki came Panika and Granion, whose own parents had passed away when they were very young. Panika was a smart Purple Aisha who looked before she leapt. Granion was basically the opposite of his sister; an athletic Purple Aisha who doesn't usually bother to think things over first.

Right now, the three friends were lying on the ground of the Pathway of Light, the only known way to get to the Cities of the Sky.

And their worlds were the complete opposite of the world around them: darkness.

Luki was the first to stir. She got up and looked around, or tried to at least. The Pathway was just so bright; you could hardly tell which way was left or right. The only things that weren't completely blinding her were her lifeless friends, lying a few feet beside her. Quickly, she ran over and tried to stir them.

'Panika!' she sobbed, pulling her friends' ears. 'Granion!'

She put her paws over her eyes; what happened when they went through the archway?

Well, Luki or Granion and even Panika aren't supposed to know this, but when they went through the archway back at Palamor Shrine, they were seen by the elusive Commander Garoo. Though he didn't know what they were doing, he knew that they couldn't be up to anything good (for them) because the Pathway of Light also led to his Master's most recent hideout. So, he switched one pathway around with another. He knew that the Pathway would lead to basically nowhere, but he did not know that it would actually lead them to the City of the Wind. When he switched the Pathways, they crashed into a protective barrier and got knocked out when they were thrown into the wrong path (well it was the right path for the Aishas). He would go and send one of his minions, and they arrived when two of the three friends woke, which was just about 5 minutes after Luki was shaking them and trying to pull their ears off.

Granion was first to make a sound. He gave a loud groan without opening his eyes and then rolled over. He muttered something which sounded like, 'Five more minutes mom...'

Panika woke up a straight away, her ears and eyes alert. 'Luki! Where are we?' She shaded her eyes and got up.

'I don't know, but we all got knocked out when we got here...' Luki's voice trailed away. She could have sworn she heard the sound of sliding flesh echoing around the Light, and a small black dot somewhere in her left direction, but she wasn't sure. She didn't want to worry her friends, but she also didn't want to get caught off-guard, especially when Granion was out cold.

'Granion should have sunglasses!' said Panika all of a sudden. She reached down into her brother's pockets and pulled out a pair of regular sunglasses, nightglasses (sunglasses that made the day look as if it had turned into night), and Cool Shades.

Throwing the Cool Shades unceremoniously at her brother, Panika took the nightglasses and tested them on. 'Wow! It seems like just regular day now.'

Luki picked up the regular sunglasses and she did feel a bit better now that she could see properly again. If she hadn't had them on she would have noticed that the small black dot she had seen earlier had turned into a dot the size of a pumpkin that was far, far away in the pumpkin patch...

'Granion, get up!' said Panika, beginning to kick her brother. 'Luki, help!'

The Split Aisha went to go help her friend. They kicked Granion repeatedly, and then tried pulling his ears, poking his eyes, feeding him a Perfume Bottle Panika had, and putting on the Cool Shades. Nothing worked.

What had happened to Granion? He got the impact of the barrier first and was squashed by Panika and then Luki.

'Well, I guess we're just going to have to carry him,' said Luki sadly.

'Are you kidding me?' said Panika, disgusted. 'Do you know HOW much he eats every day?'

Luki's sunglasses went lopsided when she stood up from slapping her Orange Aisha friend unconsciously silly. She was about to put them back on when she saw that tiny black dot of darkness that had just swelled to the size of a pumpkin faraway. However, it was now the size of a football field if you looked at it in the sky, and was getting bigger by the second.

'There's no time to complain or explain Panika!' exclaimed Luki. She quickly hoisted the body of one of her best friends up over her shoulders and without noticing how light he appeared to be, she began dashing to the right, AWAY from the darkness.

'What are we doing Luki?' screamed Panika from far away.

'No time to explain, just RUN!'

They ran and ran and ran, and the darkness also seemed to be running, but faster. Luki knew that there was no time to lose, but there had to be some time to gain, but how was she going to do it?

She looked up out of her thoughts and through her sweaty eyes she saw another thing that didn't completely blind her: a rainbow seemed to be forming in the 'sky' of the Pathway and it began to charge down to the 'ground'.

'Get to the end of that rainbow!' screamed Luki.

'But that's impossible!' said Panika, clutching a stitch at her side. 'Rainbows are circular so-'

'I DON'T CARE!!!' screamed Luki. 'JUST KEEP RUNNING!'

The darkness was now moving twice as fast and the Aishas were starting to tire. She knew that sooner or later, she was going to faint and the darkness would envelope her forever. But she felt something: she felt a mysterious source of magical energy. She looked behind her left shoulder. All she saw was Panika, beginning to fall behind. The darkness had almost enveloped her!

'Panika!' screamed Luki. 'Hurry!'

'I'm trying Luki, I'm trying!' sobbed Panika from far behind.

The mysterious magic was growing stronger. She looked behind her right shoulder and saw the lifeless form of Granion. He seemed to be growing colder! In her running she had never noticed that he was extremely lightweight or that he was beginning to get colder. In her mind's eye, she could almost see his entire face, which was just struggling to breathe...

'Luki!!!'

Her thoughts were interrupted by her other friend's call. Her head wheeled past her left shoulder and she saw a terrible sight: Panika had fallen and the darkness was just about to swallow her up! She looked in front of her and saw the end of the rainbow, which was only a few feet away.

What was she to do? Should she get herself and Granion to safety, or try and get Panika to safety?

