The Key Colony
The colonies alarms were ringing while everyone tried to make it out in time. My legs were heavy, and I couldn't move. My eyes were open, but I could barely see; it was pitch black and I didn't know what to do. The darkness was holding me in place, and it was strangling the life out of me.
"Immanuel!" a distant voice yelled from behind me.
I turned around, yet I could only see the
darkness stalking me.
Who is calling my name? I thought as I stood there frozen in place, my legs were like steel
posts lodged deep in the earth; immovable.
Movement in the darkness glossed over my eyes and I saw someone running over to me.
"Immanuel!" the familiar voice shouted as it grew closer to me, it sounded like my mom's voice.
Is that you, Mom?
"Mom!" I shouted towards the silhouette that was now a few feet in front of me.
"Let's go, hurry up! They're coming!" said Mom, as she grabbed me by the hand and began pulling me in the other direction, though I didn't move.
"I can't see the light we need to run to; I can't see the beasts, I can barely see you, I am helpless!" I said as I began to hyperventilate, and my body began to shake from fear.
There were screams all around us, and the sound of tearing flesh filled my ears. There were people begging for help, while others were running for their lives.
"Wake up Immanuel! You don't need to see, just hold onto my hand and follow me," she said as she turned around and began to run with her hand gripped around mine.
We began to run as the deafening screeches from the beasts and searing screams from the helpless colony dwellers sent chills down my spine. We ran until I could see the blinding light of the neighboring colony. It fought against the darkness that surrounded it, but it didn't succumb to it; it was like a beacon of hope, a light in the darkness, and a reason to keep running forward.
Run, keep running! We'll make it! I thought as my legs began to fill with lactic acid, but hope flushed out the pain and kept my legs moving forward.
As I continued to gaze at the great
light, she stopped in front of me as if there was something preventing her from moving forward. I looked down to see a tall creature with dark skin towering over her as she gripped her knife tighter and prepared for the worst.
My name is Immanuel, and this is the story of how I rid the world of darkness. I lived in a Key colony; I wasn't exceptionally strong or smart, but I did care about people and their well-being. I thought that was a good trait to have. Especially in the Dark World, where everyone only cares about themselves and their own
safety. I have dark brown hair that people have said looks like dirt, an average build, and I'm not super athletic. I'm not particularly smart, but I do know my way around electrical. I've never been good at social queues, and I
still find it difficult to navigate. My mom's name is Jolene, and my dad's name is Zeb, and they're the best parents ever. My colony, the Key colony had around five-thousand residents, so it was one of the smaller colonies from what I've heard. The colony was originally built 120 years ago. The colony's walls were
made up of cinder blocks. The walls were twenty-five feet tall on each side and
ten feet wide. The walls surrounded the whole colony, encased us in, protected us. The electrical department was on the westward side of the colony, and it's also near where our Key Bearer lived. One night on my way home from work, I had noticed that there was newly installed look out points alongside the walls which had men posted 24/7. That gave me comfort because I was terrified of the Shadow
Beasts and all that lurked in the darkness. The houses in the colony were very small, including my own. All the houses were built at the same time the colony was, and they still held up very well despite their age. Our houses were framed
with wood; the siding, roof, and doors were all covered with slate shingles (Shadow Beasts don't go anywhere near slate). Our foundations were made of cinder blocks filled with compacted dirt, and our floors were made of natural wood. Each house had a main room, a kitchen, one to two bedrooms, and a bathroom. My house was a little different, as there were two extra rooms. One extra room was a
storage room for my dad's hunting equipment which he valued dearly. If he wasn't out hunting, he was most likely in there polishing his knives. The other extra room was much smaller, and that's where we kept the pelts that my dad had brought back from his hunts. At one point there were so many I thought the door would burst from its hinges. Thank God that never happened, especially during a
Dark Day, I would've freaked out.
I was born without discernment; the ability to see in the Dark World and the threats that dwell
within it (mainly Shadow Beasts). The wise men said that there had never been somebody born without discernment in the history of the Dark World. Ever since I was young, people have always treated me like an outcast and made fun of me for being undiscerning. Once, when I was young, I was playing with the other
kids while we were by one of the rusty colony doors. They decided it would be fun to step into the Dark World and play out there for a while. One after the other they opened the door which produced a loud noise.
Crreeaakkk.
