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       THEY arrived at the park not later than they expected. People bustled in anticipation of tonight's event. Stalls lined around the main square, releasing crisp and toasted odors.

       Mahikal performers adorned the place. Fire mages breathed physical flames from fire pits. Blade jugglers, air surfers, floral designers, and instrumental and vocal muses flourished. Stringless eyelights illuminated the plaza in prismatic colors.

       "Boys! Over here!" A familiar voice called out, ending their strenuous search. Cazzie waved with a basket in hand, wearing a floral gown. Her ash ponytail swept down to her chest and round glasses augmented her gray eyes.

       A pomegranate dropped from the basket on her approach and rolled to Zakair, which he picked up and gave her. Cazzie took it with a sweet smile. "Thank you, Zak. I'm glad you came."

       Zakair merely nodded. "Don't mention it."

       Kayne tapped him on the back with a brief shake. "Of course, he did. Won't be a fun night without our dear Nyrhaean friend here."

       "Kayne!" Cazzie went for a hug. The latter obligingly reciprocated before parting. "I thought you won't be back until the Fourth Sunrise?"

       "Yeah, well, I wouldn't want to miss this for the world."

       Cazzie laughed heartily. She led them to a mat placed at a considerable distance from the fences barring the edge of the cliff at a satisfactory sky-gazing angle.

       With its shimmering lake in the heart of its domain and the endpoint cliff fringed with fences bordering the thick blanket of trees below, displaying the horizon overhead, the Greens Grandiose Galore, composed of almost all the distinguished names of blooms from around the Sphere, was depicted as one of the emblematic tokens in behalf of the fertile land of Flaurella.

       Appealing to some for its pomp, many, as well, fancy the place for its ancient background. Rumors told that before the garden had flourished its artistry, it had become more than once a renowned combat zone during the foregone wars. Civil or worldwide. Fictitious or historic.

       It was a favorite among tourists whenever their eyes would wonder of the abundant greens from all the eight lands, yet already exhibited in a single park that made it irresistible to not want to visit one of the wonders of the way the kingdom could represent its glory.

       In the middle of the park, the glinting fountain put up a serene show, lit only by the miniature garden lamps hanging on the fieldstone walls that marked the boundary of the territory while others flanked along the edges of the marble pathways, lined along by a few ornate street lights splashing a wide range of white dazzle.

       Rings of flower beds in rainbow batches furnished the lawns. Lush shrubs snipped into small delicate trees budding the most endearing blossoms of roses, jasmine, bougainvillea, and such on the lime fields.

       "Sorry for the wait," Ryeld began, sitting by her. "Someone apparently got tracked off time and had to be pulled out of a little mischief. Again."

       "Oh?" Cazzie shot the redhead a condescending smile. When one knows the redhead too well, the terms mischief and Hiro have become inseparable. "What was it this time?"

       "Hoghead got himself into a brawl with Colt. Caught him in a cage fight in the pub."

       She tilted her head. Frowning to display her best impression of disappointment. The guilty smile plastered stupidly on Hiro's long face again. "Did he now? Well, wouldn't that make another good story for Nana to hear?"

       "Please don't tell. I swear it was just to settle a debt," Hiro begged. "I used the money to buy you that book you wanted for your birthday. Promise!"

       The uptight line on her lips broke, betraying an irrepressible curve. "C'mon, sis. I know a smile when I see one. You're never one to hide it good." He poked her sides, attempting flattery, which absurdly worked.

       "Alright! Alright! Stop!" She knocked away his tickling fingers. "But you better promise that is the last time I will hear of your shenanigans."

       "Yep!"

       Liar.

       Everyone took their seat on the mat. Each minute passed, the stars grew in noticeable clusters. People flocked into the park, exchanging stories and doing whatever they deemed fit to socialize. A few gossips, however, caught Zakair's pique. 

       "Haven't you heard?" A woman murmured behind them, "There was another attack."

       "You mean..."

       "Yes. Locals said it happened around the western subsidiary avenues just about an hour ago. Poor man was screaming and kicking on the floor like an animal gone rabid."

       "That's awful." Her female companion fell silent for a while, groaning to herself. "Let's just hope we can get home safely after this. I can't believe it would happen at this time."

       The woman whistled. "You can never know with such brutes." 

       The topic concluded just in time for Hiro to drown out their voices, redirecting Zakair's attention. "So, what wishes are you guys gonna make?" He began, already grabbing a scone.

       Kayne blew and rubbed his hands. "I won't risk telling you if it meant they'd come true. Besides, that's the point of making wishes, right? You keep it to yourself."

       Ryeld snickered. "Didn't take you for someone who believes in stuff like that."

       Kayne clicked his tongue. "Ah, no. Not really. But it wouldn't hurt to make one 'case the myths are true. What about you?"

       "Yeah, he does," Cazzie spoke over him.

