NiGHTS: Okay Jackle your turn.
Jackle: No! I don't want to.
Reala: Quite being a spoiled brat and do it.
Jackle: No!
Me: Than I guess somebody doesn't want these back. *holds up tarot cards*
Jackle: How did you-
Me: I'll give them back only if you do it.
Jackle: *sighs* ppgXrrb20 does not own me, Reala, or NiGHTS. Now give me back my cards.
Me: Good boy. *hands his tarot cards back*
It has been a few days since NiGHTS and Reala's race and as Reala said about NiGHTS winning the race, it is true. Since the race she hasn't seen Reala, Jackle, or any nightmarens. Except Octopaw which she seen NiGHTS chase around.
She stands on a branch, balancing herself at the Dream Gates. She seems a bit confused not seeing NiGHTS anywhere or even hearing him play his invisible flute. She then hears flapping and turns her head to see Owl. Starlight smiles to him.
"Hey Owl." She says, looking at the owl as he perches himself on a branch.
"Why hello Starlight." Owl says, glad to see her, "Why are you standing here by yourself?" He asks.
She sighs, "I wanted to hang out with NiGHTS, but I haven't seen him and he is usually around here." She says, arms crossed looking over to the Dream Gates again.
"Hoohoo NiGHTS went off to company a visitor." Owl tells her, "He and the visitor left as soon as he arrived at the Dream Gates." Starlight nods her head, but she feels disappointed not being able to play with NiGHTS. Owl pushes his spectacles backup and continues. "NiGHTS will be gone for the night." Then looks at Starlight with her glum face, "I think it's about time that you look after the visitors."
Starlight is shocked by that sentence. "What do you mean by that?" She asks, worried.
"I mean by entertaining them and keeping them out of trouble."
Starlight just gives him a confused look. Owl sighs.
"You know play games with the visitors and keeping them away from nightmarens that want to take there ideya."
"Owl did you hit your head or something?"
"You have lived here for close to a week and need to get use to things around here. NiGHTS and I are the only ones to look after the visitors and you are just like NiGHTS. Well not the same personality and gender and clothes, but you have the power to protect them."
Starlight hops off the branch and flys down to the ground. "Owl you must be going nuts if you think I should look after those creatures?" Starlight is not use to being around visitors or calling them visitors, she usually calls them humans or creatures because they come from a different world and doesn't really like to talk about them. When she sees a human she always hide herself and makes sure the visitor doesn't see her.
"I don't think you should, I know you should." Owl says, flapping his wings again and down to her.
Suddenly as if on cue, the Dream Gates open and reveal a human girl with dark skin and black hair. Starlight quickly hides in the trees and makes sure not to make a sound. Owl flaps his wings over to the girl and introduces himself. The girl is a bit shocked by Owl, but introduces herself as well. Owl glances at the tree Starlight is hiding in hoping she come out. Owl sighs when she doesn't come out of hiding. He leads the girl to a door that leads to Aqua Garden.
Starlight comes out of hiding a few minutes after they left. She feels a little bad about disappointing Owl, but she just can't look after the visitors. She sighs and starts to fly off to somewhere else. Hoping to get her mind off Owl and the girl.
She floats about for a while until she realizes she is flying over the black ocean NiGHTS and Owl told her about. How the black ocean can drain a visitors ideya from them and brake their spirits. Just being there makes her feel even worse. Sighing, Starlight starts to fly somewhere else, then she stops.
A scream. She hears a scream come from the ocean, and not just any scream. A blood curdling, make your skin crawl scream. She thinks it is just the ocean making strange noise, but soon another scream is heard but different. She looks down at the sea of black darkness, 'Did someone fall in there?' She thinks. A human and maybe even more must have fallen in. 'One must have started to fall and the other one no doubt tried to save them!' She thinks once again, trying to think of an answer. She clenches her hands with fear but knows she has to do something. She gulps and flys into the black ocean.
She flys deeper and deeper into the dark ocean. Black and dark purple smoke are all she can see, but can hear panting, running, and screaming. Soon the smoke clears away and reveals a black feild. She looks around but can not see any walls or anything. Just continuous darkness going for miles and miles. She looks up and sees a faded Dream Gates in the distance, smoke covering her view and making it look hazed. She looks below and sees a hazed view of what looks like a dark world. It must have been Nightmare, the opposite world of Nightopia. She hears screaming and shouting again.
She looks away from Nightmare and in the direction the screams come from. She sees horrible creatures which she guess must have been nightmarens. But the ones that catches her attention are black and purple smoke glopes with glowing purple and red eyes. She shivers at the sight of them, but hears shouting coming from the other side of nightmarens.
"GET AWAY FROM US! LEAVE US ALONE!"
She hears this on the other side. The nightmarens don't even notice Starlight. Starlight is afraid of nightmarens since the beginning when the demon birds kidnapped her soon after coming to Nightopia. She feels her skin crawls, shivers running down and up her spine, and her body going cold. But she knows she has to help the humans who are being attack and trying to keep the nightmarens away. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. She stops shivering and opens her eyes.
