”This..... Sucks!”, Shade grunted and pulled himself upwards a little.

It had taken him half an hour to regain the movement of his legs and start climbing the mountain.

All over again.

Because of a mysterious and badly timed sneeze.

Shade had eventually gotten back to the point where he had fallen from, but there was still a long way to go. He was also, believe it or not, getting tired.

'That was really unfortunate, that fall. You were doing really well too.', Saphira said.

”Remind me.....Not.”, Shade muttered, still remembering his partial and temporary paralyzation. Also, the crash. It kind of, you know, hurt.

There was a silence hanging in the air for a few seconds. Shade was really getting a workout pulling himself up the rocky wall and Saphira really didn't want to bother him.

Eventually the silence became too much for a certain dragoness.

'Can we talk about something? This silence is making me anxious.', She tried to start conversation.

”Ask...... Kill time.”, Shade grunted in response. There was no cracks or rocks in reach to get a rip on. Shade just tensed his fingers and struck them into the rock surface. They digged deep enough for Shade to pull himself up and grab the next rock.

This intrigued Saphira.

'How did you do that?'

Shade mumbled something under his breath, most likely curses from the strain he was putting on himself. ”Mind..... Over..... Matter.”, He finally said.

Saphira was suprised to say the least. A bit confused as well.

'I don't think I understand.', She admitted.

Shade pulled himself up one more time and saw something that he liked very much.

”Oh, thank Talos!”, He yelled out and pulled himself to a ledge that was wide enough for him to lie on. He rolled onto his back and looked at the sky. He took deep breaths and took a relaxing position. Basically just his arms and legs spread wide.

'Not wanting to break your break but-'

”Yeah, yeah. Give a guy a minute to breathe. Sheesh!”, Shade said.

After exactly one minute of breathing and being a lazy bum,

”Okay, you know basic biology?”, Shade asked out of nowere.

'Umm.... a little.', Saphira said, caught off guard by the question.

”Okay, here goes.”, Shade said, taking in a huge breath of air. ”The brain of a living thing is the thing that controls the body. The body has hundreds or thousands of muscles, depending of race and size of course. However the brain stops the creature from using it's full potential. A body, no matter the size or strength is not supposed to cause that much strain on itself. It would tear the muscles apart. I'm able to stop my brain from restraining my power output. I get very strong with control of my mind. Mind beat's matter. I neglect your reality and substitute my own.”

He said all that in a single breath of air and was now gasping for it.

Saphira was speechless. She didn't even understand half of that and yet it made sense in some weird way.

'Where did that come from?', She managed to ask.

”I have NO IDEA!”, Shade practically yelled out.

Shade then jumped up and stretched. ”Well, that was a nice break!”

'It was like, what, three minutes?'

”A nice break! Let's go!”, Shade said adamantly.

He grabbed the first spot he could get his hands on and started climbing again.

'Wow.', Saphira said as Shade was picking up his old pace.

”What? I'm not on fire am I?”, Shade asked casually.

'I just realized I can see into your head.', She replied.

”Duh! You ARE in my head.”, Shade said it like it was obvious.

'No. I mean I can see your thoughts. It's suprisingly empty in here.', She suddenly became afraid that she had just insulted Shade.

”Yeah, I don't think a lot. Thinking is what doctors do and they are mean. I bite them.”

'….. Okay.', Saphira said slowly and mentally sighed in relief. 'I wonder what else I can do. What's-. WOAH!'

”Ouch! What now?”, Shade asked. Saphira's loud yell had hurt his ears for a moment.

'I... I think I'm seeing into your memories.'

”Cool. What's on the mind TV?”

Not even bothering to ask what ”TV” was, she took a moment to answer. 'Well, there's a white room.'

”Hey! That's the room the mean doctors gave me. I was there all day and night for twelve years.”, He deapanned in response.

Saphira was shocked. The fact that Shade was kept in that tiny room for so long was something she wouldn't want anyone go through. She herself would propably go mad from such an endeavor.

'Why?', Was the only thing she could ask.

”Said something about insanity and then I bit that one guy and he got sent to a hospital.”, Shade said like it was not that big of a deal.

'How did you handle it? I would have gone insane locked up into such a small place.'

Shade rolled his eyes. Saphira got the message.

She also saw what she presumed were these doctors Shade spoke of. Really weird looking, kind of like bipedal apes with no hair, except on the head, a flat face. She had never seen such creatures before. She decided to ask Shade about it later.

'Okay. Let's see if I can see dee... per.', She halted for a minute. 'You....erm. You weren't kidding about that biting thing?'

”Nope.”, Shade said, chipper as a school kid on summer break.

Saphira had thought that the coated man was only joking about the whole thing. Yet there it was, a memory where she saw Shade quite clearly bite off one of the doctors fingers.

'Are you a carnivore?'

”Omnivore. Meat and veggies. A little bit of column A, a little bit of column B”, Shade corrected. ”What do dragons eat?”

'Mostly we dragons eat gems, but we have no problem with meat.', Saphira said.

”Really? Gems? As in, shiny rocks?”

Saphira gave a mental nod.

