Meet Tala

The wind was too silent, carrying as though only the faintest lullaby that rattled the grass beneath your feet. The skies were stained with luminescent purple dotted by white glinting stars. Soon it converged, slowly, like a body stitching itself together in such whiteness in purity that your heart raced, your mind emptied, and your mouth gaped as the stars beyond pieced itself together—it built the body of a frail young girl, topless, wearing a long purple tribal skirt that reached her feet.

She floated slowly, her eyes seemed like a galaxy on their own peeling into you, and stretched her hand to reach your face. But she was stopped by a crack. Her irises trembled, urging you to watch as her lips quivered into a pained but accepting smile, followed by a purple line breaking into her skin, fracturing her being as she tried to retreat and eventually shatter at your wake.

Silence flooded your ears.

“I guess that didn’t work, huh? Well, no matter. I am Tala,” the skies glowed as her voice resounded. “the Anito of the Stars, and I am everywhere. I would be here.” Her cute head formed and solidified like a purple crystal fragment in front of you. It pointed you to the side.

“A part of me would be there!”

“Then here!”

“That too!”

“And all over the place!”

The bits of her body formed around you like a glinting wall of prized gems. She giggled like a child and stitched herself together once again. Her face reddens, as though in ultimate focus, and both your gazes locked at that moment.

“All I want is to see,” her hand glowed as she made a fist. “is for the people who worship me to reach their dream.” She turned to you, determined and smiling. “No matter how attainable it could be, the bigger the dream, the better, and that’s why I would be there to help—that’s why you have to fight for it,” her smile twisted. “even to the point of breaking.”

Her body shattered right after, but she was able to pull herself together with a loud playful cackle. Tala displayed herself yet again, opening her arms as though making an announcement, presenting her body carved with tattoos with pride more than the fractures that wedged her skin. Her back glowed, and there, a castle of light slowly emerged.

“Be prepared to create, to shatter, to sacrifice, and to rebuild yourself as much as you want—to rupture, to rearrange, to tear off your arms to make wings, to tear your legs to make your arms longer, stronger, to tear your fingers so you could dance better, to run faster, to conquer...” She breathed. “All of it would be to fulfill your dream. I will be there, and I will help you create it.”