They stepped out into the Dark World. Eventually it was my turn to open the door and step out, so I did. The Dark World was pitch black and I couldn't see anything except the ground that was gently lit from the excess light. We began to walk out into the cold, dry ground as the colony walls began to disappear, and the light that was once protecting me had vanished. I couldn't see the colony walls anymore as my sight in the Dark World was almost non-existent.
"Hey, did you see that?"
asked one of the kids that was leading us.
"Yeah, I saw it too,"
said another kid as they both stopped in their tracks and stared into the darkness.
What is it? What do they see?
I couldn't see a thing, and I thought they were just pranking me like they always did. They had better sight than me in the dark, so I always trusted what they said.
Grrrr!
I heard the deep, raspy growl of a beast, but I didn't know where it was from. My heart sunk into my stomach and my heart began to beat like a drum.
"Guys maybe we should turn around and go back home," I said with an unstable voice as I turned around swiftly and began to search relentlessly for the colony but saw nothing but black.
I heard the three kids in front of me whisper
among themselves, letting out a giggle every so often as I tried to listen in. Shortly after their conversation, they bolted off in the direction opposite of where we came. I tried to follow them with my eyes to see where they had gone, but it was no use. They had disappeared in the darkness and left me alone. My heart began to beat rapidly. My feet froze in place, and I couldn't move even if I wanted to.
I'm going to die here, I thought. Why
would they leave me?
I was horrified, and I thought I was going to be eaten by a Shadow Beast at any second. I looked around to see nothing but darkness. I couldn't see my hands in front of my face, or even the ground I was standing on. I was alone in complete darkness. The weight of the darkness felt like it was going to crush me; the cold was filling my lungs as I began to get lightheaded and lose consciousness. Eventually, I opened my eyes as I lay on the ground; I saw my Dad running towards me with a glint-knife, illuminating the ground in front of him. He picked me up from where I was and took me back to the colony. I cried in his arms all the way back to the colony, fearing that I would die. That began my fear of the dark, and ever since then I had stayed away from the walls.
Years ago, the wise men of the colony used to teach the younger kids about the history of the Dark World. Due to an apocalyptic event 120 years ago widely known as The Shrouding,
the Earth was covered in darkness preventing all light from our sun from reaching the atmosphere. The Earth, now known as the Dark World, has creatures known as Shadow Beasts, among many others, lurking in the darkness. No one knows where they came from, but they started showing up instantly after the world went dark. There were countless deaths from the creatures' attacks, and
the wise men estimate that sixty percent of the world's population perished as a result. There were twelve keys that appeared in the world directly before The Shrouding, and twelve pieces of Lost Light that were scattered across the lands. These are mysterious sources of light that no one knows the history of. There were twelve pieces of Lost Light, and six of them had been found by using a Key. A Key leads the one who is in possession of it, also known as a Key-Bearer, to its Lost Light. Once a Key-Bearer found their Lost Light, the Key returns to the Lost Light, 'completing' it. The Key was the Lost Lights missing puzzle piece. From there, the Key-Bearer would become a Light-Bearer by 'consuming' the now complete Lost Light. There were twelve colonies with survivors that used the Light and the Keys to stay safe from the creatures that dwelt in the Dark World. Since Shadow Beasts couldn't be in the presence of powerful light, the colonies were kept safe from them by that light. There were five Key colonies and six Light colonies. The sixth Key colony was consumed by the darkness, and the Key was never recovered. The remaining five Key's light was fading by the day, and the colonies in possession of said Keys were at risk of being overcome by the darkness if they didn't find their Lost Light. Many Key Colonies had no intention of going deep into the Dark World to find their Lost Light because of the many dangers associated with it, but they were being forced to; we were being forced to.
They told us about the roles of the Key-Bearer and the Light-Bearers, and I was so intrigued by all of it. I wanted to meet a Light-Bearer for so long when I was younger. During the
Dark Days I was told that you could see a dim light shining in the distance from our neighboring colony, the colony that had a Light-Bearer. It was a 'lone light surrounded by a sea of darkness fighting against it, but never prevailing, a beacon of hope'. They told us the Light-Bearers had amazing abilities, and they could even light up a whole colony without the need for a generator. It was my dream to go and visit that colony and to meet the Light-Bearer in person. Now that I have grown up, I let go of that childish dream and I no longer wanted to see a Light-Bearer. If those Light-Bearers were
even human, they would've come and helped us find our Lost Light before we would be consumed by the darkness. In my eyes, the Light-Bearers were selfish cowards that wouldn't come to help those who needed it desperately. That's when I knew that they wouldn't come to help us, and we had no more time to wait for them.
