Shattering of the Realms

## Chapter 1

Aafje was having a race with her friend Tigaso and other skykids before it all happened. Before a strange, thick pink mist settled over the land and the sky turned red.

Everybody abruptly stopped flying and looked at the sky and the mist. There was a loud bang as skykids watched the ground rumble, making everybody scatter and fly for shelter.

Aafje jumped on top of Tigaso’s back and he flew them to the big round rock where the Butterfly Charmer resided. While they were flying there, Aafje saw big red rocks emerge from the top of Eye of Eden and fly out in various directions. The rocks seemed to be flying close by, and her concern deepened.

“Tigaso,” Aafje said, trying to shout over the loud noises of the eruption. “I don’t think the big round rock will be safe enough for us. Look at those rocks coming from Eden!”

He looked up just as a red rock flew above them and into the Caves.

“It looks like all the rocks are landing in the Caves. We should go to Sanctuary Islands. We should be safe there.” Tigaso suggested, and started to head back.

“Are you crazy? This is the kind of fun I like! Let's have an adventure together and go into the Caves!” Aafje said, jumping off of his back.

“I’m crazy? You're crazy! Look…look at how small you are!” Tigaso sputtered, looking down at her small chibi body. “You're obviously going to get hurt.”

Aafje put her hands on her hips and made a “hmph” sound. “If you're not going, then I’m going alone!” And flew off into the Caves.

She could faintly hear her friends' shouts as she entered. The Caves looked pretty normal so far, besides the mist and sky, and she shivered. She didn’t like how eerie and quiet it was. She flew past the rainbow, that wasn’t very appropriate, considering what was happening, before she felt the ground rumble again. Aafje gasped at what she saw.

There were multiple red glowing rocks with one huge shard in the center with darkness plants and crabs surrounding them, including some crabs that had spikes on them that she never had seen before. Nobody else was here but her.

She flew up where they were located and started burning the darkness plants. Then, it happened all too quickly that she couldn’t even get out of the way. Another shard from the sky fell directly above her and crashed into her, leaving her flying backward and a winged light just out of her reach.

Aafje was stunned, and it took her awhile before she started crawling forward, but her legs wouldn’t move properly. She was sure she wouldn’t be able to regain it and slumped down, before spotting a crab getting ready to charge at her.

No, no no.. She thought, squeezing her eyes shut. I’m going to die here, I’m going to die here.. An image of her and Tigaso laughing and racing together flashed in her mind, and she smiled what she thought would be her last one.

Aafje was shocked suddenly when the crab didn’t charge and she regained her winged light. A hand offered her up and she took it. She smiled once more once she realized the person who had come to save her was Tigaso.

“Thank you.” She whispered. “I thought I was going to die here.”

“Not with me around,” Tigaso said, grinning. “I’m always going to be by your side, no matter how crazy or dangerous your adventures are.”

And together they burned all the darkness and knocked over all the crabs except for the spikey ones that wouldn’t flip over whenever they honked. They got charged at multiple times, but would always save each other by regaining the winged light that flew out of them.

It was a long, tiring process before they burned the last of the dark plants and a meditation circle appeared next to the large red radiant shard and they meditated. Then they had to collect jelly fragments that were scattered close by the shards before all the crabs and shards disappeared. Both she and Tigaso got a couple of ascended candles, but Aafje got more ascended wax.

A reddish diamond appeared, and she and Tigaso got this weird feeling like they knew their name, which was Void of Shattering, by the center of the rocks left behind in place of the large radiant shard. They went up to it and visited the void.

Both Aafj and Tigaso gasped at the beautiful sight. The void was filled with many floating jellyfish that were frozen in place that reached up to a beautiful light that illuminated the room.

They both started standing on jellyfish and jumping from one to another and climbed up higher. They were climbing and marveling at the beautiful sight for a while before they headed to a portal that would lead them back to the big round rock where the Butterfly Charmer was, the last place they were before they entered the Caves. They smiled at each other, a smile of sadness, wonder, delight, and wistfulness, before returning back to Daylight Prairie.

## Chapter 2

Aafje and Tigaso were helping put up bells with the Waving Bellmaker before the Elder came by and asked to come with them. They had exchanged glances, for many skykids have talked about them for a while of their act.

