Takara Shining (The Binding)

Every fifty years the people of Ligo gather to watch a magnificent event, the Takara Shining. This year, the much-anticipated event occurs with the Zenda Celebration, making it very rare indeed. As the selected youths gather together for the Zenda Celebration they are excited and nervous to find what awaits them.

But no one could have expected what happens the night of Takara Shining. As the youths recover from a devastating event, they will have to learn to trust each other, the unexpected – and most importantly themselves.

Takara Shining

Yula sat quietly under the cloudless sky, taking in the silence she had learned to cherish. As she sat and absorbed the silence, the stars were clear and bright, and she appreciated the clarity they brought to the dark evening sky. Her thoughts wandered to memories of her first Takara Shining. She felt fortunate that she was going to witness Takara Shining twice in her lifetime. As she gazed off in the distance, Takara Shining began. On the horizon she observed the dancing lights come up from the planet’s surface, amazed at how they spun and weaved as they climbed up to the sky. The particles were everywhere. “What a beautiful display of colors,” she thought.

She noticed one of the particles floated over to her. As she held out her hand and it landed in the palm, the moment seemed like an eternity. She felt an unexpected warmth flow through her body, as if the particle was alive and sharing its energy. The warmth made her face flush, her senses heightened, and awareness awoke within her. Suddenly there was a connection with her surroundings she couldn't explain; she could feel and sense life all around her.

Yula had never felt so alive, so full of life and energy. She realized the life around her had purpose and meaning and that she was a part of something larger than herself. She focused harder on the particle’s shape and was stunned to see a fragile body, antennas, and tiny wings. In the blink of an eye Yula's whole world was turned inside out. “What is this creature? What purpose does it have? Where did it come from?”

The tiny wings fluttered, and the tiny creature rose up to Yula’s face and landed on her nose. This close, Yula could see its face and was surprised to see tears fall from its eyes. In that moment, Yula felt the creature’s sadness. She also felt an impending doom and knew the citizens of Ligo had made a huge mistake by walking down a path that abandoned the essences of their nature and focused on hierarchical reasoning.

Yula felt more than heard the roar, a deafening rumble coming from deep within the planet. The creature hovered for a fraction of a second then bolted off along with the millions of other light particles, downward into the planet. Takara Shining was over.