Shadowed

SHADOWED
Jim was nervous. It was time for his exam and he didn’t know what to do. He paced around his tightly packed dungeon, straightening his robe and flattening his messy, brown hair.
“You can’t do this,” he said to himself, “but you have to if you want to get your wizard degree. Seems like you don’t have a choice. ”
He glanced at the hour glass sand trickling on the mantle piece. Each grain of sand reminded him of how much time he had left. Jim stopped pacing and sighed. Any minute now… Jim was so worried, he didn’t realize he no longer have a shadow.

Rose sat up in bed. She peeled back the hangings of her four posters and scanned the room, combing stray hair out of her eyes at the same time. She was sure she heard something around the corner. Her heart pounding, Rose got out of bed and picked up her bed warmer for defense. The coals within the warmer burnt bright red- the only colour visible in contrast to the dark atmosphere. Pressing her bare feet against the cold timber floor, Rose crept across the room towards the corner. She felt the helm of her night gown lapping gently against her ankle in the breeze. Grinning wickedly to herself, Rose held the bed warmer like a sword and tip toed toward the corner. As she near the corner, she became more definite of someone’s presence there. Suddenly, the clouds covering the moon parted and moonlight swept into Rose’s room, casting a silvery glow in the atmosphere.
Rose gasped.
There was nothing in the corner! Nothing apart from a shadow pasted on the wall.
“Don’t worry,” Rose told her self, “It’s just my own shadow.”
Or was it?                                                                           
By the moonlight, Rose could see that the shadow was of around the same height as her. However, the shadow featured a boy with short, messy hair and wearing a tunic and robes. It certainly wasn’t Rose’s shadow. Still, how could there be a shadow without a body?
Her first instinct was to run but Rose was petrified to the spot.
Shivering from more than the cold, she eventually managed to stammer, “St…st…stay….Ba…ba...back…I…I’ve…got…a…a…be…bed…wa…war…
warmer,” then in a braver tone she added, “I’ve …I’ve also got a chamber pot and I’m not afraid to use it!”
The words seem to have little, if any affect on the shadow. It turned slowly toward Rose and somehow, unbelievably, it spoke!
“Do not be scared. I am wizard apprentice Jim’s shadow. I am Tim,” it said confidently.
Rose was shocked and speechless. Her knuckles were white from clinging on to the bed warmer. She backed to the centre of the room and gawked at the shadow, mouth hanging open.
“Careful, there’s a box…” started Tim.
BANG
“…behind you”
Rose tried to pick her self up but her limbs failed her. She lay on the floor, eyes never leaving the shadow. 
Tim continued to speak, “I have come to warn you. Wizard Jim will have to kidnap a princess to pass his wizard degree.”
“What’s that got to do with me?” Rose managed to stutter angrily.
Although there were no eyes on Tim, the shadow seemed to raise his eyebrows.
“Oh!” examined Rose, “I am a princess. How could I have forgotten?”
Tim sighed and said, “I have left Jim’s side and replaced your shadow with me instead.”
Rose nodded meaning she understood. She wasn’t scared anymore, Tim seemed comforting and nice.
“Well, why would he kidnap me?” Rose asked.
“Because you’re a princess,” Tim replied
“No I mean, why does he have to kidnap a princess?” Rose said impatiently.
“I told you, to pass his exam, Jim would have to kidnap a princess,” said Tim, “His examiner told him to.”
Rose felt that this was unfair, “Nobody would kidnap me, except dragons.”
“Ummmmmmm…”
“Don’t tell me. He is a dragon right?” sighed Rose dreading the answer.
Tim nodded unhappily.
Rose sighed again. Grabbing her cloak and crown, she opened the window.
“Then we had better be going,” she responded.

