Shadow sat silently on the floor of his cave, his eyes closed and his legs crossed with a large leather book lying across his legs. His empty gaze swept across the page before one of his ashen hands turning to the next every few seconds. To many it would seem that the last shadow was merely browsing through the book, but in reality his mind was simply too fast for many to comprehend, and his featureless black eyes missed nothing. He was simply analyzing the book, letting its information simply flow into his mind. His ashen, unblemished skin seemed to somehow stand out against the darkness of his cave, giving off somewhat of a polished gleam. Shadow's sharp ebony teeth slightly flashed through the darkness of his reading cavern, quickly snapping the book closed after brushing his eyes across the last page. Shadow carefully stacked the book upon one of the many piles surrounding him, before swiftly picking up another and opening it. After acquiring three more books worth of information, which only took a total of two minutes, Shadow was ready. He slowly stood up to his full height of seven feet, cracking his back and brushing a few pieces of dirt from the front of his crinkled white lab coat. Pushing his wire framed glasses up his nose with a long digit, the last shadow let out a long exaggerated yawn, his featureless oval eyes slightly narrowing.
It was almost time to begin.
Holding out a ashen hand, his fingers outstretched and his palm facing outward, a small smirk slowly began to form across the shadow man's lips. "Ynni tarian" Shadow hisses, a red aura slowly spreading across his palm. In a matter of seconds, the aura had spread across his entire body, completely enveloping him in a red pulsing glow. A wicked smile spread across the shadow man's face, and he quickly lunged at the nearest cavern wall and smashed his fist into it. Red sparks crackle from his fist, and he slowly pulls his unharmed fist away from the wall, looking at the fist shaped indentation now in the cavern wall with a satisfied smirk. "Tarian stopio" Shadow softly hums, the red aura slowly seeping back into his now outstretched palm. Shadow cracks his knuckle, and his sharp menacing teeth cyrve into a unnaturally wide chilling grin. "Ynni cleddyf" Shadow yells loudly, sweeping his arm through the air violently. A large red beam of energy suddenly shoots from his palm, suddenly detaching from his hand before forming into a broadsword that pulsates with a red glow. Shadow catches the large weapon effortlessly in the air, posing with it dramatically. "Very light" Shadow remarks, pressing a finger against the blades artificial pulsating steel before dropping the weapon with a pained yelp. "Ouch… Extremely heated as well" The shadow man complains weakly, plunging the hand with his burnt finger upon it into one of his lab coats many pockets. The sword, now slowly burning its way into the caves limestone ground, sizzled loudly. "Cleddyf stopio" Shadow grunts with an annoyed expression, watching the sword slowly evaporate into a crimson vapor that hung in the air above the smoking limestone ground. Shadow holds out his now only unharmed hand, letting the red vapor slowly seep back into his palm, before turning around with an annoyed scoff. "That one need some work" he scoffs in disappointment, slowly walking out of the cavern that he had designated as his study, and into the large central cavern of his cave.
It was at this moment that Shadow realized something that struck a spark of desperation through his heart; a realization so terrible that it could strike terror into the strongest of hearts. Something that could eat away at the hearts of holy priests, and send the most evil creatures running for sanctuary…
He was all out of new things to read…
After silently standing in the main cavern for quite some time, debating over whether or not he should scream at the top of his lungs in rage, the shadow man finally decided to leave his cave and find some new reading material. The shadow man made short work of exiting his cave, snapping his fingers and muttering something under his breath, before disappearing with a loud thwip, making the same sound as he reappeared at the entrance of his cave. Pulling his injured hand from his pocket, he held out the hand and closed his eyes. "Iachau'r" he hummed lightly, slightly opening one hand to watch his charred skin of his burnt finger slowly returning to a healthy, non-crispy state. He began to walk, and disappeared into the shrubbery seconds after casting one last glance back at his cave. Unbeknownst to him, he would not lay eyes upon his comfortable cave ever again.
…
It was not long until Shadow emerged from the other side of the forest, his lab coat stained with dirt and his ashen face covered in scratches. The shadow man peers over his glasses, staring up at the large stone wall in front of him. Every instinct told him to turn around and walk away from the looming wall, but instead, he blindly charged towards it. Shadow held out a hand, his read aura surrounding it as he grew closer and closer to the wall. "Ynni saethu" he yelled, a large sparking ball spewing from his hand and crashing into the stone wall with a resounding explosion. Shadow stopped directly in front of the newly made smoldering hole in the side of the wall, his hands on his knees and gasping for air. After regaining his breath, shadow slowly edged his way through the hole, staying clear of the smoldering sides with a nervous expression upon his face.
The village did not look much different from before, way that they had when he had visited before, except that now the villagers where running around making loud squealing sounds in response to the recent explosion. As he slowly made his way through the crowd of newly frightened villagers and to the nearest house, he looked at the home with a newfound curiosity. The flimsy wooden door that the house had the first time he had been in the village was now replaced with a think iron door. A young villager stared indifferently through one of the houses windows, and Shadow waved nonchalantly at the child. Slowly turning its gaze towards the frightened crowd behind the happy looking Shadow, and then back to the smiling pitch black shadow man wearing a lab coat and glasses, the villager child shrugged and slowly walked away from the window. Shadow was seconds away from blasting the iron door to smithereens to get a closer look at the house, but stopped mid-aim as he heard a feminine voice yell from the distance.
"Hey Steve, I think it came from over there" The voice called, followed seconds later by another, more masculine voice responded. "Umm… over where Lacey?" it shouted, much closer than the feminine voice. Close enough, in fact, that when Shadow looked in the voices direction, he could see who it belonged to. It was a being with tan colored skin and tussled brown hair, about as tall as the villagers, but it stood with a more intellectual stance. It was also wearing different clothing than the villagers. It was equipped with a pair of ripped dirty blue jeans, a light blue shirt, and worn out black shoes. From what shadow has read, it seemed that this creature was a human. Humans have always interested Shadow. Even though he had never seen one in person, he had read lots about them. They're eating habits, ability to create, and reproductive methods filled him with curiosity. The human male, like him, was not made of blocks like many of the things in Mincraftia, just like the books said. As much as Shadow wanted to approach the human male, who he believed the female voice had called Steve, he had also observed that the man held a short stone sword in his hand. Slowly beginning to back away, Shadow let out a surprised yelp of pain as an arrow dug into his arm. "By the house you fucking moron!" The feminine voice yelled from behind Shadow, causing him to turn on his heels, one hand reaching back to pull out the arrow in his back.
Before he could remove the arrow, Shadow heard the sound of another whistling towards him. "Ynni tari" Shadow began, but before he could finished, pain shot through his torso. Shadow let out a pained scream, before collapsing to his knees and staring in astonishment at the arrow in his belly.. "Haha, I got the bitch" The feminine voice spat from above him. The last thoughts that ran through his complex mind was how much he would like to ask the human a few questions before everything faded to black.
Authors Note: Hello there, Taz here. I'm just here to clarify a few things that you may not have caught in the dialogue. First off, I really didn't do the best in explaining that Shadow had woken up without any idea of his past life an unidentified amount of years before this stories narrative takes place. Although it may not be an extremely important detail for right now, I suggest that you keep it in mind, Also, as a quick fun fact, all of the spells that Shadow casts are actually just English word translated to Welsh. I personally cannot speak Welsh, but my good old pal Google translate can…
Or at least it can try to.
I apologize if there are any mistakes in the Welsh dialogue of this story, but since I really don't have any better way of translating right now, you will just have to excuse them for now. Have a nice day/night, and stay epic.