text: “Father! Father! Come upstairs!” “I’m not falling for another one of your little jokes, Lila!” “It isn’t a joke! Come upstairs now!” The middle-aged man reluctantly dragged himself up the stairs expecting to see a trail of painful, knifelike legoes on the stairs. He carefully went with uncanny precision, wondering when he’d meet the plastic toy that would jab him first. Instead, he found his precious daughters, the lights of his life, staring out their window with pink frilly curtains. “Look! There’s a family of puppies in our backyard!” Yelled Lila. “Oh, those aren’t puppies, they’re foxes.” At this point the father, whose name is James, and Rina, Lila’s younger sister, were laughing hysterically. Lila crossed her arms and snapped, “foxes are part of the dog family anyways!” At this point Rina and James were on the floor. They always laughed at how adorable Lila was when she crossed her arms in an attempt to look intimidating. A few minutes later, Rina and Lila raced down the stairs to see the foxes up close. Meanwhile, James decided to bring out the barbecue in the closet to make some hot dogs. “Girls come get dinner! I made hotdogs!” “Can I give the foxes some? Pretty please?” Begged little Lila with puppy dog eyes. Without even waiting for James’ response, which would have been something annoying and along the lines of “what’s with the puppy eyes? Did your dog-foxes teach you,” Lila grabbed two hotdogs and threw them at the foxes. The foxes viciously tore into the flesh of the meat like lions. “Look! They’re so adorable,” exclaimed Rina. “You call THAT adorable?!” James and Lila were staring at Rina like she was insane. That’s when they heard a loud shattering sound that Lila thought even the other side of the Earth could hear. They saw a pitch black line in the sky that looked like a cracked snow globe. “What is that!? Father, I'm scared!” Lila cried. She clung onto James as hard as she could. “I don’t know sweetheart. I don't know...” The foxes were gone, and it became dreadfully silent. That’s when a random shard fell from the sky. Rina ran and picked it up. The shard was glowing softly a white as pure as untouched snow, and was cold to the touch. More shards started to lightly fall from the sky, making small thumps and cracks as they touched the ground. The family was speechless. They felt confused, anxious, shocked, amazed, and utterly terrified at the same time. They stared in frozen shock as more shards fell from the shattered, crystal sky. That’s when suddenly an odd ash fell on Rina. It ran through her hair, hands, and fingers like warm sand. Rina stood still for several seconds, pondering and trying to organize her overloaded train of thought. Her brain was as twisted and turbulent as a tight knot on a shoelace. She was then interrupted by a shard that crashed with her head. “Rina! Are you ok?” Lila screamed. “Yeah... I’m fine.” Inexplicably, Rina barely even felt the shard when it collided with her head. She almost didn’t notice it. That’s when the family heard an odd sound in the direction of the forest. It sounded like a porcelain teacup being placed on a table. They ran in its direction and saw a girl. She also glowed like the shards, and glittered bright ethereal hues of bright blue and silver around her. The porcelain cup sound was coming from her footsteps. The girl was picking up the shards one by one. “Hey, you! Do you want help?” Asked Rina. The girl did not answer. She just smiled at Rina and continued picking up the shards. “What is your name?” Asked Lila. A light, mechanical sound came from the girl’s mouth. She slowly sounded out “Esther.” “Hey Esther, where is your family?” Asked James. Esther stared at him confused. She then softly answered, “in my hands.