The Shade was an odd thing. Its face twisted around itself, and two eyes formed between the gaps of its woodish flesh. There were antlers upon the things head, and it was striking to the man how vibrant they were. They were a gold color, and they accentuated the things face to quite a degree.

The thing had no obvious mouth, and the rest of its body was more of raw muscle, covered by a layer of what seemed to be an organic exoskeleton. The color of which was a sharp black, contrasting its eyes which shone with a great white light. The thing had two arms sprouting upward from its shoulder that seemed to be retractable, a disgusting mechanism of an organic structure far too foreign to humans, and perhaps any understood life. The ends on the things resembled hands, but clawed and distorted. Still, he understood well their flexibility and strength.

The arms from tops of the shoulders held the man by his own shoulders, the grip feeling tighter than even the most integral of screws. He felt they could grip right through his body.

The thing had two more arms at its wastes sides, sliding out of it with the same mechanism as the shoulders. They were clenching the man’s legs, holding him from any errant movement. He felt his legs teeter on the brink of an indescribable pain, thinking for a moment that he was losing the appendages. But the Shade simply held a sharp grip, never truly puncturing into the flesh.

And then there were the main arms, not too much different from a human apart from the prodigious level of muscle packed inside.

The Shade’s right hand was tilting his head up, maintaining his eye contact with its eyes at all times.

And its left stalled, for it had grown too irritated by the crown on the man’s head. It had given it a tug, and it stayed on. And the thing tugged harder, and neither man’s head nor the crown moved. It perplexed it. The crown’s gold, although well dull, struck it as mocking his own horns.

But the Shade refused to kill the man and be done with the crown, and so it released its grip and threw him quite hard, his body hitting a rock wall with a thud. The Shade made a gesture, and assumed a stance, meant to convey its intention to combat.

The man could only stare back, his stupor from before being interrupted by his present danger. But although his life was at risk, he couldn’t help but admire the Shade in front of him.

It seems much more present than anything else he’d met. All the other eyes he had seen were either far away or unfathomable. But the Shade was present, and it lived quickly. It did not take long to think, and it even carried itself with pride.

It clearly favored its left side in its stance, leaning over with intensity that one would expect would tilt the thing over. But it held its balance strong, and it gauged the distance with intense scrutiny.

The thing most likely could blow the man’s body apart with a punch, or a rapid series of them if need be. The force it was capable of was something he truly did not understand, but he could guess well enough based on its grip from before.

But that was a passing thought, and ultimately not why he decided on the course of action that he did. His hands raised to his head, and removed the crown with a practiced motion. The Shade looked dumbfounded, if it were possible for a thing like it too.

The man thought of the Fairy, and how he described the Shade as a jealous thing, and he knew for certain that this was the Shade he spoke of. Its first thoughts were those of envy as it had taken a look at his crown, and even through the perspective of pain the man noticed this immediately.

And so he took off the crown, not out of fealty or respect, but because he felt he did not meet the things expectations one bit, and he spoke.

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“I’m sorry, but I don’t think I am what you think I am. I’m not even sure if this is my crown. I’ve simply worn it for so long, I thought it must be mine. I don’t know if I have the dignity capable of it, I don’t know if I can even call myself a king. It’s only ever been the words of others that gave me that thought. And yet you are a much more dignified thing than them, and so I must apologize. For I believe I showed you a sight untrue.”

The Shade did not understand in absolute terms, its grasp on language wasn’t negligible, but it was a rare thing for it to hear. But it understood, at least on a conceptual level. Where the Shade saw competition, there was instead an indescribable shame that the man had. And when he took off the crown so easily when it had been a struggle to the Shade, the Shade had its own thoughts of profundity.

It sat down, gesturing that the man was free to move. And the man understood, looking around the place in fascination. It was a part of the cave, but there seemed to be no obvious exits, other than a large opening far up on one of the walls. The wall was too smooth to climb, and the man saw claw marks at the wall, permanently stained on with blood.

He thought for a moment that it must have occurred when the Spirits threw other’s in here with the Shade, but then he looked back at the thing and examined for a moment further. He felt uncomfortably sure that the Shade had been locked in here, and at one point had found itself raging against its confinement.

This saddened the man, and he clipped the crown onto the side of his pants. He looked to the wall, and back to the Shade. Thinking for a long time, he came to a conclusion.

With a whistle, the Shade’s attention was brought over to the man. He was gesturing, his hands together in front of him intersecting his fingers. He was motioning his arms, up and down over and over, while his back was flat against the wall.

The Shade put together the picture, and for a moment grew angry at the thought of the potential arrogance of the man, but then it stared into his eyes.

Within that connection was an understanding. The man was giving the Shade the chance to go up, to escape from its confinement. It was quick, there was no implicit trust that the two had sewed between each other. It confounded the Shade, who’s existence had been its caves walls.

He must have understood that the distance was far too great for the Shade to offer him a hand up afterwards.

It seemed stupidly selfless, and yet the man’s eyes conveyed something simple. Beyond the cave wall, there was more. The man’s eyes had captured a light that existed beyond his bounds, and he was simply offering the same chance to the Shade.

And with a running start, the Shade came to the man, stepping onto his outstretched arms with utter delicacy as the man launched him as far as he could go.

As the Shade left his arms with an unbelievable force, he knew that it’d make it to the opening beyond. It’d go out, and see what perhaps he couldn’t have. Maybe another would fall into the cave, and he’d be the Shade this time, perhaps corroded over time and not nearly as insightful as the current.

But the arm from the Shades left side extended with such speed in the moment after its lift. And with force, the arm at its right shoulder extended as well, digging with as much power as possible.

The Shade had tried to dig before, in the pit. It had tried to climb, it had tried every manner of escape. The walls and floor of the pit were simply far too strong, he had never been able to pierce it before. And even with all his might he could have never leapt this high on his own. The Shade risked its freedom, betting that its claws would be able to sink into the floor of the cave opening with enough force.

They did, crushing through the stone and cementing themselves in with as strong a grip as they could. The Shade felt the hold tremble.

The Shade’s left-side arm threw the man to the same opening, and he was barely able to orient himself as he crashed into the cave’s ceiling. But with a start he realized what must be done, and despite the pain, and a feeling of blood trickling quite quickly down his right shoulder, he gripped the clawed arm that was stuck sturdily into the ground with as much force as he could.

With a force he didn’t know he was capable of, the man lifted the Shade with a burst of energy, the thing clawing at the wall as it got close to the opening, clearly desperate for its escape.

Finally, with an extreme effort, the Shade hoisted itself into the opening until it was sure it couldn’t fall again, and the man swore he could hear it exhale a sigh of deep relief.

The Shade looked at the man, and the man looked at the Shade. And with frightening movement, the Shade’s arm moved to the man’s side, uncoupled the half broken crown from his belt, and placed it to his head. With another quick movement, it touched its antlers to his crown, and its eyes spoke of its intent.

It was not telling him he was a king, but to wear what he had with pride. And the man sobbed for the first time, deep beneath the desert.