Shadow Bison {D5} [fin]

If there is an average look for twelve year old boys, that would be Shadow. His body frame looks fairly frail; he doesn't have much muscle, nor really any fat to keep him from looking malnourished; then again, the boy is still young. He isn't very strong enough to quite help out with very much, so he hasn't built up what's required to do so.

Shadow's hair is a light blonde, though it does have a few chestnut streaks in it; it is very scruffy, often giving him the "I-just-got-out-of-bed" kind of look. It falls over his dark maple brown eyes most of the time, and though he's been meaning to cut it for a while now, he's never gotten around to doing so. The boy's eyes are quite large, giving him a very childish look; and to add onto it, he is missing about three teeth -- two on the top and one on the bottom -- because of his baby teeth falling out late, and his two front teeth are somewhat bucktooth. All in all, the short boy has a very timid domeaner about him, wide eyes always holding a flicker of caution.

Shadow, to say the least, is a scaredy-cat. Instead of facing a fight, he prefers to either hide or run away. Don't expect him to stand his ground for anything he believes in, unless it's a subject he holds near and dear to his heart. Otherwise, you'll be left by yourself while he runs to find safety.

Shadow, believe it or not, has a deathly fear of shadows; however, only the shadows of living creatures. Humans, swines, chickens, equines, etc -- their shadows spook him like nothing else; but houses, bridges, fences, etc (aside from cattle) -- their shadows don't scare him much more than making him nervous -- trees, however, don't scare him. The boy isn't exactly sure why such things really peck at his mental state, but they just do. He reacts to them as if they're dark monsters, constantly stalking and ready to prey on people and animals; he even freaks out at the sight of his own shadow which sends him into a panicked frenzy. Usually to cope with moments of distress, Shadow usually darts over to a tree and hides in its shadow, feeling safe under the canopy of leaves. Underneath trees is his safehaven; the branches and leaves acting like outstretched arms to protect him from shadows.

When not being freaked out by creeper shadows, Shadow loves to spend time with the calfs on his father's ranch. He loves to go lay in the grass with them and watch them play, sometimes even joining them. No matter what shadows are nearby, the boy feels completely at ease around the cattle, often hiding amongst them whenever his father goes on rants about how ashamed he is of his son. Shadow confesses things to the cows as they graze, playing with their tail or trying to jump up the backs of the steer. Aside from being underneath trees, the cattle are his other escape from the horrors of life.

Shadow was the result of a night fueled by too much alcohol and nothing to do. His parents had been dating for a few months prior, though this had been unexpected. Despite the fact that there would be a little one to share the little house they had moved into together, they were both willing to raise the child. However, during childbirth, Shadow's mother died due to complications. The new father, although distraught, knew he couldn't blame the little boy for his lover's death -- it was an accident.

He raised the little boy as best he could without a mother's influence, though something was off: the boy was horrified of shadows. Whenever he would pick him up, the boy would freak out at seeing his father's shadow on the ground -- and that was where his name came from. "Shadow, the boy who's afraid of shadows." The name stuck, though pretty ironic. The poor boy was even afraid of his own shadow, constantly trying to find darkness so he wouldn't have to see it.

As Shadow began to wander around the ranch, he frequently began to hang around with the cattle. No one really knew why, but the cows made him feel safer, despite their shadows. The cattle didn't really mind the boy, sensing that he was only a young, scared child, so they warmed up to him, allowing him to play around with the calfs and roam around the pasture at will. Shadow, however, would frequently lay underneath one of the few trees in the pasture, hiding from his own shadow.

His father, however, was ashamed of his own son. Of course he loved him, but it was just embarassing to take the boy into town, only to have him break down crying at all the shadows. He had tried to wean the boy off his fear by creating stories -- that always had a happy ending -- or trying to come up with tricks to show that shadows were bad, but nothing seemed to work; he even went as far as coming up with a story about how his name had derrived from an ancient knight that defeated shadows, but it didn't work. The magic only worked to get the boy through the night, but in the morning, he was back to being terrified.

Sciophobiaaaaaa. =D