Welcome to Gaia! ::

As long as there have been kimeti there have been shadows. But they were not always stomped upon with little care, once, they walked among us, ran at our sides. They felt the bitter winds, smelt sweet flowers, they were bond to us, you see, they still are but they had more freedom then. They were equals then, not the pale husks they are now. They had voices that sang to the mountaintops and laughter that bubbled the swamps. They had life… Now their voices are weak things, but they weren’t always like that – that is the important part, a butterfly was not always a butterfly.

Once there was a kimeti who called himself Drowning Birch. He was one of legendary powers, where he walked he earned respect, where he sang there was happiness. Like every other he had a shadow, Faint Breathe. She balanced him perfectly, but matched him too. They knew each other, as most did, inside and out. They stepped in unison, cried in unison, breathed in unison, their very life was woven together.

And he loved her.

It is a foolish thing by many accounts, but that is, perhaps, why he cannot control it – at least this is what they tell me. Ha, I would not know. Nevertheless, when Drowning Birch wove elaborate songs with his voice – a voice like dew in the sunlight – he sang for her. He longed for her, indeed, when the slept he would press his flank against hers, feel her skin. There were great stirrings inside his heart and quietly, quietly he tried to express them. He would leave flowers for her, his songs became less cryptic and yet he could never inch those words out of his throat, he could never say it outright. So he waited, and hoped she would know. Know like she knew everything else about him.

Maybe she did know.

But even so, as much as Drowning Birch longed for her, Faint Breathe longed for another. His name is insignificant, but at times the two would dance in the night – while Drowning Birch slept, peacefully, thinking that he was next to her as she swayed, farther and farther away. She was slipping from the grasp, her soul freeing itself from the bond that intertwined a shadow and kimeti’s soul so closely together.

They fight over what happened next.

One says Drowning Birch awoke in the night and saw her dancing with the buck. Overcome with the grief and pain of a broken heart he thrust himself into the bog, and like his name he drowned. Wrecked with guilt, Faint Breathe dove after him, landing at the bottom of the muck. They died together, interlaced once more. Someone, this one says, took pity on their souls, seeing what could happen when poor shadows disobeyed. He fastened the two beings together, hushed their voices, and bound them to a life of servitude.

They do not all agree.

Instead, some say Drowning Birch was full of rage, not sadness. Furious, the fire inside him cackling and popping, they say it was he who chained Faint Breathe to himself. He ensured their feet would never part so she would always be close, so that she would never run away from him and always, always be him.

I suppose, then, you can decide. Look at them, how they struggle, they can’t even remember why they are here in the cursed state, but they know that they are. It is a start.