I have a friend named Kelly and she has bright blonde hair that looks like the sun, (I'd never seen the sun but that's how I imagined it to look) light blue eyes that resemble
electricity, and smile that can be used as a light source itself. She has an athletic build since she used to be a water harvester with her mom before she passed away. We grew up in the colony together, and we never separated. Even
though I got weird looks and occasional remarks from those in my colony ever
since I was young, Kelly had never treated me that way, and I loved her for that.
There had been whispers that our colony would collapse if we didn't find our Lost Light, and I was beginning to believe them. The Key's light was fading. Since I had been working in the
electrical department, I could tell that the Key was losing power due to more often-than-usual charge cycles. Our colony was run on a massive generator that got its power from the Key. The generator took up most of the space of the electrical department, and it was the most important part of the colony. Once a month our Key-Bearer Jockey would charge the generator with the Key which gave the colony power for a month. The colony had lights scattered across it in all directions.
Most of the lights were hung by a metal wire that went from one end of the colony to the other. The lights were circular, and each one was bright enough to light a room in one of our homes. The other lights were tall posts that were put in the darkest areas of the colony that the strung lights couldn't reach, those were the brightest ones.
Every time the Key-Bearer would charge the
generators, the amount of time that it would power the colony decreased. The downside
to charging the generators was that when he charged them, the power couldn't be used for twelve hours. The colony then got encompassed in deep darkness those twelve
hours, and it was ordered by our Key-Bearer that everyone needed to stay in their homes until the light returned. Those days were called 'Dark Days' and I'd feared them since I was a little kid. During a Dark Day, the Shadow Beasts were able to enter the colony due to the lack of light, and I remember hearing their
footsteps and growls while I tried to sleep. Sometimes they attempted to enter a house, but the slate rock prevented them from getting too close. Most people, like me, didn't even sleep during those hours. I mean, how could we? There were beasts that I couldn't even see that were ready to eat me at any given moment. There was no way I could've slept through this.
Every so often I heard the voice of a man that sounded distorted when he spoke, while he was supposed to be in his home. Even though I heard that man outside, he was seemingly never attacked by a Shadow Beast. One Dark Day, I looked through my window blinds
while I heard him talking; I saw him. Or more specifically, I saw it. It was bald, its skin was deep black, and its eyes glowed dimly with a red hue. Once I got a good look, I immediately closed the blinds and returned to my hiding spot to wait out the remaining hours. Every single Dark Day I would hear this human-like creature, but no one else did. Once the twelve hours had passed, we were free to come out of our homes and go back to our 'normal' lives. The light was the only thing saving us from the beasts that lurked in the shadows, and I feared
that one day we would be without the light to protect us.
Those that were born with discernment (everyone but me) were allowed to leave the colony in select groups to go and collect resources. There was the hunting group, the water harvesting group, and the miscellaneous group also known as the 'M' group. My Dad was the head of the hunting group, and my mom was part of the water harvesting group.
The hunters, water harvesters, and the M group used glint knives to hunt their prey and to defend themselves against the Shadow Beasts. Glint knives are made from regular knives that are infused with light from the Key by the Key-Bearer himself. These knives acted as a light for traversing the Dark World, and a weapon for hunting. Sometimes they ran into other groups, mainly the Nomads, but I heard the Nomads were a friendly group of people. Sometimes our colony would be attacked, though rarely, by a group called the Marauders. They would steal our food and water and threaten our lives if we didn't give them our resources. The Nomads and the Marauders are natural enemies, and the Nomads take pride in protecting colonies from the Marauders any opportunity they have.
After a long day of work, I finally got to eat dinner with my family. It was always just my mom, dad, and I, but we always enjoyed each other's company. Dad would sometimes bring back a special animal for us to eat while he was out hunting earlier in the night. It was something that the rest of the colony rarely had to eat, if ever. I didn't know the name of the animal, but it had an orange coat with white fur on the underside, pointed ears, a long fluffy tail, and whiskers. Either way, it was my favorite, and my family seemed to enjoy it a lot too. My mom was the best cook and her food was always delicious, even if it wasn't the mysterious animal that I loved to eat. The smell was captivating, and it always drew me in.
"How
was work today?" Dad asked as he took a bite.
"It was good; Kelly and I are getting accustomed to our new positions, but overall,
we enjoy it," I said as juice from the animals' perfectly cooked leg ran down my chin.