Aafje nodded, and it took some convincing for Tigaso to come along. They rode Grandiose, the largest, most eldest manta in Daylight Prairie to reach the Elder’s Temple. When they landed, Aafje shivered with excitement.

I wonder what the inside of the Elder’s Temple looks like. I wonder what’s going to happen there!

Aafje skipped along the bridge leading to the Elder’s Temple and collected wax from any nearby candles while Tigaso held her hand. Together with the Elder, they entered the temple.

She had to squint in the darkness to see properly. A dim light came from the roof, and many empty jars were in the room. Candles were scattered on top of these jars, and grass blew delicately in the light breeze. Overall, the Temple wasn’t anything too special, but it was still pretty.

“So, what are we here for?” Tigaso asked, settling down on top of a jar strong enough for his weight.

“Recently, some shards have been falling into Hidden Forest. The Elder and the skykids didn’t know what to do or how to react and ignored the shards before they realized they became a problem. Darkness has started to spread and strange yet powerful crabs have been starting to fill in.”

“How do you know this?” Tigaso asked. “I mean- Some say Elders are all-knowing and stuff.. But that doesn’t seem very likely.”

“I only know this because a brave, yet young child has volunteered to send a message from the Hidden Forest to us. They only picked our Realm because they have heard about you two.” They raised their eyebrows. “News can spread fast sometimes between neighboring Realms.”

“So, this skykid.” Aafje said after being silent for a while. “Where are they? Did they go back to Hidden Forest?”

“Actually, they are still here, in Daylight Prairie. Sage, please come out.” The Elder said.

From behead the Elder’s totem where you light the three candles, a female skykid peeked out before shyly making their way down to where they were.

“This is Sage. She hasn’t been in Hidden Forest for very long before these events have happened. Sage, say Hello to Aafje and Tigaso. They will come and help the Hidden Forest.”

Aafje could tell Sage was new, for she still had all the beginning’s items except for her hair, which split into what looked like two bundles of hair.

“Hi.” Sage mumbled, staring at the ground.

“Hello! I’m Aafje and this is Tigaso,” Aafje said. “We were the ones who dealt with the shards here in Daylight Prairie.”

“Will you be able to save Hidden Forest, then?” She asked, her eyes round and hopeful.

“I’m sure we can!” Aafje said, hugging Tigaso. “Right?”

“Sure…” He muttered.

“Well, let's get going, then!” She exclaimed. “We got a Realm to save!”

The Elder smiled before handing over multiple jars full of butterflies. “They’ll recharge your light when you release them. Use them wisely and have a safe journey.”

The Elder released a big jar full of butterflies that lifted them up before they all together headed for Hidden Forest.

When they entered the Forest Clearing, everything seemed normal, until they felt the shaking.

“There's definitely some shards here!” Tigaso called over the eruption.

They together made their way in the forest with Sage’s help before reaching the Tree Tunnels. From there, they could see the shards now. By the tall tower, double the amount the shards were there, with plenty of darkness plants and crabs.

“There they are!” Aafje exclaimed, pointing over to where they were located.

The shards were glowing a radiant red when they landed and burned darkness. Every now and then they had to stop burning darkness and recover someone’s winged light, which was usually Sage’s.

After a while, they burned most of the darkness when the Void of Shattering appeared again. They went to the circle and meditated before fragments appeared for them to collect. This time instead of collecting jelly fragments, they had to collect crab fragments.

They had to burn darkness to reach the fragment, which was annoying because they already burnt a lot of darkness and they were tired. By the time they collected all of them and were able to enter the void, they were so tired they thought their feet would fall off.

When they entered the void, all three of them admired the scene with shining eyes. Crabs were at the bottom of the void while floating darkness floated above them, with a winged light on the last piece of floating darkness. Tigaso raced against Aafje while she held Sage’s hand to see who could get at the top first and get the winged light. Because of Sage’s help, Aafje made it to the top first and got the winged light with a shout of triumph.

“I won!” She panted, before getting down to the portal.

Again, like last time, they had to return back. All three pairs of eyes glimmered, reflecting the light from the portal, before stepping into the portal and returning back to where they belong, Tigaso and Aafje at Daylight Prairie and Sage at Hidden Forest.

