A whirlwind of white magic has settled, and in its place is a wailing infant. The small thing frails about as she is picked up and cradled in the arms of her caretaker with great love.

A cool evening breeze brushes against them both delicately. Avani instinctively brings the now sleeping infant in her clay-white arms closer to her chest to keep it safe and warm. It cries because of the momentary disturbance but then returns to dreaming. Dreaming of a place beyond the fire and blood around them, the same place that Avani dreams of every night.

Beneath Avani's bare feet, the Earth is mudded with blood. She stands among a massacre dealt by the infant's hands moments ago. For moments ago, the infant was a fully grown woman. Moments ago, she was her equal, her twin sister.

Another breeze passes as she stares at the one made of black glass in her arms with much love and sorrow. Only this wind does not carry a coolness, but the heat from the many fires burning in the nearest village. Avani's ivory, tear-streaked face turns from the baby in her arms to look toward the treeline. She spots the bellowing smoke rafting from nearby houses as she sorrowfully weeps in place. Her eyes follow the dark streams climbing steadily toward the indigo heaven, and the sight makes her porcelain-made self crack.

It's all too much, all too much not to break under.

Along with the smoke, it carries the screams of wives, husbands, mothers, fathers, and children alike. Hearing them makes her too ashamed to move. All those miserable souls are fighting for their lives. Each one is the cause of her intense growing pain, the choking pain within her hammering heart that's making it hard to breathe.

They're such a weight, the screams and cries. One so heavy she feels like she's become one with the Earth below her. It'd be easier to hold the moon right now than to hold onto the truth. And the truth is that she is responsible for all the misery around her.

Avani bites her lips in anguish as she stands still, frozen in the same spot. She lets her mind wander into the realm of self-blame and regret. I did this! It's all wrecked. This was supposed to be home. The idea swirls and swirls in her mind. Yes, it's new and foreign, but it has been home nonetheless. Hasn't it?

How could it be that she couldn't see the effect she had on the humans this whole time? How could she not see that all she and Konica had done was bring corruption and darker greed upon this vulnerable planet and its offspring?

"I only meant to bless you all," she says aloud as if the Earth's masses are listening, "we were supposed to protect you from yourselves." Avani whispers sharply to the innocent bundle in her arms, "Konica! What have we done?" She begins to rock the infant while weeping for the death clinging in the air around them.

Avani's heart is breaking into pieces for the children who scream horribly in pain in the distance, and it strains to beat as she hears their parents fight to save them. They fight, but they fail, so she can only keep crying. So much malevolence, and all of it brought on by her arrogance alone.

It was only meant to be a gift.

Magic.

It had been a simple matter of their biology to them both. But to the humans, it had meant the impossible. Once it had been given to them, the doom clock inevitably was triggered. She sees that now.

They will all die if I do not find a way to change this. And maybe they should. Perhaps this is for the best. If I save them now, they will continue to breed my flame, and they will continue to be more divided.

She looks upon the infant again. Where Avani was crafted from porcelain and white pearl marble, her sister- Konica- was crafted from volcanic black glass and clay. This baby was her full-grown sister twenty minutes ago. But now- once more- she's a being of pure potential and innocence. It was how she saved her from the madness consuming her earlier. Konica's pure rage and hate had led her to create those moaning abominations, killing numerous villagers a few miles away.

A second chance? I have given Konica a second chance.

Avani exhales her anxiety. It allows her to see the plain truth before her. The one who created the darkness sweeping across the land right now can choose a different path again. How could she not save the humans when she had just saved their executioner?

Making up her mind to get moving, instead of standing around idly, she tears a good length of her white robes and carefully wraps the child up to carry her on her back. Then she goes towards the screaming and fire, her black tears still free-flowing from her white solar-lit eyes. But at least now, her face is set in grave conviction.

Walking through the darkening woods makes her feel so alone, even with the many eyes that cast a look her way from among the spaces of the trees. The night is descending, and the fires glow brighter in the distance. She doesn't know how long she walks, but when she finally arrives at the nearest village, she sees nothing but gore and heat.

There is so much death everywhere, so many pieces and still moaning souls clinging onto whatever life they have left. With great effort, she swallows the fear and the shame down as best she can and keeps moving deeper into the village. Her slender hands hover above those still alive, mercifully sucking away the last of their energy. The peace of death finally gives them rest from the mauling they have all sustained.

Avani slows as she reaches the town square. The area is styled with tan-stoned streets and one lavish water fountain with green tiles decorating its circumference. The scene is flooded with red destruction, much like the rest of the village. Water from the fountain is now only blood, and it runs over and over again as pieces of human flesh and bone float on the water's surface.

