A Shadow's Beginning

Thousands of years ago, the young group of shadow men, still beautiful in their youth, decided to create an heir to their race. For the first time in their history, they would create a Shadow Girl. They came together and used all of their power, fused it into the runestave and carved a name into the wood. They did not know what would happen, so as the letters glowed brightly for a moment, flashing, they prepared for the worst.

Then the shadows swirled and twisted, creating an icy tornado. Spinning faster and faster, a silhouette formed on the inside of the storm of ice and shadows. The ground began to shake lightly, and the darkness began to roar in the wind. The young men stepped back, amazed, shading their eyes as lightning flashed.

Finally, the storm began to die down, the ice dispersed and the shadows faded away to reveal a young girl on the ground, no older than seven. Her long black hair shimmered in the faint light, and she looked up at the shocked shadow men with round, glistening red eyes.

The shadow men, wary, exchanged glances. One, looking about thirty, ran his fingers through his flame red hair, golden eyes focused on the girl. Cautiously, he stepped forward, reaching a hand out to her. Her bright, oddly innocent red eyes stared up at him for a moment before she extended her pale arm out to him. As soon as her small hand touched his, he felt something change inside him, a warmth that hadn't been there before. He smiled a wickedly handsome smile and said in a voice like wind chimes,

"Hello, Adrianna."

There was a quiet murmuring between the others, and the red headed man held up a hand to silence them. Adrianna glanced at them, then turned her beautiful eyes on him again. She swallowed nervously and he nodded in encouragement.

"Hell-o." Her voice was like the notes of a piano, beautiful and resounding. The shadow man grinned and helped her stand. Still holding onto her hand, he prompted the other shadow men to come forward.

One by one, the men introduced themselves to the young girl. The blond, with eyes like fathomless black holes shook her hand and she smiled warmly at him. The one with black hair with a small black goatee and midnight purple eyes greeted her, his mouth a straight line and his voice like silk. One after another the devilishly bewitching men met her and dispersed, breaking off to speak with the others about the girl. The whole time, the flame headed man watched the girl, pride blossoming inside.

Over the years, the shadow men trained the girl, teaching her in the the ways of magic. Adrianna showed such promise, she learned incredibly fast. She was a natural. The girl wielded a power that was unmatched, greater than all the shadow men combined, though they didn't know that at the time. They raised her for years, and their pride in her was evident.

But the shadow men were the shadow men all the same. After five years, when her physical form was about eleven, they showed her what else the shadow men did. They taught her how to play with humans, how to take them, how to break them. At first she was afraid, but eventually she grew used to it. She saw how they lured girls into the shadows, eyes filled with playful desire. They'd play with the girls sometimes. But sometimes they would just torture them, men and women alike. She saw them play with the humans like dispensable toys. It was all fun and games, when someone got hurt.

Adrianna helped them, her red eyes gleaming as she tortured the innocent souls. She learned quickly at this as well, and she devised cruel games to play with the humans. The shadow men's pride grew even more. They had never seen such spirit before, such enthusiasm, but their pride blinded them.

Years passed, and her games grew darker and darker, more cruel, more tortuous. She was older now, her appearance around twenty-two years.

As time had passed she had noticed something as well. For instance, the man with the blond hair's skin had turned hard, almost scaly in small patches all over him. And the brown haired man looked like there were mushroom shelves growing on his skin. It had started on his cheek, but now it was growing on his arms and chest as well. The man with the purple eyes began getting rashes on his neck and shoulders, like a bad sunburn. His skin was peeling off lightly because of it. Their voices had become rougher too, harsher. The man who had the dark green eyes and a voice like a whisper in the wind now sounded like a scratching on a chalk board. They were changing.

But Adrianna, now a woman, noticed these changes with nothing more than a slight interest. Her jet black hair had grown longer, down to her waist, and her lips were as red as her eyes. Her features were sharp and distinct, and she was inhumanly beautiful. She was vaguely worried about the shadow men, though the red haired man had not begun to change yet.

He was the one she would be most concerned about anyway. He had been her prime mentor, the man who had always lead her and taught her so she could fulfill her full potential. And she had. They were family to each other. They loved each other, as much as anyone of their race could love. Of course, they would never admit that out loud.

She was too involved in her new games to care now. Adrianna had devised a new plot that would kill dozens of humans, maybe hundreds of them. She smiled an evil smile. She would revel in their blood. Adrianna had grown to be a cruel monster, hungry for human blood ever since she was eleven.

She was famous for her clever ideas, thinking up ways to torture those insolent humans like never before. She had slipped into hundreds of minds letting her shadows entangle their poor, helpless brains, causing the humans to go mad in a matter of seconds. A little after a century passed, and finally the shadow men saw what Adrianna was becoming. Her games had grown too large, her actions were being noticed by the humans. They were growing suspicious. Adrianna was getting out of control. Soon she began starting wars between the humans, laughing as their blood coated her skin.