”Neat.”, Was Shade's only reply. ”What about that kid of yours? What's she like?”

Saphira was quiet.

”Dragon lady?”

'I...' Saphira paused, sounding sad. Shade may not be the most understanding person when it comes to feelings, but even he knew that the dragoness didn't want to talk about it.

”If you don't feel like telling, just say so.”, He said in a kind tone.

Saphira was puzzled. Shade was such a unique person. She wanted to understand him better because of it. She said nothing and delved a little deeper into Shade's memory lane. One memory seemed to stand out from the rest. It felt different. Darker.

Just when she was about ot take a peek at what the memory contained, a ghastly yell of anger rang in Shade's mind.

'STAY OUT! DO NOT GO THERE!'

The pure intensity of the voice made Saphira yelp out from a small surge of pain. It shook her entire soul, her entire being. And then it was gone. As if it had never been there to begin with.

Saphira was paralyzed. She couldn't move or speak. She could only think. Was that Shade who caused that? Why did he not want her to see this memory? What was in it? These were some of the questions that circled the dragoness' mind. She was growing more curious by the minute.

Then she realized it. She was going through memories that were not hers. She had violated Shade's personal space by trying to see something that was rightfully his. Only his.

The dragoness felt guilty. She should probably apologise. But she was scared that Shade might still be angry. She did not know why she was so worried about it.

'Shade..... I-'

”I'm sorry,”

This stopped Saphira on her tracks.

”I shouldn't have yelled at you. I'm sorry.”, Shade repeated.

Saphira did not understand. It was her that had violated his privacy. Why was he apologizing? The dragoness just could not understand the odd creature that was Shade.

Just then, something burning fell past them. It almost collided with Shade, but missed by an inch. He looked down to see what it was. He couldn't quite tell, but it looked like a corpse of something.

”So, the flaming dead are raining from the sky? Must be tuesday.”, He said calmly.

'Umm, Shade?'

”What?”

'You are on fire.'

Shade looked down and saw that the tail of his coat was, indeed, on fire. The small flames danced on the white flame markings and the black fabric.

”Huh? So it seems.”, He said indifferently and started to climb again.

A brief silence.

The fire spread.

Saphira was starting to feel a little warmer than normal.

The fire spread some more. It was almost at his waist by now.

'Shade, I really think you should-'

”We don't need no water, let the motherfucker burn!”, He said in a sing-song manner.

'….'

”.....”

Shade was completely covered in fire. Saphira was beginning to feel hot now.

”It's getting kind of hot in here.”

Saphira felt like hitting herself to check if she just heard correctly.

”Ow.” Shade said silently. ”OwowowowOWOWOWOWOWWOWOWOWOW!”, He screamed as the pain started to catch up. He actually jumped up and began running up the vertical mountain wall.(Take that physics!) When he got to the top of a ledge, he didn't stop immidietly but was launched into the air. He flailed his arms wildly, trying to put out the fire.

It finally seemed to start putting itself out for some odd reason.

”Hey! It's goooooooone!”, Shade began as he began to fall back onto the ledge. He landed with a loud thud.

He rose from the ground and spat dirt from his mouth. ”Soil. Gross.”, He said simply.

He found himself swaying around a little.

'Are you okay, Shade?', Saphira asked, worried.

Shade looked around and saw a large cave nearby. It would have to do.

”Sleepy. Need to snooze.”

The moment he reached the cave, he fell to the ground and was asleep.

Saphira just smiled at this and wondered why Shade looked so peacuful when he slept.

-Unspecified location, unspecified time-

The walls were adorned with the most odd objects. The numerous shelves filled with all kinds of things, from potions to rocks with strange markings on them. Many old, if not ancient looking books were scattered everywhere.

The place seemed to let out odd waves of mystery.

In the middle of the mess, behind the counter was the owner of the messy and mysterious establishment. He was just sorting out the mail he held in his hooves.

”Bill, bill, bill, ad, another ad, FUCK NO!”, He screamed and threw away a letter that was signed by someone called Skeleton Jack. ”ad, ad, gross ad, creepy ad, japanese tentacle po- Who the fuck keeps sending me these?!”, He raged out loud. ”Don't care, don't care, go die in a hole, no I don't give a shit about Hyrule! Get Link to do it...” The list of things continued for a while untill one letter got his attention. ”Urgent?” The letter bore the royal seal he had come to know rather well. It had been a while since he last saw it.

He threw the rest of the letters into the trash. He levitated a letter opener to himself and made use of it. He unfolded the letter and read it.

His eyes got an suprised look that soon changed into that of annoyance.

”That bitch!", He exclaimed very loudly, the volume rivalling the Royal Canterlot Voice.

So, we leave Hollow to his agonizing lecture and see what Shade and Saphira are doing. They chat and...... Well, at least they did not fall this time. And who is this character who get's so much weird mail? We will find out..... someday.

The next chapter might take a while to finish because of "unusual circumstances". Be patient, it will be good. Or not. I don't know.

When you don't want him around,

Doctor D, The Burning Man Next Chapter: The Melody of Nobodies Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 22 Minutes