by A.L. Svartz
Chapter Three
Goodbye Shadow
Umbra continued to travel ahead, checking behind him every so often to see if he was being followed. He had made his way into an unknown city a few miles north of his town. Trying to keep out of sight from people, the first he has seen in months, he kept himself hidden in the trees.
"Shadow, what's happening?" Umbra asked. "Why are my powers shorting out?"
The sky grew darker and darker. It seemed as though everything around Umbra was losing color. His wings disappeared for the last time, not reappearing like they've done before. Umbra went flying into a tree, scraping against the branches as he landed on the grassy ground. He tumbled around before stopping himself, resting on his side. Aching as he got up, he stretched his arms and legs. Luckily nobody was around to witness Umbra striking the tree.
Umbra observed the sky again. He was in shock as saw the sun revolve around. The yellow ball of light now had a dark side. All sources of natural light was extracted from the surface of the Earth. Umbra watched as he indeed see color drawing away. He held out his arm, watching it turn as white as a piece of paper. The brown colored bark of the tree behind him drew away.
"Shadow! What the hell is going on?!" He held the pendent part of the necklace in the palm of his hand. The glowing pattern that it usually had was off. It stuttered and sparked. Nothing like it had done before. "Shadow?!"
"Umbr...a," his Shadow said, the voice cutting out. "Survi...ve the next few hours with...out me. The Dark Sun has returned." Shadow's voice had stopped. The glowing of the necklace ceased. It was deathly quiet.
"Shadow?" Umbra whispered. He could see his breath hit the necklace. Squeezing the pendent that was in his hand, he released it, letting the chain catch it.
Umbra was lost. For the first time in months he was now complete alone. He spun around, checking out his surroundings. It appeared to him that he was in a park. A few patches of snow was present on the ground. Most of the leaves on the trees in the park were all scrunched up. Piles of the crunchy leaves circled around the trees. Not a single person was around. He could see the tall buildings that were outside of the park zone.
He brushed off the remaining dirt that had attached to his clothes during his fall, and ventured out of the park. Passing by the swing sets and sandboxes reminded him of when his parents used to bring him. He stopped in front of one of the sandboxes. A vivid memory came back to him. He could see himself playing around in the sand while his mother was standing right next to him.
His fond memory was cut short when something hard struck the side of his head. He slapped his hand at the spot of where he was struck. Off the corner of his eye he could see three kids, around the same age as Umbra, standing under the large arch that was at the end of the park path. Snapping his head over to them, Umbra saw the three kids. One of which was pointing at him, laughing as the other two had smiles on their faces.
All three of the kids had on black beanie hats. They all wore what appeared to be the same brand of jackets, each one wearing a different color. The one kid that was pointing and laughing had on black gloves that matched his beanie hat.
Umbra didn't feel like dealing with the three. He turned away from them and started walking. Again, another object struck him, this time on the back of his head. Umbra stopped. He slowly turned around as he could see the three kids laughing at him.
"Hey man, stop getting in my way," the one kid with gloves sarcastically yelled out. Umbra watched as the kid bent down, picking up a small rock and chucking it at him. He dodged the throw. Not tolerating the three, Umbra made his away up to them. The same kid with the gloves waved his hands in the air, yelling "ooohhhhh".
"What's the deal man?" Umbra said. He locked his eyes with each one of the kids.
"I guess you're new around here, aren't ya?" The one kid said. "Well, let me explain something to ya. During these hours, this is our turf."
"Turf?" Umbra repeated, saying it the exact same way the kid had.
"Yeah, turf!" Another one of the three yelled out. He jerked forward when he spoke.
"Since this is your first offensive, we'll let it slide," the kid with the gloves on said. He placed his hand on Umbra's shoulder, patting it.
Umbra had a strong urge to punch the kids lights out, but stopped himself from doing so. His necklace was acting weird. The incident with the wings from earlier. He was afraid that his powers would short out at the time that he needed them most, and he wasn't going to take the risk. Doing the mature thing, he walked away not saying another word.