She dashes over the wall of nightmarens and sees two small figures, one holding a stick. She quickly flys down and scoops up the two figures in her arms and flys up as fast as she can to Nightopia or somewhere safe. She hears the sounds of nightmarens hissing and screeching growing fainter and fainter. She has her eyes shut tight and holds the humans close to her chest as she flys up.
She flys through Nightopia and into one of the dream worlds. She soon hits something hard and bounces back a few feet and falls to the ground. She feels the pain in her butt and head when she hits the ground and feels something hitting against her chest. She opens her eyes and looks down.
She sees two humans in her arms. On her left arm, she holds a little human girl with short black hair and green eyes. She looks no more then 5 and a half. She wears a short sleeved gray t-shirt with a puppy with golden fur on it, and a black skirt with gray lines at the hem. She is crying into Starlight's coat. On her right arm she holds a 5 and a half year old boy with short black hair and green eyes as well. He wears a short sleeved black t-shirt with a blue and purple dragon on it, and gray shorts. The boy is beating Starlight's chest with a stick, which he holds tightly in his hands, and makes the skin on his fingers turn white. The two children look like twins.
"Let us go you monster!" The boy shouts, freeing his arm and hitting Starlight's head. Hard.
"Ow!" She says, but doesn't let go of the two.
"Let us go!" The boy repeats to say several times continuing to hitting her head, but Starlight still doesn't let go. After several minutes, the beating slows down and becomes less painful, "Just let us go..." The boy says hitting Starlight's head with a soft thud. He breaks down in tears with the last thud, losing his grip on the stick.
Starlight looks down at the two crying children in her arms. She feels so bad for making them cry. She feels like crying herself as well, but instead let's go of the two. It takes a while for the boy to stop crying and notice she let go of them.
The boy grabs the girl's hand and jumps out of Starlight's lap and holds his stick tightly again, and holds it in front of himself. The girl hides behind the boy with puffy red eyes. The two look at her weirdly. The boy with anger in his eyes and the girl with fear in her eyes, but their eyes also show confusen. The girl speaks up.
"Why are you crying?" The girl says in between gasps and hiccups.
It is true Starlight looks like she is about to cry herself with red puffy eyes and tears threaten to spill to her cheeks. Starlight brings a hand to her cheeks and feels the warmth close to her eyes. She looks down for a second feeling a bit ashamed about crying in front of the two. She looks back up and notices the world they are in.
The ground is covered with grass and a few flowers. There are no trees, but behind the two children are metal poles in the ground. The poles connect with each other and stretch high up into the sky. Some poles have bright colors to them like green, blue, and red, but most others don't. She can't see past the poles though.
Suddenly Starlight feels a sickening feeling in her stomach. She sees a figure far away, but getting closer. Thinking it is a nightmaren, Starlight grabs the children and flys deep into the jungle of poles. Weaving and ducking through the pipes.
The boy starts to hit Starlight again for grabbing them so suddenly, and starts shouting again. Starlight hides behind a huge pole, staying completely still. The boy continues shouting though.
"Please be quiet." Starlight says, the boy stops shouting.
Soon the three hear squawking and screeching. There is a metal tapping sound close by. Starlight slowly looks to where the tapping is coming from. Just barely peaking out from the pipe, she and the children see a pink monster bird ridden by a dark green man. The bird jerks it's head in their direction. Starlight quickly hides behind the pipe again, fearing the bird saw them. The bird hops closer to the huge pipe and gets more and more closer. Starlight feels her heart beat louder and louder as she hears the clacking sound getting closer and closer. The bird is right next to the pipe and moves it's head closer. Just inches away from seeing the three.
Suddenly there is another screech. Another monster bird flaps it's wings above the pink one. The pink bird and the other bird screech at each other as if talking. Soon the screeching stop and there is no sound. Starlight peaks again and sees the pink monster bird is long gone. She sighs in relief as she slides down the huge pipe and stops when she hits the ground.
"Are you protecting us?" The boy asks.
Starlight looks down at the two children she holds.
"I guess so." It takes her a while to say it and realizes she is indeed protecting them.
Soon she gets up and starts to float deeper into the jungle of poles and pipes. She still holds the children close to her chest, fearing that if she puts them down the bird will come back and take them away.
"You know we can walk, right?" The boy says kind of muffled.
"Oh sorry." Starlight says, putting the two children down on the ground and notices they are bare foot.
"It's okay." The girl says holding the boy's hand and walks deeper into the forest of poles.
Soon they find a little kiddy play ground. There is a swing set with metal chains, a red and yellow tidder-todder, a red, yellow, and blue merry-go-around, and a blue slide. All the play ground equipment is made of metal, even the swing set sites are made of metal. There are also giant flowers on the ground and on the sides of poles like spiderwebs.
The two children run to the play ground and start to play. Well sort of. They are so amazed by the play ground they run to all the play ground stuff. They run from the merry-go-around to the slide, to the giant flowers, and to the slide. The girl jumps on one of the flowers and bounces right back.
