Shana had always been… different. The other kids were terrified of and refused to play with her, because of her “powers”. Whenever Shana had been threatened, scared, or angry, a wild burst of light would appear. And the trouble would be gone. However, she never understood why, until now...
Shana was daydreaming in her secret meadow. Only she knew how to get to it. All of the flowers were painted in a wide array of vivid colors. The weeping willow trees were sorrowful, but comforting somehow. All in all, this place would always make her feel better. Abruptly. breaking the peaceful sounds of her surroundings, there was a deep rumble. A slight tremor went through the ground. Shana looked up from the grass, her amber eyes dark with worry. A dark cloud was covering the pale blue sky. It engulfed the clouds, and the world was rapidly getting darker. She knew that this was no thunder cloud. A hard pit of dread, of not knowing what could happen, lodged itself into her stomach.

She rushed home, as fast as her legs would carry her. The sky was getting darker. She ran through the door and went to her room. She tried to light a candle, but the flames just disappeared. Suddenly, it dawned on her that her parents were no where to be seen. Where were they? For some reason, Shana knew that they weren’t safe. It was getting darker evermore, with the black clouds rushing towards the sun. Shana was feeling uneasy. The shadows grew unnaturally long.

The sun was blotted out, its friendly light gone. The world was blanketed in darkness and nobody could see anything anymore. It was like night time without the shining moon and stars.

Shana shut her eyes, hoping that this was a dream. It was quiet, too quiet. Deathly quiet. And she was powerless to do anything.

Out of the darkness, a rich voice said quietly, “No, you aren’t. In fact, you’re the only one who can stop this apocalypse,”

“What apocalypse? Who are you?” Shana opened her eyes and looked around.

A golden lioness appeared, glowing as bright as the sun had once been.

“I am Golden Paw, one of the spirits of light. I have come here because somebody has cast a spell on this world, smothering it with eternal darkness. Soon, everything will turn into shadows and crumble into ruins. The darkness will eventually eat its way into the heart of this world and destroy it. Evil clouds have already managed to cut off your main source of the light, the sun, so that he cannot illuminate your Earth.”

“But what does this have to do with me? How can I save the world?” Shana asked, bewildered.

“You are the reincarnation of light, Shana, the embodiment of everything that is the opposite of shadow. There is a tiara, a golden tiara, that will unlock your true power. You must find it and defeat this darkness at its source,” Golden Paw stated.

Shana looked at her hands. They shone with an otherworldly light. A gasp caught in her throat.

“But… I don’t know where to start,” she murmured.

“Get on my back. I will lead you to where your tiara is held,” Golden Paw turned so that her left flank was facing Shana.

Shana hesitantly got on. Then, as soon as she was secure, Golden Paw lept through the air, phased through the bedroom wall, and landed safely on the dirt road below. Then she sped off into the night, as swift as a cheetah and as quietly as silence. Golden Paw continued as a towering mountain came into view, with swirling clouds hiding its peak.

“When did that get there?” Shana whispered, awestruck.

Golden Paw growled, “That is where the black sorcerer resides. No one knows his true name, but he goes by Aris. He is the one that has cursed your world, and wishes for your destruction. Tread carefully around him.”

Shana was then quiet for a while, infallible emotions in her eyes. Inside herself, she was trying to grasp this hostile situation that she had been thrust in. The fate of the world was resting on her shoulders.

Before she could realize it, an arrow had missed her head by inches. As it arced past her ear, Shana could see the serrated obsidian arrowhead, sharpened to a cruel point. She could feel the midnight-hued raven feathers that it was fletched with brush her cheek.

Golden Paw roared and jumped high into the air. From that spot, Shana could see a figure dressed in black, wielding a longbow. The assassin set an arrow into his bow and prepared to shoot again. Just as the arrow, aimed at her heart, was traveling through the air…

Shana raised a hand to stop it. Suddenly, it burst into a cluster of white flames. It burned so intensely that nothing was left, not even the arrowhead. Then, just a second after the flames subsided, the assassin followed the arrow’s fate. He burst into writhing pure-white fire that crackled and consumed him.

Golden Paw caught Shana’s eye and
But on Shana’s part, nothing could explain the extent of what she had just done. It made her question what she could and could not do.

Soon, the duo reached an impenetrable wall made of dull gray stones. Beyond it, the mountain loomed over them. The area embodied a melancholy air.

Golden Paw then stumbled. Shana cried out in surprise.

“This… is as far as I go. The darkness that the sorcerer, Aris, shrouds himself in is weakening me. See, my glow has dimmed. But don’t worry about me. Go face your destiny, Shana!” Golden Paw said.

Shana had just raised a hand to say goodbye, when she found herself alone, standing before a seemingly impenetrable wall. And beyond that, a towering mountain.

A loud crack sounded behind her. Looking back, Shana could see a tall tree in the distance. It was snapping in two. As the trunk fell to the ground, before it could touch the earth, it dissolved into shadows that raced around wildly until they disappeared in the clouds above.

Shana was horrified by this. Inside her arose a feeling of urgency and panic, but these feelings only strengthened her resolve to defeat the black sorcerer and lift the curse. She had to hurry, though, before the world faded into oblivion.

“Now, let’s see what I can really do,” Shana said to herself.

