Paula's Prompt: Wednesday Words

On October 25, 2017, P.T. Wyant posted this picture prompt for her Wednesday Words at ptwyant.com.

This Tale of Navel/The Shadow Forest was my response.

No one could see the faint gleam of their two forms under the shadow of the tree’s branches. 

Not that the tree was truly there. The darkness could take on any form it desired. 

Desire. The pair had never forgotten theirs, no matter how faded and ghostlike they became. 

“He’s coming.” She communicated this through the shivering wisp of her being, while she rested her hands in her companion’s palms. 

Yes, she remembered having hands. The ones she remembered, which twitched at the end of her arms might once have been her own. Or they might have belonged to the girl she’d just met, who’d wandered off the path into her waiting arms. 

You were what you devoured in the Shadow Forest. Memories of whom she’d once been disappeared only too easily. Such emptiness drove her to fill the void over and over. 

Especially when other travelers were so tasty. Impossible to resist. 

This was one of the reasons the two of them had to find their lost one. The shadow who’d taken vital parts of them and disappeared. 

“At last.” Her companion’s translucent hands slipped through hers, fading in and out. “We shall find him. He cannot hide from our hunger.”

“His own desire must be strong,” she warned. 

The air quickened around them, everything growing sharper, more distinct. 

Someone was opening a Door. Someone tasty, with thick, juicy memories which shaped them into a form strong enough to exist in reality. 

“His desire must be strong enough to open a Door.” She breathed in the scent. 

Yes. He was among those gathered on edge of reality, between shadows. He truly was coming. 

“Our desire is just as strong.” His hands gripped hers. For a moment, they were solid. “We want him. No power in the darkness can stop us from having him.”

She shivered in appreciation, wanting to believe his words. 

Alas, there were many creatures walking the myriad paths, lurking behind the trees stronger than the two of them. 

Strong enough to devour them in turn. 

One of those creatures was their prey. He’d done it before, consumed part of their precious memories, leaving them to drift aimlessly off the path.

If they weren’t careful, he’d do it again. 

“He’s been outside, living in a real world as a human for too long.” She uttered this wish, knowing it was more of a wish than a truth. “Such a foolish child to forget those he’s left behind to starve.”

“Foolish, indeed.” Her companion stayed solid, gripping her hands. “We’ll get him this time.”

“We’ll get him,” she repeated, willing to herself to believe this. If she could believe, she’d get stronger by virtue of her faith. 

This was how power worked in the Shadow Forest. What she willed and believed in were the keys to possessing that power and wielding it. 

She just had to hold tight to that belief and not let it slip away. If she wavered for a second, her belief might take form and fall away. Whatever it became would be devoured by other shadows. 

She’d learned this the hard way, yet she and her companion had survived thus far. 

It wasn’t enough for them to simply survive. 

They had to have someone worth surviving for.