## Chapter 3

Aafje, Tigaso and Sage were at Grandma’s Dinner Hall, enjoying sweet potatoes while she told a story of a moth who once visited while traveling through the realms.

“The moth looked so weak and tired, so I offered them sweet potatoes! After that, I gave them the instructions to go to Valley of Triumph. I’m sure they made it.”

“Valley of Triumph..” Tigaso said thoughtfully. “How about we visit there? Perhaps they have shards there.”

“That's a good idea!” Aafje exclaimed, jumping up. “They surely have some shards by now. I mean, we got three shard events in Daylight Prairie!”

Tigaso sighed. “Thankfully we taught all of the skykids there how to deal with a shard.”

Aafje chuckled. “Yeah, good thing we did or Daylight Prairie would’ve been fried crabs when we came back!”

Tigaso laughed while Sage asked, “Are we going to Valley of Triumph later?”

Aafje sat straight up. “What about today?”

“Really?” Stars were shining in her eyes. “Can we go today?”

“Of course all of you can go today!” Grandma said. “I know a little trick us spirits can do. All you need to do is hold my hand, but make sure you hold on tight.”

The three friends held each other’s hand as Grandma teleported into the air and teleported to the entrance of the Elder’s Temple.

“Good luck convincing the Elder for you three to leave.” Grandma smiled. “The Hidden Forest’s Elder is rather.. Tough to convince.”

It turned out Grandma was right. They had argued for a long time before they were allowed to go to Valley of Triumph.

“My voice is so sore from arguing.” Tigaso complained while they flew.

“You mean from yelling?” Aafje chuckled, the memory of him ranting at the Elder still fresh in her mind.

“You know that story that Grandma told?” Sage asked. “I wonder if the moth had to argue with the Elder just to get to Valley of Triumph on their journey.”

“Probably.” Aafje said. “I can’t imagine the Elder letting them go without an argument.”

“And without his voice going hoarse.” Tigaso added.

Soon, they were racing down the snow to get to the Ice Rink. It turned out Sage got to the bottom first, but clumsily landed at the end when they skated off the platform onto the Ice Rink.

“Wow, Sage!” Aafje said once she got down. “How are you so good?”

“Sometimes in the Forest some other skykids would slide down hills of mud and grass to see who is fastest with me.” Sage smiled. “I was one of the fastest.”

“That’s pretty cool!” Tigaso said. “The best thing we got to skate down is hills of grass.” He laughed. “Not the best thing for practicing.”

“I think we ought to explore and make friends while we are here.” Aafje said, looking around. She spotted a skykid and pointed. “Hey, look! Let's talk to them.”

“Hi there!” Aafje said once they approached them. They appeared to be a male.

“Who are you?” They asked in a rather wary way. “I’ve never seen you guys before.”

“We’re from Daylight Prairie and Hidden Forest.” Tigaso said.

“Well, scramble back to your sunny prairie, ‘cause this place ain’t for you.” He said. “Only us skykids in Valley of Triumph belong here. I bet none of you could even beat in a race!”

Aafje nudged Sage. “Go show him what you got.” She whispered.

“Oh yeah?” Tigaso said, stepping so close they were eye to eye. “I bet our friend here could beat you!”

“That moth over there?” He snorted. “Fine. Let's make a bet. If your friend wins, you’re free to stay here. If I win, you guys are going to go back to your own realms and mind your own business. Deal?”

“Deal.” Tigaso said, almost snarling.

“Follow me to race.” He led them to a place where they raced.

“Light the candles and whoever is racing sits down on the glowy circles.” They said. “You two can go to the Coliseum and wait there until we arrive. My friend Utrka will show you to the Coliseum.”

A tall female with flowing hair, earmuffs, and a piano led them away as Sage sat down on a glowy circle. Aafje looked behind to see Sage getting ready to up out and race.

Once they were at the Coliseum, Aafje flew up as high as they could before carefully balancing on the wall and squinting in the distance to see who would arrive first. Minutes passed before she saw a figure.

“I see somebody coming!” Aafje called excitedly, while Tigaso started scrambling up to see.

As the figure came closer, her hopes were only raised higher. Sage was approaching quickly with a wide smile on her face. She zoomed past them and entered the Coliseum before collecting all the light fragments before they disappeared. Sage had already collected her candle and fireworks went up before their competitor entered in with a face of anguish.

