"What is wrong with that child?"
"Is she human?"
"Doesn't she know staring at Noelani drives people crazy?"
A young girl, barely older than five years, dangled her legs over the edge of a protruding boulder which guarded the island against the ocean of heavenly mist. Its dark frame sat to the side of a cemetery as well as a small fruit farm. An occasional wave of the cold water would splash against its front, pulling up the eerie mist to tickle the toes of the girl's dangling feet. A soft giggle would echo into the cemetery every time the girl felt the cold against her bare skin.
Said girl was the daughter of that small fruit farm's owners. Nova Sirle, or as the town's people called her, the Ghost Child. That title didn't merely come from her strange habit of looking into the heavenly mist, but her appearance itself also felt ghostly. Her skin was unusually pale – even when compared to the already pale population of Noelani Isla – and her hair was nearly white, which freaked out anyone who lived there the most since the only people known to have light hair came from Iorella, and yet she still had lighter hair than them. Her eyes were mysteriously gray, too. And the way she talked! It was as if she had the mind of a scholar, spouting out words that the fishermen couldn't understand. However, all of her actions, were still those of a child.
A year of rumors spreading undoubtedly reached the Sirle family's ears. They did their best to prevent Nova from running off to Noelani. "Ghosts will whisper in your ear," they scorned. "The Devil might just snatch you away if you get too close!" However she never listened, quickly learning how to get around them. Eventually Nova's parents stopped bothering, and now all of her free time is spent staring out into the ocean.
Nova continued to giggle until the sky darkened. As weird as she was, she still realized that staying out in the dark could be dangerous. The whispers in her mind grew louder, and even the cemetery began to scare her.
Slowly standing up, Nova brushed off the dust from her hands and white dress and twisted in the direction of her home. As her back faced the mist, a sudden burst of wind flew by, enveloping her tiny body with mist. The cold tingled harsher as it spread across her skin, and into her skin. She could feel her teeth chatter as she breathed the mist, her mind flaring signals for her to run. Nova was terrified.
'WAIT.'
She froze, petrified by the strength of the word. But she was also intrigued. The mist had never made itself so clear to her. She always had to take some time to discern what they had said. Could she discover more if she ventured further into the mist? The whispers she heard had already taught her a small library of information. Would she learn the answers to greater mysteries from this clearer voice?
'STAY. PLEASE.'
The wind continued to blow past her, but she couldn't see the farm, only the dark mist surrounded her. If she walked forward would she exit the mist?
'Maybe I'd end up falling into the sea.'
The longer she stood frozen, the longer her mind spent thinking, the more she longed to listen to the mist. Nova, as well as the rest of the island, knew that Noelani contained vast knowledge. However, most were too scared to learn, believing they'd lose themselves in the mist. Or worse.
But Nova couldn't help herself. She was so curious!
'Only a fool would excuse themself from the lecturer of the heavens.'
She sat back down to wait, just as Noelani had exclaimed into her mind.
'Plus... He said please.'
All of her fear had disappeared at this point. Nova calmly waited, a chilling smile fully spreading over her cheeks as she imagined the new things that she could learn. She felt a little bad that she'd be worrying her parents, but that was just a small price to pay for knowledge!
Nothing happened for a minute. Then a minute more. Nova's smile slowly faded as the silence continued around her. Not a single whisper entered her mind. Even the wind seemed to have stopped blowing. The world only held a tiny bright girl, surrounded by nothing.
The patience of a child didn't last long, though. Eventually, Nova sighed and stood back up. At this point, the risk of falling off of the rock didn't even deter the lonely girl.
But right then, light poured into her eyes. It wasn't the light of the sun, neither did it seem like the mist had created the light, it was as if her brain conjured the very image of light by itself. Was she so far into the mist that she was seeing things?
Slowly her world became brighter. The chill seemed to disappear as she felt a strong heat burn her skin. She didn't scream though. Nova's fear quickly returned from the depths of her soul as she experienced this unknown phenomena. Was she going mad like the townspeople said?
'Am I dying?'
Her thoughts floated away quickly as she began experiencing a greater change in the world. The dark rock beneath her feet started cracking as an orange light escaped to shower her body. A low trembling grew deafeningly and shook her feet at a slow but increasing pace. Deep beneath the ground she could hear loud pops as well as booming explosions off in the distance. Whipping her head around, a gust of smoke and steam poured over her, singeing her dress and blowing hair over her eyes.
