Book 2 - Exploration in Darkness
Please make sure that you have read 'Book 1 - Sacrifice' first.
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The Shadows are solitary creatures: live alone, die alone, was a saying. But what happens when they die, they're immortal. Albeit it is not the greatest version of immortality ever; shrunk down to the size of an atom, flung into space at the speed of light, traveling forever and ever until you found something else. And then you would stay there until the end of the universe, unless something propelled you off the object you were stuck on. Like an elastic band; stuck, unable to move, until some evil-minded kid picks you up at catapults you towards his teacher. who then puts the elastic band, not the kid, in the bin. It's a tough life.
But the Shadow had done th right thing. He had a destiny, and he had fulfilled it. The Shadow was proud of himself. And now he was flying, zooming fast Mars, the re planet. Zooming through the asteroid belt, the Shadow had to go through some of the larger asteroids, thankfully he still had his shadow physique. Then flying through Saturn, admiring the rings. Jupiter approaching.
SMASH!
The shock rippled through his body, like a rock smashing a frozen river. Which was quite similar to what had happened to the Shadow, although the Shadow didn't have enough force to smash what he had landed on, he had landed on ice. He had traveled through the Solar system unblievably fast, and smashed into the Ice Planet; Europa. With his shadow physique, he had natrually sunk through the meter thick ice and found himself in gigantic ice chamber, filled with water. Except for the water, there was nothing, save the eerie silence. Pillars of ice and least ten metres thick joined the icey surface, to the iron core, which was, the centre of the planet. The Shadow had nothing better to do alone in the middle of the Solar System so he sank down to investigate, who knew what he would find?
He was only a few inches away from the floor. He looked around to check that nobody was watching him. The water was indeed empty, but was the floor. He wondered if any other Shadows had landed on Europa. It was unlikely than any other Shadow would; Europa was only a small moon after all. There were so many other directions to go. Lucky not to see any one to be honest.
The iron floor was only one or two centimetres thick. The space that he had entered was a prfect sphere, in the centre was a huge floating light, and on the walls there were little balconies.
The light confused him: what held it up? He knew how he floated, he was weightless. Then he remembered where he was, in Space, the light would be weightless too. But it still confused him; it was shimmering slightly. The Shadow floated up to it. Suddenly, as he neared it, the light split into thousands of tiny bulbs. They all flew up to the balconies which surrounded the room. Only one tiny bulb remained in the dead centre of the moon. It approached the Shadow, and the Shadow floated bravely towards it. The light seemed to be able to see him, despite his tiny size. The light examined him, and then turned to face his light subjects. These subjects must have heard something, for they changed colour from a bright yellow to a dark red. The Shadow could sense that something bad was going to happen. The Shadow was right, the lights changed to a dark purple as they trapped him inside a self-made sphere. The lights were the only source of light, then they stopped their light and turned jet black.
But that wouldn't matter to him. He was a Shadow. Born into darkness, he wouldn't be finishd here. But how would he escape? Before the Shadow had time to think of an idea, the lights started to close in on him; shrinking the sphere. But surely that didn't matter? He was the size of an atom, he could easily fit through holes in their sphere. The Shadow tried to get through the circle, but there were no gaps. Also, it seemed that they had killed Shadows before, therefore they had aquired Shadow DNA. So his special Shadow physique wouldn't help him here.
Then he started to wonder: Was this his end? To save a world and then to die in another. He had to think of something. But what else was there to do except smash himself against the dark walls in hope that they would falter their attack. It was a false hope, but he could try. The wall was closing, a baby's hand wouldn't fit in it now. But the Shadow picked up his momentum, and pushed himself powerfully into the black wall.
Nothing.
Would he see any difference when he died. Would he end up as another Shadow on his home planet? He had accepted death. He remembered how far he had come. He had saved a planet in 24hrs, arrived on a different planet 33 minutes later after traveling over 300 million miles to Jupiter's moon Europa, where he was crushed and suffocated to death. Not the best life.
But it came, eventually, it was a relatively quick death. But death is death. But death is not the end. Just the door to a new life.
Thanks for reading!!!
