Shadows (Don't Starve)

Life

   It had been a simple jog for some firewood, just a quick run to loosen up your cold joints.

   Your breath crystallized before you eyes, as the scenery passed by in an ivory blur. A smile played on your lips as blood coursed through your viens, and the wood in you pack bounced with your steps.

   It felt so good to be free, to be without responsibility to anyone but yourself. You were a wild beast, a creature born into this world at the hands of a demon. Maxwell had certainly gotten a shock when you thrived in his harsh world, set free by your primal, simple needs.

   Civilization hadn't suited you anyways. The forest had always called to you, so when you heard a voice that seemed to echo from the trees, you followed. It had led you to a world of insanity, to a grove of pines that seemed like a whole other world.

   You couldn't find a way back. In fact, you didn't want to. And so there you stayed, surrounded by mother nature and the creatures born of shadow.

   They seemed to leave you alone, but one had stopped you on your brisk run. A solid, inky black phantom, sticking out like a sore thumb in the blanched countryside.

   It's eyes had met yours, pools of ghasly light, and with a single, thin finger, it beckoned you.

   You came.

  As you neared it, the phantom shuddered and peeled apart, moving so that you could see what it was calling you to.

  A crumpled heap of red and black. A man.

  You gasped. He looked like skeleton, thin and willowy, with sunken eyes that stared blankly into the beyond. Hair as black as coal framed his face.

   Still, dispite his sorry state, the man's narrow chest still rose and fell. Alive. By some miracle, he was alive.

   You had never been one for conversation, but to leave a man to his death was not in your nature. Falling to your knees, you scooped the haggard man into your arms. He weighed barely anything.

    "You're going to be okay, buddy." You whispered to him, the sound of your own voice startling you. "Just stay with me. Please."

   The shade being lingered not far from your gaze, and before you could run off, gave you a single nod. It evaporated like smoke, and you took that as your cue to run. Night was falling.

~~~~

Wilson was burning.

   Every bit of him was as if white hot needles were being driven into his skin. Not only that, but he felt like someone was twisting a knife in his gut. He tried to flex his fingers, and realized that they were unresponsive.

   But still, a part of the man was smiling. He was alive! That cursed demon Maxwell had failed to bring about his demise once again! Wilson would have laughed, had his throat not been raw.

   The scientist cracked his eyes open, squinting at the light that poured in the structure. He was in a tent. Someone had saved him.

   "Thank God." The voice was rough, like sandpaper. "You're awake!"

   Wilson wanted to thank them, to see the being who had brought him back from the brink of death, but he found that his voice was gone as well. A gurgling cry escaped him, and he heard a shuffling noise.

   Calloused hands cradled his head, and he felt something being pressed to his lips. Wilson opened his mouth and tasted a thin, delicious broth. It was the best thing he'd ever eaten.

   A face came into his view. Wild, but beautiful. "Woah there. You'll make yourself sick."

  The man wanted to protest when they pulled his meal away from him, but he could barely lift a finger, let alone stop his caretaker. They gently set Wilson's head back onto the soft earth.

   His pain was beginning to subside, but Wilson was so sleepy. Unbelievably so. He shut his eyes and let darkness consume him.