The Valley of the Shadow of Death

Death lingered in the air.

Watching…

Waiting…

And thus, the cold wind was made colder for the lonely boy out alone in the woods with his head slouched down and his back leaning against an old tree. His final breath was drawing nigh. Any second now and his body would become hollow. An empty shell. A bygone vessel soon to be devoured by more than one kind of vulture.

No clouds hung up above to conceal a mesmerizing night full of shining stars.

The boy looked up. A sight which used to fill him with so much fervor and hope now incited a much different reaction in him. The last of his strength was fading as a wry grin appeared on his face. Although his exact age was a mystery to him, the boy was old enough to know he had gone mad. That fickle threshold had been crossed.

“Thanks for lookin’ out for me… Pfft… Not.”

Beyond the sky, in a place transcendent from space and time, a lost boy fixated his gaze until he could bear it no longer.

“I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”

After a quick glance over his shoulder towards a spot in the woods ten or so feet away, his head slouched back down once again, resigned to a morose state of mind. Time was passing excruciatingly slow, and he wanted it all to be over, once and for all.

Vast families of towering redwoods accounted for a majority of the trees in the immediate area. Interspersed between some of them cried a weeping willow here and there with goldening leaves and branches drooping so low some of them touched the ground. These melancholy beauties in particular made for an excellent hiding spot. Tucked underneath the weeping willow with added brush and leaves for extra concealment, wrapped in a meager assortment of old and ripped blankets, laid hidden the only thing left remaining he still cared about.

Down again he looked, completely unfocused, staring into space. Staring into dirt. His vision was somewhat obscured by overgrown hair he declined to pull back out of the way with a hand. Still, he sat, forsaken.

Winter would be arriving shortly, and thus Mother Nature delivered an introductory gift in the form of snow a few days prior. Nothing major. Just enough to frost the ground so that each and every footstep echoed with a loud crunch. Some trees were barren, while others, like the evergreens, welcomed the changing of seasons with open arms. One second they were swaying with the wind as if they were dancing to an invisible beat. The next second, everything changed.

Surging wind akin to a hurricane blasted through the woods followed by a tremendous crash. The impact to the ground sent shockwaves in every direction. Anything and everything inside of the immediate vicinity became either crushed or ripped from the ground.

The boy felt it to be unnatural, violent, and menacing. Whatever it was happened a bit too far away and a bit too far out of sight to give any clue about what had just caused the substantial disturbance. Only one thing was for certain… Calamity had just arrived.

Although… why should he care? It wasn’t like he’d be sticking around for long anyway. Luckily enough—ahh, what a sentiment in times such as these—all of the powerful forces, the shockwaves and wind, that came straight at him, could not unroot him. His back pushed up against the tree acted as an anchor point to nullify a majority of the energy surging at him from the mysterious interruption.

For a brief moment his hair billowed out of his eyes, an unkempt and neglected mess, until the surrounding area returned once again to an eerie calm. Towards the ground his gaze remained.

“I do, what I do. I did, what I did. They took, and they took. I watched, and I listened. Why? Why-why-why. And there, they went. They went. I was wrong. Was I wrong? Hah. I don’t even know.”

The boy could not help but ramble as merciless emotional turmoil raged on inside him. Dying was supposed to make it all go away. Not like he had a choice in the matter or anything, yet still, what if it didn’t? What if losing your life led to something worse?

No sensation was left in his hands or his feet. All the vigorous shivering he was doing earlier was now waning intermittently as hypothermia began to kick in.

The commotion caused by the destruction faded away and the previous sounds of the land returned like they had never left. Peace didn’t last for very long as all the background noise was drowned out once again, this time by a terrifying roar powerful enough to shake the ground all the way to where he was seated and beyond.

Once the first was finished, a second followed. And then finally a third, the most ominous and menacing of all. Calamity had just announced its arrival. The ground vibrated each time the combination of a thud and a crunch together joined the cacophony of sound in consistent intervals. Footsteps. And hastily drawing closer and closer. Whatever it was headed straight towards him.

Lovely.

Most certainly a fearsome deity approached. It wasn’t worth looking up for. It’d probably just pass him by or not even notice him in the first place.

The tree he leaned against stood tall more than a few paces off from the beaten path. About fifty feet in the other direction flowed a ravine. Trickled might’ve been the more appropriate word, for the cold needed slightly more power to freeze moving water like this than it did a stagnant body. At the very least its typical momentum had been significantly stunted. From his back to his front, north to south, the water continued on its way just as it always would. It contributed a sort of tranquility to hear it infinitely moving on down its natural course. Albeit minor, at least it was something.