"It's like a trampoline!" The girl says, bouncing up and down.
The girl grabs the boy's hand and they start to jump up and down together laughing and having fun. Soon they jump off the flower and on to the ground. The boy pulls the girl's arm and runs to the merry-go-around. The two grab a bar of the merry-go-around and kick on the ground to make it go around. The two laugh and laugh enjoying their time on the merry-go-around and Starlight is glad to see that they are no longer crying and angry, but the boy still has his stick at hand.
"Are you two twins?" Starlight asks, a little curious since they look very much like.
"Yeah, we're identical twins." The girl says, still kicking.
"How old are you two?"
"We're both 5 and 1/2 years old, but he was born first." She point to the boy.
"What's your mother and father like?" Starlight asks, being she can't remember her parents.
"You mean our mom and dad?" The girl asks to confirm her question.
Starlight nods her head. The two go quiet and stop kicking the ground and the merry-go-around slows down and comes to a stop. Starlight feels worried about saying something she shouldn't have. "I'm sorry, forget what I sai-"
"They were mean..." The boy says, cutting Starlight off, "They usually forgot to feed us and when they did remember it was something hard to eat or something we couldn't eat. Mom would only 'remember' to feed us is when little sis asked for the tenth time."
Starlight feels a little bad asking, but doesn't get one thing, "They 'were' mean?" Why would he say it like that? Did they turn good, or something else?
"Yeah, they both died one and half year ago." The boy says with no emotions in his voice, "They were drunk while driving and hit another car. Since then me and little sis been at the Moonlite Flower Orphanage."
"Yeah, it's nice there. We get lots of food to eat and everyone there is really nice." The girl says with a bright smile and hops off the merry-go-around.
Starlight feels a little bad about asking them about their parents, but smiles weakly being that they seem to be happy in the orphanage. But there is one more thing, "What are your names?"
"My name is Lucy." The girl says, gesturing to herself.
"My name is Alexis." The boy says, pointing to himself.
Alexis hops off the merry-go-around and the two children run to the swing set. Lucy sits on the swing with red, yellow, and orange chains, and Alexis sits on the swing with blue, green, and purple chains. Lucy and Alexis start to swing their legs back and forth. Starlight cocks her head to the side and smiles at the two. She flys right behind them and gives them a little push. The two children smile as they get higher and higher.
"Now that we told you about us. You have to tell us about you." Lucy says while swinging.
"Alright, ask away." Starlight says, pushing the two.
"Alright, how old are you?" Lucy asks curiously.
"I don't know." Starlight says after trying to remember.
"Do you have any brothers or sisters?" Alexis asks.
"I don't know."
"What are your mom and dad like?" Lucy asks.
"I don't know."
The two children look at each other and then at Starlight with a confused look on their faces.
"Do you at least know your name?" Alexis asks a bit worried about the previous answers.
"Starlight. Starlight is my name." Starlight says.
"Is that all you know?" Lucy asks, being that Starlight really didn't tell them much.
"Yes, that's all I remember." Starlight states, "When I came to this world, the dream world; the Night Dimension, I had no memory of how I got there or before I got there. All I know is my name. I don't remember my family, or any of my friends, or how old I am, or where I came from before I came to the Night Dimension." Starlight stops pushing Lucy and Alexis, and brings her hands to the blue diamond on her chest and looks down at it. Alexis and Lucy turn their heads around to look at her. She looks back up and smiles at the two. "But I met some great friends and they're really nice. They help me when I'm in trouble or when I'm really sad. So I'm really happy to have come to the Night Dimension or else I would never have met them."
The two children feel really bad about asking about her past when she can't remember her own parents. But they smile weakly for her being happy here.
The two continue to play in this jungle of poles. Playing on all the equipment and hanging on the bars like monkeys. They even get Starlight to play on the bars and act like a monkey too. A long time of playing soon wears the kids out and they start to yawn. Starlight chuckles at the two kids just yawning and getting more and more sleepy. Lucy pulls on Starlight's pants asking to be picked up. Starlight smiles and lifts the girl up. Alexis sees this and asks to be picked up as well. Starlight chuckles and reaches down to pick him up. The two children nuzzle against Starlight's chest growing into a deep sleep. But Lucy and Alexis are a bit heavy to hold and Starlight gets an idea.
She flys up to one of the big pipes and sits down, leaning her back against the pole behind her. The two children cuddle up close to her, feeling her warm clothes. Starlight giggles at the two and looks up at the sky with pipes and poles blocking her view but she can still see the blue sky with a few clouds drifting by. She hums the melody of her song, White Phoenix, as she looks at the sky.
"So pretty... Melody..." Lucy says, sleepy. Starlight giggles when she says this, cradling the two.
The children soon fall asleep and vanish from her sight. But she knew where they went because NiGHTS has told her that when they fall asleep in this world they return to the Waking World. She lets her leg dangling in the air as she looks to the sky again, smiling to herself.