Afterglow

Chapter 1:

Soon after the first light of dusk dusted off the last trails of light from its grey coat and made way for the night fairy to take over earth, the swamp near the valley lit up with million small lights. If someone were to stand at the edge of the valley and look down, he could see the floating dots of glowing fire emerging out of the thicket and covering the marsh. Someone might think it to be trails of lighted pixie dust floating off a fairy’s magic wand, but these are actually fireflies who wander out at dark to light the night sky with their magical glow. 

Near this swamp at the edge of the forest a group of fireflies stay, and their leader is Grandpa Bug. Grandpa Bug is the only one in the herd to witness 2 full moons, and he has only one mission in life, and that is to keep his herd of fireflies safe and within the bound of the swamp land, so no one goes off wandering anywhere and is captured, killed or eaten by other bugs.

While everyone is happy and content leading this quiet and routine bug’s life, there is one tiny soul whose heart yearns for more. Aglow is the youngest and brightest firefly of the herd and she brings life and cheer to the family. She is chirpy, compassionate, caring and curious. While she loves her huge bug family, a part of her always wants to see the world beyond the musty swamp, and chase her little secret. She knows she doesn’t have much time. She will see her first full moon in about 7 days. Such thoughts make her heart feel heavy and she keeps herself from being sad by singing and dancing with her other glow-worm friends.  But the only time of the day when Aglow is happy and glowing is when the mysterious night fairy teases sun god and cajoles him to sleepily untangle his arms of light. The light banter between the night fairy and the sun god lasts for a short while and their laughter leaves a golden hue of twilight on the sky. Just when all the fireflies cozily retires in their leafy homes, Aglow glides up to the dewy foliage of the almond tree and looks up to the sky waiting for her friend to visit her. Almost every day he comes around the same time, with his group of 3 or 4 friends. They glide up above happily chirping and enjoying their flight. She watches them every day, but they never seem to notice her. She tries hard to understand their language and gives them signals by flashing her light. But they never sees her.

Aglow sits quietly and watches them fly by. She tries hard to read their signals, but never understands it. They seem to be different to her, not only is their signaling pattern different, they can fly so much higher than her other friends. They seem much bigger and brighter than the fireflies Aglow has seen or heard of. But what most fascinates her is the one firefly who glows bright red. He is the one Aglow feels most attracted to, and wants to meet. But how can she achieve this impossible, she has no clue. Neither can she fly so high, nor does she know where they stay. This little secret of hers seems to be staying a secret forever, unless she can find someone to help her meet her nameless friends.

Aglow’s mother keeps telling her that if she listens to her elders and stays a good bug then the Wish fairy will fulfill all her wishes. She prays every night to the Wish fairy to grant her just one wish…the wish to meet her ‘red glowing friend’.  Some days her heart yearns so much that she feels she cannot breathe. On one such night, she tiptoes away from her family and wandered ahead towards the Willowy groove. She knew those were the abandoned areas and has heard Grandpa Bug say frightening tales about gigantic moths who stays there and attacks the fireflies and smaller bugs. She knows till where she can fly and has no plans of crossing over to the abandoned territory. But destiny knows no boundary and strikes down at the most inopportune opportunity.  Just as Aglow turns around to go back towards the marsh, she sees a red tiny blink on the other side toward the willowy groove. For a second she thinks she must have seen it wrong. But then it blinks again…and once again. Though it is much smaller than how it appears on other nights and way closer towards her, she hopelessly wanders if it is the same red firefly she sees every night. The light kept blinking fast and hurried.  Could he be in danger? Was he lost? Aglow couldn’t spot his other 3 friends.  Aglow knows that she should not go on the other side of the marsh but the urge to save her friend is too overpowering and so she gathered all her courage and flies fearlessly towards the red blinking dot. 

The trees are bigger and denser in this part of the land and Aglow feels a tinge of fear, but she quickly brushes away these thoughts and focuses on her friend in danger. But the more she flies towards him, the further he flies away.  The forest is growing denser and darker and on reaching a bend, Aglow loses track of the red light ahead of her. She whirls around frantically, but cannot see her friend anywhere. Every direction she looks is dark and frightening. Suddenly a deafening noise disrupts the silence of the night and a deadly shadow covers the smiling face of the moon. Aglow peers behind and sees a huge flying insect charging directly towards her. Her heart sinks and her feet turn to stone, but she still manages to fly with all her might. The dark forest seems to close in around her as she whizzes past through huge trees shrouded in the cloak of darkness. The deadly buzzing sound approaches her fast and Aglow flies into the deeper recess of the jungle, far far away from home. But fatigue and panic seems to take over her young body and a sudden pang of regret washes over her. If only she would have listened to her mother and Grandpa Bug…. The huge deadly insect is coming closer and closer, and Aglow felt her wings and limb go numb. She closes her eyes, knowing well that this might be the last few seconds of her life. And just when the big, sinewy arms of the flying monster fall on her, she felt a sudden jerk followed by a loud thud. What happened next is mostly a blur. All she remembers is being flown away at a dangerously high speed, cutting through the trees and sliding down the branches. Was she even alive or was she free- falling onto heaven?



Chapter 2: Coming soon...