Ascension

As the mysterious woman moved her hands, a large chunk of earth underneath Sena started shaking and breaking apart. With the help of the steep slope, one of the large rocks enclosing Sena's position escaped from the disintegrating ground under it's own weight. That oddly shaped rock rolled over to it's wider side, hit the ground hard and shattered into smaller pieces. The removal of the rock cleared Sena's way.

All this had happened without the woman touching anything.

While both me and Sena were trying to comprehend the unbelivable event we had just witnessed, the woman picked up her wand and walked by Sena to help her out.

"Are you hurt?" the woman asked Sena.

"Not really." said Sena. "I was just... too scared."

"How is this possible!?" I asked, unable to handle the fascination.

The woman looked at me for a few seconds before answering.

"It just is." she said.

"Mom!"

Sena came from below and hugged the woman. The woman (who apparently really was Sena's mom, since she didn't reject the claim), putting a warm yet sad smile on her face, returned the hug without letting go of her glowing wand.

"My little girl... Why are you here?" she whispered.

"No, mom; why are YOU here!?" Sena was starting to cry. "Why did you leave us and come to this godforsaken place no one visits? For... For how long, we have been..."

"Dear..." Sena's mother sighed. "It is a bit hard to explain to you, you know... To tell shortly, it is for the sake of our family, and the future of Yuvakaya."

"I... I don't understand you!" Sena said.

I interrupted their little talk.

"Uhm... I'm... having a bit of trouble-"

"Is he a friend of yours?" the woman asked Sena. Sena looked at her mother, and nodded with a bit of hesitation.

"Ms. Saka, am I right?" I asked the woman. Her expression changed, and she carefully eyed me one more time.

I couldn't help feeling anxious in front of her because I was only now recovering from the shock of what she had done to save her daughter.

"What business do you have up here?" Ms. Saka asked.

"We were outside when the sun set and it became dark." Sena answered the question instead of me.

"This is very dangerous, you know that." Ms. Saka said.

"I don't know what would happen to us if you weren't here." I said to Ms. Saka. "Thank you for coming to our help. I still can't believe what happened just now."

"What did you become, mom?" Sena asked. "What is the deal with this... wand and all that?"

"There are many incredible things in the universe which your materialistic minds are... simply not equipped to comprehend." Ms. Saka said with a lecturing tone. "If you could just break the limits of your brains and believe in miracles, you would see that there is little that can not be done. Yet, here, you are having trouble believing in something you have seen with your very own eyes."

"You are a psychic!" I said. "Telekinesis, it is!"

"Telekinesis, sure, if that is what you want to call it. But every 'psychic power' there is... They are essentially the same thing." Ms. Saka said. "Huh, thank god, that wasn't so bad... I was half-expecting you to call me a witch instead."

"No!" Sena suddenly cried. "No, this is too surreal to be true. You are not my mom. This is a dream!"

"Let go of your limited vision of the world, my girl." said Ms. Saka, calmly. "This is as real as anything could ever be."

"No, no, no, this is a dream!" Sena shouted. "My mind is teasing me. Finding my mom on the mountain and this whole thing... Just no!"

"Sena, I know you were not prepared for it, but this is the truth." Ms. Saka's voice got more serious.

Sena just started screaming unintelligable things and running down the slope. I started running to catch her, hopefully before she did something stupid.

"Why can't I wake up!" Sena yelled.

Ms. Saka appeared with a bright green light again, running by my side as we both tried to catch up with Sena. We were all running down the mountain at full speed, even though we all knew it was very dangerous.

Sena stumbled on a small ridge and fell down face-first, sliding on the ground for about half a meter. I judged my braking distance to be way too long to stop safely (before hitting Sena, that is), so I sat down on the ground to make best use of the friction to slow down. Meanwhile, Ms. Sena just plunged her wand into the dirt, stopping almost instantly.

I came by Sena to check her condition. Her hands had luckily absorbed most of the impact, but there was a small wound on her forehead.

"Sena? Sena!?" I called her a few times, but there was no response.

Ms. Saka came by me, then held and lifted Sena over her shoulder.

"Follow me, child." she said. "My poor girl... She has been through a traumatic experience. I need to take care of her."

Things were getting more interesting than they already were.

"Uh... Excuse me, where exactly are you taking her?" I asked.

"Up." she said. "I am taking her up. You will see."

Ms. Saka started climbing back up. So did I. With the green light from the wand illuminating our way, we were slowly climbing up the mountain.

On our way, I had a few chances to get a closer look at Ms. Saka's wand.

"Is... nevermind."

"What is it?" Ms. Saka had heard me mumbling.

"Is that a flashlight?" I asked. "On your wand."

"Yes, why?" she asked.

"Oh... Well, nothing. I was just curious." I said.

"I am not trained enough to control energy that way... to make light the way I desire." she said. "But if you need to know, yes; there are those who can."

"Is that yellow light your doing as well?" I asked her.

"What yellow- Oh, THE yellow light, you mean." she said. "No. It belongs to a certain respected individual, who, unlike me, can practically rule light."

Ms. Saka sighed.

"And besides, yellow is not my color anyway."