I did it, Lises thought to himself. I've walked the pattern. Nervous at the finish, and exhausted, he ended up in some shadow he had never been to before. He can change this now right? It should come easy. And it did, with the wave of his hand, the building to his left changed color. He shifted it back, and the color reverted. But that's not really happened, he was the one who changed. Intrigued by this, he walked out of the alley he found himself in. A boy bumped into him, and fell to the ground, shattering some object he was holding. A vase. The child started weeping. Curious. He shifted again, and on the next shadow the boy avoided running into him, having noticed Lises before it was too late to evade, and continued carrying his vase down the road. Such a simple change, how curious. As he watched the boy cross the road, a large machine sped right through him. He was terribly splattered, as shrieks of horror erupted from other pedestrians. Was....that. He immediately shifted back, and noticed the kid still crying, although the look of confusion was worn as well. Probably as to where Lises had gone to. He turned towards the road, and that large machine continued menacingly down the road. .... This tore terribly into Lises' mind. .... He looked back at the boy, who was trying to get the contents of his now shattered vase back into the bottom piece. A grey powder. Perhaps the remains of another human? Lises knelt down and began to help the boy.
It was apparently medicine for his sister, for a terrible 'stone sickness' that existed here. Curious. His sister, without this medicine, was fated to die. So two children would have died if he did not so randomly appear here?
Lises' plan was to return to his father and brother, who was also walking the pattern probably at this moment, once he had finished the Pattern. But, this intrigued him, he wanted to see how much change these whom he accidentally saved would have on this shadow.
After that, Lises essentially joins their family. Noah and June, were the children's names. Their parents had also died to the stone sickness a few years before Lises joined them. He got a job as a baker, and helped pay for the home that belonged to them. The two of them were both quite genius. The girl was in college, and the boy was smart enough to help with his sister's studies. Stone sickness had no cure, and that expensive medicine only delayed the certain petrification. And, the disease was adapting. These two were working on a cure, however. It appears their deceased parent had started research into it, and their dream was to carry out their parents' work. And they did. Lises, though it's likely he could have helped them finish their cure, simply watched. After two years, they sold their idea to a pharmaceutical company, and a permanent vaccine was created. However, it couldn't affect those who had already contracted it. Noah caught it as well by the time the vaccine was available. However the two were happy. The disease's growth slowed to a halt, and no new cases had shown up afterwards. Noah and June however, could not be cured, and eventually succumbed to the disease, six years after Lises met them for the first time. That was what he waited for, and it came unexpectedly quick. He no longer had need to remain in this shadow, and returned to the place he originally entered. He waved his hand again, reverting to the shadow adjacent. What he saw horrified him. The city that was alive and bustling in that other shadow, here was grey and eerily quiet. He needed to only take a quick look to figure out why. This busy street had nearly two hundred petrified humans, frozen in casual stances. No looks of terror, as if the world had frozen for a photograph. The disease must have evolved, to such a point that the years-long petrification process would happen instantly. He hunched his back, and sprouted the white feathered wings that he had created into his coat. He took off, and began viewing this dead world. And dead it was. Not just humans, but the plants, the animals, everything that once lived was now stone. And in that other shadow, simply appearing there changed this? So little, and an entire world was saved? That's all that's required?