Limited vision played no part in his lack of recognition of the environment around him. Everything was blurry. Everything was faint. For more reasons than one. He didn’t feel he was experiencing some sort of amnesia or injury that rendered the afflicted unable to retrieve memories of any specific place. It was more like he never had any to begin with. Like he had come into this world only recently, immediately doomed with an unsound mind, relegated to some unknown void, with barely time enough to blink before moving on to the next realm. These woods, this tree, and even the back of his hand raised up to his face, all completely foreign.

How quaint.

Sentient, he had become. Yet the words in which to describe the feelings he felt eluded him. There were pictures and thoughts he couldn’t understand, like waking up from a strange dream being unable to distinguish between the logic and physics of Reality versus those of Dreamland. His body felt heavy. His chest felt crushed. His breathing suffocated. And he had nowhere to go. He could not escape the inescapable.

He had righted his head and shoulders out of a slouch only half realizing it, operating at a cognitive level much less than half-conscious. The footsteps grew louder. A gargantuan, pale blur of a monster approached from a short distance away, his peripherals unable to discern exactly how far or exactly how big the thing was.

“Hello, there. The Angel of my nightmare. My requiem soars to its beautiful climax at long last.”

There was no question in his mind he was now officially knocking on death’s door. Maybe he was seeing things that weren’t even there. And come to think of it—hearing them too. The loud thumping and crunching noises suddenly halted when they were last heard over by a nearby trail. Nature provided significant cover from anyone or anything spotting him where he was.

Crunch.

The thing was moving again.

With the back of his head resting on the bark of the barren tree, he continued to refrain from lifting or changing his field of vision to sneak a peek at his quickly approaching delusion. How else would it know where to leave the beaten path to find him?

“Is it over? Is it over, and I just have not fully left this body yet? This world?”

He’d figured when it was all said and done, when he eventually died, the aftermath—at least at the start—should be fairly self-explanatory. He should be able to tell if he was dead, right?

Bringing a hand up, palm facing him, he studied the markings on his hand and his fingertips. There was no change, the same old M marked in faint lines like always. The same was true for the other hand.

“It must not be time yet… But I can see her eyes. I hadn’t known that the first time would be the last. I hadn’t known. I hadn’t—"

The beast Calamity walked on four legs with sharp claws protruding from each foot. Each step had no problems ripping out chunks of the hard and icy earth. Its eyes were emerald green and a transparent aura of the same color radiated off its entire body like a mist, sometimes spreading outward enough to encircle the boy, only to suddenly recoil back to whence it came.

Again, and again.

Closer, and closer.

Until it finally arrived.

The lonely boy in the woods could feel its grand and foreboding presence. Could feel its tremendous power and the shift in the very atmosphere itself. Could feel its eyes staring daggers into his soul.

He heard a voice. Whether or not it came from inside his own head or heard via his ears, the truth was unclear.

“Death lingers in the air. Watching… Waiting… What say you?”

“Hah. Yeah? Well. Hurry it up. Feels like I’ve been here all day.”

A torrent of fire was unleashed upon the sky. The heat was intense enough to warm even his ailing and frozen bones, resulting in a relief so great it was borderline ecstasy. Unfortunately, it was too little, too late. The cold—although remarkably uncomfortable—made no difference upon his inevitable destiny soon to be realized. The number of heartbeats he had left could not be extended. Fate and destiny—a liar and a thief—were hand-in-hand on the cusp of an eclipse in the sky above. Divine timing remained undefeated.

Three or four separate times during the beast’s introductory statement and question asked to him, it swiftly moved its magnificent head full of sharp teeth, flared nostrils, and reptilian structure this way and that like it was studying the much smaller, much more fragile presence in front of it. When it spoke next, it held firm in one spot, ever so slightly close enough to invade his personal space, inviting some sort of eye contact.

Stubbornly, the boy would not oblige. He was starting to believe this interaction might actually be happening. Not some wild concoction by his weary mind.

There it was again. The voice… Speaking to him.

“I am called Anbu, the Dragon of Death. To many others I am known by many different names, but nonetheless, they are not of my concern. This name, I giveth to those who I share a special relationship with. To thee, I giveth this name.”

The length and girth of the pale dragon reached colossal proportions. Halfway through sharing its name, it finally withdrew its head to allow for a healthy amount of space between them. By the time it had finished, his neck and head were fully retreated to a passive position, removing all aggression, real or perceived. Its intense, glossy, and diamond eyes blinked a few times in quick succession.

Without thinking, nor moving, the boy responded, having no recollection of the name he uttered until he had heard himself say it.

“Ukozam… I go by Uko… for short.”

