Darkness

Prologue

We begin this story in a universe far from our own, where magic is a common occurrence. Every flower and blade of grass contains a bit of magic, and mythical creatures such as unicorns, alicorns, dragons, and wyverns roam freely. Despite these differences, this universe is still similar to ours in that suffering, hate, pain, and death still exist. While in one world, magnificent cities may cover the land, in the world we'll see, castles, villages, farms, and mills are the norm. Now, let's begin this story.

We open on the ruins of a castle where completely black beings are moving rubble and one yellow being with black veins on his skin. One of these black creatures flagged down the yellow one. As the yellow one approached, we heard him say...

"What is THAT," is the first thing I heard. The voice sounded upset, or would angry be more appropriate? Would it be though? I could hear loud footsteps coming in my direction, so I tried to back up. Keyword tried, it seemed something was holding me by my neck. I don't think it was my neck, but that is where it is supposed to be. Why isn't it there? "Ugh, a complete mistake," the harsh voice suddenly said. "Just throw it out. The Steves probably can take care of this one, and if they can't, then I get more test subjects." Steves? I heard of that before, right? Test subject? What does that mean? Why does it feel so wrong? Why am I a mistake? What made me a- The feeling of sudden coldness stopped my thoughts just before I hit something solid. Wasn't that supposed to hurt? Then a kick to my stomach. That was my stomach, right? "SHOO, GET OUT OF HERE," that mean voice said, but I did go. I went in the way that I was kicked. I tried to get up to walk or run, but I couldn't feel my legs. Are my legs injured? I bumped into a lot of things when trying to find somewhere safe. I didn't know why I couldn't see, and I didn't know what I was forgetting. I knew it was important; I just didn't know what, so I kept on walking, or crawling would be more appropriate.

After a while of walking - or rather crawling - I came across a hollowed-out tree stump. It appeared to be a safe place to take a break, so I decided to rest. Oh boy, my body felt so tired that I could hardly move. I attempted to sleep, but my efforts were in vain, so I gave up and tried to open my eyes instead. I have eyes, right? Never mind that. Trying to open my eyes was more complicated than it seemed. I felt like my eyes were glued shut, but I kept trying to open them. I rubbed where I thought my eyes were. It felt a bit weird, but I didn't pay much attention to it. Finally, after what felt like years, I opened my eyes. The first thing I saw was the deep brown bark of a dead tree and the brown dirt beneath me. Then I saw my hands, but they looked like they were completely covered in some sort of black goo. I tried to wipe it off, but it wouldn't come out. After a little while of wiping my hands on the dirt-covered ground, I started to wipe it on my torso. But the black goo was covering my torso too, then I started to panic, so I tried to stand up but then remembered that my legs were injured, like completely gone.

Feeling panicked, I quickly crawled outside and searched for something that would reflect my image – a river, a pond, or a shiny stone. I caught a glimpse of blue and hurried towards it, hoping it wasn't a flower. As I approached, I realized it was a pond and breathed a sigh of relief before remembering why I wanted to find it. Slowly, I crawled closer and peered into the water. What I saw was different from what I had anticipated. Honestly, I wasn't sure what I had expected, but the face staring back at me was definitely not it.

As I gazed into the water, I saw a face covered in black goo staring back at me, or at least what could be considered a face. The only part of my face that wasn't covered was my eyes. However, something was peculiar about them. They seemed white or almost white in color, and when I moved my head, the light reflected off them, forming a slight rainbow effect. In reality, I didn't look "normal" in any sense of the word.

I stayed in that place for Origin knows how long. Suddenly, I heard a twig snap. I lifted my head and looked around to find the source of the sound, but I couldn't locate it. I started to back out of the area still looking for what could have made the sound. Then, someone walked out of the bushes across from me. I growled at the person, which made them hesitate for a moment, but they continued walking around the pond. The person had red skin, red hair, and red eyes. They wore a brown coat, dark reddish-brown pants, and a white shirt with a brown bag hanging across their body under the coat.

"Hey," said the stranger as he held up his hands. "I won't hurt you, see?" I continued backing up but stopped growling. The stranger seemed deep in thought, then started speaking again. "You do know that there's a tree behind you, right?" he said, finishing his sentence. I slightly turned my head to check and, indeed, there was a tree behind me. I looked back at the stranger, who was now sitting on the ground, looking around the area. "How did you get out here?" he mumbled to himself, then looked back at me. "Sorry, I forgot that the darkness can't speak. Though you don't really act or look like the darkness, do you?" he apologized and mumbled the last part. I tilted my head, wondering what he meant by 'the darkness can't speak.' I can speak, I remember speaking. I don't remember what I was saying, but I was definitely saying something!

I tried to prove the stranger wrong by saying something, anything to show them I could speak. But when I attempted to say "I can speak," no sound came out. Although I knew I was capable of making sounds, even growling, I began to panic when I couldn't speak. Desperate to make any kind of noise, I whined after a minute of trying. Just when I thought I could say something to the stranger. "Hey, are you okay?" the stranger asked. "Your body is kinda melting?" he said as he gestured towards me. I looked down and, sure enough, I was melting. Panic began to engulf me, which seemed to make me melt even more, causing me to panic even further.

"Hey, Hey, Hey," I heard the stranger say, "Hey, look at me" I looked up and saw that they had moved closer, they were knelled in front of me with their arm outstretched but not touching me like they were hesitant for some reason. "No one is trying to hurt anyone here,"

(POV switch)

I gazed at the darkness before me, but it didn't behave like the darkness I knew. It appeared more dynamic, more alive. I sensed a childlike fear in its actions, rather than the ruthlessness of a killer. Its eyes were full of life, a quality I had never seen in the darkness before. Although it seemed to have calmed down somewhat, it still appeared scared. Then, all of a sudden, it hugged me. I froze, but nothing else happened. I looked down and saw that it was simply nuzzling into my chest, and I wasn't being consumed by the darkness. I placed my hand on its back and began to rub it, perplexed by why I wasn't being infected, but I now knew they meant no harm.

Then I realized that sitting in a clearing of a forest was just asking for trouble. What did I have in my bag again? There was a journal, some flowers, and a potion of health. I could carry them. I carefully moved my arm and started to unpack my bag. "Hey, little one," I paused, debating if it was a good idea. "Can you get into my bag so we can go to a safer place?" I asked, finally deciding that it was a good idea. The child-like darkness looked up at me, then at the bag, then back at me, and nodded. They climbed into the bag and, surprisingly, fit almost perfectly. I grabbed the pile of stuff and got up, "Well, we should start heading off, right?" The child gave a little nod, looking a bit confused.

I started walking back to my house, glancing at the child-like darkness in my bag. They seemed unable to speak, but they could make noise unlike normal darkness. It was pretty weird. They didn't attack, and they seemed to be more... awake? I guess that's how you would describe it. It's weird. This is all weird. When I woke up, I never imagined that I would be bringing a being of Darkness home with me. But, what else could I do?

I looked back at the creature of darkness in my bag and decided that I would raise them as any good parent would.

(THE PROLOGUE IS FINALLY DONE! I do hope you like this because took me forever. Hope you have a good day, and drink some water.)