"I'm
glad to hear it, son. I wish I was as skilled as you guys when it came to all that electrical stuff. You know I can't understand how that electricity stuff works," said Dad with a grin as he took a bite.
"It's really not all that bad; I think you're just getting old," I chuckled as I looked towards Mom and Dad, hoping they would laugh.
Dad looked at Mom, and there was a moment of silence. Seconds had passed, and Mom broke it.
"I'm getting old too, y'know," she said as she looked at me with a straight face as she rested her chin on her open palm.
Oh no…I got Mom angry; I should apologize, I
thought to myself as I began to turn red, hoping I didn't go too far.
I
finally got the courage to speak.
"Mom, Dad, I didn't mean it like tha–" I was cut off by loud laughter coming from them as if they had just heard the funniest joke ever made.
"We're just kidding with you, Immanuel," they said as they laughed and reassured me that I wasn't in trouble.
Oh, thank God, I thought
I was done for, I thought.
"Don't scare me like that, I thought I was going to get whooped," I said as I let out nervous laughter, while I picked up my cup and took a sip of water.
We all continued laughing, eating, and talking about how our days went.
"So, Mom. How has the water harvest been? No Shadow Beast attacks I hope?"
"They've been successful as of recently. The streams seem to have more water coming from
them, and that's a great thing for the colony. More water means more life. When it comes to the Shadow Beasts, we haven't had a major attack since last year when we lost Sarah, Kelly's mom. How's Kelly been holding up by the way?"
"Kelly has been doing better as of recent, but you can tell that she still misses her mom. I try to cheer her up as best as I can. But sometimes, I just let her feel what she's feeling y'know? To continue moving forward."
"Okay, I see. I'm glad she's doing better. Continue to watch over her, you never know
when she's going to need you," said Mom as she grabbed my hand gently.
"Yeah, of course. I will always be there for Kelly, no matter what," I said as I smiled at Mom.
We began talking about things that don't matter, as any family does at the dinner table. We finished our dinner, and we began cleaning up. Dad left to go and get some rest for the next
hunt tomorrow, while my mom and I stayed and talked.
"So…are you and Kelly finally a thing now?" asked Mom.
"No, Mom. I told you; Kelly is just my best friend. We've known each other since we were
little and that's all there is to it."
"Okay,"
Mom said with a smirk on her face.
"What?
Why are you smirking like that?" I said as I looked over at her for a response.
"I see the way you look at her. You like Kelly, don't you?" said Mom.
I began to feel hot as blood rushed to my face; I turned away to look at the dishes.
"I just care about her that's all. I may like her a little bit, but that doesn't matter. I just want to be there for her," I said as I started scrubbing the
dishes vigorously.
"I understand, son," she said with a smile.
Mom gave me a kiss on the forehead and walked away as I continued cleaning the dishes. I couldn't stop thinking about what my mom said to me.
Do I really like Kelly? Do I want to be with her?
I thought as I stared at the
floating dishes in the sink.
I woke up the next morning and got ready to leave for work. I entered the bathroom to freshen up as a singular light bulb hung in front of the slightly dirty mirror. I pulled down
the chain to turn the light on as the light filled the small room, leaving me to stare at myself for a moment. My brown eyes that matched the ground we walked on, my medium length hair that was almost pitch black, and slight blemishes on my olive skin. Kelly and I oversaw the electrical wiring and generators that
powered the whole colony. I'd like to think that we were the most important people in the colony. What would they have done without us? Kelly and I were close with our Key-Bearer, and he was a nice guy. He always had a weird looking mask on that I couldn't seem to get around, and he rarely took it off. He was always laughing and joking as if he wasn't the Key-Bearer, the most important person in the colony. Sometimes I thought that he was just a child in an adult's body. Even so, I still thought of Jockey as a good friend, and I enjoyed his
sense of humor. He'd been telling us about the Key and how the light was fading day by day, like I hadn't noticed already. I believed Jockey was planning on leaving the colony soon to go searching for our Lost Light. I heard that our previous Key-Bearer did the same thing, but he never returned. He never had the necessary reason to. The Key was stronger than it ever had been and the colony was doing well, even without the Lost Light. He wanted to become a powerful Light-Bearer which is understandable, because who wouldn't? But this Key-Bearer put the whole colony in danger by disappearing one night without a trace. Good thing he didn't make it too far from the colony with the Key, and Jockey managed to find it in the Dark World about a mile from the gates. Even though he found the Key, he never found the remains of the previous Key-Bearer. Ever since then Jockey had been our Key-Bearer, and he was a good one.