Learning of his name ignited something within him followed by a surge of energy coursing through him. Uko snapped his head up, needing to see the Dragon of Death for himself. The immense physical, mental, and spiritual damage he had endured before this meeting brought him closer and closer towards his last breath. If not for some stubborn will to go on rooted deep inside, he’d have already taken it.

Alas, catatonia could not and would not be denied. Slowly but surely all his senses headed down on a pitfall towards permanent malfunction. Uko only managed to open one eye fully while the other refused to comply. He then addressed his new acquaintance.

Still was he partly in disbelief he was face to face with a mighty dragon. Still was he flirting with psychosis. Still was he beyond the threshold into madness.

“Nice to meet you. I’m just hanging out here. In the woods. Alone. Dying. No biggie… You’re big. Who are you, really? How is it you speak to me with such familiarity. Better yet, why are you here? Tell me. And don’t lie. Don’t even think about lying. Are you merely playing with your food before you eat it? Do you find enjoyment in life’s sick and wicked obsession with a slow, torturous end? With dark and twisted indulgences? Having fun, are w—”

Blood sprayed into the dirt beside Uko as an uncontainable cough escaped him. Using the back of his hand he wiped his mouth clean.

“Are you afraid? Are you afraid of The End?”

Adrenaline ripped through Uko’s entire body, giving him the spur of the moment energy needed to shift from his old sitting position into a kneel, one hand on the ground and the other on the trunk of the tree. Using every bit of strength possible he managed to push himself all the way up, transferring his hands to grip a branch above as his back yet again leaned against the tree, although this time further up. One arm gave way and plummeted down, numb. Unmoving and unresponsive it hung.

The questions he asked before fell on deaf ears so he questioned whether or not he should oblige with answering first—and if yes, should he tell the truth—was the right play. At least he had some brain power left in him for critical thinking. Anbu had been the one to offer first a name, true, but that could easily have been, or still be, its red herring.

Over by the ravine, water continued to flow. Up in the sky, stars continued to shine.

“No.”

Uko spoke true. Was there a right answer? He was tired. Oh, so very tired. Life may be beautiful, but the very laws of nature and matter demanded this beauty could not last forever. It was too fragile. And it had already begun to fade and to crumble.

He looked away before asking the question himself to the one who had first delivered it. Way up above. Beyond the sky, in a place transcendent from space and time.

“Are you?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

Anbu brought forth a pendant hooked around a talon, handling it with the utmost care and then some.

“Stop. Stop it. Stop it, please! I don’t want to know. Enough. You just had to come over here, didn’t you. Couldn’t let a beleaguered soul spend his final minutes in peace, huh. You had to break out the evocative, emotional stuff, huh. Is there a reason you’re here besides this? If so then snap to it. We don’t got much time here my ticker aint gonna be tockin’ for much longer.”

“Yes. The reason is you. Death is your beginning and your end. Death is your Dark Tower. One of these times, will you get it right?”

“So am I dead yet?”

“Not quite.”

Uko's other arm gave out. The sudden loss in balance was a foreseeable precursor to the hard fall he was about to take, and there was nothing he could do about it. His body was failing him in more ways than one.

A swift and powerful tail seemingly came out of nowhere to cushion his fall and let him down slowly. Then Uko began to mumble incoherently.

“I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death. What’s done is done and it is what it is. Except if it is not. Bum—bah—bah—da—bah—bum—dah—dah. This is so stupid. I’m not even mad anymore. Quit looking at me it makes me uncomfortable. There she goes, she goes, there, she goes, again…again… What in the world do you eat to grow to be that big and strong? Wow. Cool. Watching. Waiting. Not me. Not none of it. Sigh. What. Do. You. Want? This time give me a straight answer. I walk through the Valley… Of the Shadow of Death.”

An unrecognizable sound entered Uko’s ears. First it came in an extremely low pitch, borderline unrecognizable if not for the fact it was so different than anything else around it. It possessed characteristics resembling the sounds of electromagnetic fields being manipulated or blocked in some way. Sure, that wasn’t totally accurate, but merely the closest comparison. Never was it detectable for any considerable and continuous amount of time. For only seconds it came and went until it disappeared altogether. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a flickering light like that from a strobe. It was beginning to manifest into the shape of a person.

Now his mind was really playing tricks on him. The world began spinning. Words sounded distorted and jumbled, then completely faded away.

“I see it too, you know. A special guest is arriving shortly and he’s most certainly looking for you. You have places to go and people to see. The sooner we can be leaving the better. Our dear friend will catch up. All you must do i—”

The frozen ground felt uncomfortable beyond measure. A large rock protruded out from the earth forcing Uko’s neck into a very awkward position. Everything faded to black as he slipped in and out of consciousness, not catching the last part of whatever was communicated to him. His subconscious posited a question. Something about any last words, and so he smiled.

