Cassius

Don’t follow the white fireflies.

That is the warning given to every child who wanders a little too far, whose wonder at the world threatens to become full-fledged curiosity.

Golden fireflies are good. They are of the sun, and of light and all that’s good. You can follow golden fireflies.

But white fireflies are something – else.

This is the story of the ones who don’t listen.

You wander a little too far from the nest. Perhaps you see a pretty flower, or a cloud shaped just like a fae. Perhaps you are just eager already to explore the boundless world ahead of you. Whatever it is, the first step is yours. You leave the nest.

When you wander a little too far, you spot something beautiful. Glowing and gleaming, a white pinprick. It comes close to you, hovering above your nose.

Then suddenly there’s another, then another, a whole flock of them, beautiful white fireflies circling you.

You do not remember the warning.

You follow them, the little magic creatures who have ensnared you so deeply. You follow them until all of a sudden, the deep night sky has been replaced by rough earthen caves. You follow them so deep that you don’t know which way is up.

The white fireflies don’t leave you though. They’ve loved you the way you loved them, and they stay with you, a light in the darkness of your ordeal. They stay until the earth cracks open, and you’re found again.

The Lost Children are almost forgotten, but the warning remains. Even now, the white fireflies flit around you, an ever present comfort and reminder of what lurks beneath the world.