They sit among the leaves, covered in blood and ash, on the brink of dawn.

The Lion’s cheek bleeds and the Fox weeps… “It tears me apart to see you bleed… But we had to. We could not be as long as she lived.”

“I know.”

“We are cursed now… She’s condemned us to eternity.” He looks at the sky. “The sun… We must move.”

“How can you be so certain of yourself?” Part of the Lion’s stability crumbles, he’s afraid.

Fearful about their future.

Cursed to die everyday.

Cursed to live in the darkness.

Cursed to feed from the living when they are… living no more.

“Because I have you… I will follow you anywhere.”  Behind them the city burns, columns of smoke rising to the sky the people and the screams dying down. “We are no longer slaves… She cannot hurt me anymore, neither of us.” He at the blood on his wounded cheeks, the taste feels right on his tongue. A cursed creature now.

No longer a part of this world.

“We must go… The fire will burn our traces.” There is no time time to mourn now, no time to cry.

They hold hands, tightly for they are all they have left.

The Lion and the Fox, running through the leaves, to find shelter for wherever the sun goes death is sure to follow… A death by fire or suffocation.

For the cursed must never walk through the light, and the light will choke them until darkness returns.

They had no names.

They were but slaves.

And now they’re not even that.

For the years no longer pass, and time is frozen on this eternal night.