“It’s about that time.”

Anbu dropped the pendent into Uko’s icy hand, the one covering his heart. His other rested in its natural position on his side. With his other eye finally closed, the moment of his final rest was at hand. The last of his energy was used on his fingers to curl around the mysterious pendant.

Then Uko’s heart stopped beating.

Ten feet nearby, tucked behind a pile of brush, golden leaves, and drooping branches of a weeping willow, a toddler began to cry out.

None of what Uko theorized might happen after he took his final breath materialized. Eyes closed, hand to his un-beating heart, fingers draped around a gifted pendant, his eternal slumber would soon be broken.

The Dragon of Death left the lost boy lonely once again to investigate the weeping willow. The source from where the cries of a child originated.

Careful to leave it unharmed, Anbu removed the brush and unfurled the tattered blankets. Inside wailed a healthy child named Zam. A bracelet had been attached to his wrist complete with markings giving its name. Somehow, someway, he could sense the passing of his caretaker and no amount of burping or calming would do anything to quell the noise erupting from a creature so small.

“Sleep, child. But a night you must wait, and the journey shall continue.”

Of the powers Anbu possessed, only a fraction was needed to cast a spell over Zam and put him to sleep. Off into Dreamland he went until the morning. In the meantime, they had work to do.

Louder than ever before returned the eldritch noise before. On rhythm the strobe light flashed on and off, on and off, exponentially rising in intensity. First it was nigh impossible to see, then a figure began to take shape, although very low in opacity. The being’s final form still appeared translucent but was easily observable. It looked like a ghost. The Servant of Death had arrived at last.

“Cheerio. I shan’t ever get used to this method of travel. Ancient beings we are, burdened with nigh immortality and the most unwelcomed burden of unsophisticated warping throughout all the different planes of existence. I s’pose it could be worse. Uko has passed, I would imagine.”

“Yes.”

“And the child.”

“Healthy and asleep, I left him to rest underneath the weeping willow where Uko had placed him. I felt it unnecessary to disturb him. For this night it is fine.”

“Of course, of course. Greetings, Anbu. Dragon of Death. Bringer of Calamity. Partner to the Gray Rider. We meet again.”

“Yes. Yes. We meet again, Boleslav. Steward of the Dead.”

“We don’t have much time. Let’s get to work.”

The exchange between them was swift. They did not communicate much afterward. Anymore words than had already been spoken were moot and the time spent together was already great. When two beings have known each other for as long as they have, sometimes words become an unnecessary burden.

Anbu answered the call to action by immediately starting to dig a hole in the ground just big enough for Uko to fit inside. While the dragon dug, Boleslav went about collecting large pieces of deadwood and fallen branches to place atop the hole. It did not take long for the task to be completed.

With one talon being more than enough to pick up Uko, the Great Dragon placed him upon in the hole. Due to the carefully placed fallen branches and deadwood stacked underneath him, he lay there only a half a foot below the ground. The pendant around his neck began glowing the same fel-green as was first seen shrouding Anbu. Brighter and brighter it blazed until it reached its peak. Things were about to get even hotter.

Boleslav hovered above the ground a few inches eagerly anticipating the ritual to come. Anbu looked toward him, not so much for an approval but more as a courtesy, to which he responded with a nod. Zam slept peacefully surrounded by the safety of the gloomiest tree of them all. Uko lay in the same position he’d been in. It was time.

A final roar blasted into the night, more powerful than any of the three from before. Rearing back with its giant muscular neck, the green fel-fire shone through his body starting in the chest and moving swiftly upwards towards its mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. An inferno engulfed the body of Uko and the wood below him, sending the flames into a frenzy that raged on through the night.

Before the Sun rose once again, the birds began chirping. Soon after the first bit of light spilled over the woods and officially ended the long night.

The last remaining embers had died, and now smoke billowed into the sky.

Lying on his back, clutching the pendant with a tremendous ferocity, Uko opened his fel-green eyes.

Before he did anything else, the lonely boy sprang up from the charred hole to head straight towards the weeping willow where he found Zam still sleeping soundlessly. He looked back, stuck for a brief moment as he made eye contact with Boleslav, wondering who he was. He’d deal with that later. A miracle had just happened. Well, if it really was a miracle, remained to be seen.

With Anbu he locked eyes, unsure of what to say. It didn’t matter. No words could properly express the way he felt or could accurately communicate the feelings coursing through him. Instead, when he knew the Great Dragon’s attention was upon him, put both hands together and bowed. The response was a small, almost imperceptible nod.

