I inwardly frowned in confusion, wondering why I felt so disappointed that he hadn’t kissed me. He was a messy-haired abyss creature, and I’d always preferred clean-cut pretty boys. So how could I possibly be developing feelings for this strange shadowy vagabond?

Could I be developing Stockholm syndrome even though I’m neither a captive nor abused?... No, probably not.

A claw suddenly got snagged on a particularly tangled part of my hair, causing me to wince out of my failed attempt to blame my developing feelings on a psychological condition that didn’t apply to my situation. “Ouch...”

He immediately pulled his hand away, making me feel oddly disappointed at the loss of his caress. “Oh, I’m sorry! Are you okay!? I didn’t mean to do that!” He seemed slightly frazzled and genuinely upset that he’d caused me pain.

I smiled up at him with a giggle, causing him to furrow his brows in confusion. “Yes, I’m fine. I just wish that I had a way to brush out my hair here, that’s all.” I twiddled a messy lock between two fingers.

His face knowingly lit up with an adorable smile. “Oh, you mean like with a hairbrush?” He waved his hand in a circle as he asked his rather obvious question.

I slowly sat up in confusion, inwardly flabbergasted that he actually knew what that was. “Yes, like with a hairbrush?” My gaze trailed over the extremely long length of his wildly unbrushed hair.

“Well, why didn’t you say so sooner? I have several of them.” He politely gestured over towards the cave.

...Um... what?

“Wait, wait, wait, you mean that you...” I inquisitively pointed at him. “...have several hairbrushes?” Perplexed, I glanced up and down his unruly hair again, easily spotting several twigs and an old leaf.

A shy smile danced across his lips as if he knew exactly what I was thinking. “Yes, I do. Gwendolyn has gifted me with many over the years. I just don’t ever have the motivation to use them, so they hide away in the chest. Feel free to borrow them anytime you’d like though.” He tried to run his fingers through his hair, but frowned when they didn’t get too far.

He doesn’t have the motivation to brush his hair?

A somber shadow seemed to cloak my spirit, while my bright blue gaze drank in the sight of his downcast profile, observing how he neatly tucked the drawing stone back into the binding of his sketchpad. “Well, maybe I could try to brush your hair out for you?” I casually suggested with a meek shrug and soft smile.

His lips turned down into a frown. “Um, I don’t know. That might be an impossible task at this point.” He entangled his fingers within the messy tresses and held them up to further make his point. They looked like he’d covered them in black spiderweb mesh from a tacky Halloween decoration store.

I bit my lower lip and thoughtfully pondered for a moment, concluding that I wanted to do this for him. He’d already saved my life on many occasions, provided me with food, shelter, and protection, and was going to see to it that I got home safely, asking nothing in return but friendship. It really was the least I could do for him... And it would also be fun to give him a makeover.

“Well how about this? I’ll make you a deal. If you let me try to brush out your hair, I’ll let you brush mine?” I cleverly offered with a voice as smooth as silk, using his strange fascination with my hair color as leverage. Then I took another bite of the juicy caedis fruit with a cunning gleam in my eyes.

He immediately perked up in excitement. “Alright, you’ve got yourself a deal.” His gaze elatedly raked over my long tresses. “Although, I am doubtful that it will be of any use.” He tugged on his unruly hair twice.

Whelp, that to no convincing at all...

I giggled while holding up a finger. “Perfect! I’ll go get a brush!”

I handed him the fruit, then excitedly jumped up and rushed over to the cave, where the trickling sound of the waterfall grew much louder. I looked back at Valarendrik with a smile and waved, laughing as he happily waved back while taking a bit of the fruit. Then I traversed through the threshold of the cave.

The dim flickering lantern light cast eerie shadows across the room and illuminated the furniture with its uncanny glow. There was now a comfy pillow nest along the far wall, which Valarendrik had made in an attempt to create a more suitable place for me to sleep. I still slept on top of him though. It was the only way I felt safe enough to actually fall asleep in this world. But his efforts weren’t in vain, since he now had a cozy spot to lay while I did so, and I had a safe and snug spot to sit and read whenever he’d go out hunting.

