I've hit a bit of a blip with my current story so I am coming back to the first few chapters of Light in the Shadows to fix them up and sort things out in my head.

For those of you who are new to this series this is written from two perspectives, Harry's and Yami's. At the start of each chapter it should be obvious whose perspective that one will be from. Swaps in perspective will be marked by bars.

Chapter 1: The Attack

Noise woke Yami. He had been resting in shadow form curled protectively around the cot where his elf slept peacefully. He listened to the noise, people were moving around outside, and the taste of their fear ran through him setting up the familiar throb in his mind.

Yami was about to investigate when the door to the small room snapped open and she stepped through. He drew his shadows into his human form, the movement causing her to hesitate. A sound that he couldn't hear caused her head to turn, glowing sapphire eyes wide with fear. Yami moved forwards one hand extended, but she brushed past him and scooped up the child who still slept in the cot. Her head turned to look at him and understanding the silent message Yami followed her, flowing back into shadow form as he moved.

They were moving through the forest swiftly, she ran with all the speed that was intrinsic of her race. Yami was hard pressed to keep up despite being unburdened. Finally she stopped, her head turned keen eyes seeking the darkness for whatever was causing the fear in the village.

She bent and carefully laid her child in the hollow between two roots in a great oak tree. The tree shifted slightly, drawing its roots into a curved bowl to protect the boy.

Then she turned those ever-bright eyes to Yami, "Take care of him please...he is everything." Her words were nothing more than a tune on the breeze as she backed away. Yami hummed his affirmation and wrapped his shadow form around the waking elf child. He watched as she fled, leading whatever hunted the village away from him.

Yami didn't know how long he had kept watch, there had been screams and cries from the village faint though they were. Now all sounds had stopped. The child was fighting his shadowy embrace with all his tiny strength, but Yami held him still, he had to keep him here until she returned. As Yami's thoughts turned to her his attentive hold on her child slipped and the elf leapt up and ran.

Yami streaked after him, but the child could move as fast as his mother. Yami was unable to catch up until they had reached the village, Yami glanced around, the elf child stood next to the body of an adult elf; it was dead. Yami moved closer and tried to draw the child from the still form, but he was determined to stay there.

Yami settled back unsure what to do; he was so new to this that he was still wary of the tiny creature who had ensnared him. Yami stretched out his senses, there was no one alive in his territory; all the elves were gone.

He scoured the village swiftly, checking each of the dead bodies. When he returned to the child he was sure, neither she nor her mate were here. At least half of the village were not present, he didn't know what to do. Why had she not returned?

Yami shifted and considered his options, he had to get the elf child to someone who could care for him; as much as he loved the child Yami didn't have the capacity to provide him with what he needed.

Unfortunately only one idea came to mind and it was not one which made Yami happy, and it was certainly not a plan which could possibly be long term. There was an elfin village outside of his territory. They were friendly and he knew one elf that would be happy to take the child on. The big problem was that the elf in question was bound to another Shade, one that Yami didn't get on with.

Shades were solitary creatures by nature, but Yami and this particular Shade had a history. Their territories now bordered each other and they didn't cross them, ever. Yami looked at the elf and sighed, he had no choice. "Come Little One, we must go now." His voice came from his shadows as a soft velvety purr. The child rose from where he sat and look at him. Blue tears filled his bright eyes and then he was running again, but not in the direction that Yami needed him to run in.

Yami gave chase, mentally calling out to his fleeing charge, the elf-child didn't slow and Yami knew better than to attempt to stop him. The boy's magic was incredibly powerful and he was distraught. Yami assumed that he would stop soon, but the elf seemed to know where he was going and was determined to get there. The Shade was getting nervous, they were nearing the outer reaches of his territory and heading towards human regions.

Within a few hours Yami began to sense the press of human magic, the anti-Shade spells designed to keep out his kin-folk. But the child was still running and Yami had sworn to protect him. The anti-Shade spells tightened around him searing his extremities, but he forced his way through them. The spells twisted and squeezed him crushing him with the weight of a mountain, but finally gave under his magic and will-power and Yami leapt after the boy.

Yami flashed through the forest so focused on the fleet-footed child that he payed no mind to the creatures and magic around him. The forests ended and the elf raced onto grass. Yami was very nervous now, the child was heading for the human's stone building. They were far out of his territory and this place stunk of human magic.

The elf ran up the stone steps and into the building, Yami followed closely, there were sounds from a room ahead of them, the doors were slightly open and the elf slid through them. Yami flowed his shadows in after him, but instead of following closely he shot upwards and hid in a dark corner where he could watch without being observed. Human wizards were not fond of Shades and though their magic was highly ineffective against him fighting this room full of humans would potentially put his elf in danger.

The elf child had stopped in the centre of the room, and every single human was staring at him. Yami noted without interest that most of the humans were young, there seemed to only be a small population of adults all gathered in one area. Slowly the elf turned and made his way towards one of the human children. A male, with black hair and bright green eyes.

The Shade's in this story are not like the ones in Eragon, they are not humans with spirits inside of them, more will be explained about them later in the story so bear with me.