“Pono, how could you lose to a moth?” Utrka said, her voice full of anger. “You- you wimp!” She stalked away angrily while Aafje and Tigaso showered Sage with congratulations.

Sage was the first to notice their competitor was hanging a distance away from them.

She approached him rather quietly and said, “Are you okay?I know you're upset, but me beating you in a race isn’t that big of a deal, right? I only did it so my friends could stay here.”

“You don’t get it! I’ve never been beaten in a race before until today. By a moth.” He spat.

“If you want, you can be our friend. We don’t care if you got beaten by a moth. My friends would’ve stayed my friends even if I lost and It was my fault.”

“..Sure. I’m Ponosan, or Pono for short.” He mumbled. “I can teach your friends how to ice-skate.. It's really fun.”

“Really?” Sage exclaimed. “Could you please teach us?”

“Sure I can.” Ponosan said. “We’ll have to go back to the Ice Rink.”

All four of them went to the Ice Rink, and he showed them how to ice-skate. Most of the time they fell backwards, laughing. All day they practiced until they perfected it.

“I think I can skate backwards now!” Tigaso shouted. And sure enough, he did skate backwards, except he bumped into a wall once.

Tigaso and Aafje were making up tricks to do while skating while Sage and Ponosan were watching from the snow. Sage noticed his worried expression and asked him what was wrong.

“It’s nothing.” He replied quickly.

“Are you sure..?” Sage asked.

“...Okay, maybe something is wrong. Yesterday a strange red glowy crystal fell from the sky. We thought maybe we could deal with it, but we couldn’t do anything. I heard about you and your friends, and when you visited, I only made the deal in hopes I’ll win and you guys won’t ever know about our problem.” He sighed. “I suppose I underestimated you and lost. I really did hope that we could solve our own problems, but I guess asking others for help isn’t that bad.”

“Well,” Sage said, smiling, “What are we waiting for? Let's deal with the shard!”

Ponosan smiled. “Hey, Tigaso and Aafje! I ought to tell you guys something.”

Both of them shared confused looks as Ponosan explained.

“You could’ve told us from the beginning that you guys had a shard here. Those can become really bad once a few land.” Tigaso said.

Ponosan scratched his head with embarrassment. “I really thought we could deal with it alone without help.”

“Where even is the shard, anyway?” Aafje asked.

“It's in Village of Dreams.” Ponosan replied.

“Village of Dreams..” Sage said dreamily. “I wonder if dreams come true there.”

Ponosan led them to Village of Dreams and they saw the shards. Between the four of them, they dealt with the shard rather quickly.

“You burn the darkness first,” Aafje explained to Ponosan. “And then the crystal breaks, and don’t touch that!”

After a while of explaining and burning, they finally burnt all the darkness and their activity started. They had to catch fragments of mantas, and they had to fly into the air to catch them. After getting some manta fragments, the Void of Shattering appeared again. They meditated and appeared in the third void. There was a huge flock of mantas. They pretended to ride them and be a manta before heading back to the portal to go back to their own realms once more.

“I had a fun time with you,” Tigaso admitted to Ponosan.

“Me too.” Aafje added.

“Same with me.” Sage smiled. “You're cool to hang out with.”

“Thanks.” Ponosan said with a small grin.

Then they all stepped into the portal, getting separated once more into their own realms.

## Chapter 4

Aafje, Tigaso, Sage and Ponosan were hanging out in Valley of Triumph and watching the mantas there fly around the Ice Rink. Ever since they had gone to Valley of Triumph that one time, the Forest Elder had been more willing to let them go.

Everything was all normal before Tigaso noticed Sage and Ponosan acting.. Differently? They seemed to act closer to each other and talked and laughed a lot with each other..

“Since when were you two a thing?” Tigaso blurted out in a questioning way.

“Oh, she just admitted she had a crush on me when we were ice-skating together.” Ponosan said, shrugging, while Sage blushed intensely.

“I told you not to tell-” She started, before getting cut off.

“Okay, sorry sorry.” Ponosan said, rolling his eyes. “Let's just forget I said that and focus on what  adventure we are going to do now.”

