Flicker: The Sky Lantern
Once upon a time, in the quiet fishing village of Oceana, lived a young boy named Kael. Kael was unlike any other children of his age; he was a dreamer, with his eyes always set on the skies. He dreamed of distant lands and mystical creatures, his imagination expanding with every book he read and every story he heard. But his most cherished dream was to touch the sky, to feel the coolness of the clouds.
One clear night Kael found a floating lantern, abandoned, washed to shore by the whimsical sea. Its paper body was slightly torn at places, but the intricacy of its structure fascinated Kael - a basket to hold the candle, the wax still intact, and crisscrossed bamboo sticks to keep its shape. He named it Flicker, hoping it possessed some magic that would take him to the skies.
Given Flicker's condition, Kael devoted his evenings healing it, oiling the bamboo strips, patching the rips with his mother's old grocery bags, mindful of the patterns of birds and clouds that he painted. Weeks turned into months until one day, Flicker was as new as it must've been once.
The night of the Lantern Festival arrived, a local tradition where everyone gathered in the village square, released sky lanterns carrying their wishes up into the night sky. Kael saw this as his opportunity. As the dusk settled, with Flicker tucked under his arm and words of prayer in his pocket, Kael ran through the cobbled streets, chasing the warm glow of the festival.
The square was buzzing with joy. Old men played folk music, women danced around in colorful attires, and children ran wild, their cheeks mirroring the glow of lanterns hanging around the square. In that luminous moment, Kael felt a surge of hope. He scribbled his prayer on a piece of parchment, folded it neatly, and placed it in the basket of Flicker.
Kael lightened a candle and placed it in Flicker's basket. It began to swell in size, its puffed paper body glowing warm, ready to join the constellations of other lanterns adorning the sky. A crowd gathered around Kael, marveling at the lantern. With a soft push, he let Flicker go. It gracefully floated upwards, dancing along the tunes of the night.
As the night progressed, an untoward storm loomed over Oceana. The joyous festivities came to a halt as heavy winds started to lash out. Kael’s heart sank as he saw the lanterns in the sky struggling, and then his eyes moved to Flicker. It flickered against the brewing storm, swinging wildly in the air. His heart pounded with fear, but then something magical happened.
Right in the middle of the tempest, Flicker started to glow brighter, its flame resistant to the ferocious wind. As if recognizing Kael's longing, it soared upwards against the storm, fought the wind, ascending farther until it was a tiny speck of light joining the stars.
Kael’s wide, tear-filled eyes stayed glued to that flickering speck until it disappeared. A sense of loss filled his heart, but was soon replaced by a wave of joy that he had touched the sky, even if indirectly, through Flicker. He felt accomplished. While the festival ended abruptly, it was the most memorable one for him.
Years later, Kael became a sailor, exploring the world he once dreamed of. He met myriad people, heard myriad stories, and on every voyage, he took with him a sky lantern, a tradition he continued in honor of Flicker. He harbored a hope that someday, somewhere, a child would find one of his lanterns, and perhaps, find within it a spark of dreams, like he had once found in Flicker.
And so, the tale of Flicker became a legend, passed down through generations, fueling the dreams of countless children in Oceana. For every child beholding a sky lantern with twinkling eyes, it represented a path to their dreams, a path to the sky itself. Just like Kael, who found a path to his dreams in a washed-up sky lantern, they held a flicker of hope in their innocent hearts, a belief that dreams do come true.