Darkness in Eloria

Shiny

“You may have to kick me really hard to get me to wake up.”

“My pleasure. Now do it gently, she seems pretty weak.”

Eugene cast a patronizing glare at Aiden and knelt down to put his hands on either side of Mallory’s head. She groaned loudly and opening her eyes slowly, as if she wasn’t sure she wanted to wake quite yet.

“Mallory, are you trying to tell us something.” Aiden inquired kindly.

“I already told you, but you brutes won’t listen.”

“Excuse me! I was trying very hard to listen. That’s it, next time you want to fall on your head, I might let you!” Eugene stamped off in a huff of anger and indignation.

“What was that all about, I thought he would understand?” Mallory muttered

“You’ve been mumbling nonsense about shiny things and light and telling him he’s been doing it wrong, I think he has the right of it to storm off, at least for a moment.”

“No, I said specifically ‘Eugene, you’re doing it wrong, it’s darkness not poison, you need to provide a weak light to cleanse it.’ Which he obviously hasn’t done since my arm would glow until all of the shadow had been cleared.”

“Well, that never actually happened, hence the upset Eugene is feeling, not to mention he is a trained healer, so he should know how to heal better than someone who fell out of the sky not too long ago.” Aiden pointed out.

“Oh, I do that sometimes, my dreams feel so real that I sometimes can’t tell the difference at all.”

“How do you know about the light thing you said? Can you do it, or does Eugene need to?”

“I need his help, but I can do it if he’s too tired.”

“Eugene” Aiden called, “We need your help!”

“Oh, so you call me when you need me.” Eugene griped as he walked back into the clearing, he obviously hadn’t strayed far. “I heard everything you said. How can I help?”

“I need you to tell me how you did the cleansing earlier, so I can adapt it to what the shadow boy told me.”

“I’m going to let the shadow boy comment slide, since you may be falling back into a fever, I felt to see any negative energy in your arm and imagined it being banished into oblivion.”

Mallory looked at him curiously, but closed her eyes and put her hand on her arm imagining a light that would seek the negative energy and burn it out of her. Slowly her arm started to shine red from within, glowing gradually brighter until it lit a few about a foot around her. A small shadow stayed in the light, it looked like a stick figure made of ragged shadows.

Eugene let out a small girlish squeak at the sight. “SHADOW BOY, SHADOW DEVIL, MALLORY WHY WOULD YOU LISTEN TO TINY SCARY SHADOW CREATURE???” His voice still a high squeak.

“No, he’s nice, I can tell.” Mallory smiled at the little guy who was shying away from Eugene.

“Says the one who can’t tell dreams from reality!!!”

“I can feel it, he’s nice.” Mallory insisted, standing up and walking over to Eugene. When the light around her arm left the shadow creature, it disappeared.

“It’s gone.” Eugene mumbled, confused.

Aiden grabbed a stick from the fire and hovered it over the area where the shadow was.

“See, he’s still there.” Mallory pointed to the little guy who seemed to be waving at her.

“Um, I don’t see anything.” Aiden looked to Mallory.

“I don’t either.” Eugene confirmed.

“Mallory, come back with the light from your arm.” Aiden suggested.

She walked carefully back and lifted the shadow creature to her arm, resting him on her shoulder.

“It appears we can only see him in the light you made.”

“Whelp, I’m going to sleep know. Mal, you don’t mind if I call you Mal, right? Mal, keep that thing a good distance away from me. I beg of you.” Eugene walked to the other side of the fire and climbed into his bedroll and immediately began to snore.

“You should probably get some rest, too, that probably took a good bit of energy.”

Mallory looked down at her arm. “Just make sure I wake up in the morning, alright. Unless you need someone to help keep watch, I’m not super duper tired.”

A sorrowful look flashed briefly in Aiden’s eyes, he then smiled softly, and claiming that he wouldn’t need to sleep for a while, yet and that Eugene would take the next watch. “Go to sleep” he paused. “Mal” he chuckled as he tossed the stick back into the flame and went to sit on a nearby rock with a view of the trail.