The cave was dark. Everything was obscured as the only light source lay behind me, peering through the waterfall itself. But in retrospect, I was fortunate for such a thing.  The darkness made finding the reflective light easier. It appeared to originate from the cave wall just a short distance from me. While I was approaching the cave wall, Petra walked through the waterfall, Buttercup followed behind her, and we were all stumped. Just what was the thing we were staring at? It was so peculiar. What I thought was just a reflective surface on the cave wall was something far stranger. First, it was not on the wall or was the wall. It lay just before it, floating in mid-air. It was a crack, similar to what would be on the side of a vase or glass material. Second, there seemed to be a slither of light peeking through the small gap, which made it the reflective light source. 

“What kind of corruption is this?” Petra asked. She was as equally stumped as me. 

“I dunno,” walking around the crack, I inspected it from all angles. 

“I don’t like this. We should go and tell Dad. Wait… What are you doing?” 

Nervously, I cautiously reached for the weird floating thing, “I just want to touch it.”

“Why would you wanna do that?” 

“Don’t be such a downer. It may activate a mission. Or it could give us an enhanced ability or something.” 

“We should still tell Dad about this!” Petra stamped her feet.  “Get away from that thing, Astrid!” Practically commanding me, she snarled but soon let out a sigh. She gave up trying to convince me when she noticed that I was ignoring her, inching closer and closer to it. Bullets of sweat appeared on my forehead, and my heartbeat steadily increased. There was no way of knowing what would happen when I came in contact with this strange oddity. Would I get powers? Or would it burn me alive? The tension was getting the better of Petra, as she was wincing, frozen in fear of what would happen next. Even my beautiful spirit pet goddess Buttercup was fluttering cautiously. Of course, she did not say she was concerned. She cannot speak, after all. But seeing how closely she hovered behind my sister, only to peak out periodically, was not a big vote of confidence on her part. Yet nothing ventured was nothing gained, as the human expression goes. I jumped up and touched it to get it over with quickly. The crack broke, and glass-like shards shot out at me. I was foolish for thinking anything good would come from a mysterious cave only spirits knew of. There was no time to even defend myself. It all happened so fast. However, as the shards hurtled over to my face, they disappeared before they could reach me. The gap between me and the device enlarged in the dark, its spectrum of colors becoming more visible and brighter than ever. “Astrid!” A desperate Petra shouted, “Run!” It was easy for her to say. She was not right next to the darn thing. Petra and Buttercup got a head start running before me. Trying to catch up to them, my legs did not seem to carry me like they used to. I felt sluggish, slow, something way too peculiar for my usually fit physique. It was like my body swam aimlessly through some sort of desert or clawed its way through a slime pit. Gravity itself seemed to have lost its effect on me. Then I saw it. Looking around, I noticed I was no longer on the cave floor. Not only did my feet gradually lift off the ground, but my whole body was being pulled back. Quickly, I equipped my boomerang, stabbing it deep into the ground to hold on for dear life. The force was tenacious, pulling me back more vigorously. I used a second boomerang and stuck that into the ground too. The ground itself was loosening, and the boomerangs wobbled. There was little hope left. Petra ran after me, screaming inaudible words as the anomaly behind me deafened me. I looked to my sister, desperate to save me. And all I could think of was how wrong I had been. There were no superpowers in this cave. I had endangered my loving sister, my best friend, simply out of curiosity and greed. However, there was one last thing I could do. I eased my grasp off my boomerangs, and quickly the oddity sucked me back towards it. The last two things I saw were my weeping sister trying to claw her way to save me. And the other?  

As the oddity spun me around, I got a glimpse at what it really was. It was a gateway, a door, a portal. The crack was not a reflective surface. It was a crack in space itself. And it was hungry. Ravenous, I, along with some rocks and water, were sucked into the crack, the portal. As quickly as it devoured me, the portal closed. It left me alone, falling through the spectrum of colors. Tumbling, closing my eyes was all I could do. I was helpless otherwise. Seeing all those colors made me feel like, had I kept my eyes open any longer, I would go blind. A couple of seconds after, the colors disappeared, and I was left to fall through the darkness. Suddenly, I missed being drowned in colors and bright lights. As all that remained was the cold, uncaring horror of the dark. It was like being unborn. 

Soon... I had no idea how long I had been tumbling for. With every spin of my body, it seemed like eons had passed. Although, I knew it could not have been that long. I was just…. Sometimes I can be a little bit dramatic. Below me, a green crystal-like shape came into view. The crystal appeared more prominent and more significant as I tumbled towards it through the dark. Yes, I was on a collision course with that thing.  And ultimately, I would crash right through it.

Tune in Next Tuesday for Tutorial: Wake Up (Part 2)!