As she wiped away the hair Nova looked up to see a magnificent volcano towering high above, surrounded by the familiar mist. The trembling continued and she started seeing hot rocks explode out of the top of the giant volcano, lava running over its lips, and ash rising into the air. The scene felt as if it had been plucked straight from hell.
Cries started to echo from behind her, mixing with the terrifying explosions of the hot rocks which boomed over her ears. Nova quickly turned to run away, even if she already knew it was impossible to escape something so other-worldly. However, as her feet lifted up she found herself tumbling forward. That was because the ground beneath her disappeared, crumbling down into a wide expanse of lava.
'I'm really going to die!'
Tears evaporated off her face as soon as she shed them. Her tiny arms flung forward, desperately trying to stop her fall. The momentum of her turn glided into a continuous somersault and the world began to spin around her eyes. The dark sky and the scorching lava flying by in a blurry mess.
Just a second before Nova burned alive, all of the light disappeared, replaced by pitch black. She could still feel herself tumbling through the air, wind pushing against her body from all sides.
Slowly recovering the ability to think, Nova subconsciously spread out her arms. She'd never fallen from so high before, but she remembered a past whisper that told her that being larger could slow your fall. She remembered laughing at that fact, thinking that Noelani must've been able to lie. She certainly wasn't laughing now.
Sure enough, as she increased her surface area she could feel the spinning slow, and the wind hit harder. And then it all disappeared.
Replaced by a curtain of white lights, dotted about in a strange pattern, the darkness in front of her eyes slowly receded, revealing a vast land. The most prominent feature was a long line of mountains capped with snow. It curved upwards like a spine, forming a circle at the top near a vast body of water. Dark rivers flowed down each side of the mountain range. Most of the dots of light followed these paths, ending at dark borders that seemed to be vast bodies of the same dark water.
Nova sucked in a breath. At least she tried to, before she realized there was nothing to breathe. Her eyes widened in panic as she started coughing out some of her remaining air. Her arms began to flail again as she clawed at her throat, desperately trying to catch what little air that escaped her. But then another light caught her eye, and she forgot the need to breathe.
Somewhere to the left of the circle of mountains, an even brighter light from all the others began to shine. It was as if a star was forming in the center of the world, shrouded from all sides by mist.
Wait... mist?
'Am I seeing what's on the other side of Noelani?'
The light kept growing, bringing more light upon the world, revealing more details, more color, more everything. Nova's eyes began watering as she was blinded by this light. But she couldn't look away. She was drawn to it. Something about her believed that the light was drawn to her to. So Nova continued to look as the light drowned out everything around them. Until she heard more crying.
Her body collapsed on top of the rock. Her brain was still melting from the overwhelming light so she couldn't tell what was happening around her. Was it another vision?
Slowly, Nova started seeing again. The world was dark once more, and as she slowly looked around, simultaneously pushing her body to sit up, Nova realized that she was back on the dark rock. She was back on the island, surrounded by her farm, the cemetery, and...
'Water?'
The mist that had always licked the shores of Noelani Isla had disappeared. Cool wind brushed against her face and the waves that splashed against her feet looked and felt the same as the northern part of the island. Noelani was gone. Her vision was gone.
But there was still crying.
A baby's crying.
They were coming from the east where the cemetery was located. Nova glanced in that direction, trying to see the source. Off the shore of the cemetery where the mist usually danced was a dingy with nothing more than a lantern at the front and a baby... wrapped in a strange cloth and crying loudly from the disturbances of waves and the knocking of boat against rock.
Slowly climbing off of the boulder, still recovering from what she had seen, Nova made her way into the cemetery and towards the crying baby. Shadows rippled behind her and she could feel something inside her chest burn as she drew closer and closer.
After tortuously walking through the cemetery she finally reached the tiny boat. Using one hand to hold the shore to support herself and the other to lift her dress away from the water, she placed her bare feet into the dingy and lowered herself next to the crying baby.
For some reason Nova didn't think. She didn't know how to think, how could she after something so traumatizing? But her arms moved forward, reaching towards the baby. She wanted to comfort it, but she also wanted something else that she knew no one else could have. She just didn't know what.
The cloth that was wrapped around the baby whistled, light gray strings floated upwards, begging to make contact with someone else. And they soon did.
As Nova placed her first fingertip onto the cloth, a miraculous truth shot into her mind and very soul. Her head lurched back with a pop and her eyes filled with gray mist. The misty cloth flooded into her arm and made its way to her brain, filling her with another vision. And as her mouth widen in horror, the baby's crying was overwhelmed by the Ghost Child's scream.