The Shadow of a Swan

Part 3

     Her aimless gaze was directed at the sky. Monochromatic, gray, dull... Thoughts and feelings were lost in it... Reflected in the green iris, it gave her eyes an unusual shade... Similar to a forest shrouded in fog, they conveyed an unusual range of colors: from a deep noble green shade closer to the pupil, to light gray at the edge of the circle. She was lying in the middle of the forest, on freshly fallen leaves, trying to dissolve in this crazy world... It was quiet around, there was no one alive. Suddenly, Emma's pupils sharply narrowed when her gaze fell on a bird flying in the sky. It brought her consciousness back to reality. Taking a deep breath, the blonde closed her eyes for a second to open them with a more determined look and rise from the cold, wet ground. Not that it threatened her with illness... No. Being Dark One, she was not afraid of illnesses, moreover, she did not need sleep or even food... Therefore, being constantly conscious and shrouded in oppressive thoughts, it was only a matter of time before she would go crazy, being inactive. Therefore, she decided to head out of the forest... No, she cannot go home now, but she needed to find some temporary shelter and activity until she learned to control herself... Therefore, with a determined gait, she went to look for a shelter.
     It was already getting dark, but that didn't help... the horrible spectacle didn't escape her sight... Before she had even walked half a kilometer, she watched as the forest ground was filled with a row of animal corpses: rodents, foxes, wolves, and birds. Horror consumed her. As she got closer, she noticed that the animals had no eyes, and they looked as if they had been drained of life... Tears welled up in her eyes... A quiet cry of horror appeared on her face, one hand reached out to the body of the poor fox, the fur that had faded, losing its rich red color and slightly rising in the wind... Its mouth was slightly open... a fly crawled out along the upper fang... Instead of eyes, there were only burnt holes... Emma leaned lower and, when her hand approached the poor animal's head, she felt a stream of dark aura emanating from it... It was the result of dark magic... The realization of what was happening fell on her soul like a heavy stone...

     She closed her eyes, and a single tear rolled down her cheek...
-"I'm sorry..." - she whispered and stood up and walked away without looking back...

     Around the place where the magic surge occurred during Emma's breakdown, the dead bodies of animals that tried to fly away and escape, but never managed to do so, stretched for a kilometer... The smell of death and black magic hung in the air. Even the trees seemed to be frozen in a deathly entrancement. By morning, Emma finally came to some godforsaken house on the edge of the forest and went to investigate it.
     It looked abandoned, apparently the owner had either left the place long ago or was dead, what made her not to worry about the unwelcomed guests. The building was made of logs, strong and solid, for despite its shabby condition, the wooden walls stood firmly in place. Tall grass grew all around the little house. The roof was pierced in one place by a fallen tree, the branches of which had grown into one of the rooms, and their leaves were peeping out of the open window. Inside, everything was covered with a thick layer of dust. Several dead rats, pigeons, and cockroaches laid in the corners... Large cobwebs sparkled in the doorways... Emma found herself examining the neat, symmetrical woven patterns, on which in some places condensed drops of moisture, hovering in the air, cast the morning rays of the sun, barely seeping through the window; Finally, tearing her gaze away from this mesmerizing natural spectacle, she took a deep breath and began to tidy up the place.

-"Well, Emma, ​​this is your new home... Get used to it," she muttered under her breath.

     The first thing she did was throw out all the trash from the inside and remove the sagging wood inside, patching the roof. Then, rummaging through old closets, she found a couple of old clothes, the best ones she kept for herself and the rest she used for rags. In the shed she found some tools, including a scythe, and in a couple of hours the mown grass was already showing off around the house. It turned out that there was also a well, a view of which opened up after Emma destroyed a huge ivy bush. This made the task much easier. Although she was Dark and could now conjure up whatever her heart desired, she did not want to resort to using magic once again, so she tried to get by with her own efforts whenever possible. After finding a source of water, Emma began to wash the inside of the house, and then, after washing the clothes she found, she was finally able to change out of the robe that covered her after turning into the Dark One.