1. The Fire
...ceased fighting the flames, handing over to the destruction....
The shadows came when The Legend was forgotten.
They slipped between buildings, soft as whispers, wrapping NeverWonderLand City in quiet gray despair. Most creatures learned to live beside them.
But not Sir Do.
The dodo knight took to the streets, torch in wing, chasing the darkness away with fire and fury. Every night, he burned back the creeping black. Every dawn, they returned.
Until one night, the shadows cornered him.
In his desperation, Sir lit a blaze too great, too wild. The fire roared, leaping from rooftops, swallowing streets whole. The city burned.
He fought to undo what he had done. Evacuated as many as he could. When the fire reached the outer land of the Fields of Hopes and Dreams, The Dreamweaver, who had tended the fields for lifetimes, fell to their knees in grief, with their last hope and dream. Everything was lost.
She was joined by The MindLibrarian whose nearby archives were devastated. The richness NeverWonderLand embedded through word, illustration, art, life, and memory, was engulfed.
At a loss, Sir Do ceased fighting the flames, handing over to the destruction for which they were responsible. His eyes brimmed with tears, they fell to the land.
The puddle upon the ground turned rainbow. Embers gathered and a spark rose. Sir Do stepped back in awe of twirling flames.
A bird emerged. A Rainbow Phoenix.
Phi.
With wings of shifting color, Phi grew into a large fiery-shadowy figure and flew over the ruined city, singing a song of rebirth. The shadows of the land did not flee.
They listened amongst the burning city.
Phi welcomed them, granting them their power of rebirth. The shadows approached the city fire, not with fear—but as part of it. The shadow tamed the fire, becoming embedded in the structures they saved. The City was rebuilt before The Citizens eyes. As Phi was reduced to ashes and sprinkled upon The City.
And so, The City was saved.
Not by fear. Not by fire.
But by learning to let the darkness belong.