"I'm leaving the colony soon in search of our Lost Light. The Key won't last much longer than a couple of months, and after that the colony has no hope," Jockey said as he walked up
towards Kelly and me.
"Are you sure it's safe? You surely remember what happened to the last Key-Bearer," Kelly responded with
concern in her voice.
"How do you even know where to find the Lost Light? What if you get lost?" I said.
Jockey looked at both of us, and even through his mask we sensed his seriousness. This was something new for us, Jockey was never serious.
"I know this is dangerous, and I know what happened to the last Key-Bearer because I was there. But this is our last hope for the colony. I've tried contacting our neighboring colony
multiple times, but they've never responded. The Key leads me to the Lost Light; I just need to follow where it leads me, and I'll find our Lost Light and bring it home."
There was a moment of silence between the three of us until Jockey spoke once more.
"I'm going to leave during the next Dark Day, that way I will have enough time to retrieve the Lost Light and come back before the colony runs out of power. I'm going to announce
this to the colony so there isn't any confusion when I'm gone. Until I return from the Dark World, watch over the generator and make sure to reserve as much power as you can while I'm gone."
Kelly and I looked at each other and nodded in agreement as Jockey walked away.
As we were getting close to finishing our work for the day, Kelly motioned the map that was on the wall.
"Hey, do you think outside of these walls it really looks like this? It looks like so
much is out there, but we probably won't ever get to see it," Kelly said as her index finger was tapping the parchment map.
"I'm not sure, Kelly. I'd like to go see what it's like in the other lands."
"I'd love that. It says that we're currently in Midpoint, and to the North there's a
land called the Lost Lands. To the West there's land called the Flat Lands, and Southeast is the Dry Lands. Wow…all that open land and we're stuck in this bubble. Would you ever come with me and explore?" She asked with a big smile as her hand was covering the map.
Me? Go out there where I can't even see? That seems like a horrible idea.
"I would love to go and explore the different lands with you, but you remember
that I can't see in the dark, right?" I asked as I looked down at the ground, disappointed in myself.
"Like I would forget that Immanuel," she said with a slight chuckle. "I meant once
the world is rid of the darkness, and you could see. I'm willing to wait until that day," she said as she gave one last look at the map and began walking towards the stairs.
"You coming?" she said as she turned around and placed her hand on her hip.
"Yeah, let me walk you home," I said as I followed her down the stairs.
It's about a ten-minute walk from the electrical
department to Kelly's house, but we really enjoyed this time we had together to just talk. We began to walk under the hung lights that went across the colony, the light was warm and comforting.
"The lights are so nice to look at sometimes. I get engulfed in their vibrance, like I want to stay there all day and stare at them. You know what I mean?" Kelly asked while the light reflected off of her eyes.
"I get
what you mean, sometimes I stare at them and wonder if that's what the sun was like. Was the sun warm like these lights? Could I look at it without it hurting my eyes? I wonder about that a lot." I responded as I looked at the hung lights
that gently swung from the light breeze.
"Do you think Jockey is going to be all
right?" Kelly asked as she continued to look at the vibrant lights.
"I'm sure he's going to be fine. Jockey knows how to handle himself in the Dark World; he's been there and back countless times. You must forget he grew up as a marauder. He knows
his way around," I responded as I looked at her radiant skin.
"Ican't help but think of my mom when Jockey speaks of searching for the Lost Light. One day she was here with us, smiling and laughing like she always did. And the next day she was gone. They couldn't even recover her body," Kelly said as her tears started to well up in her eyes and her voice started to crack.
I stopped walking and grabbed her hand as I saw a tear run down her cheek.
"Kelly, your mom loved you more than anyone else did. She was a wonderful woman, and I know that she is happy of the person you've become."
I hope that came out okay, I thought as she looked at me.
"Thank you, Immanuel," she gave me a tight hug and began to weep.
"I'm so angry. I hate the darkness,
I hate the Shadow Beasts, I hate that they took my mom from me. Why did it have to be her? I should've been there for her, it's all my fault!" she began to cry uncontrollably as I felt the tears attach to my shirt.
As her head laid on my shoulder I thought of the horrible reality of the Dark World and what it took from her. She blamed herself for the death of her mom, and she hated herself for it. That day when her mom died, she didn't go with the water harvesting group. She stayed at home because on the previous harvest she slipped on a slick rock by the stream and injured her ankle so badly that she couldn't walk on it for weeks. She still beat herself up for not being there for her mom, and that made me sad. It made me sad to see her beat herself up for something she couldn't control.
