[b]FIRST DROP OF MADNESS[/b]

A rather large group of people were following with their solemn gazes how a pure black coffin was lowered down to the ground. Some of these mourners had tears in their eyes, however, the rainy weather did make it seem like everyone was crying over the deceased individual. The dark gray clouds and the heavy rain that poured from them into the sad world below, it was like the heaven itself was weeping. That wouldn't be surprising. Ava, the young woman whose last resting place was going to be at the bottom of earth's bosom, had been a bright and kind person and she had touched the lives of many people. She had earned a lot of friends and she had loved her family oh so dearly, so it was the reason that such crowd of people had come to say the last farewell to her. Gorgeous flowers were thrown at the top of the coffin as it was now resting at the bottom of the grave where it would lay for all eternity.

It was such a formal and beautiful event to most people, but among the crowd whose hearts were filled with sorrow, there was one person who was feeling dread.

Ava's brother Greg.

For he was seeing something the others didn't. There was a "guest" that had not been invited to Ava's funeral. And there it was, lurking around a tree that was standing nearby. The creature was quite big, bigger than a horse. It had black fur in its head where it spread to back of neck, and from there to its back, all the way to a bushy tail. Out of its back sticked out few strange and creepy appendages that resembled spider legs. The body of the being was hairless, much unlike the back of it, and it was slender and had sickly blue color. There were things that were sort of like thin plates around its chest area. Its limbs were like those of a human, but that just made them disturbing to look at. The creature's head looked like that it belonged to a dragon, and it was staring with its bright green eyes straight at Greg. 

Because it knew that Greg knew what its appearance in the funeral meant. And that was terrifying in the man's mind.

Ava hadn't died because of natural causes, a young woman who had her whole life ahead of her won't die just like that. There had been no accident, either. She had taken her own life. There had been warning signs. She had been a happy, social and gentle person, but suddenly there had been a drop in her mental health. It hadn't happened instantly, but after one specific day, her condition worsened over time. She had been on archeological expedition and for some reason, following that her sanity began to deteriorate. Ava was anxious, stressed and always tired and eventually began to splutter something about someone called Isskali and how he was tormenting her. She began to appear delusional and following this to happen to her made Greg's heart ache. He loved his sister but just didn't know how to help her. And he never learned how to do that. It was too late now.

He felt incredibly guilty. It was like he was part of the reason why she had ended her life. If only he could have done more… If only he had known that Isskali wasn't just the creation of her broken mind. Isskali was real. He hoped that he would have learned this sooner.

And now this creature was right here, right now. Even though it seemed that no one else could see it. But there it was, glaring straight at Greg. Although Isskali's presence had frightened him at first, but as Greg thought about his sister, he began to feel immense hatred towards this eerie entity. It was this thing's fault that Ava was now gone. He found courage from his heart and with that courage he faced the green-eyed creature with determination. He wanted nothing more but to avenge his sister's death.

Isskali was grinning in a spine-chilling way at him. The being had found a new toy for himself.

Greg had no idea what kind of horrors would await him after that rainy day.



[b]DOWNFALL[/b]

At the center of the city, there were few towers that were reaching for the heavens. In the middle of these magnificent edifices was the tallest one of them, perhaps even the tallest of the whole realm. And inside this tower was the lord, watching over the city below him. The flames were raging in the settlement, burning down homes of his subjects. The air was filled with screams and clashing sounds of weapons, in the stage beneath him, a macabre and chaotic show was displayed. Blood was spilled, the streets got stained red. Currently, the lord was witnessing the end of his reign. And he could do nothing about it. So he just watched how everything he had built came crashing down. But even at the moment of utter defeat, he was wearing his crown with pride. He was noble like a peafowl. And his pride was something that no one could ever take away from him.

Even the skies seemed to have turned against him. They had turned black like a mourning veil, stars shining their distant light just barely. And some of them were falling from the skies, like a symbol to the end of his empire. A golden crescent moon was shining ominously above his tower, the epitome of his power. Thanks to these strange changes in the heavens, it truly felt like an end of the world, and people on the streets were trembling from fear. These innocent lives had nothing to do with the wicked deeds of their lord, which was the reason for these happenings now in this city. Good or wrong, it didn't matter, for the root of evil had to be deracinated, even if it meant that those with innocence in their hearts had to be sacrificed.

After staring a good while at the fire that was purifying the streets of his malice, the lord then decided to retreat to the heart of his tower, the throne room. The hem of his clothes, made from the finest silk, beveled gracefully against the floor as he moved forward. Even though he walked with slow pace in a grand manner, he soon made it to his throne, the actual masterpiece of the best craftsmen in the region. The seat was glimmering in gold and it was decorated with beautiful carvings. But the most impressive part was how the back of the seat would flourish into a golden tree, the golden branches spreading out against the wall. While sitting here, it was like the lord was in the middle of the greatness of the region.