The sound of someone running through the woods interrupted their reunion. Uko could barely believe his eyes and it wasn’t only because of the content of what he was seeing. The sharpness in his senses were maxed out to overdrive, more potent than anything he could ever imagine.

A girl with dark brown hair was on the run for her life. Pieces of metal clanged together which must have been the remnants of some kind of shackle. Far off in the distance behind her, well out of sight for her but easy to see for him, two monsters followed in hot pursuit.

One wore a frayed and simple pair of pants and a tunic, but its clothing wasn’t what made it interesting. The flesh of this monster was rotting. It wielded twin daggers in its hands glinting off the morning sunshine.

The other was dressed head to toe in black and icy blue armor. Spikes protruded off the shoulder pads, gauntlets, and greaves. An absolute epitome of intimidation. It wielded a monstrous executioner’s axe, the weight of which must have been astronomical, yet it ran ahead as if it was nothing.

They were gaining. And quickly. The girl would inevitably be caught in no time.

Uko let out a brief chuckle.

“Time to have some fun, eh?”

Out of his left shoulder sprang a wing of fel-green fire as he sprang high into the air, above even the towering redwoods. Targets in sight, he swooped down to the pursuers before they even had a chance to spot him. Faster than a bolt of lightning he stole the twin daggers, knocking the creature with rotting flesh to the ground, instantly incapacitating him by lodging a blade each below each shoulder in its upper back. Once that was done, Uko turned him over and administered the death blow.

The surprise of his attack caught the other creature off guard, and although his companion had gone down swiftly, it was back up by the time Uko faced him down.

The weak and fragile and lonely boy was no more.

Uko dropped the two daggers. The creature with full armor charged ahead and put all of its formidable might behind the blade of its axe. With one hand he caught it with his hand, stunning his foe. In one fell swoop he ripped the axe from its hands, spun it, gripped the handle, and landed another killing blow severing the thing’s head from its neck as blood sprayed everywhere like a volcano.

The axe fell to the ground as Zam’s caretaker sprung into the air once again to return to him. All the commotion went down far, far away from where he was resting and thus his slumber continued.

Once Uko landed he expected one of the other two to say something, however they chose to refrain. No words were needed. Maybe as a result of being reborn, if that was what it was, his mind had access to all sorts of new information. He perceived the world itself much differently and shared a common wavelength with his two new companions, allowing him access to all of their purposes for being there. But first, they had one very important task to take care of.

Boleslav climbed on top of the Dragon of Death. Uko’s fel-green wing still hung unfurled, and they leapt in the air together towards their next destination.

The three of them flew in silence. Whatever spell Anbu put on the child would be wearing off shortly. It didn’t much matter, they were almost there. The nature and properties of the magic weren’t the only thing Uko wondered about, nor the only topic of question racing through his mind. Not by a long shot. But there would be a time for that later.

Grandest of all he wondered why his heart remained un-beating.

The endless waves of trees gave way to mountains and an open clearing below. It was like an island on land, completely surrounded with its only visible entry point by air. Flying came to him naturally while landing… not so much. He stumbled and fell to one knee, his main interest consumed with protecting Zam at all costs, causing him to lose his balance. A last second adjustment allowed Uko to keep him safe as he turned over and landed on his back, sliding a few feet along the greenest grass he had ever seen, keeping the bundle of blankets unperturbed.

An immense structure built out of stone, circular in shape, commanded all of their attention. Uko got to his feet and walked forward slowly.

He didn’t have to ask the question, but he did anyway, just to be sure.

“Here?”

“Here,” answered the Steward to the Death.

“Yes,” said the Dragon of Death.

The two of them stopped as Uko continued walking forward, eventually making his way onto the first stone step ascending upwards. He took one final look at Zam, but not a single tear would fall. The child had finally awoken, opening his eyes to see his caretaker looking at him, grinning widely and pumping his arm in joy.

“I have to leave you, Little One. Maybe some day… Maybe some—”

He stopped abruptly. What was there to say? It wasn’t like Zam could understand him. To the last step he ascended, where a bridge connected the staircase to the center of the structure.

Uko placed him down and took a few steps back. A booming wave of thunder erupted from up above followed by a blast of lightning, activating the portal. Rather anticlimactically it took all of seven seconds from beginning to end.

Zam was now gone. And now Uko had lost everything.

He looked up, beyond the sky, in a place transcendent from space and time.

Death lingered in the air.

Watching…

Waiting…

And then he turned around, walking slowly back down the steps.