"And don't let me catch you back here again punk!" One of the kids yelled out as he walked past them, entering the city.
Outside of the park zone, the city streets were filled with cars and people. A few curious citizens looked up at the sky, pointing at what they thought was an eclipse.
"Isn't that amazing kid?" A stranger that Umbra passed by said. He stopped and carefully observed the strange occurrence in the sky. "I didn't even know we were getting an eclipse today."
Continuing on through the city, many of the people that he saw started to notice the absence of colors. One woman looked at her shirt and called out, "what happened to my shirt? It's supposed to be red!"
Everything was now completely black and white. Umbra felt that he was in an old movie. In his mind he kept on wondering about The Dark Sun. Shadow did not inform him enough on the situation that was going on. He was also worried about the strange figure that attacked him earlier. With his necklace not working, he was now vulnerable. He stood no chance to his new attacker.
He walked down a few streets, looking in the windows of shops as he passed by them. Umbra then noticed something very odd. He walked past one of the shops at first before backing up. Wedged between two other large shops and down a very long narrow alley, a single wooden door was present. A strange sign hung over the door. The strange writing on it didn't appear to be English. Umbra watched as people passed by him and the alley. Grabbing onto one person that passed by, Umbra asked what was in that shop.
"What shop?" The man shrugged as he walked off.
Umbra did a double take, making sure his eyes weren't tricking him. The shop still remained. He had no idea what that guy was thinking. Umbra could clearly see the shop. Thinking that this was very odd, Umbra decided to investigate. Heading down the long alley, Umbra decided to enter the shop.
A bell jingled as he opened the door. Standing in the doorway, Umbra observed the shop. Inside was filled with strange objects. Some hung on strings from the ceiling while most were stacked on the tall wooden shelves that were present throughout the shop.
Umbra stepped out from under the doorway. The wooden door slammed shut as the bells jingled again. Turning to the side, Umbra noticed a small wooden desk with papers scattered all over the surface. A name plate was also present on the desk. It read "Docet".
Taking his first few steps around the shop, Umbra could feel his necklace getting warm. The spot of his chest where it hung started heating up. He looked down at his necklace, thinking it would be glowing again as usual. To his disappointment, it wasn't. But he wondered as to why it was heating up.
"Who's there!" A voice yelled out.
Umbra jumped at the second he heard the voice, knocking into one of the objects that was on the shelf. He quickly caught the object before it went crashing to the floor. As he carefully placed the object back on the shelf, Umbra looked around the shop to see where the voice came from.
Looking down one of the long aisles, Umbra could see a face poking out from the shadows. A very sharp beard was the first thing Umbra saw. The man fully emerged from behind the shadows. He was wearing a greenish hat. The color of the hat matched the color of the long coat that he had on. He wore black pants and had on black shoes that were identical in color. As he walked over to Umbra, he kept one hand on his hat, pulling it down to hide his face. The man couldn't help but have a smirk on his face.
"How did you get into my shop?" The strange man said. His face became more serious. He released his grip on the hat. Umbra could finally get a better look at the man. A very thin mustache was present above his lip. His nose was almost as pointy as his beard. His eyes were very glassy, keeping them wide open the whole time Umbra was with him. "Nobody has ever entered here before." He passed by Umbra, opening up the front door to his shop and quickly glancing out before slamming it shut. The man turned and looked at Umbra. "It has returned, hasn't it?"
Umbra was very confused as to what was going on. He backed up a little. "What has returned?" He asked. "Who are you? Where am I? What is this place?"
The man slowly walked up to Umbra. Not moving back, Umbra allowed the man to approach him. The odd man studied him. His eye caught the necklace. "Shadow Keeper?" He uttered out. "So another still lives."
Umbra was sort of shocked that the man knew about the necklace that he had on. He grabbed on to the pendent. "Yeah?" Umbra said. Both of them locked eyes. Umbra took a hard swallow, becoming very nervous.
"Quickly! Follow me!" The man said. He passed by Umbra, walking down the same aisle he came out of. Umbra followed the man, not knowing where he was going.