       "Hey!" If Ryeld weren't honey-skinned, he'd be a tomato by now.

       She quipped, "Never told me to keep it a secret."

       "Yeah. But that should've been obvious by now." To that, Cazzie smiled it away, biting on the crisp blueberry tart. For a pioneer of industrial technology, his inclination toward a child's enlightenment was an irony to his earnest standpoint.

       She handed him a tart, which he eventually took with a scowl to the face that didn't take long to recede. Kayne clapped Ryeld's shoulders. "Girls. Am I right?"

       "Haha." Cazzie feigned an eye roll, covering her chewing mouth, smiling at the sweetness. "Good for you, I've left off in a good mood today at class. Lest' I would've already mushed this cream on your face." The brunette put his hands up, simulating a call to cessation.

       Zakair had always thought all these humans and their superstitions were no less ridiculous spits passed down to generations. From dwarves to space rocks granting wishes, it adds to his wonder how the human pride has deteriorated into. And yet a thousand years ago, they were proclaimed to be the highest form of creatures. And yet a thousand years ago, they were proclaimed to be the highest form of creatures.

       Self-proclaimed, more appropriately said.

       But maybe it was that. The thing they call faith that herd them to the top of dominating life forms. To harbor hope. To live despite the unforeseen blows of hardships to the point it preserved them from the brinks of extinction.

       Faith that invigorated them to believe rainbows promised the assurance of ultimate protection to meteor showers granting wishes. Had they been true, Zakair would not have been sitting in this desolate realm of Aelan at all. Nor did it all have come to this.

       "It's starting!" Someone from the crowd signaled.

       There was one, two, three ... until the streaks of light came in a spontaneous silver shower. Sailing in seconds before melting in a wisp to nothing.

       "Woah..." The siblings chorused. The astonishment swept the crowd into a unified applause. Sharing expressed astonishment in the vocals of oohs and aahs.

       Zakair nearly bared his jaws. It's almost as if the soaring dazzles were ethereal entities of hovering over the exosphere. Heralding their presence to remind them that they are not alone in the void universe in their voyage across the sea of stars.

       This instance was too enchanting not to miss every millisecond at the catch of the eye that it went over his expectations. It did, however, obligate him to squint for a clearer view.

       "Strange," Cazzie slowly said. "The broadcast said it'll commence at around three hours or less prior to midnight. It's still seven." She exhibited her eyewatch.

       Whispers of perplexity also swept over the crowd. The Blademaster shrugged. "Probably a miscalculation on their part. Who doesn't love an early surprise, anyway?"

      And the sooner it's over, the sooner we'd get going, Zakair wanted to say.

       Cazzie contemplated, then gave in to the thought. "You're right. Let's enjoy this." The cascading stars drew trails of light across the canvas of the night, increasing in number and splendor. Zakair admitted this was better than any ballistic missiles Hiro described. "Made your wish yet?" she continued.

       Hiro childly responded, "I wish that after we leave the academy, no matter where we are, we can always have moments like these." Kayne and Cazzie voiced a unison of awws.

       "Gag." Ryeld drawled.

       Kayne chuckled. "It's never too much to express like a kid once in a while." He tapped an elbow against Ryeld's arm. "You should try it once, Mr. Concrete Face. Maybe it'll wipe the wrinkles off your forehead." That earned him a swat to the shoulder, which Kayne received blissfully. But behind that stoic, hair gel-loving face, they knew there was that subtle sentiment layered under.

       Zakair's disposition was entangled between the two. The prospect of it still sounded silly. Despite himself, Kayne couldn't have expressed his thoughts any better. "It wouldn't hurt to make one." He found its sick sweetness choking him to the smallest degree. But that was not why he'd cast the fullness of hope into it.

       It was simply impossible.

       For all he knew, destiny is as unpredictable as it is unkind. And adding a salt grain of belief in the wisdom that change is nature made no difference in the course it sets for the likes of him.

       The showers shone alight like never before seen, yet they appeared as excruciating blurs in Zakair's eyes.

       The charm on his eyeglasses left a considerable burden on his gazes. Not only had it seared his already fragile sight but also struck a sort of dizziness. The lens didn't fully convey the clearest image either. His eyes had hurt from squinting in the barest gap that allowed him little to no visual.

       Everyone was too immersed in the lights shattering into a shower of kaleidoscopic colors. So Zakair took the moment to unequip his eyeglasses, oblivious of the faint red glow his eyes radiated. Eyes concentrated, he chanced upon a better view. The display of sparks served to further illuminate the spectacular vision of the meteor showers.

       He caught himself staring too long, thoroughly finishing wiping his eyeglasses and putting them back on.

       "Apa! Apa! There's a star coming at us!"

       "What is that?"

       "Look!"

       A tangle of voices aroused from the crowd. All eyes fixated on the direction where the little girl pointed from her father's hold.

