The storm is worse than usual tonight. The wind howls like the silver wolf in the forest that always whines at the full moon. It bends the trees and crashes against houses, whisking away anything it can reach; newspapers, leaves, plastic bags, branches. It dances around, an angry dance as the rain pours down in sheets. The thunder rumbles as if someone up there in the sky is shouting down at the world, shouting in big booms that shake the earth and make your teeth rattle. The lightning flashes, illuminating the world for a second, before all is dark again, as if someone has turned off all of the lights. Despite the music of the storm, everything else seems unnervingly silent. There are no stars out tonight.

A small, cloaked figure walks along the beach, the waves crashing at her feet as she walks on, not seeming to notice the cold or the storm that is raging on around her. To the observer, it seems as though she is mumbling to herself, although there doesn’t seem to be anyone else as crazy as she is to be out in this weather. She is not muttering to herself, as you would see if you were close to her. She has a small black box clutched to her ear, but it isn’t a cellphone. You can tell because it is glowing. Swirling fiery red designs in a precise hand come out of the box. At a closer look, you can tell they are words. Words in a language all but forgotten by the tongues of men. But the girl has not forgotten.

Further along the beach, it seems that someone else is as crazy as the girl. A tall figure also cloaked walks briskly in the opposite direction the girl is headed. He, too, has a small black box clutched to his ear that is glowing. The words coming out of his are a deep sapphire blue color, in the same language as the girls’. He, like the girl, has not forgotten.

For they are the Shadows, creatures of the night. They are the Watchers, protectors of the world. They are the Forebearers, the first to walk this earth, and they will be the last. They are good and yet they are evil. They are strong and yet they are weak. They are young like a new day, and yet they are as old as the earth. They are harmony and war. Life and death. They are the keepers of the world.

And yet, like the world, the Forebearers are light and dark. And this meeting upon the beach was not planned. As the two Forebearers approach each other, their distaste is obvious. They once had names, but they were long forgotten. For the sake of this story, lets refer to them as ‘the girl,’ and ‘the boy.’ The girl narrows her eyes at the boy as his lip curls up in disgust.

“You.” The boy spits out the word as if it is as venomous as poison.

“We haven’t seen each other in a millennia and that is how you greet me?” The girl laughs sarcastically. “Yes, it is quite a pleasure to see you, too.” The boy does not like being mocked. He spits in the girls face, but she shapes her mouth into an ‘o’ and blows. A strong breeze whisks the boy off of his feet, lifting him into the sky, but he slashes his arm and suddenly he is standing atop a giant pyramid. His eyes are burning with hate.

“You know only one of us can survive tonight.” A wicked grin spreads across the boys’ face. He lifts his fist and slams it down. A giant dirt hand rises from the sand and backhands the girl, who is sent flying. She uses a gust of wind and floats in midair as she blasts the fist with water from her fingertips until it dissolves, melting into the sand like smoke. The boy summons another fist and is about to have it strike the girl when she lifts her hand skyward and brings forth lightning to counter his attack.

The thunder rumbles and the lightning crackles in the sky as it shoots down towards the boy, electricity flowing as it reaches out towards him with long, bony fingers. But the boy’s attention is fixed somewhere else. He is staring off in the distance, somewhere behind the girl, his features, already hardened from many years on this earth, like stone. Seeing the boys attention elsewhere, the girl turns, her hand steadying as the lightning wavers, drawing back up into the heavens, the ghostly fingers disappearing.

The girl and boy, just moments before enemies, now stand shoulder to shoulder as they stare at the distant sky. Along the horizon, a shadow speeds towards them, darker than the ebony sky.

The world outside seems colder and darker now, and those inside their houses look out and shiver, a coldness prickling on the backs of their necks, a chill running through them as they draw the blinds; retreating into the warmness of their home where a candle burns steadily through out the night.

Down on the beach, the shadow reaches out towards the boy and the girl, its long, shapeless hand beckoning them into open arms. But the boy and the girl have walked on the earth long before the shadow of death, and they have evaded it for many years. They have watched as the shadow reaches out, taking into its arms the frail whose time is long past, the innocent whose time has just begun; all whose fire inside has flickered and died out, leaving behind an empty shell of a person whose spirit meant so much to those whose lives have been touched by a being who will walk the earth no more.

But the boy and girl will continue to walk the earth, for their time is not yet spent. And now, the two realize that there is a greater evil in this world than they who see all, they who know all, could ever imagine Together, they must work to stop it; once enemies, now allies. In this harsh, far from prefect world, the Forebearers know that there is much wrongdoing and evil. But they also know there is a light that shines through the dark; the flickering of a candle on a cold night, the sun peeking through the curtain of clouds on a dreary day, the goodness that outshines that bad in a world where all seems lost.
And on the beach it is peaceful, though the storm rages on. The lighting illuminates the slumbering world for an instant as if someone has turned on a light in the dark. The wind dances around in time to the music of the rain, falling on the roofs of houses and on the deserted streets below, the thunder like drums that echo in the distance. Despite the music of the storm, those safe and warm in their homes can hear the birds chirping and the children laughing.

The stars shine brightly tonight.