Chapter 1 – The Ordinary Cadence of the Unordinary
Children will usually rebel against their parents. Irene is a young woman who didn’t like the options her parents presented her for her life. She wanted more and wanted to be more than just another woman in the crowd, so she ran away from home. While running through a forest, she tripped and fell down a hole that’s filled with different kinds of crystals. As she falls, the crystals affect Irene with their power. They make her grow pink crystals on her body. Her torso and limbs separate as crystal replaces her body, but her body floats together so she’s still alive as her soul keeps it together. These crystals also clothe Irene in a green and pink crystal dress with a neck choker. A green flower blooms in her right eye while her left eye is now pink with a red heart as a pupil. Her skin is now snow white, and her ears are pointy. The only thing that hasn’t changed is her black hair.
Once the crystallization is complete, Irene falls down into the sky beneath until she lands on a cloud. A young woman similar to her lands on the cloud. She has blond curly hair with a red and orange crystal dress. Her right eye has an orange flower in it and her left eye is orange with a red spade as a pupil.
The lady bows her head and says, “My name is Lacey. You must be new here.”
“I am. My name is Irene and…what is this place?”
Irene looks up and sees the ground. She sees a crystal forest full of purple and blue colors with a green tint to them.
“You are in a better world, Irene. This place is called Caldaia. Why are you here?”
“I didn’t want to live the way my family wanted me to, so I ran away then I fell down a hole.”
“Then you’re in the right place. This place was made for people like us, Irene. You can be as free as you want here, but first, we need to go over some basics. Above ground, you had to plant your feet firm on the ground to walk. Here, you have to act as light as a feather in order to walk on the ground.”
“How do I do that?”
“Just release the tension in your feet and let go of the weight you carry. Don’t concentrate, just do it.”
Releasing the weight from her body, Irene falls to the crystal forest below and safety lands despite the big fall. The forest below with its variety of crystal vegetation is complemented by the different shades of blue and purple tinted with a light green. The sunlight makes the crystals shine brightly, though the crystals seem to shine brightly on their own in the shade. Lacey lands next to Irene and smiles.
“This place is amazing,” Irene says with amazement.
“It is. As customary for the people here, I’m going to have to leave you to find your way to us. Don’t worry, it’s not like you’ll die or anything down here. We have multiple small towns here, so no matter what direction you go in, you’ll find a home,” Lacey says before sprouting crystal wings and flying off.
“I so want those.”
Irene finally has a moment to catch her breath and sees the gaps in her body. She puts her hand through the empty space and feels nothing nor does her action do anything. Even though her eyes are different, her sight remains the same. This entire place is weird, so she doesn’t think about it too much. She breathes in the air that smells fresher than the air above before adventuring. Irene feels freedom in every inch of her new body and it fills her with her energy and excitement. All of the plant life and crystal animals that live here are friendly to Irene when she touches them. They are even able to speak to her in a way that she understands them. Water flows in small streams in the forest that leads to a large river. At this river, a hand comes out of it offering itself to her. She touches the hand and it pulls her under the river. For some reason, she can breathe better underwater than on land. The hand that pulled her under is nowhere to be seen, so she asks the fish.
“The lake itself pulled you under. It must see something in you that it likes, and I don’t blame it,” a school of fish say.
Irene giggles and explores the lake. There is more crystal wild and plant life under her with their own little ecosystem and unique designs. Some creatures down here appear to be from the land and they live down here as if it were just like the surface. Irene admires it all for a moment before swimming to the surface. Once she gets out of the river, she thanks it for showing her what it has to offer, and it waves goodbye to her. She isn’t even wet from the river though she was fully immersed in the river. Continuing through the forest, she comes to a mountain with a beautiful view. The horizon and forest seem to reach out into forever from here. Looking down, she sees what seems to be a small village made of, of course, crystal.
“It’s not like there’s anything else around here they can make houses out of,” Irene says to herself.
Irene remembers how she fell before and decides to jump off the cliff and into the village for a showy entrance. She lands and surprises everyone who lives there.
“Hi!” Irene says to them who say hi back once the shock of the surprise wears off.
A young woman who has black hair like Irene’s walks up to her. She has a purple flower in her right eye and a purple left eye with a club in it. Her dress is patterned purple and black and longer than Irene’s dress.
“You know how to make an entrance,” the woman says, “My name is Jen.”
“Irene, I’m new here.”
“I’m glad you chose to come here.”
“Lacey didn’t exactly give me directions. I just picked a direction to go in and went there. I didn’t really choose to come here.”
“As she should, but it doesn’t to me. It’s better for people to be in this place rather than above.”
“So, what do you do down here?”
“We do whatever we want. Because we are made of crystal, we will live forever. Here, we enjoy each other’s company and adventure in this extraordinary world.”
“What’s the trick to understanding it? There’s a lot of things here I can barely wrap my head around.”
“The trick is, is that everything here is unexpected. Something you think you might’ve figured out could be different the next day.”
“That’s…terrifying. What if the air we start breathing becomes toxic?”
“Things here aren’t that unpredictable. Don’t worry about anything. Now, if you’d like to help around, do you mind following me? I’ll try to give you a better idea of this place as we go along.”
“Okay. What are we doing?”
“Just carving out crystals for the village? You ready?”
“Yep.”
Jen smiles at Irene and the two walk away. Another woman like them watches the two a short distance away.
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