Samuel simply shrugged seeing Amanda walk away and closed his door. "Well that was weird!" He sighed out loud and almost jumped the next moment because of the shadow dragon that sat waiting staring at him.
"WOAH!" He jumped back, not prepared to see Night sitting there. She simply snorted at him, "Yeah that was weird indeed she agreed with him."
Samuel quickly squinted his eyes at the tiny shadow dragon, she had been quiet for weeks upon weeks and suddenly returned all of a sudden. It made him a bit annoyed to say the least.
"Yeah yeah! I know what you are thinking you big dummy." Night sighed and jumped up on the table, her tiny dragon form wasn't all that small anymore Samuel realized as she fit on the entire table.
"You're gonna break the table!" He grunted in annoyance, "Well too bad!" She replied, "Cause I can't become smaller than this anymore!" She looked dejected and sad.
"Where have you been? I have been really worried!" Samuel spoke out his frustration immeadiately and Night just sat there taking it.
"I'm sorry, at first I stayed away because I needed some quiet time, but then something happened to your body and then something happened to my body and I went into some sort of hibernation!"
Samuel remembered the mornings where he woke up with black veins. "I thought you were staying away all this time because you were angry or something!" Samuel sighed and quickly walked over to the dragon that now occupied the dinner table.
Night looked even more sad when he was walking closer and tried to turn away, until she felt him suddenly put his arms around her and giving her a big hug.
It shocked her so much to the point of crying, she was hurting in so many ways that he couldn't even begin to fathom, but this hug felt like it put all the pieces back together.
She had finally started remembering certain things, things that broke her heart. Samuel stood there hugging her for a while before she jumped off the table and walked over to the couch.
The couch was a much more comfortable place to lie down and she did so with a big sigh while Samuel sat down and used her now larger dragon body as a support for his back.
"So do you want to talk about it?" Samuel asked after many minutes of silence. Night whom had closer her eyes and was resting her head on the armrest sighed but spoke after a minute had passed.
"I remembered my parents, I also remembered my true name! But many things are still blurry in between. I don't fully grasp the meaning of everything yet."
"But I was an elf born in the shadow lands, our kinsfolk lived there in many cities, they probably still do! But I know a long time has passed since I did. Way too long for anyone I used to know to be alive."
"At least I think so... But I also remembered the two names I own, one was that of the regular person I used to be, Alyssa! But my second name or rather my true name, Shakkai!"
For some reason Samuel recognized that name, he couldn't quite put his finger on it though. Maybe he had read a simillar name somewhere in the books of magic history that existed.
Samuel gently patted her to give some comfort, "Well... It certainly sounds better than my supposed true name!" Samuel chuckled. Night looked at him in confusion, "What happened while I was gone?"
"Just check out my memory and you will see!" Samuel laughed, but there was no other presence in his mind, nothing that peered into his memories.
"I-I can't!" Night exclaimed and suddenly jumped up shoving Samuel out of the way as she jumped on the ground, she tried to disappear into a shadow and when nothing happened she looked at her dragon hands.
"I- I am physical!" She said with a trembling voice.
Samuel put a layer of mana over his eyes and could see everything connected through magic, he looked at Night and saw that the bond they had was still there, but it looked stronger and more evolved.
Something had changed, "You're no longer completely dependent on me!" Samuel mumbled, but Night could still hear it and looked at him in shock.
"I think I will always be your anchor in this world, however maybe because my ability evolved so did everything else. You have a physical body now... You are becoming more free in a sense!" Samuel laid out his hypothesis and Night couldn't come up with any other explanation.
"Let me try something!" Night almost shouted and ran towards Samuel who almost panicked thinking she was gonna tackle him, but she suddenly became a shadow that travelled into Samuels shadow.
Almost as if relieved he could hear her voice in his mind. "I though I was stuck as a dragon, but it seems I can still jump into your shadow!"
She started giggling and remained quiet for a bit before the shadow came out as a dragon again. "Well let's hope that you learn how to get smaller or bigger again. Otherwise it will get real troublesome with the size of this house!" Samuel said as both a joke but also with a hint of seriousness.
