Shadows of the World
Matthew opened his eyes; He appeared to still be in his bedroom, but all of the colors of everything he could see were muted. It wasn't dark anymore, but everything seemed to be a bit dimmed in color and lighting, it was also eerily quiet, as though all sound had been removed from the world. Having realized that he was laying on his back in the middle of his bedroom, Matthew slowly sat himself upright, taking into account that his entire body was hurting like he had just fallen out of a tree. He turned his head to look at the hourglass that he had sat down on the dresser before everything went black. The hourglass unlike everything else in the room was not dulled in color, and it even had a slight glow to it reminiscent of a dim candle; He also noticed that the sand that was in the top of the hourglass was a bright glowing silver color, and the sand that had fallen to the bottom of the hourglass was the purple color from before. Standing up, Matthew reached for the hourglass, but found that he could not place his hand any closer than 3 inches away from it. It was as if the hourglass had an invisible barrier around it on all sides.
	Matthew paced around his room trying to piece together what had just occured, keeping in mind that the sand was slowly falling into the bottom of the hourglass, like a timer counting down to some unknown event. Matthew continued to slowly piece together the reasons for what had happened, but he was still missing a crucial piece of information, where was he? It was as if he had been transported to another realm, by the strange artifact. Suddenly, all at once, Matthew remembered something from a long time ago. When the hourglass had been brought to the family, Sasha Windrunner had told his mother, Lucy Redtail, that in the room where his father had dissapeared, the hourglass and the gear were all that were in the room. The rest of the room had looked completely untouched, centuries of dust on everything in the room.
	The realization hit Matthew like a sack of bricks, he had probably dissapeared like his father, never to be heard from again. Trying to keep himself from panicking, Matthew steadied his breathing, and kept his composure. Matthew then walked out of his room, and took notice of the fact that the rest of the house was dulled of color like his room was, and walking to his mother's room, he opened the door to find her sleeping in the bed. Sighing in relief, Matthew tried to place his hand on her shoulder to try to wake her up and see if she could explain what had occured; His hand passed right through her, as if he wasn't even a physical being anymore.
	 Matthew stepped back in horror, unable to comprehend what had just occured, it seemed too horrible to be real. Thinking to himself, the only thing he could come up with, was that he had become a ghost or died somehow. He fell to his knees, overcome by sorrow, and unmistakably, fear. He stayed in this state, silently crying to himself for a while while he tried to accept the inevitable truth, that he was no longer alive, that he had become a spirit.
	Finally managing to compose himself again, Matthew stood up and silently walked out of his mother's room remembering the silence that had fallen upon the world around him. Walking down the hallway, he stopped at his door, and took notice that the sand of the hourglass was more than halfway in the bottom of the artifact now. Matthew walked around the inside of his home taking notice of things that seemed out of place, such as the fire being out, no food in storage, and once more, absolute silence. He continued to walk, and made it to the front door of his house, the entirety of the building dimmed of color.
	When he managed to bring himself to open the front door of his home, he took in the view of how the world now looked. All of the places that Matthew knew were still there, but there was something off about the entire village. Everything was dimmed in color, except for the mauve windcatchers, even the buildings of the village, such as the blacksmith, the farmhouse, and the alchemist's hut. The entire world seemed to hold less color than normal, and it saddened him to see it like that, even though he couldn't explain why it made him feel so sad. There were also another kind of unusual looking flower mixed in with the windcatchers; They looked a lot like the copper gearthorns that his mother cultivated, but they were of an easily noticed color, a bright beautiful silver, like the hourglass. He closed the front door, then slowly walked over to the strange silver flowers. Reaching for one, he heard a sound in the noiseless landscape that made him stop midreach, the sound of a female voice somewhere nearby.
	He looked around for the source of the sound, then started walking around trying to figure out where it came from, and pinpointed it to a very tall tree nearby, with someone sitting on one of the branches, smiling down at him. When she spoke, it was a musical kind of voice, amazing to hear, and made the depressing landscape seem more cheerful.
	"Hello Matthew, why would someone like you, with so much life left in them be here of all places?"
	Matthew was taken aback, more by the fact that she said that he was still alive, than the fact that she knew his name. Matthew looked up, directly facing her, noticing just how immensely tall the tree was, and asked her the most important questions that popped into his head.
	"What do you mean I am alive? How do you know who I am? Do you know where I am?" Matthew asked in a flurry of questions unable to contain his excitement at finally having a chance to figure out what was happening.
	The girl who he now realized was a rabbit, by the very long dark gray ears lying flat down the back of her head atop her gray colored hair, smiled at him again and lightly laughed. She jumped down from the branch, landing on her feet, directly in front of Matthew, and he took in more of her details.
	She was relatively tall, almost his height, and very lithe in shape, her hair was gray in color, and speclked with lighter and darker grays in places. She was wearing a full length deep blue dress with a lighter blue hourglass pattern on it, and white trim at the edges. Her fur was a light gray, with it becoming white at her feet and hands. She had vibrantly deep blue colored eyes the same color as her dress, and the most interesting detail that he almost immediately took in, was that she was translucent, as if she were immaterial.
