Once upon a time, there was a definable balance. A line is drawn clearly between good and evil. Through the ages and by one of the laws of thermodynamics, entropy gradually increased. The chaos wasn’t good or bad, light or dark. It just blurred the line. The good claimed the entropy was evil. The evil understood it was just a natural force but took credit anyway. Towards the beginning of the end, all that was left was a small resistance of both evil and good, each on trying to forge blindly into the grey the entropy left behind. Heroes with a faulty sense of justice roamed the land. Villains who didn't know what to do with themselves simply existed. There were some on both sides who had lost their rationality to time but weren’t really bad or good. In the end, it was up to the individual to determine what was bad, and what was good.

*****

“Julie? Julie! Julie, where are you?” The little boy called, wandering around the dark forest aimlessly. He spotted a pair of green eyes staring at him from the trees before picking up a rock and sticking it in his slingshot.

“Wait wait! I’m coming down,” Came Julie’s exasperated voice. She loved to hide from her little brother, but he got upset after a while and once he spotted her usually would get payback. The moment she hit the forest floor, her brother launched a marshmallow at her (much more forgiving than a rock). It hit her right between her eyes, powdering her grey-green skin with its expired sweetness. She stared at him for a few seconds. He had a pout on his face and another marshmallow ready to fire. She smiled at him and reached into her backpack. He dropped his slingshot and ran excitedly towards her. She scooped her little brother up with ease, setting him into her backpack. His hands beat the backpack like a drum as Julie began to walk through the forest, ducking under branches normal people couldn't even reach. Her brown horns had blue-green glowing bulbs on it, each one glowing softly enough for her sensitive eyes to see the path ahead. A twig snapped not too far behind the pair, making Julie stop cold. Her little brother shuffled and patted her neck three times quickly, their signal for danger.

“What a beautiful tree…” Julie observed, grabbing on to one of the branches above her. A boar screeched behind her, charging as she pulled herself up into the tree effortlessly and quickly. Her brother let out a short victory ‘aha’ before he was silenced by his sister. “Dude, shut up until it goes away.” Julie scolded him. She looked down, her green eyes and glowing horns providing an eerie look through the trees. The boar growled and roared, charging the tree. It shook beneath the beast’s weight, and the boar looked back up with six, hungry red eyes. Julie’s little brother Kyle shivered at the sight. To comfort him, she smiled, patted his head, and turned her attention back to the boar.

“Do you think it will go away if I shoot it?” Kyle wondered, his hands still holding the stone from before. Julie nodded, willing to try anything. The animal was clearly hungry, they’d either have to make themselves not worth it’s time or travel through the trees, which could be dangerous if they lose sight of the path. Kyle let the little pebble fly, striking the hog right in one of its eyes. It squealed angrily, looking up right as Julie covered her brother’s eyes. The boar itself was bleeding furiously from the struck eye, and she didn't want sweet little Kyle to see the outcome of the strike. It began to wail on the tree with repetitive strikes, goring deep into the wood with its sharp tusks. The tree began to groan and tremble beneath the final blows.

“Hold on Kyle!” Julie shouted, crouching down on all four limbs before leaping haphazardly to the next tree. Her horns got caught in the leaves and jerked her head back, but she managed to find purchase after snapping a few week branches out of the way. The tree behind them tumbled over, the boar squealing as the unexpected force of its prey jumping to the next locked its tusks in the bark. Julie quickly hopped down before sprinting down the path and away from the boar. Eventually, she reached the plains, where she set down Kyle.

“What do we need today, Julie?” Kyle asked her. Julie sat down on her haunches and thought for a minute before snapping her fingers.

“It would be nice if you could get a chicken so we can start raising our own eggs, and I think it would be best if you got some seeds, too,” Julie stated, thinking ahead a bit. They could survive off of the food they had for at least another week. That food wouldn’t last forever, though. Kyle saluted her, hiding his tiny, flat horns beneath a small cloak leaving his innocent face and only slightly inhuman eyes visible. Julie patted him on the head before heading back into the forest, pulling her blue cloak over her head. Well, as far as she could pull it over before her horns got in the way. She turned back to face him for a second. “Get yourself a treat, too,”. Kyle, determined, set out to town with the loot Julie had earned from dungeon raids.

“Chicken… seeds… and a treat for myself. We’ll start with the seeds. Those should be the easiest to find,” He mused to himself as he stepped through the city gates and into the marketplace. Almost immediately, he realized someone was pickpocketing him and swatted their hand away. Before he could get a glimpse of their face, they had already disappeared into the crowd. He let out a frustrated grunt that turned into a sigh before heading to a stall full of produce.

“Melons, we’ve got fresh melons!”

“Bag of grains, only a gold chip!”

“Corn, get your corn!” Came one. He picked out its direction with his sensitive ears, part of their genetics from their parents. He hurried over, lifting up each bag carefully before selecting one and pulling out a few gold coins from his bag. The shopkeeper raised an eyebrow. Sighing, Kyle tossed him another two coins to keep him quiet. The shopkeeper caught them and smiled. Next, Kyle began to look for chickens. He found a few that looked promising but recognized the shopkeeper that kept his chickens a few days away from death so that his customers would be forced to come back. He hated that. Usually, the ones they had up on display had been fed sand so they couldn't digest anything and would starve. He moved on, eventually finding a group of gypsies with several chickens up and a nice little tent for them. Kyle looked around, trying to find someone to buy them from. Eventually one of the gypsies appeared from the chicken tent.

“Can I help you?” He asked with a strong accent. Kyle nodded.

“Are any of those chickens for sale?” Kyle asked, noting that the chickens looked a lot better than the ones the scammer sold.

“Chickens? We have a few for sale, but do you have enough money?” The gypsy asked kindly, not expecting a little kid like Kyle to have any money. Kyle held out his bag of treasures that his sister had given him. He was willing to lose the money for treats if he could get a few chickens. The Gypsy scoffed for a second. He cleared his throat and lowered his voice. “Kid, for that price I’ll help you get them home, you’re only the size of their cages, after all. Don’t tell anyone else I gave you special treatment, normally I wouldn’t have sold any of them,” He offered. Kyle smiled and nodded happily.

“I’ll only need to get them to the edge of the forest, my sister can help me get them the rest of the way,” Kyle stated, handing him the bag. The Gypsy nodded and smiled. Although Kyle didn't know it, the gypsy was completely honest with his promise. He walked over and grabbed two cages, one with two chickens and one with a rooster.

“Lead the way, little one,”