Learn To Believe

Nata-Li sat on the beach all alone. It was a good thing too. Ever since she had messed up in her tribe's ritual, she had been cursed with a giant size. It would have been awkward if there were others trying to sunbathe with her there blocking out the sun. Nata-Li sighed. She wished she could turn back to normal. It was just so hard being so big. She felt like she didn't belong. Sure she had made friends who tried to help her fit in. Friends who also tried to find ways for her to adjust her size, but so far, nothing had worked. She sighed once more, and started to stand up. Suddenly a strange sound reached her ears. It sounded like a rusty lawn-mower, running on paint stripper, driving over gravel. But the sound was coming from above. Nata-Li looked up. High in the sky she saw a plane spiraling towards her, thick black smoke trailing from it's engines. Nata-Li's heart skipped a beat. it was going to crash! Without thinking, Nata-Li ran, tracking the plane's decent. She waited until it was close enough, and reached out, plucking it from it's fall in one giant hand. The engines died down, shutting off with a splutter.
"Thank you for the assist, Nata-Li," a familiar voice said, echoing out from hidden megaphones in the plane's hull.
Nata-Li blinked.
"Mister Darkness?"
Carefully, Nata-Li looked through the front windshield and into the cockpit. She saw a yellow echidna in a white suit looking back at her. He smiled widely and gave her a thumbs up.
"Yeah, it's me," Darkness said with a chuckle.
Darkness, and his wife, Tikala, had been some of Nata-Li's most helpful friends, giving her all the support and help she needed to adjust to her new size.
"What happened, Mister Darkness?" Nata-Li asked. "Did something break in your plane to make it fall like that?"
Darkness shook his head.
"Nah," he replied. "I made it do that on purpose."
"But why?"
"So you could catch me."
Nata-Li frowned.
"I don't understand," she said.
Darkness gave a chuckle.
"You have a lot of potential to do so much good, Nata-Li," Darkness replied, his voice becoming serious. "All you lack is self-belief. You need to trust in yourself. Your looks. Your size. None of that matters. It's what's in your heart that counts. See what you just did. You acted out of the goodness within you. You rose to the occasion and caught me without thinking about your own safety. You became the hero."
"But that was so dangerous," Nata-Li said. "What if I didn't catch you?"
"You did though, so why think about the negative?"
Darkness smiled through the cockpit window.
"Tikala and I believe in you, Nata-Li. All your friends do. It's time you learned to believe in yourself. Be the fantastic person we all know you are, regardless of size."
Nata-Li nodded, her heart warming with the words Darkness had told her. He was right. It was time for her to stop doubting who and what she was, and to start believing in what she could do.
"Thank you, Mister Darkness," she said. "Is there anything else I can do for you at the moment?"
"Now that you mention it," Darkness said with a nod, "Could you give me a throw? The plane will start fine once you launch me."
Nata-Li nodded and threw the plane like it was made of paper. She heard the engines kick into life, sounding crisp and powerful. A parting comment from Darkness reached her ears as he flew off into the distance.
"Good luck, Nata-Li. I know you can do it. Be fantastic...!"




Darkness, Tikala, and Nata-Li belong to