Prompt: shadow walker

My mind goes to any of three characters (all lovebloodrhetoric's) when I think shadows and it was difficult to choose between them. But this one is the one I tend to associate with the shadows most.

They called them the Sons of Shadow. Led by the heir presumptive, the Sons of Shadow were forces to be reckoned with - if you could see them. They disappeared into shadows, into the night, umbral warriors who walked or leaped from shadow to shadow to stalk their targets. None were as skilled as the brother of the king. The Sons of Shadow had their counterparts in the Heirs to the Flame, mages who wielded fire as though they were red dragons themselves. As well they should for they were led by the king himself, who was as red-haired as the very dragons from which he was descended.

The Sons of Shadow were training today, all day. From the earliest dawn, when the rising sun cast long shadows behind each warrior, to the height of the day when the noontime sun meant the warriors would have to use their other skills, for there were no shadows substantive enough for any but Prince Tahir to use. They fought until sunset, when the prince left his second-in-command in charge and sought out the king. Since they were children, they spent every sunset they could together. Some things never changed, thought Tahir as he found his brother waiting for him, bathed in the deep reddish glow of the sun, his shadow stretching back so far it was like an invitation, one Tahir couldn't refuse.

He slipped into his brother's shadow, and traveled its length. He stepped out, right next to his brother's side, and like he used to do when he was still too young to speak, he reached up and tugged on the long red braid that hung down the left side of King Sadiq's face, longer than the rest of his hair, and a sign of his nobility. Tahir's was about as long, but night-dark where his brother's was blood-red.

Sadiq turned ice-blue eyes onto his taller, younger brother, his too-pretty mouth curving in the kind of smile that made sensible people nervous, and sent shivers of another kind down Tahir's spine. Together, they watched the sun loan its power to the night, only to take it back the next morning. Tahir didn't speak a word, and Sadiq said plenty as night fell and they retreated from the balcony. They'd come so far from the spoiled and dangerous princes they'd been, but the bond between them had never been stronger.

Man I miss playing them. And this is still not the prompt I keep meaning to write. I just know that one will wind up with a lot of feels and I'm not ready to write it yet.

Now for lunch.