THUMP THUMP THUMP
Jim heard footsteps, loud footsteps. He straightened his best wizard robes and put on his pointy wizard hat. Then he stood in front of the door.
“Anytime now the door will burst open,” he thought to himself, “Master always likes making big entrances.”
Then he started a mute countdown. 5…4...3…2…1
Indeed, right on cue, the large stone door burst open revealing a fearsome dragon, at least thirty feet tall and two wagons wide. The dragon had a crocodile like head and lizard like body with two leathery wings. Its whole body was covered with poisonous green scales which formed a backbone that was sharp and gruesome running down its back. It lowered its head to the door way and glared at Jim with piercing yellow eyes. 
“Ssssssoo Jim, Ready for your tesssst?” it hissed with a resonating sound.
Jim’s body responded on its own and nodded bravely, “Yes master.”
“Do you underssssssstand what to do?”
Feeling too sick and nervous to open his mouth, Jim nodded again. The dragon leveled his eerie head and studied Jim as if searching for a weakness with a look that could melt earwax. Finally, it inclined its head.
“You have exxxxxxxxxactly two turnsss of the hour glassssssss,” it hissed.

The old blacksmith couldn’t understand why a young girl (who looked suspiciously like the princess) in a night gown with a mismatching shadow was wondering in the city this late at night.
“Me poor old eyes,” he mumbled and fell right back to sleep again.
Rose glanced at Tim.
“This had better not take to long or I might miss the jousting tournament tomorrow,” she said.
“Let’s try to keep you alive till tomorrow,” replied Tim darkly, “I know Jim very well, having been around him all my life. He might not catch you today but he’s very persistent.”
“There you go again, being negative,” grumbled Rose, “Have you ever heard of the saying “the spittoon is half empty, not half full”?”
The shadow was silent.
“This makes me wonder. If you can get away from Jim, could you also just walk away now?” asked Rose.
“Of course not! We shadows have to follow their owners everywhere,” answered Tim sounding a bit aggrieved by this question, “Once Jim accidentally splashed some potion on me and I was able to move and think for myself. Afterwards, I kept trying to get away but Jim kept catching me again.”

The watch guards patrolling around the castle never saw the blue flash behind them as part of the wall just disappeared.
Jim pocketed his wand and slipped into the crack he created. Then, he started looking for the princess’s bedroom. Princess Rose had a tremendous amount of rooms like the morning room, the afternoon room, the too-early-to-go-to-bed-but-too-late-to-go-out room, the dressing room and so on. To find the bedroom would be a hard task. After a long time of checking every room, grabbing a snack from the hungry-but-too-early-for-dinner room and recovering from his experience after entering the after-eating-and-drinking-too-much room, Jim finally found the bedroom. He crept behind a wall and observed the entrance to the room. Just as he thought, there were two guards standing on either sides of the door, both looking drowsy and tired. Jim smiled sadly. The guards wouldn’t want any more sleep after this. 

Jim entered the bedroom quietly, grinning at the distant shouts of the guards claiming they’ve seen a ghost. Tapping his cloak with his wand and turning it back to purple from white, he looked for Rose around the room. He didn’t have much time. The guards were sure to alert others soon. Jim was anxious about his job. He didn’t want to hurt anyone but this was his duty. He crept towards the bed. He lifted the covers and let out an angry gasp. The princess wasn’t there! Jim felt a breeze on his face and turned to see the open window. A rope was hanging from the four posters out the window. Jim quaked with disbelief. He could hear approaching footsteps and looked around anxiously.
“I swear we saw a ghost,” said a guard.
“There’s no such thing.” Replied the second guard impatiently.
“No really, it was there,” complained the first guard.
Jim gave an outraged cry and stole a last glance at the empty bed. The guard heard the cry and barged into the room just to see Jim leap out the window.

“Did you hear that?”
Tim was leading Rose toward the deserted dungeons where prisoners were kept in the past. “It’ll be the last place Jim will look” Tim had said. The two were still close to the castle and Rose was feeling talkative despite avoiding getting caught.
“Did you hear that?” repeated Tim.
“What?” asked Rose.
“That,” said Tim.
Distant panicked shouts could be heard.
“The princess, kidnapped!”
“Heard a young boy went in her room and took her with him!”
“Did you hear?”
“Yes! The princess Rose kidnapped!”
“Such a sweet girl she was.”
Rose turned to Tim with dismay.
“They think I’m kidnapped! What do we do?” she hissed.
“We can’t go back or they’ll think that I kidnapped you,” said Tim aggressively, “I bet they saw Jim and apparently he got away. There’s a possibility he’s near by.”
He started running, “Hurry, we have to get to the deserted dungeons fast!”
Unsure, Rose followed.

