He was your Papa. You liked your Papa. You liked your Papa very much. He was always there for you, he never left you behind. He wasn't supposed to. The older ones said so, and the older ones were always usually right.
You weren't one of the older ones. You can't remember how old you are.
You can't remember riding through the stars with your Papa, and you can't remember a time when your Papa wasn't your Papa. You were one of the younger ones. There weren't so many older ones anymore. The older ones said so.
Then there were the youngest ones. You didn't like the youngest ones. They were mean and noisy and they didn't think of your Papa as their Papa at all. You didn't like them, but your Papa liked them. He liked them a lot.
Your Papa locked you away when the youngest ones came. You didn't like that. He isn't supposed to leave you alone. You hate being alone. You knew that he hated it more, but sometimes he hated you more than he hated being alone. You didn't like those times.
The older ones said he replaced them. They didn't like that. There were even less of the older ones than you remembered, and that was back when there weren't so many older ones anyway. The other younger ones were just sad. You were sad too. You couldn't see what was so great about a bunch of horses anyway.
You didn't remember how long it had been since you had last seen your Papa. You remember feeling the first breeze you had felt in a long time, and you remember the fear of isolation as a boy who was definitely not your Papa wandered into the echoing cavern of your prison. Because that was what your Papa had put you in. The older ones said so. Your Papa had that same fear as the boy. But this wasn't your Papa.
You were quiet, because your Papa didn't like it when you made noise, but you weren't sure who this boy was or why he was here. Did the boy want to join their family? It had been so long since a new child had joined them, and you remember how much your Papa wanted a child. This boy seemed a little old, but maybe your Papa wouldn't mind.
You knew to hide yourself when the boy approached, tucked nice and safe in the back of your prison where the boy's cold light could not reach. Then you used the trick that the older ones taught you. You weren't too good at it, but you had been practicing! Whenever your Papa wasn't around to scold you for the noise you practiced, and you practiced extra quietly whenever your Papa was near. So, in a soft voice, you called out to the boy.
When you saw the boy stiffen and whirl towards your prison you knew it had worked, so you let out a louder wail and breathed in at the fear that carried through the air. The boy was scared as he ran to the bars of your prison, and you made yourself extra big when his cold light fell on you, trying to remember a shape that the boy's fears expected to see. It must have worked because the boy aimed the wooden crook in his hands and it let out an icy blast that quickly forced open the heavy door of your cage, the sturdy lock unable to withstand the force of the ice that expanded inside its mechanisms.
The cage opened at last and you skittered free alone. Your brothers and sisters had disappeared long ago, but that didn't matter because there was this boy here! This boy would join their family, just like your Papa wanted, and then everything would be okay. The boy leapt backwards with a yelp when you scrambled over his freezing toes, and a wave of panic reached your senses. You paid it no mind, even though your belly—which you didn't know you had—ached with… hunger? You were very hungry, yes.
No! You needed to find your Papa first. You couldn't allow yourself to be distracted. It was very important that you found your Papa. You didn't know why, but it was.
He liked it when you brought him gifts. He would like this boy as a gift too, you reckoned. So, with another piercing wail you flew out the cavern, expecting the boy to follow because didn't he want to be part of your family? Why else would he be here if he didn't? But when you looked behind yourself the boy hadn't followed. He was still in front of your cage, pulsing with fear, that angry cold light directed at you. You didn't like that light. It didn't burn like you remembered most light did, but it made you unhappy, and you cried out softly just like you had the first time. Some of the tension melted from the boy's stance, but he remained weary as he approached. That was okay, because Papa wasn't here and it was okay to be scared when your Papa wasn't around. You missed your Papa. You needed to find him. You would come right back, you told him, after you found your Papa.
You didn't think the boy understood what you meant because he followed you anyway, which was okay because the boy could fly. Most boys couldn't fly, but this one could. You remember the older ones used to tell you and the other younger ones about a flying boy that they hated because he was bright and did not want to join their family. This boy was okay though, you thought, because even though he was bright he was also cold, and he followed you and helped you look for your Papa, which was nice because you couldn't find your Papa. You looked and looked but you couldn't find him anywhere. You even looked in that room that you absolutely were not supposed to go in, just in case, because you remember your Papa going there a lot before he locked you away, and your Papa hated when you tried to go in there.
The boy had stopped following you after a while. You couldn't remember when the boy had stopped following you, but when you found him he was trying to leave and that wasn't good because what about the family he wanted? If he left, he would be alone and the boy was terrified of being alone, like your Papa was. You shrieked and wailed until the boy turned around to look at you, and you kept shrieking even when the boy approached, shushing and reassuring to no avail. You needed to find your Papa! The boy couldn't leave! Not when your Papa was missing! The boy was saying something, and you wanted to listen, so you stopped wailing for a moment.
"I have to go talk to the other Guardians so I can't take you with me. But I'll come back, okay?" The boy was saying. You cocked your head to one side in confusion.
What was a Guardian? You think you remembered your Papa saying something about a Guardian once, but he hadn't been happy and then he had locked you away. You let out a cry of protest when the boy started to stand, and the boy flinched uncertainly.
"Shhh! It's okay, little… shadow…. thingy… I'll come back, I promise." The boy asserted. "Just wait right here, okay?" the boy gave you a pleading look and you tilted your head to the other side. Wait right here? You looked at the ground where you sat and then back up at the boy for affirmation. He wanted you to sit there until he came back? Your Papa never told you to sit or stay, but the boy wasn't your Papa. Maybe it was a game. The older ones used to play games with your Papa and your Papa didn't like it when they did. The youngest ones played games too, but you never liked it when they did either because it involved you, and them chasing you, and that wasn't fun.