She formed her right hand into a fist, her instincts guiding her. Shana then raised her fist up so that her palm faced the wall. As quick as the blink of an eye, she opened her hand. Her opened hand was now facing the wall.

At first, nothing happened. But then a spark appeared, a pinprick of light embedded within the wall. Shining cracks spread throughout a large portion of it, originating from the small point of light. The cracks spread to the point that it looked like there was a map of glowing veins intertwined with the stones of the wall.

With a burst of white light, the wall collapsed, as the mortar holding them together disappeared, Shana stepped over the rubble, into the foreboding air of the mountain. Everything inside the walls seemed to exude an evil aura. From here, she could see a dark tower, a fortress, at the summit. She went up to the mountain, not knowing how to scale it.

As she was feeling helpless, she sensed a warmth on her back. Feathery white wings had sprouted out of her shoulder blades. Shana slowly smiled.

Flying up was relatively monotonous, since the mountain was all hard, black stone. Nothing grew on the pitch-black cliffs, not even scrawny shrubs.

Finally, she reached the top. A high tower loomed before Shana. The craggy mountainside suddenly gave way to a smooth top, as if somebody had taken a giant blade and then had cut off the tip of the mountain. Tentatively, Shana walked towards the doors, engraved in runes. As she approached, a breath of wind pushed open one of the ominous doors.

She kept her guard up as she stepped into the shadows of the sorcerer’s lair. There were a few torches inside, lit with ruby flames that didn’t give out much light. Two curving staircases on either side of the large foyer led to one door. The walls were a slick black that looked like tar had been poured on them. The floor was made of smooth black granite, and the ceiling looked like a void, too dark to see.

There was a door under the staircases. Shana decided to take it, because the one above the stairs would probably lead to something important. She wanted to search for anything that could help her defeat Aris.

The door under the stairs led to a small room with a swirling purple portal on the wall. It was lined with obsidian. The writhing purple vortex made loud, distorted noises. A sign on the top said, in big black words, “NETHER”.

Gaping, Shana held up her hands defensively, backed out of the room, and closed the door.

She came to the door at the top of the stairs. It was likely that Aris would be somewhere behind it. Shana opened the door.

She saw a tiny, round room with black brick walls. Torches of red fire lined the walls, and a winding staircase led upwards. She summoned her wings again, somehow, and flew up.
The stairs had led outside, to an expansive, round platform, much like the battlements of a castle. Then Shana saw it. The tiara that would unleash her true potential as the reincarnation of light.

It was everything that she had thought it would be, and more. The tiara completely illuminated the floating crystal orb that it was contained in, covering it in golden light. Set with opaque white crystals, it was shaped like an upside-down cowboy’s bandanna, with a point going up. On top of that point was a clear glass sphere, about the size of a marble.
But a man of the opposite element stood at the edge of the tower, looking down on the world. He wore a pitch-black cape that seemed to swallow all of the light around him, with gloves and shiny boots of the same hue. He also wore a gray tunic and gray pants that were tucked into his boots.
Who else would it be but Aris, the dark sorcerer?
Shana crept up to the orb. She felt a strong counterspell on it as soon as she approached. Drawing from the tiara’s power, she broke it easily and threw it on the ground, shattering the crystal. Aris whipped around, a wild expression on his face, his cape billowing around him. But he was too late to stop Shana from taking the tiara.
The surface of the tiara was silky smooth on her fingertips. Even though it looked like gleaming gold, it weighed as much as a feather. Without hesitation, she placed it on her head. A burst of brilliant light came out of Shana. Aris cried out and shielded his eyes.
Amidst the dark clouds above, a ray of resplendent light, a beacon of hope to those watching, penetrated the clouds and bathed Shana in golden sunbeams. Compared to their dreary surroundings, Shana looked ablaze with life and energy. She had never felt more alive.
She whispered, “I know who I am.”
A great shudder ran through the world, as if in response to her words.
Shana then darted out of the way as a black sword sliced the air where she had just been. The ray of light faded.
Aris dropped his sword unexpectedly. Shana started to challenge him, but then he started chanting in a low voice. The world rippled around her.
Shana felt oh so comfortable and warm. The soft white blankets rustled familiarly as she curled up into a ball. Then an urgent voice spoke up, a voice that she knew, but…
“Shana...wake up. Open your eyes!” it said.
Shana stirred, still half-asleep. But then another voice rumbled in, soothing and as soft as a dove’s coo. This voice spoke in her mind.
Sleep, Shana. It is so cold, so uncaring out there, and the day has barely begun.
“No!” She heard her own voice, an exclamation that burst in like a cascade of cold water. “It’s Aris. He’s tricking you! Everybody’s depending on you, wake up!”
Shana’s eyes flew open.
She stood up. “Time to end this,” she said sharply.
She threw up her arms. A flash of unbearably radiant light appeared, lingering for a second, but then it disappeared. Aris was gone.
The earth rumbled, breaking free of the sorcerer had cast, shedding its burdening coat of shadows and breathing in the crisp spring air. The dark clouds gradually faded away, admitting more and more sunlight that touched and warmed the starved land.
The journey was over. The world had been saved. Shana lifted her head up to the sun, letting its’ rays warm her face. She smiled.
Aris woke up in a nightmarish dimension, filled with lava and an endless blood-red sky. There was fire everywhere. He was sweating from just sitting there. Aris now knew what Shana had done.
She had sent him to an alternate dimension called the Nether.