Midnight's hush cloaked the town as a young girl, skin streaked with grime and hair a long shade of copper-brown, carefully emerged from the basement window after finding a way to open it.
Her heart raced as she climbed out carefully through the narrow window, her only possessions stuffed into a backpack on her back that she had left cunningly inside a cabinet when she was staying in the basement later in the day.
The rundown car's soft hum faded into the distance as she paused a little when she heard the faint noise and watched the broken red light disappear into the darkness.
Freedom was finally in her grasp. Still dressed in her raggy dark blue dress with different patchworks of string, she made a beeline for the fence as her bare feet clapped against the pavement.
She heard no barks, no footsteps, and saw no lights heading towards her as she started climbing the wooden fence with her hands. Over the fence, she went, agile as a cat, landing on all fours before straightening up.
The quiet town streets under the haunting glow of streetlights seemed almost peaceful as she walked down the empty place, her hands close to her thin and fragile body to keep some warmth to herself as her long, messy hair trailed behind.
From the corner of her eye, a black-and-white striped kitten, lost or abandoned, hurried over to the side of the sidewalk and caught her attention.
She went slowly towards the kitten before kneeling, hearing it hiss towards her before giving it a small spit as a warning.
Instead, the child reached over with her hands and gently picked it up as it tried to scramble away from her, giving another spit, but she gently cradled it against her chest, stroking its head with her dirty hands.
The kitten continued growling for a moment, occasionally hissing, but it slowly calmed down as the child stroked its face, noticing how grimy and dirty it was in her hands.
She pitied the kitten for its state, looking at the sleeves of her clothes as they matched the dirt and grime across the fur.
As the child held the kitten in her hands, she continued walking through the cool night of the city, pausing when she noticed small vibrations coming from its body. Confused, she lifted the kitten to her ear, hearing what sounded like purring.
The child's tired eyes sparkled with amazement at the sound of the purrs coming from the kitten's tiny body.
She petted its back as she walked through the city, avoiding traffic and the roads as the kitten's little purrs added a balm to her anxious heart.
They soon reached a forest, and the child went into the darkness, squinting slightly for her tired eyes to look through the shrouded night, but whenever she squinted, her eyes either blurred or went in and out, which made her feel dizzy.
The allure of the eerily blue moon drew them further. It bathed a nearby forest in a pale luminescence, making the streams within it gleam with the same mysterious hue. Entranced, the child followed the moonlit path deeper.
Hidden within the forest's embrace stood a temple, untouched by time, that made the young child's eyes sparkle with curiosity after seeing the grand stone monument before her.
The child looked closely at the temple, her eyes trying to adjust to what was there before her, but they still frustrated her by attempting to see what it could be.
The temple was gigantic and neatly set up with different stones, unlike the bricks the child usually stares at from the basement. It almost had a faint aura of mystery as she stared at the wall of vines covering the temple entrance.
The child was initially unsure if she wanted to get close to the temple because of the unusually mysterious aura coming from it.
But she did not want to return to the house she had come out of, so she decided to risk her decision by staying in the temple.
The child gingerly stepped into the temple to escape the night's cold air. The coldness of the stone underneath her bare feet caused her to shudder from the temperature, but she ignored the coldness as she allowed the kitten to climb onto her shoulder, curled close to her neck for some heat.
Everything was dark inside, so the child walked into the temple blindly, squinting slightly to see through the darkness and sometimes using her hands to help with the 'seeing' part when she was close to a wall in some turns within the hallway.
After going through the darkness, the child soon entered a spacious area, and the blue moon lights in the room showed what was inside the big space. In the center of this gigantic place sit five ancient pillars.
A brown cloth bag sat near one of them, and the child approached the bag, untying the string around the top and emptying the items inside.
The items were a meteor, a rock, a matchbox, and a water bottle. But a series of scrolls captured her intrigue, the first of which beckoned with ornate rose-shaped handwriting.
She opened one of the scrolls and read the first one, but she had to squint slightly to see the words as they blurred or separated, causing her to groan and rub her eyes to stop the strangeness. The scroll has a '🜂' symbol over the written words that reads:
In the heart of darkness, it cannot stay, yet without a breath, it fades away.
Feed it well, and it will grow; give it wings and glow.
What am I that you must ignite to awaken the pillar and summon the light?
The child looked confused after reading the scroll before looking over at the pillars, noticing they had a strange appearance from the blue moon's light, and she approached each one out of curiosity to have a better look at them.
The first was luminescent with a gentle, pulsating glow, shifting through the rainbow's colors slightly but somewhat faintly. The second appears to be made of flowing water but is solid to the touch and is only trickling.
The third was glowing ember-red with small flames dancing on its surface, but it only gave it a faint glow like a dying fire. The fourth was crystalline and transparent with swirling smoke-like patterns inside, but the swirling was slowly dying down.
The child looked back at the scroll and the symbol before looking at the pillar, seeing the same symbol, except it did not match the one she was looking for. So the child went through the pillars and found the exact symbol on the fourth that was glowing ember-red.
She touched it out of curiosity, noticing it was not hot but had a lingering warm feeling, almost like touching one of those heated blankets she once felt with her hands.
Having an idea, the child rolled the scroll back up and placed it into the bag where the items were, picking up the matchbox and placing it next to the pillar.
