Enyar told him, as so many times before: "You have to remember this day, it is the most important one and the last one. Find me here." Enyar jumped from a stone to a tree stump: "Follow me, Hew, it's further away. I was building it all week!" Hewin followed him, as always, but there was also something else. Something new.
A prickle of cold sweat rolled down the back of Hewin's neck. He turned and lost his breath. There was a wall of shadow closing on him, trying to swallow him whole.
"Enyar!" Hewin yelped but his friend was oblivious and skipped forward, further into the forest. Hewin sprinted away from the shadow trying to catch Enyar. He felt the wind gusts from the wave of darkness rising but he did not dare to look at it again.
But then something unthinkable happened, something Hewin considered impossible. Enyar stopped running and stood by a tree. There were some pine cones and sticks in the moss. Hewin never managed to catch Enyar before.
I need to see it, I need this, Hewin was thinking, desperate that the shadow will consume him every second.
"This is the thing I wanted to show you, Hew, or should I say Shadow Shaper? That is our true name, my dearest friend," Enyar said in a wise tone.
Hewin felt an awakening inside him when he heard the name. It was a strange sensation, it felt as if he just took out a stone from a river dam and the water started to flow again, cleaning all the debris in his mind. At that moment, he dared to turn back to the wall of shadow again. Hewin spread his paws and tried to push at the blackness in front of him and just when the wave was about to take him, he woke up.
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He sat on the bed and instinctively touched his stomach. The black stone, Ash's dead body, was still there, embedded inside his gut, trapping the Void there from expanding.
Hewin wiped his mouth with his paw and noticed the red stroke of blood on his fur. I am dead anyway, he thought and sighed. It was still dark outside and Hewin looked beyond the light of the single candle on his bed table. There was a deep shadow in the corner of the room, a normal and natural shadow created by the small candle. Hewin was drawn to it. It felt to him almost as if he could touch it with his bare paws and mold it. Shadow Shaper, he remembered the name from the dream.
Hewin was staring into the harmless shadow and thought about Ash, about soothing things, something to put his mind to rest. And then the shadow moved. Hewin jumped on the bed, feeling all the aches and torn flesh from the forest. However, he had no recollection of what had happened there, there was only darkness, for days and days.
The shadow in the corner of the room stretched and collapsed several times until a magnificent black horse came from the dark and gently nudged Hewin with his head.
"My spots, what is that!" Hewin cried out.
As a response, he felt in his mind a familiar voice. I...I am...thank you. I thought...I am not...but you..saved..me.
Hewin started to sob immediately and transmitted mentally back to the horse while hugging him: Ash, oh Ash! I thought I lost you. How is this possible, I thought you sacrificed yourself for me. I have your dead petrified body in my gut!
The horse made a happy neigh and Hewin heard. I..did that...I died...I slept...now...I am both..dead...and this horse..that you..created.
Hewin did not stop to hold Ash tightly. Ash, thank you for what you did! I can never repay you for this. But how does this work? I feel there is still the Void inside but you imprisoned it right? Will I live? Can I eat? I mean, I must be screwed right? Hewin thought back.
Screwed?..I..think..not. I reknitted everything...inside...you..can...eat...food..we...will see. But...the Void...exists...that..is...true. Ash responded.
Alright, Hewin though, let's get up and we will try some of that eating and we'll take it from there.