The boy didn't wait for you to agree to this game, because when you looked back up he was gone! That wasn't fair! And what about the family he wanted? He said he would come back, so maybe he was going to bring more family to help you look for your Papa? You double-checked the ground to make sure you remembered where the boy told you to stay, just in case you moved by accident. You weren't sure what kind of game this was, but you could sit still until he came back. You could wait. And wait you did.
You didn't know how long you waited, but you did exactly what the boy told you to do and stayed right where he left you (you had marked your spot on the ground with your claws, so you knew you hadn't moved).
The breeze came first. The boy rode into the cavern on the wind and staggered to a halt, a flicker of alarm racing through him at the sight of you waiting for him. He must have thought you couldn't stay in one spot until he came back but you sure showed him! And he had brought others, but oh… Those weren't children. Those weren't children at all.
The first to follow the boy was a big fluffy… thing. You weren't sure what it was, but you remembered the older ones telling you about something that looked like that once. A tall something with fluffy fur and long ears and big feet that hated your Papa. This one hated you because the moment it laid eyes on you it lunged past the boy to attack.
You left your marked spot and fled deeper into the cavern with a screech. You wanted your Papa. Your Papa would protect you from the furry beast. But it wasn't your Papa who saved you. It was the cold, bright boy with the wooden stick who stood between you and the fluffy rabbit thing.
"Jack, what are you doing?!" You heard someone ask, and you saw a colorful thing hovering behind the big rabbit.
"It's just a little shadow thing, it's not going to hurt us." The cold boy insisted. You crawled along the edge of the wall and tried to see past the angry rabbit and the fluttering bird to look at the other two strangers.
There was a big man, and you cringed when he spotted you. He was even bigger than your Papa, and you thought your Papa was the biggest man in the world (the older ones told you about a time when your Papa was even bigger than he was now, but you couldn't believe anything was bigger than your Papa).
There was also a small man. He was so small you almost thought he was a child, but he looked much too old to be a child, and he glowed. Not like the cold boy, either. The small man's glow was gold and warm and you didn't like it at all because its warmth burned. The older ones had warned you about a little man that glowed bright like the sun, that the little man hated all of them very much, and that the little man was very strong. Even stronger than your Papa, and your Papa was the strongest thing in the whole world! You saw the little man look at you and you crept slowly back behind the cold boy.
"Mate, that's a fearling!" the rabbit exclaimed, brandishing something at you threateningly. You swelled up as big as you could get and let out a hiss like you'd seen the other younger ones do when they fought over who got to sit in your Papa's lap. You've never sat in your Papa's lap before, but it always looked so nice so it was no wonder why everyone fought over it.
"It's just one, and he didn't attack me or anything the first time. I didn't think he'd still be here though." The cold boy was saying, glancing back at you every so often. You could feel fear from all of the strangers (except the little man, which you didn't like because that wasn't supposed to happen).
"It's not one that I'm worried about, it's the rest of them that we've gotta look out for." The rabbit snapped. The big man nodded in agreement, fixing you with a hard glare. Your Papa could glare harder than that, so you ignored the big man.
"The rest?" the cold boy repeated in confusion. You were confused to. The rest were gone. And so was your Papa, and you needed to find him. "This was the only little guy I found. He was in a cage." The cold boy said slowly. The rabbit fell silent and the group exchanged glances. You couldn't tell what was happening, but a silent conclusion seemed to have been made. The big man stepped forward, keeping a weary eye on you as he did.
"A cage? And Pitch is missing, you said?" The big man hummed contemplatively. While you were watching the big man and the cold boy a small hand closed around your middle and lifted you off the ground. You turned and found yourself face to face with the little glowing man, and you let out the loudest scream that you could make as you tried to pry the hand from your middle.
"Strewth, Sandy!" The rabbit barked, its paws clamped over its long ears. The little man's glow hurt, and you screamed again, this time for your Papa, because you were sure that if your Papa heard your scream he would come and save you. But your Papa didn't come.
"Don't hurt it!" The cold boy exclaimed frantically, clutching at his staff as a wave of worry rolled over you. You strained towards the cold boy with a whine. The cold boy would protect you, and his fear was so nice.
The little man didn't speak, but something bright took shape over his head and some of the fear ebbed away from the cold boy. The large bird flew near hesitantly.
"Did that fearling just say 'papa'?" She asked softly. You could see smaller flying birds darting around her, and you wondered what they were and why they looked like the bigger bird. Maybe they were babies. The bigger bird was a she, so maybe they were her babies? That would make her a mama, you reasoned, and mamas were like papas.
You missed your Papa. You didn't know why he was gone, but you missed him a lot.
"Why are ya still holding it, Sandy? Get rid of the damn thing!" The rabbit growled. The little man shook his head and narrowed his eyes at you. That's when you heard the voice.
"Where is Pitch Black?" The voice wanted to know. You knew that name. That was your Papa's name. You liked to call him Papa, because that's what he was. You didn't know where he was though. If you did, you would be with him. You told the voice this in no uncertain terms, and you wondered why the voice was asking, because your Papa wasn't the voice's Papa.
Another bright shape appeared over the little man's head and you squirmed unhappily.
"Sandy is right. We must find Pitch, and fearling is best chance we have." The big man said, and he rummaged through his coat for a large cloth bag. "This was for Pitch, but it will work on fearling too." The big man explained as he pulled the mouth of the bag open. The little man nodded and held you over the opening. You went into it gladly.
It was nice and dark in the bag, and the big man had said it was for your Papa. Maybe they would give the bag to your Papa when they found him. If you stayed with the bag, then you would be given to your Papa with it. Satisfied with this plan, you settled down at the bottom of the bag and congratulated yourself for the great idea.
You would find your Papa, and then everything would be okay.