The lord let his hand sweep the armrest of his grand throne. So many people had visited him while he had been sitting on this golden seat, basking in his grandeur. So many had crawled before him like lowly worms and he had judged all of them. A faint smile flickered on his face as he remembered his greatest moments. But soon that smile faded away and he raised his hand up from the armrest. He stared at his throne for a little while, for now was their time to part their ways. The lord could hear commotion from the foot of his tower as the invaders had got in and were now fighting with his loyal guardians. And he knew that soon those intruders would make their way to the top. The lord said his goodbyes to the throne and made his leave, heading to the stairs.

He began his ascend, climbing the stairs as if he had all the time in the world, even though he knew that the tower had been invaded by people whose weapons were thirsty for his blood. He made it all the way to the top where there were no walls, just a platform and few pillars that were supporting a roof. This was the place where he had listened and spoken to the winds. Even now a cold and howling breeze was blowing through the platform. It seemed like that even the wind had betrayed him, whispering about his demise that was inevitable. There was nothing he could do.

For a brief moment he just stared at all the chaos that were now happening in the streets. All this mayhem did make him sad; he had never felt such enormous amount of sorrow. The rising wind brought a scent of death. 

It was time.

Pair of wings appeared out of nowhere into the lord's back. They had the many colors of rainbow and there was a faint shimmer of gold emanating from them. They were a magnificent sight and would be a fit even for a deity. The lord spread his wings one more time in his life and took a leap that would be terrifying to most mortals, falling from the tower. The wind took a hold of his wings and he glided over the city, and he began to sing like the most precious bird.

He sang for the helpless and innocent, he sang for the enemy soldiers. He sang about his rise and fall, about his pride that could be never taken away from him. And for a little while, everyone stopped their movements and just listened. The lord's singing touched everyone in a different way; some found it soothing and some absorbed only hatred from it.

And the lord kept singing, all the way until he fell to the ground, where he waited for his demise.



[b]MY GUARDIAN SHADE[/b]

The night had already fallen over the town when Amy had managed to get out of her work. It was a bit over ten o'clock at night. Summer was over and autumn had come early this year, so it was already quite dark and the air was a bit chilly, so Amy was shivering a little after leaving the comfortable warmth of the grocery store where she worked. She took a deep breath, enjoying her freedom. Oh, how she longed for a relaxing warm bath and a cup of hot cocoa. With a wide smile on her face, she began to leave, heading toward her home. The many lights of the town were illuminating her path, and she strolled along the streets in a good mood.

That night seemed to be ordinary, just like all the other nights. There were still some people roaming in the streets, just like Amy, most of them heading to their homes as well. She lived in relatively safe area, just some blocks away from the store, so she wasn't really worried about walking alone in such late hour. Little did she know, that she would bump into something that would exceed her comprehension, something that would be stuck in her mind for weeks, making her question her own sanity.

She was taking her usual route to home, blissfully unaware of her surroundings. Or so she did, until the air around her started to feel a lot colder than it had been just a little while ago. She also got this eerie feeling, like something wasn't quite right, but what, she didn't know. However, this odd sensation and the decreasing temperature sent shivers down her spine. She wrapped her arms around her and hastened her pace, wanting to get out of the cold already.

But something occurred before she managed to get back home.

Amy was one of those people who didn't believe in supernatural stuff. So naturally, she had never had such experiences. But now, she had this strange sensation that there was some mysterious presence of someone near her. And the closer she walked home, the stronger the feeling got. It made her a little tense and she was glancing around her a bit too much, she looked like a nervous wreck in the eyes of strangers.

Then she suddenly stopped her going. She was standing at the intersection of different ways, one of them being the entrance to a dead-end alley where lots of garbage bags were discarded. The odd feeling she had been having seemed to originate from there. Even though she felt a little anxious, curiosity surfaced and made her make a decision that she would check the alley.

Amy remembered that she had a small flashlight in her jacket's pocket. With a little shaky hand, she grabbed it and pulled it out, clicked it on and then pointed the beam of light into the dark alley. Black bags full of trash were in the way first, but she let her light circle around, until something else got caught in its beam that pierced the darkness.

It was a little boy. Amy tilted her head a little, feeling a bit relieved at first. However, the sight before her grew more and more disturbing the more she looked. The little boy was sitting on the ground, painting with his fingers something with a red paint… And what was that thing behind him? Amy pointed her flashlight at the weird lump at the back. She squinted her eyes, trying to perceive what it was.

