EXT. GREAT FALLS (OCEAN LAKE )
The giant dragonfly carries Torm through the sky over a montage of mountains and towns. The view becomes blacker as they near the Great Falls. She sees the trail of lifeless crusting and destruction caused by the black cloud of death. She ascends in her winged transport past large chunks of falling water, frozen mid-air in a thick tar crust, past the petrified harbors and black ship tombs. The higher they climb, the darker it becomes. Torm reaches for the light of the Heart Jewel, but stops when the dragonflies light up with glowing blood glittering through their translucent bodies in subsurface transmissions of light, defogging the black views in their path. Before long they reach the top and Torm sees what no other eyes have ever seen: a giant ocean lake at the top to the Great Falls. The source of life that every living thing has depended on for hundreds of thousands of years. The water is being kept prisoner by a dam created by the thick arms of the Shadow Cloud. Torm is more determined than ever to save her sister, but doesn't know her sister is already dead. But the resolution of the ignorant has a strange way of pulling the dead from their graves.
Dragonflies start to burn out as they hit the dark atmosphere looming over the ocean lake and Torm reaches the ground of a small rock island just in time as the giant dragonfly disintegrates around her. She rolls hard on its cold, rocky surface but recovers quickly. Water breathes heavily all around her and the atmosphere is dark and smoky but a few scattered pieces of fabric catch her eye. She follows them to the other side of the tiny island where she finds what is left of Avio's balloon: the regulator, still intact, and half of the balloon fabric, still attached to it. She wonders if the wreckage debris was carried by the wind, or if its pilot managed to bring it here.
TORM
Hello!... Hello!
Torm yells out for a few minutes. With wind in her eyes, she tries her best to see through blasts of water into the hazy dark distance.
TORM
Is anyone there? Do you need help?
she yells out but finds no response to her calls. Like the Professor, she has a low-level immunity to the Shadow because of her exposure to the mineral vapor but soon it will start trying to put its death into her. She feels the Shadow Clouds start to bite her arms and cheeks as atmosphere grows darker and thicker. She takes out the Heart Jewel and attaches it to the torch handle which gives off a penetrating light forming a small radius that eats the atmospheres away like ink in a vacuum, giving her sight and relief from the sharp bites. She stands at the edge of the small rock island trying to get a better view of her surroundings when she accidentally drops her torch into the water. She quickly moves to grab it but is unable to intercept its quickly sinking handle and it falls 400 feet to the lifeless sandy floor. Torm tries diving for it, but she can't hold her breath long enough nor swim that deep. Instantly a flash comes to her mind. Once on land, she immediately goes to Avio’s balloon with hopes of making a breathing apparatus from its regulator. But when she lifts the balloon up, the cloth attached to it is snatched up and stolen from her grip by a heavy wind and flies away into the black atmosphere: first into an irretrievable distance, then into an unseeable one. Torm bites her jaw in frustration but quickly develops a new plan: She rips part of her cape and folds it leaving only a small opening in one end. She then takes some of the sticky forest tree tar left over from her visits to the Giant Forest, and uses it to seal the edges of the folded cloth. She fills the newly created cloth lung with ten large breaths and runs back to the water’s edge. The glow of the jewel penetrates the water, giving her good visibility to the bottom. She makes her way back into the water with the cloth lung in her mouth and a heavy rock tied to her waist. The weight of the rock pulls her down with good speed and it doesn't take her long to reach the torch. Once in hand, she releases the rope from the rock and floats back to the surface where she ties the torch to her hand so she won’t drop it again. The light keeps her safe from the Shadow’s grip but she knows in order for her to get the water free from the thick Shadow Cloud, she would have to find an edge of the waterfall. In the strange dry water, which is both cold and hot. Torm swims to another tiny island 50 yards away where she finds a cache of drift wood clinging to the rocky island’s edge. She gathers the wood together and tears her cape into long, thin strips. She ties a raft together with the cape strips and wood then places it into the water. She carefully positions herself on the raft and finds that it keeps her afloat. She pushes off and slowly paddles with one hand while holding the torch out in front of her with the other. The light from the Heart Jewel eats a hole in the dark atmosphere as she cautiously moves along looking for the edge. Her thoughts turn to the tortured, sad man who gave her this gift and how it took a lifetime of pain to charge the energy in this light and provide her this moment of hope. A gift she hoped to return as soon as she could to prove to him that his worth went well beyond the value of the stones created by his body. And that she might have a chance to help rebuild his joy of life and repay him for his kind act of love. Her thoughts break off suddenly when a hole in the Shadow Cloud opens up and a powerful rush of water is pulled though it, creating a current that is hungry to go over the side. Torm quickly covers the light up, trying to close the hole before she is also pulled over the side but the cloud is slow- growing and her raft is caught in the heavy current pulling her towards the edge. She jumps from the raft and swims as hard as she can, managing to get to a small rock island eleven yards away but her raft gets pulled over the edge and breaks apart over the hovering clouds of tar ice. She looks back and sees the hole and wastes no time in taking advantage of her opportunity to free the water. She climbs to the top of the tiny island and holds the light out to the shadow dam. Damaged by the light, the cloud pulls away, releasing a powerful torrent of water over the side. Unable to shake Torm with its own hands, the Shadow slips its fingertips into the water and stirs up large heavy waves that crack hard against the tiny island, hoping to destroy this little girl and her light. The violent walls of water knock her down over and over again but Torm’s will to save her sister holds harder than the waves can crash and more balanced than the frequency of their constant hammering.