	She looked him over, and spoke again. "I will answer your questions one at a time, seeing as you asked them so quickly." She laughed.
	"First, I know you, because we used to play together when we were kids, the best of friends, though you probably don't remember me anymore. I'm Cassandra Windrunner"
	Matthew's eyes widened at the mention of who she was, and he blurted out a question that was probably best left unanswered. "How can it be you? I thought you died a few years ago from falling from the Tower Tree."
	Cassandra's eyes narrowed at the question, and she frowned at Matthew. "I am Cassandra, and yes, I am dead." She gestured around herself with her arms, "We are in the spirit world, and that should answer the question of where you are as well."
	Matthew looked around, taking in details that he previously hadn't noticed, such as the strange spire standing tall, deep in the woods atop the waterfall, the strange monolithic stone that was bright white in color, and the dark cloud floating over the deepest reaches of the woods. Looking back at Cassandra he stated, "You still didn't answer the first question that I asked you"
	Cassandra smiled at him once more, gesturing at herself, laughing a little as well before speaking, "The first one should be obvious, I know you are alive because you are solid unlike me."
	Looking at himself for the first time since he had arrived in this place Cassandra called the spirit world, he noticed that unlike the rest of the world around himself, he wasn't dulled of color, and he looked completely solid. He touched his chest with his hand, and found that he was completely solid. He then paced around for a minute, Cassandra watching him the entire time, an amused expression on her face, and thought of some more questions that had occured to him since he had started talking to Cassandra. "If I am not dead, why did my hand phase through my mother's shoulder? What are these strange flowers? How did I get here?" Matthew asked quickly, though he felt he had the answer to the third question already.
	Cassandra looked irratated that she was being asked so many questions at once, but her expression changed to pensive as she thought to herself about the questions. She started to pace around, similarly to how Matthew had done, her face set unmistakably in a frown. Finally stopping in place, looking at Matthew, her frown gone, she started to answer the questions. "The first one is easy enough to answer, since you are in the spirit world, you can't interact with the living, though you can interact with spirits, and the second question is a bit more complicated."
	She set her focus directly on the silver colored flower with a metal gear like object around the stem, then looked back to Matthew once more. "Those flowers are native to the spirit world, they are called Aetherium Gearthorns, and the metal that they grow is known to have unique properties."
	She frowned again, looking around herself, before finally crossing her arms in front of her, as if angry. "As for the last question on the other hand, I have no idea how you got here. You probably know better than I do."
	Matthew looked around himself as he thought about how he had arrived in the spirit world, then as it occured to him, he set off at a brisk pace back towards his home, then he gestured for her to follow him. Cassandra looked confused, but followed him nonetheless. He opened the front door of his house, Cassandra following closely behind him, and set off directly towards his bedroom. Stepping into the dark room, the door had been left open, he stopped in front of the dresser where the hourglass was.
	Cassandra who was following Matthew closely, almost bumped into him as he stopped suddenly, and turned to look atop the dresser at the strange object on it. Her eyes widened in horror as she instantly recognized what it was. "Matthew, how did you get this hourglass? It is an extremely powerful artifact that was made from the Aetherium metal."
	Matthew, who was shocked at how fast she had recognized the artifact, and the fact that it was an extremely powerful artifact had somehow ended up in his house, immediately questioned Cassandra once more. "How do you know what this is?"
	Cassandra looking back at Matthew, suddenly worried of what he would ask of her after she answered this question, answered with trepidation. "When I first arrived here after my death, I met the master of this realm, the ancient one, the Great Aethereon. He told me a few things about this realm, and of a few of the artifacts made of the mysterious metal known as Aetherium."
	She looked around, noticing the look of wonder on Matthew's face before continuing the story. "The ancient one told me of an unusual hourglass made by a magician who lived a small distance from the village where you currently live, and the odd power that the hourglass contained." She paused a moment before continuing, "The artifact could move someone to the spirit world for a exact period of time before it clicked, and shifted them, and itself back to the mortal realm."
	Matthew and Cassandra both looked at the hourglass and the amount of sand left in the top, before Cassandra ran out of the house, faster than Matthew could respond. Before Matthew could react, she was back, and she had one of the Aetherium flowers in her hand. Gesturing for Matthew to hold the flower she placed it in his hand, and before he could ask her what she handed him the flower for, she stopped him, and spoke quickly. "There isn't much time left Matthew, I need you to do a few very important things once you go back." Barely pausing for a moment, she kept the conversation going, "I need you to take this flower to the blacksmith in the village, tell him to make you a staff cap from it, he will know what you mean. Then I need you to track down the magician who lives in the mortal realm, at the exact location of the spire in this realm, tell him you need him to make you a staff topped with the Aetherium cap."
	Matthew was about to speak, but tears had begun to flow down Cassandra's cheeks, and he noticed that color was returning to the world. The hourglass began to glow, but as he  reached out for Cassandra, there was a blinding flash of light, and he opened his eyes, to see that he had returned to the mortal realm. What had he gotten himself into?