“What about that portal you mentioned that's forbidden to go in?” Aafje suggested.

“Aafje, why do you always suggest doing the craziest, most dangerous things ever.” Tigaso sighed. “Besides, that portal is forbidden for a reason.”

“Tigaso’s right. I can’t imagine the horrible things that would happen if the Valley Elders found out we went into the portal.” Ponosan shivered. “The Elders here are probably the worst ever.”

“Why is that?” Sage asked.

“They… don't have the best relationship with each other. Because of that, they make us do lots and lots of races often.”

“It can’t be that bad.. Right?”

“Nah, it’s bad. They are way too competitive for their own good.”

“So, are we going in the portal or not?” Aafje asked.

“Nope.” Ponosan replied.

“Aww.. pleeaase?”

“No-”

“Please?”

“Fine!” Ponosan sighed. “I hope you know I only said yes or else you would bug me forever.”

“Thank you!” Aafje said, bouncing up and down.

“We have to be careful the Elders don’t find out, though.”

That night, they snuck off and went into the portal. The clouds turned a gray color and the sky turned into a grayish green hue.

“Maybe we should actually go back-” Sage’s words were cut off as they suddenly separated and were blown away in a tornado.

Everything was all dark before they all woke up with the worst headache ever. Once Aafje got up, she was able to scan her surroundings. They were in a desert- a big wasteland of polluted water and junk.

Wasteland. Aafje thought. It suddenly occurred to her where they were.

“Guys- were in Golden Wasteland.”

“The Golden Wasteland? The endless desert full of the terrifying dark dragons?” Ponosan asked, their eyes wide with fear.

“It's not endless.” Tigaso said. “There's a vault at the end of the desert full of information about various things.”

“Vault of Knowledge.” Aafje said. “If we can find our way around the dark dragons, we can go there. If the Vault of Knowledge really is full of knowledge, I bet they would know how we can get out of here and back in our own realms.”

“Guys, is it supposed to be.. Foggy like this?” Ponosan asked, being the first one to notice the rather heavy pink mist.

Aafje, Tigaso and Sage looked at each other, all having the same thought.

“A shattering event.”

And that also means a gateway back to own realms. Aafje realized.

They all quickly held hands and flew over the polluted water and entered the first dark dragon area. They paid the dark dragon no heed as they rushed past to find the shard.

“There it is!” Sage exclaimed, pointing near by a large skull where a bright red shard rested.

“Wait, something's off.” Tigaso said rather cautiously. “There never were those.. Things there before.”

Pink objects that looked like the Void of Shattering circled around the main, big red glowing shard, going in rather unpredictable ways.

“Well, we’ll have to deal with it before this place becomes worse. It’s already bad enough here.” Aafje pointed out.

They all departed and started burning darkness.

“I don’t remember there being this many red crabs.” Tigaso said once he lost his sixth winged light while Sage quickly regained it.

They burned all the darkness quickly between the four of them and the shard shattered before the Void of Shattering appeared. They all meditated before collecting jellyfish fragments before returning back to the shard and entering the void.

There were dark dragons that they saw in Golden Wasteland, except their eyes glowed red and there was what looked like red lightning.

“This void.. Is rather scary compared to the others we’ve seen.” Tigaso said while Sage nodded in agreement.

They all easily got the winged light before heading for the portal to leave Golden Wasteland.

“Aafje, I’ve gotta say you really got us all screwed.” Ponosan sighed.

Aafje shrugged innocently while they all entered the portal. There was a flash of white as they were all teleported.

## Chapter 5

Aafje opened her eyes, expecting to feel the warm sunshine breeze on her camp that no doubt was from Daylight Prairie. But instead she felt the harsh sandy wind that belonged unmistakably from Golden Wasteland.

“What!?” She cried in dismay. “We- were still here!?”

“Oh, so now you don’t want to be here?” Ponosan asked, sounding rather amused. His tone then turned serious. “That’s strange, though.”

“We should head to Vault of Knowledge, like our original plan.” Tigsao suggested.

“But how could we find it in this large pit of nothingness?” Sage cried.

“Let's start by following that trail.” Ponosan pointed at the far end, stairs led up with a flurry of birds flying.

