I touch her cheek. “You look after yourself too, Rainbow. We need you more than anyone else.”
Rollick folds his arms over his chest, looking as if he’s getting impatient with our goodbyes. Before he can make any snarky comments, I shoot him a thumbs up and spring into the rift.
It’s a normal-sized one, no more than five feet across, floating over a hill just outside the city. Leaping through it as my physical body shifts into shadow form feels the same as it always has, like a gust of cool breeze rushing through my essence and then stillness settling all around me.
I turn in the portion of the shadow realm I’ve emerged into, absorbing the quiet and the dullness all around me. With no concrete objects in this place where we shadowkind come into being, there’s nothing to see or smell or taste. It’s all only drifting dark haze, the impressions of other beings whose essence we pass close to, and the occasional conversations we might take up if we’re so inclined.
What is there to discuss? We don’t even have any weather to make small talk about.
But this time, there is something remarkable about my original home. As I gather myself, tremors ripple through the atmosphere around me. They carry the same erratic energy the warped rifts give off.
My essence cringes in response, but I nudge myself toward the disturbance.
It’s what I’m here for. No running away now.
I’m not on the move long before I notice the thinning of the shadows that Rollick mentioned his people had observed. Everything is stilldark, but it starts to feel as if I’m moving through clear air rather than fog. Air that could barely fill my lungs if I tried to breathe it.
Cries and whimpers reverberate through the atmosphere alongside the growing tremors. They form a disjointed chorus—not at all the sort of symphony you’d want an orchestra to play.
Let’s see if I can transform it into a happier tune.
I slow down, slinking closer through the filmier shadows. A being lurches out of them toward me, just as ephemeral as I ambut with his essence roiling so forcefully it smacks against me as he squirms.
“Make it stop! Make it stop!” His presence jerks and shudders as if he’s trying to lash out with his essence while jerking it back inside. I don’t think he’s in control of it.
Does he realize he could die?
A deeper chill wraps around my heart at that thought. Shadowkind aren’t meant to be mortal in our natural playground, as un-playful as it is. The shadows are supposed to sustain us.
How has our world become so completely upended?
I nudge an illusion of serene music and calming currents around the being in distress. “Come farther away. Let the regular shadows heal you.”
I don’t know if they actually can, but if theycan’t, nothing else will.
The being’s thrashing eases. With a shaky sigh, he propels himself past me, toward the thicker stretch of darkness I left behind.
The chorus of horror is still pealing through the air at full blast. So many other beings are caught up in confusion and pain—or possibly literally caught in the twisting strands of shadow Rollick mentioned.
When I creep a little closer, my whole presence squirms at the erratic energies resonating through me. I ease back and skirt the warped area as quickly as I can.
“Head this way!” I call out, projecting my voice into minds as well as shouting it into the atmosphere. I send it alongside a sense of soothing, cool darkness beckoning them and a dollop of butterscotch ice cream, because who wouldn’t come for dessert? “Everything you could want is over here!”
The beings that were only disoriented start following my call. Some weave here and there as if they’ve forgotten what a straightline looks like; others flit past me like they’re starving for buttery delights.
I hope they’ll accept the consolation prize of being out of the warped area when the treat I teased doesn’t materialize.
A few beings heave toward me at a sluggish pace, still gasping or groaning. The sounds remind me all too well of the scientists’ laboratory, of the poking and prodding.
An icy shiver travels through my being. My essence wobbles with it, and I fight the urge to race off in search of my own ice cream cone.
Bracing myself, I project another call, another promise of good things this way. I lay out as clear as possible a trail for my fellow shadowkind to follow away from the writhing murk that’s invaded our home.
As I send out my powers, I keep gliding along the edge of the most unnerving area. Yikes, it is huge. I feel as if I’ve been floating onward for an hour without finding the end of it.
Someone needs to tell these messed-up rifts that size isn’t everything. And pacing yourself is healthier than going overboard. There’s no need to be so ambitious.
If only there was a real chance they’d listen.