As my feet pitter-pattered over to the chest, my shadow stretched across the threadbare rug and up onto a crack in the stone wall before me, like an obscured mirror image spewing out from my soul. I gently ran my finger over the intricate engravings along the top of the chest’s dark wood cover. Then ever so carefully, I clicked open the ornate silver latches and lifted the heavy lid with an unsettling creak.

The smell of wood and musk filled my nose, while curiosity filled my easily distracted gaze as I peered into its unknown depths. One side had neatly folded clothing, and the other had seemingly random thingamabobs. I was tempted to snoop, but then a tendril of my messy hair slipped into its wooden confines as I craned my head above it, reminding me of the mission at hand.

Hairbrushes... Right!

As I began to rummage around, one particularly interesting article of clothing caught my eye. The sight of finely woven silver against velvety black intrigued my inner sleuthy sleuther tendencies. So I carefully pulled it out to get a better look at the fancy garment... What in the hell? To my confusion, the thing was an otherworldly yet extremely regal-looking long-sleeved tunic with a cape.

Silver filigree, adorned with glittering black gemstones, menacingly veined out around the fancy collar, and twisted up and out along the front and chest like the gnarled branches of the forest. Rows of small obsidian spikes stuck up from the silvery embroidery along accentuated shoulders like ghastly thorns and stretched down along the length of the sleeves. And pinned to the collar bones with elegant silver clasps baring a sinister serpentine emblem, was the massive shadowy cape. The midnight material was very heavy, yet silky to the touch, and seemed to swirl within itself like Valarendrik’s shadows. It looked like something the king of the fucking underworld would wear!

Oh my god... He’s totally a crafty criminal thief on the run!

I shook my head, thinking about how ridiculous a wild man like Valarendrik would look in such ostentatious attire. I quickly stuffed it back into the chest, then began rummaging around again, messing everything up. My hands fumbled as I tried to move some stubborn round thing, wrapped in a silky black cloth... “Come on, you stupid thing...”

Then I abruptly froze. It suddenly felt like icy cold threads of electricity were running up through my hand and along my arm, silencing my irritated grumbles. “What in the world?” I softly drawled under my breath. In a strange way, it seemed as though whatever that round thing was, it was silently beckoning me to take a peek at it.

The apprehension I felt was unable to snuff out my curiosity. So I slowly lifted up the orb-shaped object, and gently pulled back the silken material. I was careful not to touch what lay hidden underneath, as an unfathomably black crystal ball was unveiled before me. It was extremely glossy and surreal, almost wet looking, with a jagged slightly lighter spot being the only blemish.

It seemed as though I couldn’t take my eyes off of it, as if it held some sort of unsettling enchantment over me. Stuck in a paralyzing trance and mesmerized by its tenebrous depths, it felt like something primal and dark was staring back at me, pulling me into its inky illusion. I somehow knew in my soul that it wanted to show me something... A warning.

...What is this thing?

Within my trance-like state, I unexplainably allowed its darkness to completely consume me. The cave became completely obscured by shadows, and I was suddenly surrounded by a midnight void of nothingness. No sound, smell, nor thought seemed to exist. Just vacant unending black.

“Hello?” I tried to warily call out into the darkness, and yet I had no voice. My footsteps echoed throughout the seemingly endless void, as I took a few steps to the right. “Valarendrik? Hello?” I tried to call out once again, but still, no sound left me.

Where am I? And why am I so calm about suddenly being here?

The coo of a baby caught my attention. Confused, I looked down and saw a tiny ivory hand with little black claws grasping at the same tendril of golden hair that had fallen into the trunk. The smiling infant was wrapped in a warm ebon cloth, as I cradled them tenderly against my bosom. Their big violet eyes stared up at me lovingly, with tiny fangs poking out over their bottom lip. Two black lines identical to Valarendrik’s fell over their left eye, while little pointy ears poked out from beneath the thick mop of black hair on their head.

