The Valley of the Shadows
The Forest of the Shadows
It was a dark place. Shadows slipped and slithered over dry, cracked ground. They hissed and growled from crevices split into alabaster trees that stood erect from the soil like stolid guardians. Even the wind avoided this place, frightened as it was by the thick, foreboding atmosphere. Everything was dead here—everything but the shadows.
The shadows… Yes, they were quite alive. This forest belonged to them, those beings of gloom and despair. Silhouettes danced atop the dead branches, figures crept along the parched roots. There they screamed to hear their echoes bounce off the hollow trunks and laughed when the sounds of their own horror pierced their ears. They grinned with dark, empty mouths and saw with wide, black eyes. They were truly revolting, these shadows.
Every now and then a poor, forlorn mortal would wander into this forest. The shadows would cheer with delight, eager with the prospect of fresh shrieks to add to their own. They would follow the newcomer and fill his mind with dread and worry, as they were incredibly gifted at occupying the human mind with paranoia. They would shift the shapes of their shadows or appear before him and vanish just as quickly. Some would even be so bold as to alight on his shoulder and whisper appalling thoughts into his head.
Why, the shadows would have to waste no time at all before the mortal was driven mad by their games. Soon enough, his body would fall to the ground and his flesh would nourish the famished earth, leaving the obscurity of his soul behind to join its ghastly brethren. And they would screech and yelp until they were so hoarse they could only snarl and rumble from deep within their throats.
The sun never rose and the moon never set on this forest. It existed outside the realm of time. Yet the days passed and the nights tiptoed through the trees. Entire eternities came and went as fleetingly as the blink of an eye. Steadily, the shadows grew in number until the entire forest was as dark as pitch and hummed with grisly noises. It was no longer a lonely place, but one so full of evil that it was slowly growing conscious. The shadows blurred into one another, becoming indistinguishable as separate entities. They were as one.
Replaced by the infinite valley of sin, the forest of the shadows was no more.
The shadows… Yes, they were quite alive. This forest belonged to them, those beings of gloom and despair. Silhouettes danced atop the dead branches, figures crept along the parched roots. There they screamed to hear their echoes bounce off the hollow trunks and laughed when the sounds of their own horror pierced their ears. They grinned with dark, empty mouths and saw with wide, black eyes. They were truly revolting, these shadows.
Every now and then a poor, forlorn mortal would wander into this forest. The shadows would cheer with delight, eager with the prospect of fresh shrieks to add to their own. They would follow the newcomer and fill his mind with dread and worry, as they were incredibly gifted at occupying the human mind with paranoia. They would shift the shapes of their shadows or appear before him and vanish just as quickly. Some would even be so bold as to alight on his shoulder and whisper appalling thoughts into his head.
Why, the shadows would have to waste no time at all before the mortal was driven mad by their games. Soon enough, his body would fall to the ground and his flesh would nourish the famished earth, leaving the obscurity of his soul behind to join its ghastly brethren. And they would screech and yelp until they were so hoarse they could only snarl and rumble from deep within their throats.
The sun never rose and the moon never set on this forest. It existed outside the realm of time. Yet the days passed and the nights tiptoed through the trees. Entire eternities came and went as fleetingly as the blink of an eye. Steadily, the shadows grew in number until the entire forest was as dark as pitch and hummed with grisly noises. It was no longer a lonely place, but one so full of evil that it was slowly growing conscious. The shadows blurred into one another, becoming indistinguishable as separate entities. They were as one.
Replaced by the infinite valley of sin, the forest of the shadows was no more.