Prologue

There was a time. Before Father came. A time when Mother would sing and dance. A time Mother still had her tree, her hearth. The dryads guarded the gate and the lands prospered. For the tree was her life. To protect and to serve was their duty. And for thousands of years the lands grew and there was peace.

But the dryads grew arrogant and restless… and began to fight amongst themselves. The fighting split the lands… creating tears in the very dimension of the world. Tears that were never meant to be… the shadow came to be.

Facing extinction Mother grew anxious… banishing her dryads to the lands below. Away from her hearth. Their duty… To push back the shadow and guard the tears below… Guard reality itself.

Our story begins… as Mother destroys her tree, her life… Not allowing the shadow to pass through the gate… Crying Mother throws her seed to the shadow… Her last hope...Her last breath.

Her… Lost to time and space.

In a dying world, a world overrun in shadow a young boy is running for his life. He can't remember when he started running. But he knows he doesn't want to die. He's never been away from home. Away from mother, she is always close by. He remembers his childhood, what he can still remember…

The cave was dark and damp when I woke up. No, not a cave, a room, a cell. My cell. I've been laying here for hours, crying and searching for It, praying for It. 'Father's a Saint', that's what mother says. I'll never be a Saint mother says that too. For am I not a disappointment hiding from my mother, waiting, and waiting for father to return.

Father visits every few weeks. I have never met Father but I know he's here. Mother cries 'Father is a Saint' and locks me in my room commanding me to 'Find It'. It is forbidden for me to leave my room until my father leaves.

There I lay waiting… for Father to find me.

Despair hits me. I am weak I can not survive.

Mother says I'm weak not strong like father…

No… I must find It. This is my purpose. I stopped… And the shadow swallowed everything.