Huh, a little tenverian baby?

An odd unexplainable feeling of love washed over me at the sight of it, only confusing me further... Why do I love this child so much?

That confusion didn’t last long though and was soon replaced with suffocating fear. An eerie mist began to creep within the void, while the sound of giant dinosaur-sized footsteps resounded all around. The little one began to cry, and I instinctively held them closer against my chest. Then, the most revoltingly monstrous creature I’d ever seen in my entire life slowly emerged from within the shadowy fog.

A pitch-black reptilian head appeared first, as it let out a deep harrowing snarl, revealing multiple rows of massive sharp black fangs. It had two sets of long arms and incredibly strong hind legs. Formidably sharp long talons tipped its hands and curled out from its toes. Its huge body was long and slender, with a long spiked whip-like tail at the end. The whole thing was unnaturally solid black, grotesque, and decaying. While obscene energy bled off of it like vulgar tides of filth. It was the most putrid and repugnant thing I’d ever seen. The thing was pure unsullied death.

Holy shit, it’s a mutated, zombie, tyrannosaurus rex!

I was quite literally frozen in place as if my insides had painfully iced over. My mind told me to get the flip out of here and run, but something unexplainable held a strange power over me, keeping my entire body from moving. The creature looked directly at me with its insidious black pit of an eye, giving me a murderous glare hateful enough to kill a bird mid-flight. Then a deep bone-chilling growl rumbled throughout the inky blackness.

“Who art thou who dares to enter this sacred domain of death?” It spoke telepathically into my mind with a deeply malign lizard voice, in a hauntingly primordial language. I didn’t know how I could understand what it was saying, yet I could nonetheless. “You vile and odious creature of life. You think that you are worthy of becoming the next queen? You are nothing but a weak and disgusting vermin beneath my claws.” It hissed with pure unfathomable disdain.

...Become a queen? A queen of what? Am I hallucinating this? Does caedis fruit have some sort of psychedelic properties?

I opened my mouth to speak, to tell it that I’ve never had any intentions of ever becoming a queen before. And that it was impossible anyway, considering that I had no royal blood. I was just a humble cashier at the Cedarville Country Store, home to the world’s most delicious blueberry muffins. But still, my words were lost to the silence.

“Abhorrent is the spawn birthed from the blasphemous union of life and death.” A deep clicking growl venomously echoed from within its black drooling jaws, as it took a few formidable steps closer. “Yet still, the hybrid heir will rightfully belong to Hsarohpem, just as you belong back within the rotting cesspool of humanity.” It reached a gnarled taloned hand out as it spoke, and to my horror, its putrid claws wrapped around the screaming baby and callously ripped them from my grasp.

I tried to scream and cry, chase after it, anything to get the infant back. The infant that I unexplainably felt as if I loved more than myself. And yet, my body remained unmoving and silent against my will. Deep harrowing lizard chirps came from within its throat while it malevolently loomed above me. It was as if it were laughing at me, relishing in my torment and agony.

A powerful whirlwind of grief and desperation violently swirled inside of my soul, as I helplessly watched it slowly walk away, disappearing into the mist. Its loud footfalls became quieter and quieter, while it carried the poor crying infant away from me until the tip of its slithering tail was eventually swallowed by the fog, and I could see them no more. Then the mist dissipated, and the baby and the beast were completely gone, leaving nothing but darkness behind.

NO, NO, NO!

I wanted to wail in grief and collapse to the ground in anguish, but suddenly, what sounded like a giant serpent hissed into my mind, startling me out of it. I blinked and quickly looked around, seeing that I was back inside the cave, still holding the strange crystal ball. The intense emotions I’d felt within the void all vanished just as its darkness did, while I warily looked around the lantern-lit room again in complete shock.

What the hell just happened!? Was that just some kind of weird fucked up vision!? Did I hallucinate the whole thing!?