To prepare for what I know is coming. THIS ISN'T THE END OF THE STORY. I still have another 15 or so chapters in me. Will this story ever end? I said there would be only 10 more chapters 6 chapters ago.

Chapter 38: Enter Shadow Goddess

Jack awoke the next morning as the first rays of the dawn sun peaked over the mountains. He was always a morning person. He was feeling better after a good night's sleep, despite being covered in dew and shivering slightly. Mary surely wasn't awake yet. Jack needed to make up for his unspoken sin against her. An apology was in order. He stretched, "So, what can I do for you dear Mary?"

He sat, pondering it for a moment while fiddling with a blade of grass. Something that would make her smile. Something that he could do before she woke up. A little surprise he could give her to make her so happy. He stared at the grass in his hand. A bouquet of handpicked flowers! He could go gather up a beautiful bouquet of flowers and give them to her when she wakes up. If he hurried, he could get down to Goddess Pond, that being where the best flowers grew, and be back before Mary would awaken. The perfect way to say he was sorry and that he loved her. Jack started up into a brisk jog on his way down to the pond.

Jack looked at the fistful of flowers he had gathered so far. Nothing too fancy, just some Pink Cat Grass and some early Magic Blue Grass and a few other little things he thought looked pretty in the bouquet.

He knelt down next to the water and picked a small yellow flower. He looked up at the small waterfall that fed the pond. It brought back memories of childhood stories. They said that the Harvest Goddess lived here and that this pond was enchanted. Supposedly, if he gave an offering to the Harvest Goddess here, it would bring him good luck.

Jack picked out one of his less impressive flowers and laid it at the waters edge. A little superstition couldn't hurt anyone. He could give just a small offering to the goddess, if she was out there. He watched as the water carried the little pink flower away, just barely floating on the surface. "Harvest Goddess, hear my plea. Please give me your blessing upon my marriage to Mary." Jack stood up as the flower floated away and got caught in a small eddy.

Before Jack's eyes, the eddy grew into a regular whirlpool. The spinning vortex in the center of the pond grew as a figure arose from its center. As soon as her feet cleared the surface, the whirlpool collapsed back into itself, sending up a shower of crystalline water droplets all around her. Through the mist he could see that she was beautiful woman with deep green hair wearing a dress of blue and wrapped in many layers transparent green silk. She raised her hand and the midair water froze in place. They began to slowly swirl around her, refracting the sunlight and showering her in rainbow light.

Jack fell before her in awe. She was the most beautiful creature he had ever laid eyes on. He wasn't worthy of her presence. Her beauty wasn't human; it was beyond something any mere mortal could ever hope to achieve. She hovered in midair, amid hundreds of dancing miniature rainbows, smiling, seemingly waiting for Jack to say something. He wanted to say so much. Why did she choose to grace him with her presence? Why him of all people? Yet he couldn't make words come out of his mouth.

Slowly he raised his head up at her. He hadn't even noticed he had been bowing. He looked at her face and for the first time made eye contact. A red light dwelled deep behind her emerald green eyes. Jack stared at them, being drawn in, and he suddenly felt very silly. Here he was before a goddess no less, and he was going to let her go without saying something, anything, to her? His mind was still drawing a blank though, but he had to say something, "Harvest Goddess?"

Her smile broke into a frown, "No!" Her voice echoed, loud as thunder crack. Jack quailed at the sound. With that word the prisms of water turned to stone and dropped into the pond. The instant the light show had ended, she dropped her facade. A raging dark aura enveloped her and her form began to change. Her great voice called out again, "I am the Shadow Goddess!"

With the evocation of her name, dark clouds rumbled forth from the heavens, blocking out the sun and casting the dawn into night. But Jack barely gave that a second thought; he was entranced by the transformation unfolding before him.

Her turquoise hair, now unbound, floated outwards in a turbulent mass. Despite its roaring madness, no strand was quite touching any other. From the base of each hair, a thin beam of light shot forth and raced down to the tip, leaving a black void in its wake. What remained was hair that was blacker than black. The color black didn't describe it so much as the absolute and complete absence of any light. Next was her dress. The many layers morphed together into a single simple black sheet, not quite a robe. It was formfitting around the body yet wide and free flowing around her arms and legs. At the edges of the sleeves and around her feet, the new black robe faded away into vapor.

The dark aura around her weakened to a dull roar and her long hair slowly fell to a more relaxed position hanging down, coming to rest below her waist. As the last few wild wisps of hair fell in line with the rest, the aura relaxed too, becoming little more than a faint line around her. Her guise was gone. The woman who now stood in the air above Jack was in her entirety, the Shadow Goddess.