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A dream:
A group of heroes are on a long journey to a place where an ancient evil is. They are training monsters to fight it. One of them, a woman, has brought along with her a small boy with a bright smile and little sense of the gravity of their task. They enter a black structure with yellow walls, in search of the agents of their enemy, but the woman tells the boy to wait outside.
One of the men has a monster like a large dog that is pure black, reflecting no light and casting no shadow, sharp-edged and yet malleable, like the outlines of familiar objects which one's eyes invent in pitch darkness in one's own home. It is in the form of a large dog, but there is, constantly, a sense that it could flow into another shape. It does not seem trustworthy. The man who is training it was once quick-tempered but dependable, but he has taken on some of his monster's nature, and now he grins too much and loses his temper too easily.
He and his monster see movement around a corner, and rush towards it. A servant of the enemy is there, and his monster is like the shadow dog, but vast and shapeless, filling a whole room. The two black beasts face one another, and the enemy closes itself around the dog, devouring it, and the man. When it has finished, the human enemy seems to be vanished, too. This is the nature of these creatures - they eat their own to grow, and they eat those that they love for no real reason.
The boy runs in and faces the monster, smiling in pleased surprise. The monster looks at him, and grows smaller, into the shape of a happy black puppy. This is the only way to truly master these creatures - to face them and feel not fear or love or anger or desire, but simply a pure, transparent joy. The boy and the black creature are joined together now, deeply contented by each other's nearness. There have never been any two creatures in the world so happy to have found one another.
The woman turns away from the boy and peers out one of the dark building's windows, which is bright now - all of the structure's darkness was the property of the monster, and the monster has given everything to the boy. She wonders what sort of child this is, that he can look at a creature so awful and be overjoyed. She can no longer remember why he was with them or where they were going.
A group of heroes are on a long journey to a place where an ancient evil is. They are training monsters to fight it. One of them, a woman, has brought along with her a small boy with a bright smile and little sense of the gravity of their task. They enter a black structure with yellow walls, in search of the agents of their enemy, but the woman tells the boy to wait outside.
One of the men has a monster like a large dog that is pure black, reflecting no light and casting no shadow, sharp-edged and yet malleable, like the outlines of familiar objects which one's eyes invent in pitch darkness in one's own home. It is in the form of a large dog, but there is, constantly, a sense that it could flow into another shape. It does not seem trustworthy. The man who is training it was once quick-tempered but dependable, but he has taken on some of his monster's nature, and now he grins too much and loses his temper too easily.
He and his monster see movement around a corner, and rush towards it. A servant of the enemy is there, and his monster is like the shadow dog, but vast and shapeless, filling a whole room. The two black beasts face one another, and the enemy closes itself around the dog, devouring it, and the man. When it has finished, the human enemy seems to be vanished, too. This is the nature of these creatures - they eat their own to grow, and they eat those that they love for no real reason.
The boy runs in and faces the monster, smiling in pleased surprise. The monster looks at him, and grows smaller, into the shape of a happy black puppy. This is the only way to truly master these creatures - to face them and feel not fear or love or anger or desire, but simply a pure, transparent joy. The boy and the black creature are joined together now, deeply contented by each other's nearness. There have never been any two creatures in the world so happy to have found one another.
The woman turns away from the boy and peers out one of the dark building's windows, which is bright now - all of the structure's darkness was the property of the monster, and the monster has given everything to the boy. She wonders what sort of child this is, that he can look at a creature so awful and be overjoyed. She can no longer remember why he was with them or where they were going.