Jim hurried around the corner, his star filled cloak whipped impressively in the breeze. He broke into a frantic run and tripped over a puddle. Jim pulled himself up and huddled into a corner. Now, for the first time, he noticed that he was lost. He also noticed the unmistakable sound of wolves howling in the forest nearby and the sound of the angry mob that would soon chase him for supposedly kidnapping the princess. The task wasn’t turning out to be the way he wanted it to at all. He wanted to become a wizard to help people but instead, on becoming a wizard, he’s hurting others. He still had to report to the dragon that the mission was a failure. The dragon would be waiting in the deserted dungeons. That’s where he had to go. Suddenly, Jim didn’t care anymore. He would rather not be a wizard if that meant hurting others. Jim shivered in the cold he pulled his cloak tightly around him, huddled into a ball. Unwillingly, he felt silent tears stream down his cheek.

“Say,” whispered Rose, “here’s the bell tower. It’s been completely empty since John left.”
“John?” echoed Tim.
“Yes, John. You know, the man with the lump on his back,” replied Rose, “He was kind of weird but ni…”
Rose was cut short by Tim going “Shhhhhhh” and attemping to clamp his hand around her mouth. (Of course that was unsuccessful since Tim was just a shadow)
“What is it?” demanded Rose, alarmed.
“Shhhhhhh, I hear someone,” Tim hissed. They peered into a corner. By the soft moonlight they could make out a figure legs crossed and shoulder bowed. The silver moons and stars on his cloak and hat shone brightly like a knight’s armour. His shoulders were shacking and soft moaning sounds can be heard from him.
“That’s him,” whispered Tim.
Pose looked puzzled, “Who?”
“Him!”
“Who’s him?”
Tim sighed, “Will you just see for your self?”
“I will if you stop blocking my vision!” Rose hissed aggressively.
Muttering darkly, Tim Moved aside and Rose peered out from behind the wall.
“He doesn’t look like the dragon to me…” said Rose doubtfully.
Tim scowled, “Not the dragon, Jim!”
“Oh,” said Rose as understanding downed, “What’s he doing?”
“Looking for you!” explained Tim patiently as if to a three year old.
“I know but he’s not looking very hard is he!” snapped Rose then in a softer tone she said, “Maybe he’s hurt. We should help him.”
“No! Are you crazy?” cried Tim in an agitated whisper, “He’s trying to kidnap you! Come on, let’s go.”
Rose left reluctantly and doubtfully, stealing a last glance at the pitiful figure slumped against the wall.

After a while Rose and Tim arrived at the deserted dungeons.

Jim started in shock and annoyance. He was missing his shadow.
“Got away! Again!” he yelled, “This is a disaster!”

The deserted dungeon was a large block filled with twisting and menacing tunnels leading to torture chambers. The floor was covered with an inch of dust and cobwebs hung from every ceiling corner. The whole building looked…evil and screamed a message “Keep Out”
Rose looked at the gigantic doors.
“Are…are you sure...” she stammered.
Tim said confidently, “Through there.”
“Uh,” Rose stared at the crumbling walls, “Is this safe?”
“Of course. Let’s go,” Tim replied.
Rose pushed open the rusting doors and entered suspiciously.
Unseen by her, a sly smile creased across Tim’s face.

“Wadawachi!” Jim shouted, pointing his wand at a cat. The cat instantly took the form of the princess Rose wearing a silk night dress and traveling cloak.
It pained Jim to do this but after realizing that his shadow was missing, he knew that the princess was in danger. He had decided that he had to rescue Rose; after all, he started the idea of becoming a wizard and taking the exam. Jim knew that his own shadow had somehow kidnapped Rose and was taking her to the dragon though he didn’t know why it would do that. He planed to take the fake “Rose” to the dragon first and deal with his shadow later, in order to save the real princess. It was a dangerous act with high risk factors but Jim thought he had nothing else to loose. After all, the whole village was after him now.
He dragged the fake “Rose” up and started finding his way to the dungeons.
Jim had no idea that his shadow and Rose were already there.

