My Little Human: Friendship Across Worlds

The unnatural yellow glow of sodium vapour lights barely reached into the mouth of the alley, illuminating the smoothly shifting form of a stray cat creeping out into the street. It was quiet in the early hours, save for the occasional passing car. Further back in the shadowed alleyway, the brick wall on the left side began to glow, the dim light mysteriously emanating from the brickwork in strange, twisted shapes and patterns. The markings steadily grew brighter, brighter, until the steel roller door opposite was bathed in a mesmerizing blue-white glow. Then, in a blinding burst of energy, the brickwork swirled around and like water draining from a bathtub formed a vortex. The vortex was about two metres in diameter, tall enough for a grown man to walk through fully upright. Air swirled invisibly around the outside, sweeping up litter and debris and randomly tossing it around.

A few seconds after the vortex opened, a young spiky-haired boy one could estimate to be seven or eight years of age appeared in a blur of motion and stepped out into the alley. He was clad in a black t-shirt, shorts and sneakers and hanging from his neck on a thin but sturdy gold chain was a deep green crystal framed within a gold pendant. The boy faced the portal, raised the pendant between his thumb and forefinger, pointed it at the portal and tapped the top side with his fingertip. The swirling vortex vanished and the blue-white light faded, leaving him cloaked in the shadow of the alley.

The boy then spoke one word to the crystal inside the pendant. “Twilight.”

The crystal did nothing outwardly, but the boy felt a tugging motion inside him, the pendant's power pulling him in the direction of the person he needed so desperately to find. Letting the pendant rest on it's chain, the boy took a deep breath, let it out, then exited the alley and followed the magical pull.