"Give me that." Arthur snatches the match from Stan's tiny hands. "I can change this. I am not scared of darkness. Fears, failures or false pretenses." He mumbles.

"You are going in- like that?" Stan asks.

Arthur glanced down at his attire. He was still in his flannel pajamas he had fallen asleep in and he stood bare footed. He wiggled his ten toes realizing he needed to protect his feet from the dark forest floor. Although it only appeared to be cold, damp, muck from this distance. Thorn reddened plants trailed throughout the path leading into the forest.

"I have no cloths here. Or shoes for that matter." Arthur waved the match at Stan.

"Close your eyes. I can help." Stan grins.

A moment past with eyelids covering Arthurs outside world. In the darkness of his thoughts, he could hear Stan babbling. "Imagine yourself as soldier of war. Armored with protection. Nothing is able to penetrate you. Believe you are the Arthur from the nights of the round table. You are invincible…" Stan's voice trailed off as Arthur's eyelids began to open. To Arthur's surprise, he was now standing in a suit of armor from head to toe. Holding the match in one hand and a sword in the other.

"What do I need a handheld weapon for?" Arthur asks. "It is just a forest."

"It is the darkest place you will ever know…" Stan shivers a whisper. "To cut the limbs from the trees. To build the campfire!"

"Come on, let's go!" Author proceeds to the dark side of the eternal forest. "You coming?"

Stan hesitated a moment then began to follow. "I guess you do need me…"

"You said yourself I need to have faith and trust in you. And I do." Arthur smirks.

Stan raises his tiny finger. "Now that is a good thing."

As they trudged their way down the path Arthur could hear Stan muttering words of how they needed to be careful. Stan's voice scampered the floor speaking of fighting the shadows, how it was going to be the hardest part. He mentioned the campfire was only way to brighten the dark side. Suddenly they had arrived.

Arthur and Stan stood staring into the darkness of the forest. "Now what?" Arthur asks as he slaps a mosquito biting his cheek, the only exposed flesh from the armor.

"We must enter." Stan whispers. "Carefully…"

The duo enters on the tips of their toes. The clanking of the amour cut through the silence of the darkness. Whispering creeks of the willow and cypress tree mimicked each footstep Arthur took. At that instant, a shadow swirled its way around the willow and aggressively approached Arthur and Stan.

"THE SWORD!" Stan yells. "Use THE SWORD!"

Arthur swings the massive swords toward the shadow, slicing through its dense matter. "AWWW…" At the sudden impact it dissipates into the air, afterward a small branch dropped to the surface of the forest floor.

"I'll grab the branch! We need that for the campfire. There is twelve in all. We have eleven left." Stan reveals as another shadow violently approaches.

Arthur's forceful swipe took out the shadow and the next two shadows that followed. Stan quickly gathered each branch as they dropped. In the silence, an undertone of Arthur's childhood replayed in his head. One particular time, Johnny Jacobs had called him a chicken before he even decided he did not want to crawl through culvert pipe out front of his house. After that point in his life, he did always hesitate on any decision he felt forced to make. Johnny Jacobs voice yelling "Chicken" still haunted him, until the last thrust of his sword. Today he was not a chicken.

"You did it! You really did it!" Stan stood holding the twelve branches that he collected with each triumph.

Arthur stood as he exhaled his relief. He glanced around the darkened forest, which now appeared not to be as dark as it once was. Sparkles of light bounced about. Mesmerized by the beautiful lights Arthur stood lost for the moment.

"Fireflies! Look Arthur it is fireflies!" Stan's voice interrupts the enchantment the fireflies held over Arthur. "Fireflies is a sign of hope! The fireflies bring light into the darkness, even if only a moment. Just like the stars in the heavens…" Stan's voice evaporated into the air.

Arthur glanced to where Stan once stood holding the branches. Taken by surprise Stan was no longer there. The branches plummeted to the base of the oak trees roots.

"Stan! What happened? Where are you?" Arthur screams into the dim forest, still holding the match his dear friend, Stan had given him.

"Arthur, I too am like the stars in the heavens. They appear in the darkness, although they have departed millions of light years ago, they can still be seen. I am still with you my friend. I am a segment of you and you have finally had faith and trust in me, your own under-Stan-ding. Get it! I am here… Always here…"

Stan's voice lingered through the forest. As a faint whistle of laughter followed.