"It's not your fault, Kelly. I know you may think it is, but it isn't. There was nothing that you or
anyone else could've done. Your mom gave her life for the others in the group, my mom included. Your mom died a hero, and I'm sure she was glad that you weren't there. Kelly, you must let go of this burden, its far too heavy to keep carrying around."
"I-I can't. I can't seem to let it go, Immanuel," she said as she looked at me with tears flowing down her cheeks. "I can't forgive myself for not being there for her."
"It's okay, I understand. Kelly, allow me to share this with you. Allow me to help you carry this heavy burden, so it isn't weighing down on you so much. Just let out all your frustration, pain,
and guilt, and give it to me."
Tears began to come from my eyes as we looked at each other, I didn't want to cry but I couldn't help it.
"Okay,"
she said as she continued to weep and hugged me again. "Thank you for being here for me, Immanuel. Thank you for being someone that I can trust and rely on."
"I don't want anyone else to go through this pain you're going through. I don't want there to be a Dark World, I don't want people to lose their families and friends by Shadow Beasts.
I want the world to be a place where the sun shines from the sky, freeing people from the captivity of the darkness. I want the world to be how it was before the Shrouding, people being able to live freely without fearing death every step they take. And if this world doesn't exist, then I plan on making it."
She pulled back from our hug and lifted her head as she looked at me, her eyes reflecting the light as my eyes locked with hers.
"You have a beautiful dream, Immanuel. I want to be a part of this dream of yours
and to make it a reality. I also want there to be no such thing as Shadow Beasts, or even death itself. I want to see the sun one day; I want to protect everyone I love with my life; I don't want to lose anyone else, I can't. I want
that more than anything."
Her eyes were captivating. It's as if they were infinite pools of fresh water under the colony
lights. Her face was perfect, and beautiful beyond words. Her skin was light and reflected the light that was above us. Her lips were like a scarlet ribbon, her smile was bright and full of life. After a couple of seconds of gazing at
her, my body began to get warm and tingly, and I began to get nervous. There was dead silence for what seemed like an hour, while we gazed into each other's eyes.
This is different, I've never experienced this with her before. I'm getting too nervous, I have to get out of here, I thought.
"Look, we made it to your house, I didn't even notice," I said nervously as I scratched the back of my head.
"Oh, it seems so," Kelly responded as she let out a laugh.
We gave each other another hug, then I headed back home. As I was walking back home, I was thinking a lot of scary thoughts. First, about Kelly and if she even felt the same way that I
did. I thought she did, but how would I know for sure? What if she didn't like me back? All these thoughts filled my mind with doubt and confusion. Second, about Jockey. I truly did believe in Jockey, and I believed that he would find our Lost Light. The thing that scared me was those things I saw during the Dark Days. I just hoped that if he ran into one of them, he would be able to handle it. I finally reached home, and I opened the front door to my house. The front door opened straight into the living room where we used to hangout and talk on our off time. The living room was dimly lit by a lone lamp that was in the corner. I heard conversation coming from the kitchen. To the left was the hallway, and down the hallway was the entrance to the kitchen, where I saw light escaping through the door frame that showered onto the hardwood floor. slowly walked down my hallway, and as I stepped into the beam of excess light as I saw Mom and Dad talking next to the sink. I peeked my head across the door frame as I overheard them talk.
"If Jockey leaves with the Key and he doesn't return within a month, we will all die," Mom said in a panic.
"No, he's going to return from the Dark World before then. I know it," Dad responded confidently.
"How can you be so sure?"
"I know Jockey is going to return, because he asked me to come with him. And I plan on bringing him and our Lost Light back to our
colony safely," Dad said as the room went silent.
After hearing this my mom began to cry.
"Why would you agree to do something so dangerous?"
There was silence for what seemed like an eternity. He finally spoke and said,
"I'm the best hunter we have, and if I don't
help Jockey find our Lost Light, then you, our son, and the whole colony will be consumed by the darkness."
"But I–"
She stopped herself before the words could come out. I think she realized that Jockey had a better chance of success if Dad went with him. It sounded like she gathered herself, and began to speak once more,
"I trust you. Come back to us safe."
As I was overhearing this conversation, I agreed with my dad even though I knew it was dangerous. He was the most capable man in the colony and knowing that he was going with Jockey gave me even more reassurance. I had full confidence that they were both going to return home safely. I walked past the door and entered my bedroom to get some rest.