Chapter 1

	A lone king sits upon her throne. The throne room is full with an eerie darkness and the ivory carpet that leads to her throne is stained crimson. The queen, an anthropomorphic leopard cat, leans on her arm. Her hand covers he left eye as the darkness that envelops the room seems to be seeping from the eye. Her tan colored fur with black spots and regal robe seems to flow with the darkness, as if she is submerged in water.
	"Your Majesty." A knight clad in full silver armor steps into the throne room. His armor clangs softly as he approaches the king and kneels before her. "It is I, Devon, Ace knight of your army."
	"What do you want?" Her voice booms through the large room, seemingly coming from everywhere.
	"On my last outing, as you know, I had gone missing for about a week. During that time, I had met with a creature in the woods." He rises to his feet, full of anxiety, but still awfully calm. "It had me come to a grave realization. Something that I had never noticed before now." His had slowly lands on the hilt of his sword. "It opened my eyes to the truth."
	"So you can see it?" The king responds with a sneer.
	"The darkness? Yes. It's suffocating, and I've seen it ever since I returned. It's time to return this evil to whence it came." He draws his sword and lunges toward the king.
	"Evil?" Without even moving, a pulse of dark energy surges from the feline, blowing the knight back and knocking his sword from his hand. She stands, darkness flooding freely from her eye now that her hand no longer stands in its way. "Maybe you're right." She steps down from her throne and slowly approaches the cowering knight. "But your "justice" does not excuse regicide. Killing me, with no heir to the throne, would only plunge this kingdom into a true darkness. A terrifying one." She picks up Devon by the throat with a single hand, crushing his armor with so much force that it caves in and begins restricting his airflow. "That would put this kingdom in danger, and I love my home too much to allow you to destroy it."
	Devon tries to strike at her arm, but the darkness seems to thicken right before impact, nullifying the blow. "You can't hurt me. Even if I wanted you to." She throws him against a wall then follows up with a knee to his helmet. It shatters like glass and reveals a terrified corgi beneath. He stares up at her with shaky silver eyes. "He's at it again." She kneels down in front of Devon and looks him in the eye. "I'm so sorry this had to happen to you." She plants a small kiss on his forehead then gets up and returns to her throne. On the way back, the corgi knight begins to feel light headed and his vision becomes blurry. He tries to stand, but finds that he's unable to. Not only is he too weak, but there are shadowy pointed hands preventing any movement. In fact, the seem to be dragging him down. Down. Down. Down.
	Once back to her throne, the king stares at the soulless body of the former knight slumped against the wall. "Another one gone." She covers her left eye once more, trying yet again to halt the flow. "I'll make the Joker pay for this."