They snuck into the shadows of waste  and each took turns looking out to check if any dark dragons were close to spotting them. Aafje once narrowly escaped from getting hit and the rest let out the biggest sigh of relief. Then they entered another area, the Battlefield. They all flew over the towering walls of what looked like a destroyed fort and it was Sage who noticed the altar first.

“Look!” She shouted with a pointing finger. A gate was sealed shut by a button that could be activated by a candle.

They dived with the wind and let gravity steer them downwards with a rather rough landing of sand. They wasted no time, though, and quickly lit up the altar. At the sight of three dark dragons headed for them once the gate opened, they all quickly scrambled in, like a group of clumsy crabs.

Vault of Knowledge was nice and cool inside and gave off a mysterious, wondrous vibe. A young skykid noticed them first.

“Who are you four?” She demanded.

“I’m Aafje!” Aafje said, always being the first once to introduce themselves. “And these are my friends Tigaso, Sage and Ponosan! Tigaso and I were first-” She began to launch into the whole story.

“What Aafje is saying,” Ponosan interrupted after a while of useless explaining. “All of us… ‘accidentally’.. Ended up in Golden Wasteland we came here for shelter and a possible way to get back here.”

“And how did you exactly ‘accidentally’ end up here?” The girl’s voice was sharp and demanding.

“Aafje kind of… annoyed us into it?” Tigaso said hesitantly.

Aafje gave him a glare while the skykid’s expression looked exasperated and they sighed. “Look, I'm just a student here trying to learn about Cosmic Mantas. I’m not in charge of deciding whether you're able to stay here or not. The Elder here is pretty slow at making decisions here, so it's best you leave before anybody else figures out your here before we have to hold a long, boring council debating whether you let you stay or not.”

Ponosan bowed his head gratefully. “Thank you.”

There was a moment of silence.

“So how do we get out of here anyway?” Aafje piped up.

“Right.” The skykid let out another sigh. “Follow me. It looks like we have to go up the boring slow way.”

They were led to a platform that was activated by lighting lanterns and floating ones. They ascended upwards by meditating on the glowing circle. Instructions were spit out and they worked together lighting lantern by lantern, lantern by lantern, lantern by lantern…. The work became dull quickly.

“So,” Aafje said when they were going up another level. “We never got your name. What is it?”

“Znanje.” They said, “Means ‘knowledge’ in our old language.”

They finally made it to the fifth floor, the last one, where cosmic mantas rode them up to the final platform.

“Oh no.” Znanje whispered. The Vault Elder could be seen by the Elder Statues on the top floating island, as if they had been waiting for them all this time, along with the other Elders.

“I have a feeling this is going to end badly.” Ponosan muttered.

Arguments could be heard from the Elders as they approached. The Isle Elder looked calm while the Prairie Elder had a  helpless expression. The Forest Elder seemed angry and the two Valley Elders argued with them. The Wasteland Elder, which explained why they hadn’t encountered him along their way to Vault of Knowledge, looked concerned for the three arguing Elders. The Vault Elder just stared, straight where they were. Their seemingly all-knowing eyes sparkled.

“The shards are becoming a mess.” The Forest Elder was saying. “My people can’t defend themselves with stinging rain and the mess the shards make and most are leaving. We need the Shattering Protectors. Only they know how to deal with them.”

“What about our Realms?” The female Valley Elder snapped, their voice challenging. “We too are dealing with the shards. We need them more than you dirty foresters.”

“The shards can’t be that bad, can they?” The Isle Elder asked, while both the Valley and Forest Elders shouted at the same time, “THEY ARE THAT BAD!”

In the midst of arguing a slow, deep voice spoke. “They are here.”

It was the Vault Elder who spoke, and all heads that belonged to Elders snapped sharply in the direction where they were standing.

“So they are here.” Mekh, or that is at least what Ponosan called them, hissed.

“You couple are really the Shattering Protectors?” The Isle Elder’s face looked doubtful, as if not believing such a small group of young skykids could really supposedly deal with the so-called dangerous shards.

“Shattering Protectors?” Tigaso echoed, speaking Aafje’s exact thoughts.

“Yeah. Haven’t you heard of your own title?” The male Valley asked, while the Isle Elder’s expression became even more doubtful.

“No..?” Sage said, hesitantly. She seemed rather intimated by the Elders.

