Shadow Slave

"...This is my doll! Her name is Snuggle!"

Tatal showed the shadow the ugliest doll he had ever seen. It was made of coarse fabric and wore a crude dress that vaguely resembled Tatal's own. Two black beads served as its eyes, and its mouth seemed to be stuck in a perpetual frown.

Tatal was not the kind of girl to play with her toys gently, either. It looked like Snuggle had been torn countless times, then mended with clumsy stitches. As a result, she looked like a battle-hardened warrior covered in countless gruesome scars, not an innocent damsel's companion.

This was the first doll the shadow had ever seen — in this life, at least — and it was nearly unbearable to look at.

Still, Tatal seemed utterly in love with the ugly thing, so he kept his thoughts to himself.

"Say hi to Snuggle, Shadow!"

The girl grinned happily.

“What is your favorite berry, Shadow? Mine is raspberry. My second favorite is mulberry. But I like wild strawberry, blueberry, cranberry, and elderberry too! Oh, and winterberry. You'll get a tummy ache if you eat those, but they're pretty!"

The shadow had not known that there were this many types of berries. The only ones he knew were either poisonous or twisted by Corruption. So, he did not like berries much.

The shadow remained silent for a while. When he eventually spoke, his cold voice sounded a little strained...

"I don't like berries."

Tatal stared at the darkness, aghast.

She was scandalized.

"N—not... not even raspberries?"

The shadow had no idea what a raspberry was. Was that a berry that made your voice sound raspy if you ate it, or a berry that talked in a raspy voice? The former was strange, while the latter felt concerning.

He considered his answer for a long time...

“I can count to ten! Twenty, if I am not wearing shoes. How high can you count, Shadow?"

The shadow was not sure what shoes had to do with counting — in fact, he could not even imagine an answer. Still, he felt obligated to answer.

“As high as I want."

"Can you count to a hundred?"

"Yes."

“How about a thousand?"

"Yes."

“How about a ten thousand?"

"Yes."

"Wow!"

Tatal looked into the darkness with admiration. Then, her little face suddenly scrunched into an expression of grave suspicion, and after staying quiet for a few moments, she said somberly:

“Prove it, then. Count to ten thousand."

The shadow was baffled.

"What?"

"Then do it. You aren't lying to me, are you?" The shadow felt the desire to start an earthquake.

"I am not lying.”

"Then do it!"

"I won't."

"Ha! Liar!"

"l am not a liar... I am a very honest shadow. I haven't lied once since the dawn of time."

"Then do it!"

"I said I won't..."

Tatal's visits all went something like that. She came every once in a while after that first time, entirely ignoring the fact that the friend she had made was a disembodied mass of darkness that had dwelled in the ominous cave since the creation of the world.

The peace and quiet the shadow longed for were entirely obliterated. The antics of the carefree human child left him baffled, exasperated, and mentally exhausted every time. When his vast consciousness collided with Tatal's simple and impossibly straightforward worldview, unbelievably enough, it was the former that was left bruised and damaged.

The shadow had never wanted to be human, but as a result of Tatal unceremoniously invading his world, he could not help but feel more and more of her humanity leaving a mark on him.

That mark of humanity was not at all what the shadow enjoyed, let alone wanted.

But, at the same time...

He much preferred Tatal's company to that of all the other humans living in the settlement. Those who came to make offerings all wore strange garments and performed inexplicable rituals. They were full of a solemn sense of importance, fear, and reverence.

They treated the shadow as a fearsome deity... while not really understanding what a deity was.

The shadow disliked their worship much more than Tatal's complete lack of deference. In fact, her casual demeanor was not that unpleasant — unlike the veneration of the older members of her tribe.

Like that, time passed.

Seasons changed, and then changed again, killing the world and bringing it back to life once more. The shadow spent his time observing the lands surrounding his cave. He failed to reach the state of complete fusion with the world again, but it was still enough to bring his tired soul a sense of peace.

He remembered fragmented pieces of his past lives from time to time, as well, but he had never drowned in them again. His unwilling connection with Tatal prevented him from losing his sense of self too thoroughly, and as a result, it slowly grew firmer.

The human tribe, meanwhile, was developing swiftly. The forest retreated even further back, and their fields expanded. They were beginning to domesticate animals other than dogs and learning new crafts every day.

The Creatures of Corruption did not bother the tribe due to the presence of the shadow, and while they faced the hunger and fury of the beasts that populated the forest from time to time — both mundane and mythical — they had not faced anything powerful enough to wipe them out yet.

They had even established contact with several other human tribes dwelling in the neighboring lands. There was some tension between them, but overall, they all seemed to prefer trade and exchange over plundering and bloodshed.

More children were born, and the village grew.

The shadow observed the changing world indifferently.

"Shadow! Shadow!"

Once again, Tatal appeared at the mouth of his cave, smiling foolishly.

Only now, she wasn't a little girl anymore. In the blink of an eye, the tiny child had become a young woman on the cusp of adulthood. Her crude garments were replaced by a hunter's attire, and her ebony hair was gathered into a long braid, decorated tastefully with colorful beads and feathers.

She raised her bow triumphantly.

“Look what I caught!"

She was dragging the carcass of a massive cave bear behind her, straining her Awakened body to pull its crushing weight. The shadow stared at the giant bear — an Ascended Beast who had been terrorizing the tribe for a few decades now — in a state of mild amusement.

“Good job. But was there really a need to drag that thing here? Are you going to eat it?"

Dropping the paw of the cave bear, Tatal blinked a couple of times.

“Of course! The whole village will. Bear meat is not the tastiest, but you can make a stew. Its claws and teeth can be made into weapons. Its tendons will become bowstrings. The most important part is the hide, though!"

The shadow studied the bear. It seemed that Tatal had gone an extra mile not to damage the hideous beast's hide, even though hunting an Ascended creature must have been a deadly trial for a young Awakened woman like her.

He knew it had been, of course, because he had observed every moment of her hunt carefully.

The shadow was aware of everything that happened in his land, but he rarely paid it any attention. The ruckus Tatal had created was too much to ignore, though, so this time was an exception.

"What's so important about the hide?"

He was not really curious, but felt like he had to ask out of politeness.

Tatal grinned.

“I'll clean it and present it as a bridal gift to my fiancé!"

The shadow felt like his entire being froze. He did not have eyes, but if he did, one of them would have twitched.

“Your what?"

Tatal seemed surprised. She stared at the darkness, blinked a couple of times, and then giggled.

"What, you didn't know? I'm getting married!"

The shadow had not, indeed, known. Perhaps he should have paid more attention.

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