I entered the darkened room and as the one-eyed man told me, I opened a small wooden box that was placed on a shelf. Flashes of white, yellow, pink, blue, violet, orange light scattered around the room and fixed on the retinas of my eyes that shone like an inner universe, a reflection of the creation of worlds with the power of light. The whole room lit up, and the box became black. An endless hole.
I touched those crystals with the sensation that by doing so their heat would burn my skin, but they were cold, my fingers froze and adhered to them as when one touches ice for a long time.
But I continued until I saw, at the bottom, a smooth black crystal with a soft curvature that invited me to touch it with my finger. It emitted no ray of light. It was the right one.
At last, I have it, it's what we need, I thought as I took it and put it in a little black cloth bag just as the one-eyed man had told me to do.
I walked out of there and a cold, fine drizzle was falling over the valley. It wet the leaves of trees, the roofs of the houses, slid to the ground and ran in threads that moved stealthily between the stems and leaves of the plants.
I pulled my hood over my head and covered my face and walked hurriedly to my horse, my unconditional friend. His black tail wagged when he saw me coming and his ears perked up attentively.
I climbed on, and he turned back towards the road.
"Come on Night!, we have little time left".
I rode for hours until the rain stopped, and I rode into town. People leaned out of the windows of their houses and watched me. A young woman with long silver hair, riding a white bear named Luna, came up to me. She wore a bluish crystal that glittered around her neck.
"Who are you, and where are you going?"
I paused, looking around.
"I am Selena's envoy".
"Are you carrying what you came for?"
I felt I could trust her.
With a nod of my head, I said yes.
"Let's go, they are waiting"
We continued through the forest in total silence, only interrupted by the footsteps of Noche and Luna.
"How do you know where we are going?", I asked to break the silence that made me nervous. I already knew the answer, but I wanted to hear her voice.
She looked at me with her crystal blue eyes and smiled.
"Because, what we do in this world is to protect those who sacrifice themselves for the good of all. And we already know what your destiny is".
That answer intrigued me, it was not what I expected, I did not know about the sacrifice, that scared me a little
When we reached the mountains we were closer to the place where Selena was waiting for us, the branches of some thorns prevented us from passing. They were more than 3 meters high
We heard a voice coming from behind that wall of vegetation.
"Who is coming?"
"Selena's envoy!" answered the young woman with long hair.
The branches began to rustle and move leaving a free space and there mounted on a gray wolf was a young man with skin like ebony with a green crystal on his neck.
"Come they are waiting for us, come on Cloud" and letting us pass in front of him, he followed us.
Closer and closer, and silence and solitude in the dry and barren landscape that surrounded us.
We passed through the gates of Miraflores and entered the stone temple, where Selena was waiting for us.
A large monitor occupied the central space. I approached, followed by the long-haired young woman and the ebony-skinned young man. The one-eyed man stood to the side, waiting.
"Did you bring the crystal?"
I took the pouch out of my pants pocket and placed it in my hand.
He pointed his finger at me and said "Put it on the plate" and, saying this, he left the place.
I felt fear and turned to look at the long-haired young woman and and the ebony-skinned young man. They nodded and gave me confidence. I had to do it, no matter what the consequences. I was chosen among all the young people in the village for this mission, and I accepted it. I was not forced, I was told the importance of what I was going to do, that was enough to say yes. .
When I placed the crystal on the plate, a great energy filled my body with lights of all colors and I faded away.
The monitor turned on, and a few words appeared on the screen.
Reset ...
SELENA.........
THIS IS THE THIRD ATTEMPT OF THE SELENA PROGRAM. THE ENERGY IS ENOUGH FOR 1000 EARTH YEARS... THE CYCLE OF LIFE WILL CONTINUE.
The young man with hair as red as the sun, mounted on his horse Night, is now a protector. Around his neck hangs a black crystal, symbol of his sacrifice for the life of a small planet, in a small solar system light years away from the constellation Selena. He is followed by the young woman with long hair and the young man with ebony skin.
This is my participation in the The Ink Well Fiction Prompt #114. Thank you very much for reading.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)