TORM
SHE IS MY WHOLE LIFE, DON’T TAKE HER AWAY!
Torm yells not knowing her sister is already dead.
TORM
PLEASE LET THE WATER GO!
she continues to plead. The desperate Shadow pulls back the lungs of the sea, taking a deep silent breath. Torm is given a few seconds of peace before realizing an angry god is coming. Torm hears a mean water behind her. She turns around and is swept away by a god-sized wall of water whose weight's only intention is to kill. Fighting to stay conscious, she is held under by a current as defeatless as the sun. Her torch slips out of her hand and falls quickly to the bottom of the ocean lake leaving the edge defenseless and soon the Shadow mends the hole and regains possession of the Great Falls. Slowly slipping into unconsciousness, Torm descends to the bottom of the ocean lake while memories of her sister play in her mind: The laughs of the good times they had teasing each other, the deep loving moments shared by two sisters crying over lost parents, the hard moments watching her sister held prison by Shadow Fever. The hopeful moments spent dreaming on Catcher’s Peak. But soon the energy fades out of her and the last thought Torm has before she dies is:
TORM
I'm sorry sister.
The Heart Jewel is swallowed by the swirling sandy floor of the ocean lake as Torm’s floating, lifeless body catches the last few flickers of its light. Soon, the absence of any hopeful illumination colors the watery tomb the most complete black and the arms of the Shadow Cloud spread to every part of the touchable world, killing everyone and everything.
The giant dragonfly carries Torm through the sky over a montage of mountains and towns. The view becomes blacker as they near the Great Falls. She sees the trail of lifeless crusting and destruction caused by the black cloud of death. She ascends in her winged transport past large chunks of falling water, frozen mid-air in a thick tar crust, past the petrified harbors and black ship tombs. The higher they climb, the darker it becomes. Torm reaches for the light of the Heart Jewel, but stops when the dragonflies light up with glowing blood glittering through their translucent bodies in subsurface transmissions of light, defogging the black views in their path. Before long they reach the top and Torm sees what no other eyes have ever seen: a giant ocean lake at the top to the Great Falls. The source of life that every living thing has depended on for hundreds of thousands of years. The water is being kept prisoner by a dam created by the thick arms of the Shadow Cloud. Torm is more determined than ever to save her sister, but doesn't know her sister is already dead. But the resolution of the ignorant has a strange way of pulling the dead from their graves.
Dragonflies start to burn out as they hit the dark atmosphere looming over the ocean lake and Torm reaches the ground of a small rock island just in time as the giant dragonfly disintegrates around her. She rolls hard on its cold, rocky surface but recovers quickly. Water breathes heavily all around her and the atmosphere is dark and smoky but a few scattered pieces of fabric catch her eye. She follows them to the other side of the tiny island where she finds what is left of Avio's balloon: the regulator, still intact, and half of the balloon fabric, still attached to it. She wonders if the wreckage debris was carried by the wind, or if its pilot managed to bring it here.
TORM
Hello!... Hello!
Torm yells out for a few minutes. With wind in her eyes, she tries her best to see through blasts of water into the hazy dark distance.
TORM
Is anyone there? Do you need help?
