"What if I fall?" Heart called out from the thick branch of a enormous pine she was standing on. "You won't fall!" Shade answered from a similar branch on the next tree. "Even if you do, I'll catch you!" "How? You don't even have wings, how do I know you know what you're talking about?" Heart argued nervously. Shade sighed, rolled her eyes, and smiled. With a flick of the wrist, purple sand formed huge raven wings on her back. "There, now I can fly, and I teach hundreds of giant birds how to use their wings every day. I think I know what I'm talking about!"
"Now come on." she said a little more gently. "Just run, jump, and open your wings. It's easier than it sounds." Heart looked at the ground, a good seventy feet below, then at her smiling aunt. She closed her eyes and took a shaky breath. Then she was running off the branch and leaping into the air. As soon as her feet left the limb, her wings snapped open and she gently glided to Shade's branch. "The was great!" Shade said, ruffling Heart's hair. "I didn't even think you would fall for a second!" Heart smiled at the complement, looking proud of herself.
The scene changed again. The sun was higher in the sky; it looked about noon. Something whizzed through the trees. Heart and Shade jumped/glided from tree to tree, running on ginormous redwood branches when they weren't. Heart was grinning from ear to ear, giving whoops of joy as she cut through the air. Shade looked at her niece and laughed as they race across the forest. Suddenly the trees stopped, giving off into a cliffside with a deep gorge cutting through to the bottom, about half a mile deep, at the least. "Auntie?!" Heart cried nervously when she caught sight of the canyon. Shade laughed again. "Well, come on!" she said, flying ahead of Heart.
"Wahoooooo!" Shade screamed as she leaped off the last tree and dived into the gorge. Heart bit her bottom lip but followed suit. Shade's laugh mingled with Heart's scream as they fell. Shade turned around in the air, facing Heart and falling backwards. "Just open your wings and flap!" she called before turning around and doing just that, her wings catching the air and rocketing her upwards. Heart watched for a moment before closing her eyes and doing the same. Her wings opened and she moved them, up and down, once, twice, three times. Heart opened her eyes again to find herself above the cliff and flying into the clouds. Beside Heart, Shade laughed as she spun and flipped through the air. Heart, seaming to relax a bit, experimented with her new ability.
The scene switch yet again. By the looks of the sun, it was about mid-afternoon. Against the clouds, Heart and Shade flew, spinning and flipping and dipping in and out of clouds, their outbursts of joy echoing across the valley. And once again, the view altered. The sun was setting in the sky this time, on the other side of the valley, still shining in the front room of Pitch's cave. In front of the still blazing fire Shade sat behind Heart on the rug, running her fingers through the feathers on Heart's wings, her own having disappeared.
"Goodness, child, how many loose feathers do you have?!" Shade exclaimed with a smile, pulling out another handful of fluff and disintegrating it into purple dust. Heart turned her head around to answer, but got sidetracked by something on the floor. Behind her, her shadow flicked with a ever-moving light of the fire. But where Shade's shadow should be, there was only gray rug. "Auntie, why don't you have a shadow?" Heart asked Shade. Shade looked up from Heart's wings and turned around to see what she meant. She gave a soft laugh when she turned back around.
"Pitch never bothered to mention my line of work to you, did he." she said, returning to Heart's wings. "Sweety, do know what a shadow really is?" Heart looked at her and shook her head. "A shadow is the worst part of someone, all compressed into one space. And since it is a part of the person, it looks like the person. But, since they share the same soul, they are connected, usually at the feet. The darker someone's shadow is, the more bad things there are about them. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
Heart was quiet for a moment before speaking. "Then if you don't have a shadow, does that mean you're perfect?" Shade looked startled at the question before laughing in amusement. "Well, I never thought about it that way." she admitted. "No, sweetheart, I don't have a shadow because... well, because I am the worst part of myself. I am my own shadow. I've made some decisions in my life that I could have... that I could have thought over a little better." They were both quiet.
"There, all done." Shade said cheerfully, stroking Heart's wings lovingly. "So, Pitch is leaving soon, so we have the rest of the night to do whatever we want. Got any ideas?" Heart shook her head after a second of thought. "Do you?" she asked. Shade bit her lip and thought for a minute. "Tell me, have you ever heard of something called archery?"