Chomping and groaning, the sounds make her slowly look up and ahead. She whimpers as her face contorts with sorrow and remorse at the sight of one of the abominations of Konica's making. In one of its vile hands is a child's leg.

The word "sorry" is stuck in Avani's throat, making her want to throw up and die. She shakes her head in disbelief at the sight of this nightmare.

How could you do this, Konica? How could you bring that to breath?

Born out of her sister's anger and hatred, this thing is fat and greasy from its own secretions of oil and blood. Its skin is that of an old corpse, pasty and grey throughout. You could almost mistake it for an obese human zombie if not for its hideous jagged teeth and laughing eyes. This particular dark creation has been on the chase, and its prey is the desperate, crawling man drenched in dark blood at its feet.

"Someone help!"

"Help me, please, damn you! Help!" the man is nothing short of desperation itself.

Avani steps forward, with her white blooming fire ready in both palms, her magic brought forth. She's prepared to fight and hopefully slay the evil, but one of Earth's creatures sprints forward to steal the first blow instead.

It's a dog, a mutt, a blend between a wolf and a domestic hound. It's a favorite among hunters. With a fast sprint, it launches and clenches its enormous jaws onto the creature's hind leg.

The sound of the breathing nightmare is something unimaginable. Surprisingly, it feels pain, but as it does, it screams inhumanly and with such a frightful volume that the man at its feet faints from the sound alone. Blood floods out of the man's ears, nose, and eyes. Even Avani backs away, feeling disoriented by the cry. Konica starts to fuss like any infant, so her sister swings her around to calm her the best she can.

But she doesn't take her eyes off the hound. It hasn't let go and didn't pass out even though its ears are bleeding, too. No matter the cries from the creature, and no matter the thrashing or hits it sustains, the dog holds on for its master's sake.

This is the moment in which the Mother of Fire becomes inspired. This is the moment that she fathoms a creation of her own. Unlike her sister's dark products, she will bring one forth by light, giving it loyalty to life. It will be a creation that can give them all a second chance.

Deep beneath the Earth, she calls forth a stone of absolute brilliance into her hand, much as her sister had done to create her foul darkness. And just the same, she pools her magic and will into it. Except she's not Konica, of course. No, this one is Avani. Unlike her sister, she only stores her benevolent intentions, moral aptitude, and, more importantly, love within the stone.

"Where you are a Hunger brought forth by madness and loss, I bring forth this creature in hope and love. This is my Glamour!" Avani declares defiantly as she witnesses the poor dog finally beaten to his painful death.

The now hovering white stone shines once more and then implodes. In response, the horrid creature screams in its own defiant way and hisses forward. But it gets no further than a step as the brilliance of the swirling magic comes back together to make one beautiful dark-toned male. His muscular arm ripples as it propels forward, and his mighty hand opens and firmly wraps around the massive neck of the creature. Soon enough, Avani's new creation starts to transform himself into a bear. He is the first of the skin changers.

Soon, the Glamour is a bear, a frightening, grisly beast bigger than those on Earth naturally. He pounds and pounds the dark monster before him onto the ground. SLASH AND POUND, SLASH AND ROAR, AND BLOOD AND TEETH.

It takes more than a minute but no more than that to reach the center of the fat beast of darkness. The Glamour finds the horrid black stone within it. He claims it with his teeth, and in one powerful snap... the stone shatters. The monster starts to crack into glass dust as if it's been nothing but the foulest of imagination and soon blows away in the breeze.

Gone is the horror around the two sisters; the air is suddenly real again. It's like the doom that Avani had thought about as a certainty is now only a possibility.

Now, it's not an absolute.

She looks upon her infant sister and laughs as the baby blows a raspberry.

Her Glamour reverts to his human form, and he salutes his creator, awaiting his next orders. Avani smiles as she creates a garment for him and steps forward. Much like his mother, she embraces him and says, "Dutiful son, your human brothers and sisters need you."

She fashions five more stones into her creations: two more men and three women.

Addressing all of them, she orders, "You need to destroy the three remaining Hungers," her eyes find the hurt man moaning across from them, "And for the sake of the human world, do not fail."

Each of them transforms into a different beast of the wild. Each of them rages forward towards their prey. Each is the only second chance she can give to the human world.

"We're going home, Konica," Avani starts for her dimension, "let us start you over."

She looks back at the scene of death and fire one more time before actually leaving and says, "Let us start our repentance for all that we brought them."

The man on the ground slowly opens his eyes, and with a blurry sight, he makes out a mother and her child. He blinks, and when he opens them again, he only makes out wavering heat waves where they once stood.