Information

Shade has a minion!

Seth the Nocturne

Shade

The

Bloodred Kumos
Owner:

Estinien

Age: 2 years, 9 months, 1 week

Born: July 8th, 2021

Adopted: 2 years, 9 months, 1 week ago

Adopted: July 8th, 2021

Pet Spotlight Winner
November 7th, 2021

Statistics

Level: 1
Strength: 10
Defense: 10
Speed: 10
Health: 10
HP: 10/10
Intelligence: 0
Books Read: 0
Food Eaten: 0
Job: Unemployed

information

you have nothing to fear from me
i would never harm you
i'll always do
what he wants me to

cw for brief mentions of abuse

"So here's the thing, okay? You've gotta believe me if I tell you something, and I don't want you telling our teacher or the principal or anyone anything about it."

"..."

"I'm fine! I'm fine now, shut up. I just want to... tell someone else, make sure I'm not going crazy. " Seth sighs and pulls out their sketchbook. The front of it has a printout of their comic's cover; the following pages have clean sketches of dragon and wolf characters with some fanart for good measure. Partway through, though, you can see the pages partially torn or ripped out entirely. Large swaths of black and red mar both front and back of each page, and you could swear that you saw bite marks. They pull open a page and show it to you:

"Yeah, I know it's pretty good. I get it, but this... this thing isn't from DarkFang. It's not just another OC of mine, it's," Seth closes their eyes and breathes out. "It's real. It's really, really real and I saw it in my room last night."

You raise an eyebrow as you open your mouth to speak, but Seth continues. The bags under their eyes seem darker than usual.

"My parents started giving me shit about my grades again last night. I keep trying to tell them I'm trying as hard as I can, that I do, actually, you know, care-" They shake their head to move their long bangs away from their eyes, scoffing. "They don't get how much The DarkFang Chronicles means to me. Yeah, I'm still in seventh grade, I get it! But they don't know how much it hurts when they call it stupid, and they say I'm wasting my life away drawing."

Seth throws themself backward onto the bed, grabs their worn-down cat plush, Snowy, and yells into it. They've had that thing ever since you've known them from grade school.

"I don't even care if I ever get quote-unquote famous from my graphic novel. It's just... nice. Nice to have something that makes me want to wake up in the morning."

It's a tense few moments, but you know them well enough to know that if they're gonna open up to anyone about anything, it's to their best friend. You nod and let Seth continue their monologue.

Seth rolls over onto their side, facing you. "After they got done yelling at me, I went upstairs and just started drawing. I was angry. I didn't care if it looked good. I didn't care if it made sense. Or not. It's like I lost myself or something because when I blinked, it was suddenly over an hour later. And when I looked up, it was there."

"It?"

"Yeah, it. The thing I wanted to show you. I'm calling it Shade, for now. It seems to like it. I think. It hasn't said it didn't yet." Seth says matter-of-factly. "But what it did tell me is that it's here to protect me. I can't remember everything we talked about, but it said it's some kind of guardian spirit."

"But where is it now though?" You say. You don't want to call your friend a liar, but there's there's things you need to sometimes see to believe.

"I'm getting to that. You gotta promise not to scream or anything though, got it? I told Shade not to hurt anyone." Seth says.

You're not really liking the direction this is going in. Whatever's about to happen doesn't sound good, if anything even happens at all. Then again, Seth has always had a wild imagination. Regardless, you nod.

Seth sits back up, still holding Snowy close. They take a deep breath.

"Show yourself, Shade."

Nothing happens.

Seth looks around the room in confusion.

"I just saw you yesterday! You don't gotta do anything! I just want my friend to see you, too." Seth starts to panic.

"Hey man, it's alright. I know you've been tired lately and-"

"I know what I saw, okay?!" Their voice cracks.

Silence.

You reach forward to pull them into a hug when you hear a growl. You freeze. That was way too deep and loud for your friend to make.

Recoiling, you find yourself immediately drawn to two large, burning red eyes coming from the complete and swirling darkness surrounding Seth. They burn into you like hellfire. Large, powerful jaws snap in your direction. It's hard to breathe. Shadow solidifies into the approximate shape of a wolf standing tall, but it looks... wrong.

Its face is thin with jaws too large to belong to it, leading to a long neck with a scraggly mane. You follow it across its crooked back and count the ribs that all but jut out from its sides. Its long tail continues the curve of its body, wrapping itself around Seth, who is now smiling softly. It towers over you both, larger than any wolf you've seen. (At least in the movies. You're reconsidering if you want to see one in real life after this.) Its long legs end in paws that look more like talons than anything canine.

It's impressive, it's terrifying, and you gasp as you remember to breathe again.

"See, I told you Shade is real!" Seth laughs, and it's the happiest you've heard them in a while. "I already said Shade isn't going to hurt anyone, and I meant it! It obeys me, and I trust it." Shade nuzzles against Seth's face.

"It's kind of like having my own superhero to save me now. I think this means that my parents are gonna reconsider breaking my stuff the next time they get angry. Or when the older kids start picking on me. A little fear never hurt anyone, right?" Both Seth and Shade's heads tilt in the same direction.

You smile and nod regardless, but you're not sure if you agree.

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