she yells out but finds no response to her calls. Like the Professor, she has a low-level immunity to the Shadow because of her exposure to the mineral vapor but soon it will start trying to put its death into her. She feels the Shadow Clouds start to bite her arms and cheeks as atmosphere grows darker and thicker. She takes out the Heart Jewel and attaches it to the torch handle which gives off a penetrating light forming a small radius that eats the atmospheres away like ink in a vacuum, giving her sight and relief from the sharp bites. She stands at the edge of the small rock island trying to get a better view of her surroundings when she accidentally drops her torch into the water. She quickly moves to grab it but is unable to intercept its quickly sinking handle and it falls 400 feet to the lifeless sandy floor. Torm tries diving for it, but she can't hold her breath long enough nor swim that deep. Instantly a flash comes to her mind. Once on land, she immediately goes to Avio’s balloon with hopes of making a breathing apparatus from its regulator. But when she lifts the balloon up, the cloth attached to it is snatched up and stolen from her grip by a heavy wind and flies away into the black atmosphere: first into an irretrievable distance, then into an unseeable one. Torm bites her jaw in frustration but quickly develops a new plan: She rips part of her cape and folds it leaving only a small opening in one end. She then takes some of the sticky forest tree tar left over from her visits to the Giant Forest, and uses it to seal the edges of the folded cloth. She fills the newly created cloth lung with ten large breaths and runs back to the water’s edge. The glow of the jewel penetrates the water, giving her good visibility to the bottom. She makes her way back into the water with the cloth lung in her mouth and a heavy rock tied to her waist. The weight of the rock pulls her down with good speed and it doesn't take her long to reach the torch. Once in hand, she releases the rope from the rock and floats back to the surface where she ties the torch to her hand so she won’t drop it again. The light keeps her safe from the Shadow’s grip but she knows in order for her to get the water free from the thick Shadow Cloud, she would have to find an edge of the waterfall. In the strange dry water, which is both cold and hot. Torm swims to another tiny island 50 yards away where she finds a cache of drift wood clinging to the rocky island’s edge. She gathers the wood together and tears her cape into long, thin strips. She ties a raft together with the cape strips and wood then places it into the water. She carefully positions herself on the raft and finds that it keeps her afloat. She pushes off and slowly paddles with one hand while holding the torch out in front of her with the other. The light from the Heart Jewel eats a hole in the dark atmosphere as she cautiously moves along looking for the edge. Her thoughts turn to the tortured, sad man who gave her this gift and how it took a lifetime of pain to charge the energy in this light and provide her this moment of hope. A gift she hoped to return as soon as she could to prove to him that his worth went well beyond the value of the stones created by his body. And that she might have a chance to help rebuild his joy of life and repay him for his kind act of love. Her thoughts break off suddenly when a hole in the Shadow Cloud opens up and a powerful rush of water is pulled though it, creating a current that is hungry to go over the side. Torm quickly covers the light up, trying to close the hole before she is also pulled over the side but the cloud is slow- growing and her raft is caught in the heavy current pulling her towards the edge. She jumps from the raft and swims as hard as she can, managing to get to a small rock island eleven yards away but her raft gets pulled over the edge and breaks apart over the hovering clouds of tar ice. She looks back and sees the hole and wastes no time in taking advantage of her opportunity to free the water. She climbs to the top of the tiny island and holds the light out to the shadow dam. Damaged by the light, the cloud pulls away, releasing a powerful torrent of water over the side. Unable to shake Torm with its own hands, the Shadow slips its fingertips into the water and stirs up large heavy waves that crack hard against the tiny island, hoping to destroy this little girl and her light. The violent walls of water knock her down over and over again but Torm’s will to save her sister holds harder than the waves can crash and more balanced than the frequency of their constant hammering.
TORM
SHE IS MY WHOLE LIFE, DON’T TAKE HER AWAY!
Torm yells not knowing her sister is already dead.
TORM
PLEASE LET THE WATER GO!
she continues to plead. The desperate Shadow pulls back the lungs of the sea, taking a deep silent breath. Torm is given a few seconds of peace before realizing an angry god is coming. Torm hears a mean water behind her. She turns around and is swept away by a god-sized wall of water whose weight's only intention is to kill. Fighting to stay conscious, she is held under by a current as defeatless as the sun. Her torch slips out of her hand and falls quickly to the bottom of the ocean lake leaving the edge defenseless and soon the Shadow mends the hole and regains possession of the Great Falls. Slowly slipping into unconsciousness, Torm descends to the bottom of the ocean lake while memories of her sister play in her mind: The laughs of the good times they had teasing each other, the deep loving moments shared by two sisters crying over lost parents, the hard moments watching her sister held prison by Shadow Fever. The hopeful moments spent dreaming on Catcher’s Peak. But soon the energy fades out of her and the last thought Torm has before she dies is:
TORM
I'm sorry sister.
The Heart Jewel is swallowed by the swirling sandy floor of the ocean lake as Torm’s floating, lifeless body catches the last few flickers of its light. Soon, the absence of any hopeful illumination colors the watery tomb the most complete black and the arms of the Shadow Cloud spread to every part of the touchable world, killing everyone and everything.
SCENE SUMMARY
Torm rides a giant dragonfly to the top of the cursed Great Falls, where she discovers a massive ocean lake trapped behind a dam formed by the deadly Shadow Cloud, the force responsible for spreading death across the world. Surrounded by darkness, frozen waterfalls, and ruined ships, she finds wreckage from Avio’s balloon and realizes he may have reached the lake before her. As the poisonous Shadow begins attacking her, Torm uses the Heart Jewel’s powerful light to push the darkness back and protect herself. After accidentally dropping the torch holding the Jewel into the deep lake, she improvises a breathing device from scraps and recovers it from the bottom. Determined to free the trapped water and save her sister, she builds a small raft and searches for the edge of the Shadow dam. Using the Jewel’s light, she burns a hole through the Shadow, unleashing a torrent of water over the falls, but the enraged Shadow fights back with massive waves and a godlike flood. Despite Torm’s desperate pleas and unbreakable determination, the final wave overwhelms her, knocking the torch away and allowing the Shadow to seal the dam once more. As she sinks lifeless into the dark lake, memories of her sister fill her mind, and with her final apology, the Heart Jewel disappears into the sand while the Shadow spreads across the world, extinguishing all life and hope.
10. HEART WALTZ
26. OCEAN LAKE
