“Someone please tell me this isn’t a dream…” I mutter as I stare off into the tree line. I then hear what sounds like a bleat in the distance. I follow the sound towards the clearing and see there’s a herd of deer with bucks, does, and a few fawns. What struck me as odd was these deer have blue fur with white stripes down their backs. The fawns had white dots on their backs and the bucks all had black horns. I sit there motionless while I watch this herd grazing on grass and the fawns playing with one another. Soon after I find them, they all move along and disappear into the forest nearby. I get up and move into the clearing to see different flowers. Some look like rainbow-colored tulips while others are their own creation with neon colors of every variety. I’ve never seen colors like these on flowers, especially on some that stick out like poppies and roses. With such beauty, I feel compelled to kneel and touch one of the petals. As I admire the colors and the softness of the petals, I hear a deep voice from behind me.

“Don’t you know you shouldn’t get lost with your nose in a book?” I turn and there’s the black and silver knight from before.

“Shadow!” With my eyes clouded by tears, I run towards him without hesitation. This time, instead of shying away from my touch, he embraces me with the warmest hug I’ve ever felt. Despite him having metal armor, it wasn’t cold at all, he wasn’t cold at all. He was warm, gentle, soothing. I soon then felt his wings wrap around me in a protective enclosure. Everything I had building up inside me just came pouring out in tears. All the anger, sadness, fear, and the overwhelming sensation of everything crashing down at once. I don’t know how long we stayed like that in the clearing but he held me in his embrace until I stopped crying and caught my breath.

“It’s alright, you’re safe now.” Shadow says stroking my cheek.

“What is going on, Shadow? Someone knows about me and this book I found, someone knows –” He interrupts me. “I know, the power of the book allowed you to connect to me. That’s how I found you and brought the house here.”

“What?” I say flabbergasted.

“There’s much to discuss. Follow me.” He folds in his wings and takes me by the hand through a path in the forest. I see those butterflies again from the first time I was here. One lands on my shoulder while the other lands on Shadow’s helmet. We walk for a while until we come to a cliff on the side of a nearby mountainside and I see an entrance to a cave. The butterflies then fly away and he holds out an armored hand. “Come along, it’s not much farther”. We enter the cave and it doesn’t take long for me to get turned around.

“I don’t know how you don’t get lost down here.” I say.

“You learn to live in the environment around you.” He says matter-of-factly. I stay quiet for the remainder of our walk since I have no idea what to even say at this point. My head is swimming with questions about this book, about this place, the people and/or person following me, everything. It isn’t long before we reach a dead-end with a straight drop in the large cavern.

“Did we take a wrong turn?” I ask.

“No.” He says as he leaps from the edge and unfolds his wings. My heart jumps in my chest at the sight but I soon see him rise with his wings flapping in the air. “Jump.”

“Are you mad?” I say stunned at his request. “I can’t fly.”

“Trust me.”

“But Shadow, I can’t –”

“Trust me, Amy.” I am hesitant, but I take a couple breaths, close my eyes and take a leap of faith as I leap off the ledge. I feel myself fall and scream as I go down. With my eyes still closed, I don’t feel the impact of the ground, but rather a pair of arms carrying me like a princess. I open my eyes to see Shadow holding me as we ascend upwards towards the ceiling. A short while later we go through to another room where it’s the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen. There are giant columns of old buildings scattered throughout the terrain. There’s a huge waterfall cascading downwards from the ceiling of stalactites that are showing their rainbow of colors. Up towards the ceiling I see an opening in the wall and realize it must be where Shadow lives. We fly up to his place and he sets me down, almost princess-like. As I look around, it reminds me of a set up from an enchanted library where I saw walls of books with chairs and couches scattered.

“Shadow…” I say in awe of my surroundings.

“You must be tired. Please sit.” He says as he gestures towards a chair. I sit in the plush chair and he sits next to me. He flips a switch of his helmet and it releases the mouth cover of his helmet to reveal his mouth. It was very human-like with very plum skin tone.

“This may sound strange, but I feel so safe here.” I say as I sit down.

“That was my intention.” He says and he sits next to me. “No one has found me yet, and I aim to keep it that way.”

“Shadow, what is going on?” I hesitate. “I mean, how am I here?”

“Allow me to explain.” He starts. “Are you aware of guardian spirits, entities, beings, or ghosts?”

“Yes.”

“I guess you could say, that is what I am to you.” He continues. “Throughout your life, you’ve noticed things no one else can. You’ve seen things move on their own, or even things that have disappeared.”

“Yeah, we say that either there’s a poltergeist in the home or I’m a PK Agent that … created … a being …” My voice trails off.

“Correct. Amy, that’s been me.” He has my full attention at that claim. “You may have seen me as an imaginary friend in your youth. But I’ve always been with you, ensuring your safety.”

“Did you create this book.” He shakes his head.

“No, you did.” I gave a look of utter confusion. “The book is a being itself, in its own way. It was created as an extension of myself where I could reach you more easily. I only understand the term ‘PK Agent’ from your mind where I can interpret it’s meaning and I will say, you are the strongest I have ever encountered.”

“Encountered? You mean you’ve been with others?”

“Yes, I’ve only observed as I am not bound to you. I can go wherever I choose as you provided me with a free will of choice.” I smile at that mention because when I was younger, I wanted Shadow to have a free will of his own and make his own choices. Then again, that’s when I was younger. Shadow then continues talking. “I’ve seen people with similar abilities. The only time I’ve seen anyone with your power was when another entity was introduced to this world.”

“You mean that dark being?”

“Yes.” He continued. “When I first saw this being, he had a resembling energy to myself and I didn’t know what to make of it. I made my way over to the manifestation location and saw this was a being that was far older than myself, and I felt it was … distorted. So, I observed this being from a distance for a time.”

“Distorted? Like how.”

“Like it resembled my energy, but it was malicious.”