Rose crept softly through the dark tunnel. It was so dark that she could not even see her own hands held in front of her eyes. She felt her breath rise before her and the slight tingly warmth as she passed through it. Rose had no idea where the tunnel leaded and where she was heading. Not being able to see anything, she sensed her way only by touch. Her hand and feet were cut in several places by shreds of broken glass (at least, she thought they were broken glass) already and considered finding a medicine for tetanus after she gets out, just in case. Tim and Rose walked in complete silence, broken by the occasional dripping of water somewhere nearby.
In this deathly tranquility, Rose had time to think. She didn’t like the deserted dungeon and she wasn’t sure if she trusted Tim anymore. After all, she didn’t know how getting lost in a series of tunnels would help not getting caught by Jim. Also, the whole night’s affair felt like a dream or a fragment of imagination now that she couldn’t see Tim in the darkness. Still, she made no objections and carried on. Feeling the way with her hands, she wondered into more darkness.

Jim looked at the building before him.
After getting lost several times, he finally arrived at the dungeons. It had an atmosphere of forbid ness. Jim shivered and swung “Rose” onto his shoulder. Pulling out his wand, he produced a blue light and holding it out before him, he walked to the front gate. Expecting the gate to be locked, he got his wand ready. To his amazement the stone doors swung open with ease. Jim groaned with dismay. Rose and Tim were already inside. 

Just when Rose started feeling claustrophobic, the tunnel opened up into a large room. The room was slightly more illuminated than the tunnel by a few candles and disperses moonlight through smashed windows. She made out the faint outline of Tim stepping in beside her. Tim gestured her to keep walking.
“Princesses first,” he said barely able to conceal the excitement in his voice.
Rose shrugged.
She took another two steps.
Suddenly, she felt a flash of pain as something heavy and hard smacked the back of her head. Then, her knees buckled and Rose fell into a hapless heap on the floor -unconscious. The last thing she heard was of Tim, laughing hysterically   

Jim held the light before him. He tried to keep the fear and anxiety out of his mind.
“Must save princess. Must save princess,” he regurgitated again and again, “Must save princess. Must save princess.”
The tunnel had no end to Jim.

“Ouch,” said Rose painfully when she finally regained consciousness. She attempted to rub her head with her hand just to find that they were fastened tightly behind her with coarse ropes. Her legs were also bound together.
“Tim! Tim where are you!” she called. Rose’s voice echoed around the cold, stone room, sending distorted copies of it back to her. She quickly stopped calling as her own voice scared her. 
Rose was tied up in the same room that she passed out in. She could see an object shaped like a gigantic reptile silhouetted against the dim candle lights.
The creature stirred and turned towards Rose. It lowered its head and in a voice barely louder than a whisper it spoke.
“Ssssso your awake now,” it smiled, “Exxxxcellent. Now I can hear your ssssscreamsss asss I eat you.”
Rose eyes widened and she screamed with horror as she goggled at the dragon in front of her. 

Jim ran through the tunnel with his light penetrating the darkness around him. He still had “Rose” with him and it ricocheted violently on his shoulder making frantic “Meowing” noises. Jim was lost but he didn’t care. Suddenly, he heard a sharp scream slice through the air before him.
“Oh no!” he cried and started pelting with new found strength.