"Ow!" He exclaimed when she whacked him in the head with her now longer and larger tail. "Oh that was fun, can't you make more jokes about a ladies size please!" Night mocked him.
"Right right! Sorry!" Samuel admitted as he once again took a seat on the couch. This time Night walked over and jumped up and lay with her head on his lap.
"I hope you won't mind me resting my head here for a few minutes." She sighed and Samuel couldn't resist from just patting her head. She didn't complain though as she fell asleep. There was something calming about it that just made Samuel also fall asleep a short while later.
Perhaps through some connection, Samuel could only dream about the lands of shadow that Night was from, he saw a widespread empty landscape with cities dotted in some places.
Even though the clouds were not present everything was dark and quiet, there was no sun in this place, instead it was mostly desolate except for all the different shades roaming.
But the cities he could see in the distance looked more like beacons of light in this dark place, he turned around in the dream and saw a gigantic shadow dragon flying through the air, it didn't look the slightest bit like Night's dragon form.
It was something else? Perhaps it was? "Shakkai... Where are you?" Samuel could hear a voice, was it the dragons or was it someone elses? No matter where he looked he couldn't tell where the voice came from.
Shakkai... Shakkai...
Samuel opened his eyes back in his house, he had fallen asleep for some time. Night was still asleep in his lap so he gently moved out of the way and started looking through all his books on magic history that came to mind that were related to the realm of shadows.
But no matter where he looked with his 'speed reading' spell he couldn't find any such name. "What if I try a regular history book about the realm of shadows." He whispered.
He quietly started looking around for any such history book he might have saved a copy of, it took a while but he did find one.
Looking through the book he finally found a chapter that might fit the descriptions of what he needed.
'A realm that exists as an almost exact copy of the mortal plane, the shadow realm is almost as if you would look through a mirror and see your own reflection. Many things that exist in the mortal plane exists there as well, the largest difference is that the realm of shadows lacks almost all light.'
'All mindless creatures of the realm of shadows are drawn to light and quickly snuff it out, it is a dangerous place for mortals. But it has safe places for mortals. The Shadow Elves live in their cities there, and while they are not the most welcoming they do accept other races to stay there.'
'The realm of shadows has one protector that makes sure the balance stays in place, the so called goddess of the Realm of Shadows.'
Samuel read the name out loud. "Shakkai" he slowly turned to look at the dragon that was still sleeping on the couch. "Maybe you are just named after her, it isn't too weird that people who revere their gods give their children two names, one to honor the god or goddess..."
Samuel speculated it, but he couldn't help but grow a bit nervous. There was a chance that the one that had bonded too him was a goddess... "Doesn't that mean that I may have done something really bad if I stole their goddess...?" Samuel couldn't help but chuckle, but only because he was nervous. Surely it was all a coincidence.
"I don't think it is a coincidence! She smells godly to me!" The wolf had suddenly appeared to Samuel and spoken his mind. Samuel slowly raised a finger, "I don't need that right now thank you!"
The wolf scoffed, "Well I was just saying, but have it your way..." And just like that a blue poof and the wolf was gone just as fast as he had appeared.
"What the hell am I supposed to do if it is true?" Samuel couldn't help but sit down on a chair and wonder. He looked at Night and felt that he had to grow stronger, if she had evolved because he had evolved then the answer was to get stronger.
Maybe it would help her regain her memories and could tell him the full truth about what was going on, because even when they had met for the first time she didn't seem to remember anything.
She had just seen him and helped him run away from a swarm of darkness, she had saved him even though she didn't know who she was. That spoke volumes of her true nature, or at least so Samuel hoped. As if she felt that Samuel was missing she woke up and looked around for him.
She sighed when she saw him as if she was relieved. But she saw that he looked stressed for some reason, "What is wrong?" She worriedly asked and walked over. Samuel who did not wish to hide anything from her pointed to what he had just read in the book.
Night read it and remained quiet for a while. "Oh... right!"
"What?" Samuel worriedly asked and turned to her only to see Night standing on hind legs almost like a dragon humanoid form. She gave him a hug.