Then she went off and started collecting moss and leaves scattered across the floor, placing them on the pillar and watching as it slowly burned the moss and leaves she collected.
Knowing she needed to collect more, the child went all around and collected as much as she could in her thin arms, placing them all onto the pillar as it burned all the moss and leaves placed on it, the color slowly growing red.
After placing enough leaves and moss, the child picked up the matches and struck a match, putting it into the pile on top of the pillar as it was not eating all the moss or leaves she had placed on top.
The fire sparked and engulfed the entire pillar, causing the child to make a somewhat strangled yelp noise from her throat as she moved back, tripping slightly from her long hair but watching as the fire died down.
It revealed a very red pillar that was very hot after the fire died down a little, with the symbol glowing white on the ground with the pillar in the center. Since the child had collected every moss and leaf in the temple's room, it looked like a pentagram on the ground, with each tip representing an element.
After finishing, the child picked up the next scroll from the pile of scrolls and looked at the words as they had the '🜃' symbol. Once again, their eyes hurt a little, but she focused her eyes on the right sight, and it read:
I stand still, yet I'm always alive, bearing secrets deep inside.
Ancient tales, I have stored, from root to tip, life's record I've hoarded.
Nourished by rain, sun, and air, what am I, with secrets so rare?
The child went towards the pillar with the same symbol and thought about what to add to this pillar, knowing she had used up all the leaves and moss to start a fire for the fire element pillar.
Then, the thought of the rock popped into her head, and she walked back to the items, pausing after noticing there were two rocks. The child carefully picked both stones up and looked at them in her hands, seeing a slight difference between them.
She picked up the one in her left hand and placed the other down, walking over to the pillar and placing the stone on top after standing a little on her tippy toes to reach for the top since she was a little short.
After putting the rock on top of the pillar, the rock was absorbed into the pillar, and the child stepped back, watching as the rock disappeared and life returned to the pillar.
The pillar grew moss, grass, and vines, and a single beautiful flower appeared where the rock was placed as the symbol appeared around the pillar.
After the pillar's life returned, the child returned to the scrolls after carefully rolling the one in her hands and placing it into the bag before picking up the next scroll. The symbol was '🜁,' and the words read:
I am felt but never seen, moving silently in between.
I can whisper, sing, or shout, carrying scents and secrets about.
Lifting kites and cooling days—what am I, with invisible ways?
The child went towards the pillar with the same symbol and re-read the words before an idea popped into her head. She rolled the scroll and placed it into the bag with the others before returning and taking a deep breath before blowing.
As she was blowing, the wind started picking up into a whistling sound as the child stopped after all the air went out of her lungs, watching as the wind continued spinning before a gust of wind went up, causing her to instantly push her dress down as the symbol appeared around the pillar of wind.
After that pillar had air returned, the child picked up the next scroll and opened it, seeing the symbol was '🜄' and the letters read:
In rivers, oceans, and lakes, I flow, quenching thirst as I go.
Mirror to the sky so blue, in me, mountains and valleys you'll view.
I can be still or roar—what am I that's never far from shore?
The child went towards the pillar after picking up the water bottle, rolling the scroll, and placing it with the others. She opened the water bottle and poured the water onto the top of the pillar, watching the water spread all over the pillar and down to the bottom.
The water inside the pillar started moving upward like a cycle as the child watched, seeing that it was working as more water filled before the water began picking up after the last drop was emptied from the water bottle.
The water becomes a miniature waterfall, and the symbol appears around the pillar. All that is left is the final pillar, which the child does not know what to do with since there is a rock left.
Deciding to use the scroll to see if she could get some help with what to do, she opened it and saw the symbol was '✡,' and it read:
I am not flesh, bone, or skin but reside deep within.
Neither fire, water, earth, nor breeze, but connect them all with ease.
Eternal flame, soul's sacred song—what am I, where all feelings belong?
The child approached the final pillar after rolling the scroll and placing it into the bag, then putting it into her handmade backpack and picking up the rock in her hands.
Hesitation was there initially, but she swallowed the hesitation and placed the rock on top with both hands since it was big and on her tippytoes. After putting the rock on the pillar, the pillar's colors suddenly shone with millions of colors that caused the child to gasp, attempting to move her hands away, but they were stuck to the rock!
Even the kitten she had taken with her was stuck on her shoulder when it attempted to hop off, giving hisses and loud meows of panic. Cracks appeared across the pillar the child was standing in front of, and the other pillars shone with different colors. Even the ground lit up, revealing the gigantic pentagram as the child stood at the tip of it.
A transformation activated, and her very long, grimy copper-brown hair suddenly turned a gradient of dark blue at the roots and ended in a blue color at the tips. Her eyes turned from hazelnut brown to azure blue, and lines appeared around her joints. Even her ears went from round to pointed.
After the transformation, the rock shattered from underneath the child's hand, and a rainbow gemstone formed underneath her palm before transforming into a necklace, which was engulfed in the child's hand when she grabbed it with both hands.
Once the necklace was grabbed, the child with the kitten still nestled on her shoulder vanished, leaving behind an ancient sanctuary, now silent under the watchful eyes of the retreating moon as it crumbled into nothing after all the magic had faded.