       It was a star. A hollow, lightless fragment of some sort. Gliding, corroding...

       Until it came for them.

       The streaking solid material cut across the air in a magnificent inferno against the dark. Gasps of wonders twisted into cries of terror. The object careened towards the park with absolute velocity.

       Instead of condensed gas, its tail whipped its flickering tendrils. Shadowed by tracing black gas in its wake. Its head boasts the darkest obsidian as if it were a piece of the body of space itself.

       The object plowed into the ground, bursting a windful of force that tossed those near off their feet. Zakair and the rest were among the unfortunate to have been a little close, diving headfirst away from the explosion.

       His joints screamed in pain. The jolt sent his consciousness into a wave of frenzy knocked out of cognitive equilibrium.

       "Is everyone okay?" He heard Cazzie amidst the screeching in his ears. The hurled 'star' burrowed deep into the soil a considerable few feet from him. Forged in the clad of the darkest matter.

       Just when they caught their breath to ease, terrified gasps skyrocketed into turbulent, hysterical cries. Replacing the once total awe of air in the park.

       The sky was submerged in a splash of fierce red and orange. Boulders of flame crashed into the grass. Coming in sizes ranging from pebbles to barrels that tore through the greeneries and seared seas of fire to eat the leaves alive down to the roots.

       The once serene sea of wonder and merriment was succumbed by the tides of desperate cries and shrills of turmoil. Bodies crashed into one another. Shoving and tripping over obstacles, be it breathing or not, as people hastened their way for the garden's arch gateways at its tempest.

       Feet thudded against the ground as people frolicked. Surging for gateways. Not even the astral cast of mahika would suffice an escape. "Apa!" The little girl crawled on the soil, smears of dirt caked her dress. A man splayed on the ground beside her. A puddle of blood pooled from his head. Amidst the stampede, Hiro carried the girl as he hurtled among the fleeing mass.

       Slowly, Zakair stood. Head swirling like a thousand flies swarm inside. Against the blur, he made out the contorted flow of the fountain chipped off on its side, submerging the marble tiles. Kayne weakly hoisted himself by the fountain in the same daze.

       "Zak! Kayne!" Cazzie hollered from the crowd. Her small statue eluded the rushing bodies as she made her way for Kayne with Ryeld in tow, yelling for her to stop.

        The unified babel magnified. Until Zakair heard a low, guttural cry surfaced over the panic.

       Perhaps he had damaged his head. His legs weighed him like rocks that left him wobbling. The mysterious sound persisted. He scanned for where it rang from, taking in the vastness of the park spiraled into thick smoke. The flames consumed a third of the place. He squeezed his eyes, tracing the grumble to the middle of the park.

       To where they once had been perching.

       The tumult was obscured by the grating noise from its initial growling din. In the clearing smoke, the crater was ever as present. Yet it was the object inside that piqued interest. Though distant, he could've sworn the fallen star tipped on its side.

       His assumption was proven true when the black thing stirred in a fluid motion, bursting in a misshapen cloud of ink.

       What in the actual hell?

       It stretched and twisted. Coursing to the shape of a skull, limbs, and an elongated jaw that boasted beastly teeth. Humanoid from the trunk to the head, though, the lower portion of their frame revealed the root of their monstrosity–strings of tentacles complemented their physique, dragging it against the disheveled ground.

       Like a live rotting corpse. A reminder of existence antithetical to human.

       Its limbs were bony thin, yet impeccably stretched into long incisive claws half its body. It had a pair of eyes carved in rings of dazzling nuggets. Gurgling jaws dripping and crying with spine-chilling echoes.

       It bolted toward him.

       His feet stuck to the floor as though the scene unfolding before him was no more than a theater in his mind.

       This was no horror unfaced before. He knew that shade of black. Aware of the malignant aura it emits. Those contorted movements and the eldritch face that seek to sow turmoil and no else. Designed into its subservient instinct.

       He had called it. The moment his eyes exposed its red, it hailed for that thing's presence from above. Of which even Zakair couldn't see it sailing along with the streaks of light.

       Images flashed across his vision. A fathomless chasm. A world where the sky was tainted red and its inhabitant spilled the same hue on the very ground under thereof. A shapeless creature towering over him. He struggled to snap back to his senses. To the present.

       Too late.

       The creature barrelled past Cazzie. A force thrust against his body too fast for him to feel the contact. The brutal collision swept him off his legs. The snap of wood came next--he careened against the barring fences, letting its splinters fly in crinkling noises as he flew.

       Past the cliff.

       "Zakair!" Cazzie's voice echoed as he descended deeper and deeper far below into the forest's murky embrace.

       The water crashed against his skin. Bawling an explosive splash. The river's lapping depth caressed his bony limbs. Shock and terror rattled his core. Before it consumed him into deep oblivion.