p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;" align="left"It was completely black, an infinite darkness. The boy could not see his hand, no matter how hard he flapped it in front of his face. That is, if he even had a hand. He pressed forward, but if he was walking, floating, or even alive, he could not tell. He simply knew that he was moving forward, but forward where?/p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;" align="left"After some time - emBut what is time?/em he wondered. emDoes time exist, or is it all a fantasy, a dream...?/em After some time, he saw something in the empty darkness, a light of pale, soft lavender, moving toward him. As it drew nearer, he saw ripples moving around it, as if it was in water. He then realized that there was indeed emwater/em all around him and the object draped in light, an ocean in this darkness. The ripples seemed to be a few feet below him, and from this he deduced that he was floating above the water./p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;" align="left"Having clarified this, he turned his attention back to the source of the light. It drew nearer, the violet aura softening around it, allowing him to see that it was.../p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;" align="left"A swan?/p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;" align="left"A purple swan?/p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;" align="left"No, purple wasn't the word, though it was definitely a swan. It was more of a dark lavender, the body giving off a soft, glimmering light of the same color, and it has gentle, innocent black eyes and a lovely beak of dark violet. emDefinitely a female/em, he mused to himself. But the body seemed mottled, the color mottled, the dark lavender run through with violet veins and lighter patches of purple, making it look like a frosted stone./p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;" align="left"emBut.../em/p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;" align="left"He peered at it, if he could do such a thing, noting that the swan's body seemed smooth and hard, almost like glass, but as if it had been delicately carved. As if it had been carved out of.../p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;" align="left"emAmethyst./em/p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;" align="left"She was an amethyst swan./p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;" align="left"Delicate and Elegant./p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;" align="left"Fragile./p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;" align="left"The swan regarded him with those innocent, gentle eyes curiously, if she could see him, but then froze, her eyes turning alert and wary, turning her head slightly to the left, as if listening for a sound./p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;" align="left"The boy also listened, his body, if he had one, tensed./p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;" align="left"For a few stretched seconds, time froze./p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;" align="left"And started again when a monster, a monkey with a flickering red-yellow aura launched itself out of the darkness at.../p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;" align="left"The boy himself./p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;" align="left"His eyes widened in shock, fear, any of the emotions running through his head will do, as he watched the monster monkey fly through the air, its mouth bared, disgusting saliva flying from his mouth, his yellow and black fangs bared, filthy nails ready to tear and destroy, but.../p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;" align="left"The amethyst swan was between him and the monster, knocking it back into the black water with a blow of her wings. It floated above the water, snarling, its sickly orange eyes glaring at her, death and rabid thoughts apparent in them, hatred and destruction practically the eyes themselves. They boy looked at her, seeing that a crack was running through her left wing, damaging the fine crystal./p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;" align="left"His train of thought was interrupted as the monster launched itself at the injured swan, biting her left shoulder, the amethyst cracking under the pressure and shards of crystal falling into the depths of the water. She struck at him with her right wing, his head jerking to the side under the force, his mouth opening as if letting loose a howl of pain. /p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;" align="left"He clawed at her neck, her wings, her chest, more cracks and splinters and shards of amethyst stone falling into the water, but she kept batting at him with her powerful wings and jabbing at his face and crazed eyes with her hard and deadly beak./p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;" align="left"This seemed to go on for eternity, the monster and the swan both getting weaker and weaker, the swan with cracks and furrows lined throughout her body, and gaping holes and broken bones with the monkey. The boy watched with concern, worried that the swan would lose, and wondering why she would protect him. Why? Did she even know he had been there? He wasn't sure of anything anymore... had he ever been?/p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;" align="left"His attention turned back to them as the monster, with a burst of hidden energy, pulled the swan off of him and drew his fist back for a fatal blow, when the swan drew herself up with the last of her strength, spreading her cracked and broken wings wide, and plunged her beak into his eye, past it, and into his head, killing him./p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;" align="left"The boy stared in shock as the limp body shuddered and slowly, almost as if time was winding down to a stop, slipped off of that violet beak and into the water, sinking into its dark depths, never to look upon another with murderous intent again. /p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;" align="left"He turned his gaze from the spot where the monkey had sunk to the swan, her amethyst body chipped and cracked and broken, looking more like a frosty cracked mirror than a swan made of purple crystal. He knew that she was never intended to do battle like this, if she was intended for anything more than to sooth troubled minds with her presence. /p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;" align="left"His eyes, if he had any, were filled with sadness and dismay as he gazed at her./p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;" align="left"emFor me? She defended me? but she is injured onto the point of death... and all over me? Far better that I be destroyed than to cause this creature harm... but it is too late for that now.../em /p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;" align="left"His thoughts were cut short as her warm eyes rested on him with shy happiness. She opened her beak as if to speak, and he heard the words in his head.../p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;" align="left"emI hope I defended you well... I-I am sorry I could only do it once th-though... I am weak.../em/p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;" align="left"Her eyes smiled at him, and then.../p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;" align="left"A crack reached the tip of her wing, and she shattered into millions of splinters and shards of amethyst, which floated on the dark water, her aura flickering and then going out forever, leaving the boy alone in the darkness that enveloped him as her light went out.../p
p style="font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;" align="left"And the despair and pain that he felt was like nothing he ever experienced before./p