One morning, while Shadow was still sleeping at his home - the bottom floor of a ruined building - a german shepherd walked in, and jumped right on top of Shadow causing him to wake up startled.

“What the heck!?” yells Shadow. Startled by the sudden awakening by a random german shepherd.

“A dog? What’s a dog doing here?”

The dog jumps off heading toward the exit. Clearly wanting Shadow to follow him.

Noticing that the dog wanted him to follow, Shadow got out of his bed, and walked over to where the dog was. Looking outside he immediately noticed that something was off. He couldn’t exactly see it, but the usually calm atmosphere felt different. Felt threatening.

“Something feels off.”

The dog runs off and around the corner, causing Shadow ro have to chase after the dog. Once he catches up to the dog, he looks up towards the mountains, and notices something wrong. There's a large opening in the side of the mountain that, before, was never there. There also appears to be a glowing light of some kind coming from the cave. Greenish glow. He stands there for several minutes just trying to understand and figure out what it could be. A space rock? A spaceship? Some alien ritual? He had no idea what it was. But whatever it was, it was new, and it was most likely bad, and it had to go away. But how?

He walks around the city, hoping to find one of the other residents so he can ask what it could be. After about 10 minutes of walking around the city he finally finds someone he can ask.

“Excuse me, do you know what that is?” Shadow asks someone as he points towards the glowing cave.

“Not a clue. But, I heard someone else say it might hold the secrets to element control.” Says the random person.

“ELEMENT CONTROL! I WANT IT! I'M GOING!” yells Shadow, about to run off.

“Hold it.”

“Huh?” 

“It’s more dangerous than it may seem. I also heard about ancient guardians that wield these elements.”

“I’ll be fine.”

“Sure you will. A weak boy like you against ancient guardians.”

“I'm not weak!”

“You don’t seem strong. Physically or mentally.”

“I’ll show you!” Shadow says as he runs off towards the mountain. The dog followed behind him.

“Hmph. He won't make it. He won’t last five minutes.” Said the random guy quietly as Shadow left.

As Shadow runs off towards the mountain, he realizes something. If everything that guy said was true, about the guardians, how would he be able to fight them and make his way through alive? He can’t fight them alone. Even with the dog he still has no chance. And this new cave is way too far to be able to make it there in one day on foot. Not even two days. It would probably take him a week at least to make it there at this pace. But he doesn’t let that stop him. He pushes all the negative thoughts away and keeps walking.

A few hours went by, and he finally made it to the edge of the city. This is all new territory. He’s never been outside the city. The city was always his home. He never had reason to leave until now.

After taking in the scenery for a few minutes, he returns to walking. Hoping to not get distracted by anything again. The more he gets distracted, the longer it's gonna take to get to the mountain.

Night was approaching very quickly. And Shadow had to stop for the night. But he had no idea how to make a shelter. His home in the city was practically pre-made. He did nothing to it. And now he has to make something from scratch all on his own. He looked around him, and found a few big rocks. And they were placed, they made a doorless house. Now all he had to do was make the floor comfortable, make a fire for warmth, and find something to eat. He just realized how hungry he was. Walking all day sure makes a person hungry.

He decided to start with making the fire. So he has some warmth and some light. Only having seen what other people have made, and never having made one himself, he decides to give it a try. Finding some small sticks and rocks, he makes a small fire pit. He grabs two other small rocks and starts clacking them together, hoping to get a fire out of them. After a few minutes of nothing, he finally gets a spark to fly. It lands on the sticks and catches flame. But it goes out quickly. He asks himself what he did wrong, and then remembers seeing that people blow on it slightly to make the flame larger. So he decides to try again. After another few minutes of clacking the rocks he gets another small spark to land on the sticks catching them on fire. He gets down and starts to blow on the small flame, watching it grow and consume the sticks. Amazed by the fact he created his own fire, he sits there. Staring at it.

Finally snapping out of it, he remembers what else he has to do. Find food, and make a bed. Choosing to find food first, he remembers that he has to get some for the dog as well. He spends several minutes looking around before finding a nest in the tree. He climbs the tree, finding a few eggs and no bird. He takes the eggs, and climbs down the tree.

He grabs a rock and puts it over the fire before cracking the eggs on it and cooking the eggs so he and the dog can eat.

After they eat, they eat, they both go to sleep in the premade rock house. The night goes well until Shadow starts dreaming about the cave and element control. He’s always wanted to control the dark element so obviously he’s dreaming about that. But there’s a twist. He’s fighting his way out, but the darkness takes over and he’s lost to the darkness. He immediately wakes up and realizes it's just a dream. At this point he can’t sleep and the dog is also awake, so he decides to start the journey again. Day two has now begun.

The next few days go by the exact same as the first. Boring and uneventful. After about a week of travel, he and the dog finally make it to the cave entrance. It’s still glowing a green but it's not as bright as it was when he left. Is it because he’s closer to it? Or is the light just not as bright as it was? Whatever the answer is, he can’t dwell on the question. He must keep going.

Finally working up the courage to step inside after several minutes of just standing outside, he slowly walks in. Taking in all the sights as he does.

After several minutes of just walking through the cave, he comes to fork. Three paths not including the one he was just on. And a statue in the middle facing the way he came. A booming voice speaks.

“Turn the statue to face a path. Get it right, you move on freely. Get it wrong, defend yourself well against a guardian and try again.”

Extremely confused despite being told exactly what to do, he stands there for a long while. The dog walks over to the middle path and barks. Eventually he walks up to the statute and rotates it to face the middle path. Once again the booming voice speaks.

“You may move on. From here on out, they won’t be as easy.”

“Yeah right. This dog seems to know the way.”

The two of them walk down the first path and approach the second fork. This time there's five different path options and not just three. The dog walks around to each of the paths, and goes back to where they came out and lays down.

“What. You only want to help with the first one?”

The dog just lays there. Not responding to Shadow.

“Fine. Be that way. I’ll figure it out myself.”

Shadow walks around to each path and feels a slight breeze on the path all the way to the right. Going back to the statue to turn it to face the path with the breeze. The booming voice speaks again.

“Perhaps I made this too easy. You may move on. And… obtain the secrets this cave offers. I really need to make this harder.”

“Wow. That really wasn't that hard. Hey! Dog! Let’s GO!”

The dog gets and follows Shadow down the path to the final chamber. A large figure stands there.

“So you made it. Now you may obtain your reward. The ability to control the element of your choice. So. What element do you wish to obtain?”

“I wish to obtain the element of dark.”

“The element of dark. The hardest element to control and wield. Are you sure?”

“Yes. I'm more than sure.”

“Ok.”

As Shadow obtains the element of dark, he becomes happy, as his wish finally came true. And it wasn’t hard to get there and through. He heads out and goes back to living his life the way it was, while being able to control the element of dark. The dog stayed with him and he named him Shade.