One day the shadow men confronted her. They told her that she was being too conspicuous, that she needed to lie low for a couple years or the humans would-

"Would what?!" She had asked angrily. "I don't want to hide anymore! I don't want to live alongside them anymore!" The red headed man pulled back, gold eyes wide with shock.

"Adrianna, you know the laws," he had said worriedly.

"I don't care!" She spat at him. "You're all too weak to see that we could use our powers against them. We could rule them!"

He couldn't believe what she was saying. She couldn't mean it. But of course, she did. Her anger had sparked her power, and now her hair was floating above her shoulders, wisps of shadows flying around her.

"You'll see."

Then she vanished without a trace.

A couple years passed, and things took a turn for the worse. The human world had changed, become darker somehow. The shadow men conversed, tried to find Adrianna and reason with her, but she was gone. Until one day, when a mass war broke out between the humans. The battle seemed like it would never end, and the blood was unimaginable. The shadow men knew who was to blame for the catastrophe.

They traveled to a palace surrounded by ruin and a hoard of battling humans, impaling one other and tearing each other apart. Entering the doors, they found Adrianna, perched atop a throne, covered in crimson blood. She smiled wickedly as she saw them walking towards her.

"I told you I could do it. You didn't believe me, but then, you didn't know how powerful I really am," Adrianna bragged to them casually.

"Adrianna, please, you cannot do this," The shadow man said, his voice like wind chimes.

"If you don't APPROVE, I really couldn't care less. Unless you intend to fight me." Her demonic red eyes glinted dangerously.

The man, looking older and more tired than he ever had before, ran his hand through his flaming red hair. He sighed, taking a deep breath and leveled his golden eyes to meet hers.

"I'm afraid we must."

The battle between the shadow men and the monster they created lasted for years. Sometimes they fought alone, sometimes they even fought beside small armies of rebellious humans. After a while of this multi-world war, Adrianna's power was faltering. Using so much of it so often had hurt her greatly.

Finally, the last battle came. The shadow men and humans fought together against the powerful shadow woman, and the battle lasted hours. Suddenly Adrianna faltered. The red haired man lunged forward to deal the final blow. She looked up at him, pain and surprise in her eyes. And all he could see was that little girl he had loved so much.

He couldn't do it.

Quickly the other shadow men attacked her, pinning her down as they pulled out the runestave and tossed it to him. The liquid of the stave flashed brightly in Adrianna's carving. She was weak enough now, she COULD die.

The flaming haired shadow man looked at her, his yellow eyes sad. And she looked back at him, eyes ablaze with anger as she struggled against the shadow men, roaring.

He closed his eyes and lowered the blade to the stave. Taking a deep breath, listening to the sounds of war all around him. He had decided.

The shadow man opened his eyes suddenly and looked at what he had created. In one quick movement, he wiped her name from the stave. She screamed, a sound of pure agony, and faded from existence.

As the years passed, the human world moved on, the scars that Adrianna had created were healing. The shadow men had left back to their world immediately after the battle. They had stayed closed off from the human world for years, for it was too soon to interfere again. Though they would not admit it, it was irrevocably and ironically true. The shadow men had saved the human world.

The pain at losing the one they had raised, cared for, even loved, was a burden too heavy to carry. Decades passed, and they became hideous. The illnesses that had begun in them overcame them in their weakness, consuming them. The pain they felt in their hearts was reflected in their appearances now. Even the red haired man had become a deformed creature now. It had hit him the hardest, with no warning. The shadow men were true monsters, just as Adrianna had been.

A little less than four hundred years later, the shadow men came together. It was time to choose a new heir. They swore they would never make another female shadow man again, it was too dangerous.

So, they created a new shadow man, and they watched with cold, cruel eyes as a boy around thirteen was formed from the shadows. His snow white hair glimmered in the faint light, shimmering with little particles of frost. He turned his naïve, innocent blue eyes on the deformed creatures in front of him and they filled with fear.

One with frightening yellow eyes stepped forward and yanked him to his feet. In a voice that was like harsh clanking metal, the shadow man explained everything to the boy, who they were, who he was, and showed him what he would become. They showed him nothing but cold malice and cruelty as they taught him in the ways of magic. He showed promise, and he learned fast. But they did not care. There was no pride in them because they knew now that the shadow race were monsters, inside and out. Once he had learned, they turned away from him.

And so the boy turned to the human world for comfort, for warmth. He knew how to play games, the shadow men had showed him, but he had lost interest. So, watching earth in search of warmth, and light, maybe even love -all the things the shadow men could not give him- the boy found solace.

Until one day, a horrid old human man used a spell on the shadow men, trapping them. The boy, older then, looked about the age of 17. He was afraid and angry, but he did not show it, not in front of the other furious shadow men. They stayed in that old fool's closet for years, angry and hungry for revenge. Until one day, a little girl with big, innocent green eyes, and beautiful golden hair, with skin that looked like it had been kissed by the sun skipped down the basement stairs. Until she opened a door she really should have left shut.