Epilogue
The cold wind blew through the clearing, sending sprays of leaves into the air to tumble and spin into miniature tornados as it passed. The trees lining the clearing swayed and danced in the breeze, laughing as the wind tore past. The shadow standing in the centre watched it all, unable to feel the wind itself, but enjoying the reaction it caused in its brothers.
On the southern edge the trees were sparser, and bright sunlight was reaching through the gaps between their trunks from the open sky beyond the edge of the Tangle. The shadow hadn’t been this close to the border in weeks, months perhaps, and it enjoyed the strange pull the sunlight had on it, even though it knew it could never survive outside the Tangle’s protection. Not anymore.
A child cried out, and the shadow step
