Chapter 3: The Jade Pendant
Aria jolted awake when the vision ended. There was an urgency in her soul. Like she desperately needed to do something. Pieces of the visions were still looping in her mind but she was unable to put them together coherently. She shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts. She was shaking as she sat up.
As she tried to stand her movements caught the moonlight and she noticed a faint green light coming from somewhere nearby. She looked around trying to find the source of the light but she couldn't find anything. She lowered her head to think and that is when she saw it! Her Jade pendant! It was glowing!
The longer she looked at it the brighter it got. She lightly touched the pendant, afraid of what might happen. Slowly she took it off and cupped it in her hands. She watched in awe as the light kept getting brighter and brighter. After a few moments it started floating in the air.
Aria just stood there motionless watching the pendant. Her mind blank. Suddenly it started spinning, faster and faster until it looked like a large orb of jade colored light. The next moment it rose above Aria's head and the jade light surrounded her completely. Just as Aria was adjusting to the cool breeze-like sensation from the surround light she felt a pain in her abdomen. It was so intense she squeezed her eyes shut and doubled over. The atmosphere turned hot and Aria felt as if she had been thrown into a raging inferno. Now her whole body was on fire. She tried to withstand the pain and hold on to her consciousness. As the heat and pain intensified she couldn't hold on any longer. She let out a blood curdling scream and everything went black.
Aria lay in the middle of the floor curled into a ball but the light still surrounded her, the power of the pendant's energy turning into a vortex with Aria in the center. All through the night the spiritual energy from the Jade pendant swirled around and around, growing stronger by the second. Just as dawn began to break there was a change in the spiritual energy. It was still swirling but it was no longer surrounding Aria, instead it seemed as if it was burrowing into her lower abdomen. Slowly at first, almost like it was afraid of hurting her. After a few minutes the energy was rapidly entering Aria's body, almost like Aria was sucking it in, consuming it without delay. As the first rays of sunlight began to peek through the window, there was no more spiritual energy emitting from the Jade pendant and it dropped down into her hand as she slept.
Knock, knock. There was a soft rapping on the door but there was no response from inside.
"Aria?" a voice called. It was the young boy from before. "Aria are you there? Are you okay?"
Still no response. He gently pushed the door open and took a look inside.
"Aria are you here?" The boy swept a glance over the room but didn't see anyone.
Just as he was about to turn around to leave he heard a groan coming from somewhere behind the kitchen. He carefully tip-toed around to see where the noise came from. As he got closer he could see a foot on the floor.
"Aria!" the boy exclaimed and ran over.
Aria slowly regained consciousness and blinked a few times to clear her sight. She could sense someone next to her. She looked over and saw the boy. It seemed as if he was saying something but Aria couldn't hear him clearly. It was as if she had cotton stuck in her ears. She shook her head clumsily to try and clear her head.
"Aria...?" the boy's voice was a whisper now but she could hear him clearly. She looked at him, studying his every feature and every movement. He was a fairly good looking boy. Dark brown eyes, short black hair. A bit of chubbiness in his face. All in all he looked like a well cared for child, unlike herself. As she looked down at herself he noticed that he had put his hand on her arm. The boy looked down and followed her gaze. When he realized he was holding her he quickly withdrew his hand.
"Sorry! I'm sorry!" he panicked. "I swear I didn't mean to!"
"It's alright," she laughed lightly. "You didn't hurt me."
The boy visibly relaxed at her words. He thought for sure he had done something to upset her. He was still afraid of her strange gifts.
"What is your name?" Aria asked.
"Huh?" the boy responded, still lost in his thoughts, he hadn't caught what she had said.
"Your name. What is it?" she asked again. "You know my name apparently, it would only be polite for you to tell me yours."
"Oh!" he finally realized what she was saying. "My name is Kai. Kai Lei. I'm the Elder's grandson."
"Well Kai Lei. It is nice to officially meet you." Aria greeted. "What brings you here today? Did you come for the dishes? I washed them up for you."
"Oh, uh, no." Kai replied. "Actually Elder sent me to check on you. The neighbors said they hadn't seen you leave the house since Elder brought you back from the forest so he got worried."
"Oh?" Aria was a bit puzzled. "But weren't you just here yesterday?"
"Uh... Yesterday?" Kai was bewildered. "I haven't been here for two weeks."
"Two weeks?! That is impossible!" Aria objected.
"Are you feeling okay?" he asked with a nervous look on his face. "What happened after I left?"
"Well," she started, trying to remember. "I remember eating and washing up the dishes to send back but you were already gone. Then I felt tired so I thought I would lie down and take a nap for a while." She thought about the Jade pendant and what happened after she woke up that night but she thought it would be best not to tell Kai about that.
"And then?" he asked.
"Then?" she tried to recall if there was anything else. "That's it. That is the last thing I remember until now."
Kai looked at her suspiciously but didn't press the issue. "Alright then, how do you feel now?"
'How do I feel?' Aria remembered the excrutiating pain in her whole body and tried to move her fingers and toes a little at a time. Surprisingly it didn't hurt at all! She tried moving the rest of her body. Not a single little ache! 'I don't even feel hungry. Actually, I feel amazing! I feel like I could run forever Nd never get tired.'
"I... I feel great actually." She finally replied. 'I've never felt this great in my life!'
"Alright then, if you're sure you're okay," he said rather skeptically.
"I'm great! See!" Aria said excitedly as she got up and started jumping up and down.
Kai chuckled at that. "Okay okay! I can see that you're good now so I will leave first." He got up and walked to the door. "Take care of yourself Aria!" he called as he left.
There was a smile plastered to Aria's face as Kai left. He was the first person in this town to be nice to her and show her the slightest bit of compassion. She didn't know how to describe what she was feeling but she thought she might be... Happy...
A while later Aria was recalling what had happened that night with the Jade pendant. She went to touch it in its usual place on her neck but it wasn't there!
'Oh no! Where did it go?!,' she thought, in a panic. She spun around and checked everywhere in the house. She even got on her hands and knees checking the cracks in the floor and under the table. Finally she caught a glimpse of it through a crack in the floor right next to where she had woken up earlier when Kai was here.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone