A/N: I AM ALIVE!! So, I will still be working on my Beauty and the Beast story but, to prove that I have not been merely twiddling my thumbs, this is something that I have been working on. Pieces of it can be found on my other account, so if this seems familiar, that is why. This does need editing, and the spelling of magic(k) tends to change, so I need help with such things.

If anything doesn't make sense, be sure to let me know! Enjoy and please review!!

In Which We Meet The Villain Of The Rainbow Realm And His Band Of Forest Dancers

There were not many in this strange land of faraway who still remembered the light. Black had become darkness, and other colors fell away to reveal shifting patterns of gray. It was with need that the creatures moved about; dreams floating around flame.

The fire cast no color on the world around them, one so harsh that not even the light caressed the leaf-strewn floor. The light refused to comprehend a place such as this.

A place that danced even as it burned.

Sheathed in moonlight (for they were not truly lost, not even then), the figures, they moved, whirling howls of pain and want, arms forced away from the warmth of flesh towards the elemental heat of flame.

The sound that burst forth from their bitten lips severed the shaggy silence that previously draped the forest like a mantle. The noise was deep, resting in the belly of their guts, poor mockery of the original resounding in their hearts, but the smell was so dark… and cut so deep… it was more than want… this was need…

Flashes of unremembered light spurned across their closed eyelids in the form of broken imaginings. Still the feet moved faster, surely poised to trip, but in and out they weaved, sliding up tired dust that no longer screamed at movement.

Surely they had to stop, trapped soul deep in ever climbing not-light, from the delicious friction of skin on earth. But soon the eyes of the enraptured opened, awareness moving from earth to sky. The feet stilled as the beat grew to a low hum.

A man, one with no face, just a smudge of white framed by lengths of hair that pulled back the skin like strings of a marionette, scrambled forth over the stones. Approaching solid ground, he stood. Black boots pushed down hard against the mineral, hands held tight in fists behind a slouched frame. Unlike the unblemished surface on his travesty of a face, the hands were gnarled, rough, the finish of which must surely have been stolen from the bark of a grandfather tree.

A dark green cloak trailed out behind him. His garb was old, and tattered. The thin material of his shirt too closely resembled a shroud.

Muscles that should have been hidden under eyebrows furrowed beneath the milky skin as a jagged overhang of membrane lifted to reveal a mouth. The voice was callous, spliced with grating tones that spewed forth spittle in the form of a hiss. “Have you found it?” Even the fire grew more feral at the resonance of such supposedly nonexistence; gone where the flickering slopes.

The twitching under that pale visage told more about the man than a pair of expressive eyes ever could. He paused.

A tall beauty of a woman stepped forth from the circle of dancers, the fire throwing her features in sharp relief. “No. No my Lord. It was… I…” There was nothing more to say. The terror apparent in her eyes was not lost on the faceless man.

“And Ankou?” Spit traced its way down the right side of his chin.

“Well, sir, he has… We tried but he…” Her eyes were wide and rolling, even her feet stamped like that of a frightened colt. The others stood ‘round the fire in trained silence, trying not to inch closer to its warmth. Oh, how they wished they could just remember. Still the light was wasted.

One jaggedly curved tooth snagged on the bottom of his speaking hole. “Enough. Mayhap you need encouragement to render the task complete?” His words stung.

“No. No my lord.” Her voice was a trembling drawl. She knew he could taste the fear rolling off her flesh in droves. Dropping down to slightly scabbed knees, she was calmed by the fact that it was not far from the ground should he decide to let her fall.

“Good.” He licked the uneven skin about his mouth. “Perfect.”

Using all the strength she possessed, the woman stood and fled into the dark forest. Those who had been there long knew she would not return.