The Shadow & the Eagle

Do you know the story of the Shadow and the Eagle?

No, tell it to me!

Well, it begins as all stories do: with a conflict.

For as long as the Eagle could remember, it had always had its Shadow.

Every hunt, the Eagle would see Shadow glide underneath his wings, teasing his feathers with a mimicry of their shape. Shadow was a playful companion you see; she liked her tricks, and she also enjoyed the fear the Eagle's prey would experience when she fell upon them.

Eagle didn't care much for their fear. He was an efficient hunter and only cared about providing for his friends and family. He didn't want to see the prey suffer; instead, he shot for a quick death.

But the Eagle never let this stop his companionship with Shadow, as the two had been inseparable since birth, but that all ended after they hunted a young doe.

They killed a baby deer?

Yes. They did.

But why?

It was the season of no sun when the rays chilled instead of warmed; when the winds blew so harshly that they toppled ancient pines, and when the rains froze in the sky and became harbingers of death as they fell to the earth.

It was eat or be eaten in the season of cold, and the Eagle and the Shadow knew this better than anyone.

So why did they stop being friends?

Shadow wanted to play her game, but the Eagle did not want to partake.

Yet they needed food, so the Eagle hunted and he killed, all the while Shadow imbued fear into the young doe.

So, Eagle decided enough was enough. He tried to smother Shadow, to rid her descent upon his hunts. He buried her beneath dirt and sticks and piles of his own feathers, hoping to keep her at bay.

But Shadow could not be contained.

She slipped through the cracks, forcing her way out of the earth.

Then she planned her revenge.

What was her plan?

To wait...silently. Wait until the longest night came; the solstice which would cover the land in darkness.

This night would not only provide suitable cover for Shadow, but it would also thin the veil between the realms - between the living and those who were no longer moored to our shores.

The un-moored? Aren't they dead? I thought they could never exist here!

They can't - bless the Mother. Yet, in this age long past, such barriers were not as strong, and Shadow knew this and used it to her advantage.

The solstice came, and as the long night began, Eagle graced the skies for a nighttime hunt. But unlike in previous seasons, Shadow was quiet.

Eventually, Eagle broke the silence between them. "Why do you keep your thoughts from me, old friend?"

Shadow shifted, her dark form twitching beneath the Eagle's talons. "For such an old friend, I would hope to be accepted by you; darkness and everything that comes with it. But to smother me? Erase me? You could never understand the pain that inflicts.

You are the hunter; the world bends before you. I am the fear; the world can choose to ignore me.

But no matter, I will make you see me."

What did Shadow do next?

The unthinkable. She tore herself from beneath Eagle and plummeted to the earth.

In the bright light of the full moon, Shadow grew and grew. Un-moored were drawn to her as they formed beneath the trees, their bodies a conglomerate of moss, bark, and bone.

She fed upon their lost souls, growing ever larger until she took physical form for the first time since her birth.

Obsidian claws replaced soft, dark edges. Scales manifested where she was once unprotected, and feathers crowned her head and spine; leaving no doubt who she drew inspiration from.

Eagle, without his Shadow, watched on with unsteady wings as a terrifying creature rose up from the forest.

What did Eagle do next?

Nothing.

What? He just...let it happen?

Yes. Eagle did nothing as fear and darkness once more swallowed the world, for he was lost without Shadow, and he could not reconcile his friend with the monster that now terrorized his people.

Many solstices cycled by while the people and the animals suffered, and the land forgot the glow and warmth of the sun.

All the while, Eagle's friends and family shunned him, the people called him a coward, and Shadow continued her rampage.

His grief was overwhelming, but with the passage of time, Eagle was finally able to see what needed to be done.

He had to acknowledge his fear.

His fear of what?

His fear of his own Shadow.

He found her on the Great Mountain, standing tall at a protruding cliff that overlooked the many villages below, her darkness spreading long into the world. His heart thundered, but he would not ignore her this time.

"Forgive me, my friend, for I have wounded you. I sought to bury you where neither I nor the world could see you. I was ashamed by the joy fear brought you; I was afraid of what that meant for me."

"And now?" Shadow turned, her eyes pitch-black and bottomless. "Do you fear what I have become?"

The Eagle searched inside himself; in every feather, bone, and talon, and found the hole that had been made in her absence.

There was no fear, only longing.

"No," he said. "I only fear who I will be without you."

Darkness melted, and Shadow's monstrous form subsided with it. She once again embraced the form of the Eagle, and settled within his shining feathers.

With the sun came a new appreciation for their companionship, and thus Shadow would never again appear on their nighttime hunts to terrorize their prey, and Eagle would never again try to smother her, for she was happiest in the light.

And that is how our shadows learned to grow long beneath the sun.

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