“Tim,” said the dragon.
“Yes master,” Tim arrived at the dragon’s side.
“Well done for bringing me the princess,” continued the dragon, “You are now a qualified wizard.”
Rose glared at Tim with shock.
“You’re with him?” she screamed at Tim, “You lured me to the dragon whilst pretending you’re trying to help me? Why?”
Tim laughed. His laugh sounded different from the voice Rose had known him by. Rose shivered; Tin’s new voice sounded evil and sent a twinge down her spine.
“Imagine how powerful I would become!” screamed Tim as if the last bit of self control within him had just evaporated, “As the first ever shadow wizard in the world, I would be able to revive every other shadows and take over the world with them!”
Rose felt scandalous. “Why?” she snapped, “Why do you want to take over the world?”
“Having given a life, I started feeling sorry for my fellow shadows. Lifeless things, following their owners where ever they went. Being stepped on by passers by. Not being able to talk, to communicate with each other. Can you imagine how boring their lives are? It’s supposed to be the other way round! You people should be the ones following us where ever we go! You should be the ones being walked over! You should be the ones not being able to talk!” Tim bellowed as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world, “After I become a wizard, I will make that happen!”
“You can’t do that!” yelped Rose, “You can’t just…”
“Yes I can and I will! You can’t stop me!” Tim said, smiling wickedly.
The dragon observed the scene with amusement, cleared its throat and said, “That’sssss enough chit chat. I’m getting hungry.”
“Are you just going to stand by and let this happen?” snapped Rose.
The dragon shrugged, “I am a powerful wizzzzzard, I can abandon my sssssshadow, I won’t become affected,” he licked his lips, “Come to think of it, human following shadowsssss are easssssy prey. Now, time for my dinner.”
It leaned towards Rose and opened its jaws revealing rows of razor sharp teeth.

Rose stared helplessly up at her doom……which never came.
Rose opened her eyes (which she didn’t realize were closed) and saw the dragon rearing up with fury as Jim pointed his wand at the creature. The wand was shining bright red and letting out super bright light, blinding the dragon.
“Quick!” Jim yelled at Rose, “Get out of the way!”
Rose instinctively rolled aside as a great ball of flame melted the wall she was leaning on moments ago. 
Jim quickly dragged the still tied up Rose behind a stone pillar. There, he untied her.
“I thought you wanted to kidnap me too!” said Rose.
“Not anymore. Come on!” Jim replied shortly.
They both dived just as the pillar disintegrated in the dragon’s fire.
“What do we do?” cried Rose, “The dragon’s too powerful!”
“Get out of here!” yelled Jim over the dragon’s roar, “Go out the back door!”
Rose looked around; indeed, there was a back door on the far side of the room. She started towards it but was cut off by the dragon swinging his tail in front of her, making the ground shake. Body acting on its own, Rose grabbed onto one of the scales on the dragon and climbed onto his back.
The dragon hissed with anger and breathed another jet of fire but he couldn’t afford to burn itself. Instead, it twisted its long neck back and attempted to bite Rose. Just as it was about to, Jim threw a rock at the dragon. The rock didn’t seem to hurt the huge beast but it disturbed it and gave Rose a chance to get away. Rose slid down the dragon’s spine as it breathed another fireball at Jim.
Jim ducked quickly but smelt burning hair. When he saw that Rose had reached the door, he tried to stun the dragon again by producing a bright light. However, the dragon was not to be fooled twice, it quickly turned away, clamping his jaws down at the same time.
Jim got hit by its snout and fell.
The dragon roared with triumph and lunged…
…just as Rose dived in front of Jim.
Jim took this opportunity and ran out the back door.

The dragon stared at Rose clamped between his claws and licked its mouth.
“I told you I wasssss going to eat you,” it snarled, “That boy issss no longer here to help you now.”
The dragon frowned; the princess didn’t seem to be scared at all. It was used to its preys sobbing on the floor and begging for mercy (not that it ever gave them any) this was a new experience for it.
“You look very tasty,” the dragon licked its lips, “I’ve alwaysssss liked eating princessssesssss. They are alwaysss the mosssst tender assss they had good food all their life.”
“Meow,” said Rose.