The sudden realization made her gasp from horror and she almost dropped her flashlight.

It was a corpse. It seemed like that the victim was a teenage boy. His eyes were lifeless and were fixated on nothingness. His midriff was completely torn, pieces of shredded skin and flesh were scattered all over the ground and he was lying in a huge pool of his own spilled blood. The sight was utterly horrible and disgusting – who could do such a thing?

The little boy was using this poor teenager's blood to paint pictures to the ground, now Amy understood that. But he couldn't possibly be the one who did this absolutely horrifying crime? The little boy hadn't paid any attention to her so far, but now he seemed to finally become aware of her presence. He looked at her with his ice blue eyes and stood up. However, he didn't speak a single word, only stared at Amy. The young woman was frozen with fear, and could only stare back at the ominous little boy.

Then Amy noticed that something was suddenly moving behind the kid. It was something dark, something that was seeking for a form. Her light began to flicker eerily as she pointed it at whatever was trying to get into existence. Soon the dark matter took a shape of some sort of canine creature, it was pitch-black and looked like it had come from a void. Its white glowing eyes were the only thing that could be distinguished from its blackness and they were staring at Amy. For a moment the shadow creature stood behind the little boy like a guardian, but then shrieked and let out a bone-chilling howl. Then it prepared itself and leapt at Amy, the young woman instinctively raising her arms to protect herself. To her surprise, she didn't feel much anything, it was like a freezing cold wind had just passed through her body. As the seconds passed by and nothing seemed to happen, she dared to lower her defense and looked at the alley.

They were gone. Both boy and the shadow being. Only the torn corpse of the teenage boy was left behind.

Suddenly Amy felt dizzy and decided to leave the gruesome site. All of this was too much for her. She ran as fast as she could from the alley to home, to safety. But even when she made it to her apartment, slamming the door behind her, she was still shaken and afraid that the boy and the creature would come to get her next. After this incident, Amy was having nightmares for weeks, maybe even a couple of months. And she asked herself for countless of times that had she truly witnessed something macabre or was it something entirely else. But what else it could be, she had no idea.



[b]NEW PURPOSE[/b]

There was a rumor circling around that in this one specific forest, something bad lived deep within it. People weren't quite sure what it was. Some folks thought that it was a home to a monster that would attack any hunter that dared to step into the forest. Some believed that some sort of guild of assassins or bandits were hiding in there. And some thought that something evil slumbered there, waiting for a perfect moment to unleash their might, taking over the world and drowning it in darkness. Although it was unclear what the forest was actually hiding, people did their best to avoid it as much as they could.

However, this only applied to humans. Animals would still make this forest their home, perhaps even considering it as their sanctuary since hunters wouldn't enter the place. Whatever was keeping the humans away, it was protecting the animals. Humans had forgotten what was lurking in there, but other creatures, the dwellers of the forest, they knew the truth.

In the heart of the woods, an ancient oak, much larger than other trees, was reaching for the heavens. And down in its roots, it was told that there was sleeping an entity, a creature that once was wreaking havoc. Centuries had passed, but the animals of the forest had kept alive the legend of this dark being, the knowledge had passed down from parents to their children, even though not many had seen the creature with their own eyes. The animals held a collective respect for the entity, enjoying the protection that came with the creature's presence. But a slight feeling of dread had invaded even their hearts.

Then a foreigner arrived into the forest. He was a fox, his fur being grey and brown. He had travelled a great distance, coming from a land so far away that local animals hadn't even heard of such place. In his journey, he had heard about this forest and the possible ancient evil that resided in it. Such rumor had intrigued him, so he had decided to come here and meet the entity. He felt no fear, only curiosity.

It was nighttime. The foreign fox was walking among the dark shadows of the forest, moving silently deeper and deeper into the heart of the woods. It was the night of full moon, but the light of the great sphere couldn't reach the world of shadows that dominated the bottom of the forest. He could hear few owls hooting, but other than that, the forest was ominously silent. It was almost like all living things had moved away from his path.

Eventually he did find what he was looking for. The great oak tree in the middle of everything, just as what had been told. He was eyeing the tree, his gaze wandering all over its trunk, from the greatest heights to down to the roots. He noticed that there was a cavity that was leading to a tunnel beneath the tree. It was quite small, though his body of a fox could fit inside. If there was something hiding there, it wasn't big. Not thinking about the matter more than that, he slipped inside the cavity.

The tunnel was rather short and the fox made it through in no time. He came to a den that was more spacious than expected. It was illuminated by some strange pale blue funguses. In their light he could see that he wasn't alone.

