It's been a long walk from the twilit beach. I can't hear the crashing waves, or feel the sea breeze against my skin. The darkness in my heart has grown dull and stagnant, turning gray.

Life is dead.

I wander the gray forest paths, with no real direction. Shadow has been forgotten, and my Father is not here to guide me.
"Maybe I can wake up soon." My voice whispers. The words echo through the air, but they never leave my lips.

Life is dead.

My eyes are open, my feet press on, with no real direction. The paths disappear, and I've grown weary, so I rest against the tree of tears. The tree has run dry, and withered. The tears will not come... but neither does anything else.

Life is dead.

The wind dies, and the colorless forest is silent. Before long, my darkness sinks into the gray, and I am trapped in nothingness. My eyes begin to close as I hear the voice again.
"Maybe I can wake up soon." It says. My eyes open, only to be met by the gray nothingness in that has swallowed me.

Life is --

A shadow... finally, a dark shade among the neutral nothingness. The gray becomes black, and the black becomes red, and the red becomes a smile. The smile becomes a snarl, and the snarl makes words.
"You disgust me." The Blood Wolf says. Red flows from his maw, and yellow frustration fills his eyes. The red touches me, and I can see where I end, and the gray begins again, at last.

Life is anger.

The blood becomes a face, the wolf becomes a man, the face is the man's, and the man is me. The Me smirks and pokes me. Me towers over me, and pours red onto me. The red becomes black again.
"Are you going to allow the world to neutralize you?" Me says, gesturing to the gray. "A hero's story is never read from a blank page."
The meaningless gray begins to darken and shift.

Life is purpose.

I find my feet among the shapeless underbrush of the gray world. I feel nothing -- not fear, not anger, not sorrow. I stare at Me, and he glares back. Me's claws pass through me, as if I were nothing. And then... the something I'd forgotten makes me someone again. The claws break the skin, the skin tears and bleeds, the black covers the wound.

Life is struggle.

I bear my fangs and fight against The Me. Locked in combat, we paint the gray red with our blood, giving the woods shape and depth. The trees cry tears of pain, tears of sorrow, tears of anger, tears of joy.

Life is pain.

The red finds the path out of the forest, my Shadow waiting for me on the other side. He whispers, "Maybe I can wake up soon." carried to my ears by the new wind.
Me laughs. "How will you find the light if you shut out the darkness?" He asks. "Light creates shadows. And anyway, without fight -- without conflict -- the story can't move forward. It becomes dead, and meaningless."
"But I never wanted the darkness..." I protest.
Soon, Shadow is at my side. He places his huge, familiar claws on my blackened shoulder. "Without the darkness, you have nothing to challenge you, and with no challenge, you never grow. Without the darkness, you have no reason to reach for the light."
"So, I'll never truly be free of it, then?" I ask.
"Probably not," Shadow answers. "but it will make you stronger if you bear it. Trust me."

Life is perseverance.

I open my eyes, looking at the gray forest behind me. It's just a mass of colorless gray. It has no darkness to give it definition. It has no lights to make it brighter and more beautiful. No colors to give it life.
We press on, the sun's light casting shadows across the fields of the heart. The Light lay far ahead, but as long as the page is stained with black, the story will always continue.

And the music plays.