Even Shadows Grow

This is a story that's been percolating in my head for a while. It still hasn't gotten much farther than this, though.

Even Shadows Grow




She fell up from ... the sky? Another world? It must have been another world; the trees are wrong and the path is covered with small stones encased in ...what? Hardened tar? Just as she realized that even her name is a mystery to her, she felt something pressed into her hand, and something like a mother's kiss on her cheek. A loving voice whispered in her mind Even shadows grow.
Shadow! That be my name!

The voice sighed. NO! Try Shaundra.
She felt another kiss, as she heard Grow well, and grow quickly. This world hath need of thee. Farewell for now.

Somehow she knew that she was now alone.

Shaundra. Shadow. Somehow both of those names felt right. But she had been told to use Shaundra, so Shaundra it was. Shaundra looked at what was in her hand. It was a note on some sort of fine cloth, and the note was woven into the fabric rather than having been inscribed somehow afterward. She could tell that it was in three scripts, and that two of them had pairs of letters superimposed on one another. The third script was a dialect of Elvish. But she couldn't manage to read any of it just yet.




Suddenly she heard an explosion in the distance. She rushed to see if there was anything she could do to help. The trees stopped abruptly, and were replaced with tall buildings, one of which was on fire. Someone nearby said "I think there are still people in there!", and something about the words felt true. When someone else said "It's too dangerous to go in now," she instinctively shifted the molecules of her body and entered the building through the nearest (burning) wall. She saw three people trapped inside a room. None of them were injured, so she shifted the density of another wall to weaken it, then punched a huge hole in it. Then she weakened the nearby flames and pulled the oxygen from them, leaving a safe exit for the trapped people.

As they fled the building, one woman turned to her. "My husband and my sister! They're still upstairs!" Shaundra smiled and nodded to her. "I will save them if I can." She came to the stairs, which were blocked by flames. She shifted again to become both intangible and invisible to heat, and began climbing. About halfway up, the stairs gave out underneath her. But she remained floating in mid-air.

That be odd... I had no idea that this was possible! She suddenly grinned. I wonder if I can fly?

After a few moments of experimentation she discovered that no, she couldn't fly. But she did not need a solid surface to walk, run or even lie down on. Grinning happily she finished making her way upstairs. There was a room with a symbol on the door and a sign reading "Chemical Lab. Authorized Personnel Only", but she heard a man's voice inside the room. "We have to move to another room as soon as you can. The rescue squad isn't going to want to come anywhere near this room as long as there's a danger that it will go up."

She entered the room, and found a man tending the injuries of a woman with severe burns. Another instinct took over, and she knelt beside the injured woman. "I ask the Creator of all Life to grant to thee an extra portion this day." She touched the woman, and her burns vanished. She stood up. "Come. I am here to bring thee to safety. Be anyone else trapped within this place?"

The man looked stunned, but the woman shook her head. "I don't think so. There might have been a few people on the ground floor, but we signaled for evacuation when we realized that it was going to blow. Boy Scout here wanted to be the last to leave. It's too bad he's married." She smiled. "At least he's married to my sister, so he's still family! " She laughed, then became serious again. "Thank you both for saving my life. Now which way is out? I thought I heard the stairs go a few minutes ago."

Shaundra nodded. "The stairs did, indeed, collapse. I have discovered a new talent, which I believe will prove useful. If I may?" When they both nodded, she picked them both up, and then took a step up off the ground. "Thou mayest wish to close thine eyes," she commented as she stepped out through the wall and walked down thin air to the ground below.

When she set them down safely the man looked searchingly at her. "Are you an angel?" he asked. She was puzzled. "No. I be no more special than anyone else." His wife came over. "Excuse me, but 'nothing special' doesn't walk through walls of burning buildings to save five people! And I saw you carry Mark and Amy out of there down thin air!"

She shook her head. "I merely did what must be done. Someone else could probably have done better."

The man laughed. "Well, 'someone else' wasn't here, and I'm quite impressed with what you did. Especially healing Amy's burns like that! If someone else could have done better, I would like to know how! Thank you."

If anyone wants to try translating that note, I would be curious to see how long it takes.