Then, it hit her. It was so very obvious; how did she not see it before? She quickly ran to the end of the rainbow, placed Granion there, and then looked up at the rainbow. She stared at it with fierce eyes, and began to yell:

'I call upon the powers of wind, cloud and star!

Powers of sky oh so heavenly far,

Element Cloud! Help us in our darkest hour;

Give us hope; give us power!'

The rainbow began to change colour as she uttered the words. It began to shimmer and brighten, and it turned into a beam of light that glowed magnificently. It covered Luki, Granion, but not Panika. Panika! The darkness had gotten half of her body, and she was struggling to get up.

'Revive Granion and give him the strength to save Panika!'

The beam of light began to brighten and then shoot towards the sky. It then became so bright and magnificent that Luki had to cover her eyes, even with sunglasses on. Then it shot down towards Granion and surrounded him with crystal-white light.

'Granion!' screamed Luki and Panika. Luki rushed over to her friend. The light had begun to soften, and then Granion stood up. An aura seemed to surround his body, all the way to the tip of his ears. Fire raged in his eyes and his mouth was set straight. Then he leaped up, high in the air, and in seconds he was back with Panika. Her head was the only thing that wasn't engulfed in darkness. Her eyes were closed and she seemed to be unconscious.

'Granion! Look out!'

A strange, unexpected tongue of black whipped out at the Orange Aisha Hero. He jumped out of there as quick as lightening, and clutched tightly in his paw was-

'Panika!' sobbed Luki. It was in fact Panika, body and all. Granion set her down where the rainbow had been (it disappeared when it revived Granion) and leapt back in front of the darkness. It seemed to bubble in rage at having its prey lost.

'Power of the Clouds, aid me!'

And in his paw appeared a lightening bolt of crystal-white. It began to morph slowly into a bow and arrow.

However, there was only one arrow.

Granion would need that one arrow to destroy the darkness.

And if he missed...

'Granion! You can do it!' cheered Luki. If she were looking at Panika very closely she would have seen her eyelids flutter.

Granion took the arrow, attached it to the bow, and pulled the string back...

Suddenly, a dark face appeared to appear in the darkness. It would have been unnoticeable if it were even darker than the darkness, if there was a colour that black. But, it was there. It had very thin slits for eyes and a large gaping mouth. When it spoke, it chilled right to the bone.

'So you're the micsssreants that have tried to essscape the darknessss,' the darkness hissed. 'I cannot let you passss the Pathway of Light. You will perishhh here and you will never be found...'

Granion pulled the Arrow of Cumulonimbus back on the string of the Bow of Destiny and launched the golden point at the gaping hole that was the mouth of the darkness. It seemed to swallow it and after choking for a few seconds, it looked up with a triumphant look on its face.

'Ha! You cannot defeat the darkness that easy!'

'But I can,' said a voice behind Luki.

The Split Aisha wheeled around and there was Panika, beginning to sit up. 'Granion!' she yelled. 'You can do it! Just believe in yourself! Have hope! Have faith! Have courage!'

And suddenly, Panika began to glow with light. She put her paws together and then she thrust them at her brother. A pink lightening bolt struck her brother's hand, and instead of wincing in pain, he held his paw up high and a small arrow appeared. It was a tiny point with a small heart with wings at the end of it.

And it was just big enough to be able to be launched by the Bow of Destiny.

Granion attached it to the Bow, pulled back the string, and fired it at the mouth of the darkness. It seemed to swallow it completely, because it was so small that the darkness couldn't even feel it sliding down its throat.

'You foolssss!' the creature cried. 'You have done nothing! I am not harmed! I am-'

But we never really figure out what kind of other condition he was in because at that moment, he began to bubble, not in rage, but of agony as his bodiless form began to slowly wither away.

'What have you done?!' it shrieked.

'You may have been the all-powerful Shapeshifter of Darkness,' replied Panika. 'You may have had everything. But there was one thing that you were missing: love!'

The word echoed throughout the Pathway. And then, as if it were being squashed by a large invisible hand, it began to shrivel.

'You are making a terrible mistake passsssing through me!' screamed the creature as it shrank to the size of a peanut. 'The Cities of the Sky will never come to peaccce...'

Lukinonia, Panika, and Granion winced as they stepped out of a trapdoor. Their eyes adjusted to the darkness of regular light, and they were happy to finally be out of the Pathway of Light.

'Well, that was an exciting adventure,' said Luki, looking around.

'Yep,' agreed Granion. 'Bet you'd never expect that to happen, eh sis?'

'What? Oh, right...' said Panika dreamingly.

After the Shapeshifter of Darkness had completely been destroyed, Granion's strange powers had disappeared. However, he was fully recovered, and so was Panika. Luki was happy, and she hugged her two dearest friends in a big group hug.

'Oh guys, I was so worried!' sobbed Luki.

'I was MORE worried!' said Granion.

'And I was barely worried because I was mostly unconscious!' said Panika happily.

Her friend and brother gave the Purple Aisha piercing looks.

'So what now?' Granion had asked. As if in reply, the Bow of Destiny, which he was still holding in his paw, lifted out of the Aisha's grasp and floated up towards the 'sky'. It began to crumble away, and its dust became one with the light.

'Thank you, Panika,' said Granion all of a sudden. 'You gave me your love, and that created the Arrow of Love.'

Panika grinned. 'You're welcome. Now let's get out of here!'

And the trio had begun walking away.

Now, all that was behind them, and they stood blinking at the sunlight. They seemed to be standing on wind, which was blowing so hard that they could actually stand on it. They looked up and saw the gates to their first goal and the first piece of the Gem of Fyora.

The gusty gates that protected the fabled City of the Wind.