Both Valley elders snorted. The Vault Elder then spoke, so suddenly and out of nowhere, it surprised everyone.

“The Shard has landed. The Desert of Starlight.”

The Forest Elder snorted. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“Starlight Desert.” Znanje whispered. She tugged Aafje’s hand and signaled for everybody to follow. They all seemed to disappear in the background as the Elders argued once more.

Starlight Desert’s sand was a strange purple color, and it seemed as dreamy as Village of Dreams. The sand and wind was unlike Golden Wasteland, a cool, reassuring breeze and soft sand with grits of rock so small you couldn’t see them. The magical, wondrous feeling was ruined by the shard, making an ugly mark in the sand. More shards fell as they burned darkness and gave out instructions to Znanje. Between the ‘Shattering Protectors’ and Znanje, the work was finished quickly.

“I can’t believe the Elders are arguing over something that could be easily done.” Znanje sighed. “Looks like I’m becoming an Official Scholar and giving lessons on how to deal with shards.”

“Yeah, and skykids from all over the Realms and come and get lessons from you!” Sage exclaimed. “Then the Elders will have nothing to worry about.”

“Um, sorry to interrupt your small conversation,” Tigaso said, “But we kind of still have to meditate and do our activity with these weird diamond things floating around.” He waved at the spinning objects that looked like the Void of Shattering.

“Right.” Sage smiled, and they all meditated.

Their quest was to pick up crab fragments and they all bent down to collect them. Not a single back ached because of how little they had to do between the five of them.The Void of Shattering appeared, and they all visited the next void. Four giant whales were in the void and they all struggled to find the winged light. Lots of recharging was needed before they managed to collect it and they all puffed with exhaustion. Once they reached the portal back to their realms, Sage stopped.

“Do you want to hang out with us and become one of the… Shattering Protectors?” She asked Znanje, seeming to already be great friends with her.

She shook her head sadly. “I would love to, but I am going to become an Official Scholar and teach others how to deal with shards. My Realm needs me.” Then there was a small sparkle of humor in her eyes. “And it will take a long time to change from a student learning about a certain subject to a scholar teaching about a certain subject. Especially if it's another topic.”

“If you're sure.” Sage sighed, stepping into the portal with the others. She was shortly followed by Znanje, who was prepared for restless nights of councils.

## Chapter 6

Aafje was having a race with her friend Tigaso, like she had before what seemed like long ago the events of Season of Shattering. Except it was different. She had new friends and learned new things.

A low, growly rumble of the floor told her a shard was going to fly off. She veered off course and stared at the sky.

“The Caves.” She predicted. Some nostalgia shot through her like a lightning bolt. Tigaso and her other friends also went off course to join her. They all stared with one another at the sky. A shard suddenly flew past them and landed into the Caves.

They all waved at the remaining racing skykids and headed for the Caves. It was dark yet calm there. The shards gave off a radiant glow as they approached it and started burning darkness. Out of the corner of Aafje’s eye, she saw a shard crab preparing to charge at her.

Not again. She thought, swifting dodging it as it charged. She also noticed crabs were… charging at memory candles?

They must hate them for some reason. She shrugged it off and burned out the rest of the darkness. They meditated and had to collect jelly fragments. She felt an even stronger burst of nostalgia and dizzily she collected the remaining jelly shards.

As quick as they came, they were finished.

Work does go by faster when you have more. They all meditated again to visit the last void.

A large luminescent version of the Void of Shattering was in the center. All the elders, dark as stone, circled the Shattering diamond and little crystal shards were scattered here and there. They all flew up, collected the winged light and flew back down.

“It's already the end.” Sage sighed sadly. “It went by fast.”

“Our journey was dangerous but fun.” Tigaso agreed. “Life will be dull without these shards.”

“I’m kind of glad they came and-” Ponosan paused and narrowed his eyes suspiciously at Aafje. “Why do you look like you know something that we don’t know?”

“You know, a little birdie named Znanje told me that Season of Shattering may be ending, but the shards will forever keep on coming.”

Everybody smiled. “I suppose that girl does know everything about shards.” Ponosan said, grinning.

They all stepped into the portal, full of joy, sadness, pleasure, and most of all.. nostalgia.