The roar of anger from the dragon could be heard from miles away. Jim ran out the backdoor to meet Rose.
“Quick, we’ll better get back to the city,” said Jim, “I think the dragon had finally figured that he had been tricked.”
Rose started running along side Jim, “Nice transformation of me by the way.”
“Thanks.”
They turned several corners and at last, they could see the village in front of them. Rose and Jim stopped running. There was something dark blocking their way.
“Why did you do that?” screamed Tim with fury, “You ruined my perfect plan!”
“What are you going to do?” laughed Rose, “You can’t hurt us!”
“Oh no?” asked Tim, “I think your forgetting that I’m still a wizard!”
At that, the shadow conjured a large purple flame and threw it at Rose who jumped aside. Tim produced another flame which it threw at Jim, who rolled aside, ducked, and then splashed some lime green potion onto the shadow from a phial.
There was a shrill scream and the shadow was no longer a talking, moving shadow. It became lifeless and back at Jim’s side. Rose’s shadow returned too.
“What was that?” asked Rose as they started running again.
“It’s the same potion that I accidentally sprayed my shadow with ages ago,” answered Jim, “I just reversed the ingredients.”
“Reversed the ingredients?” echoed Rose.
“Yes, like, for example, the essence of night became the essence of day,” explained Jim.
“Oh,” said Rose.
Together, they near the main city piazza.

The dragon chased after Jim and Rose at breakneck speed. It was angry at being fooled by a princess and a wizard apprentice. It wanted revenge.

Rose and Jim reached the piazza.
“What now?” asked Jim.
“I’ve got a plan,” was the answer from Rose.

The city was silent as the dragon entered it. It crawled slowly and stealthily through the narrow streets and into the city piazza. The dragon bent down to find a scent of Jim and Rose and hissed angrily when it found none. It turned back into the streets just as he saw, out of the corner of its eyes, a glitter of shining star on purple fabric.
It roared and shot a flaming ball of fire at it.
The purple heap soon reduced to a pile of ash.
Jim, seeing that the dragon fell for the hoax, ran out from behind the wall. He quickly preformed a freezing charm on the dragon’s four legs.
The dragon, realizing it was tricked again, growled angrily. It turned around, failed and collapsed on the floor, making the ground shudder.
Jim kept his distance. Holding his wand up warily, Jim circled around the dragon.
“Hurry up Rose,” he mumbled, “Please hurry up.”
Just when the freezing charm started wearing off, a large group of knights arrived, leaded by Rose.
“I told you I’ve got a plan,” was all she said.

“So you gave all your chances of becoming a wizard to save my daughter,” Said the King.
Jim bowed his head shyly. It was morning and Rose and Jim were escorted back to the castle. The dragon was now being questioned in the lower dungeons and the fake Rose was turned back into a cat. After some food and a bath, Jim and Rose were asked to tell the King about what happened the night before.
The King nodded, “For your hard work and saving my daughter, I will grant you the privilege to becoming a wizard.”
Jim looked up with happiness and renewed hope.
Rose, sitting next to her father grinned at Jim and winked.
Jim bowed, “Thank you my lord, I am honored to receive this gift,” the he said, “I will work as hard as I can to become a wizard. I promise.” 

Rose and Jim sat alone in a room.
“So why did you decide not to kidnap me after all?” Rose asked.
“I didn’t want to hurt anyone. Two wrongs don’t make a right. Accepting the offer to capture you to become a wizard is a mistake. Actually capturing you doesn’t make it right,” said Tim, “I wanted to be a wizard to help people, and I would be ashamed of myself if in order to become a wizard, I have to hurt someone.”
Rose smiled, “But it’s all okay now. The dragon’s locked away and Tim’s gone now.”
Jim nodded.
“Now you can also start over. My dad gave you the permission to becoming a wizard didn’t he? Now you can help as many people as you want,” Rose continued, “There’s still the jousting tournament later, want to come?”
Jim nodded cheerfully, “Thank you”
“No, I should be thanking you,” said Rose, “Partly for saving me from the dragon, partly for getting rid of Tim.”
“You don’t seem to be scared of me,” laughed Jim, “but yet, you’re scared of my shadow.”
Rose grinned sheepishly, “Just say, I don’t like to be tricked into believing in someone. I don’t ever want to be shadowed again.”
Jim grinned and together, they put the night’s events behind them and walked towards the jousting grounds. They both carried a phial of lime green potion, just in case.