A small figure was laying on the ground. It was a red fox. Was this the fabled evil that slumbered under the tree? But the being in front of him didn't look much of a legendary beast. However, the fox had some roots around her feet, like shackles, and it seemed like that she couldn't move much because of them. Then, after sensing that somebody had entered the den, she opened up her eyes and looked at who had dared to come to her prison.

He was taken aback as soon as he saw her eyes. They were silvery, he had never seen eyes like that before. They were so gorgeous. 

While he was being captivated by her silver eyes, she raised from the ground to sit.

“Ah, it has been so long since the last time I had a visitor”, she spoke, and even her voice was beautiful. “I am Kirisnaka. Who might you be?”

“Nobody”, he replied.

“Nobody, huh…” Kirisnaka paused for a moment. “What has made you to come here?”

“I had heard rumors about a monster that resides in this forest and wanted to see them myself”, he answered. “But pardon, your appearance isn't… well, as horrifying as the rumors may suggest.”

Kirisnaka let out a delightful laughter.

“I used to be very powerful, I assure you”, she said, smiling. “But I was stripped from all my powers and my form got reduced into a mere fox. But why did you want to come to see me? Tell me everything about it, I have nothing but time.”

He sat down in front of Kirisnaka and began to tell her about his life. Even he was surprised how easily he could talk to her and felt relaxed in her presence. They talked for hours, and hours turned to days. And the more time passed, the more he got convinced that he had finally found a new purpose in his life, as a special kind of bond had formed between them. He would serve queen Kirisnaka, pledging allegiance to her, his life now belonged to her.



[b]NO MONSTERS HERE[/b]

“Okay, Luke, it's time to get to bed. You have school tomorrow.”

The seven-year-old boy obeyed his mother and ran to upstairs to get ready for bed. He did the little evening routines, used bathroom and brushed his teeth, dressed in his pajama, and then crawled into his bed, waiting for his mother to tell him a bedtime story. The family's dog, a Corgi called Oliver, had come to his room as well and curled up next to Luke's bed. Soon the mother entered his room and sat on the chair that was waiting for her close to the bed. She began to read a story for her son.

It was a tale about a fox and a star. The tiny silver star would sing every night to the fox who would climb to a rock to listen to these songs. Eventually they would fall in love with each other and the silver star decides, that it wants to get closer to the fox. It would then go asking from many other sky dwellers how it could descend into the world below, visiting other stars and clouds and even a moon. It then got an advice to find a dragon, that would help it to become a shooting star. And so, the little star sought the dragon, of course finding it eventually. This dragon was very helpful and gave the star some aid, however warning it first that it couldn't get back to the sky if it took this path. The little star remained determined, so the dragon helped it to become a shooting star, sending it down to the world. And the star was happy, because now it could be with the fox, and even the morning wouldn't separate them anymore.

When the story was over, the mother closed the book she had been reading, kissed Luke's forehead, turned the night light on and left the tired boy to sleep in peace. Oliver stayed with him, snoozing next to the boy's bed.

In a couple of hours, Luke's both parents went to bed as well. The house became silent and dark and peaceful. Or so it was for a little while. None of the residents knew that something strange was going to happen – except Oliver. And because it was aware what would happen at night, it had decided to stay by Luke's side.

The night light in Luke's room was flickering until it turned off completely, but of course, the sleeping boy didn't notice this. Oliver opened up its eyes and raised its head. The dog growled softly. The shadows had started to move. Their nightly invasion had begun. Little critters were taking their form from the darkest of places, such as from the hall, closet and under the bed. Their little yellow eyes were gleaming in the darkness. Hungry for the life force of Luke, they had started to get closer to the boy. 

But Oliver wouldn't allow that. The Corgi had jumped up and dashed at the closest shadow critter, snapping its jaws around the throat of the little invader. Oliver shook the critter like if it was a ragdoll and soon it disappeared with a faint scream. The dog didn't dawdle and took another target, giving it the same treatment as for the first one. This got the other critters to understand that they wouldn't get past the guard dog easily and tried to gang up on Oliver. But the Corgi bravely fought against the herd of tiny monsters, just like it had done so many nights before. One by one Oliver took down the critters, until the invasion was over for the night.

Luke's night light got turned on again. That was a sign for the brave Corgi that every monster had retreated, for now. It was victorious, once more. Then Oliver walked next to the boy's bed, yawned a little and curled up, falling in well-deserved sleep. It had protected the boy successfully. And it was ready to do it again. It was Oliver's duty to make sure that there were no monsters here.