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The MudWing dragonet found himself terribly lost. Just moments ago he was playing with his friends in the snow. But one thing lead to another and now he was lost out in the woods. He had tried to fly up to get a better view but he was not to good at it. Only ever getting a couple feet off of the ground before crash landing. The sun was soon to set, the light blue of the sky slowly fading into pinks and yellows. Where do I go? I was just playing around, a game of hide and seek! This is what I get for trying to have fun? He strained his ears, but he heard nothing. Just him and the woods. He searched in vain for his friends or his home. The sun was now setting, pinks and yellows gave away to red, and soon deep blues and blacks. I’m lost, what do I do!? I’m stranded out here! The wind picked up, blowing scatterings of snow on to him. He shivered and tried to use his fire breath to no avail. His heart beat quickened as so did his breath. Tears welled up in his eyes, he started to blindly run in a desperate attempt to find something, to find anything that would deliver him from his frigid environment. He soon wore himself out. His breath was heavy with exhaustion and fear. Night had now fully fallen and with it he felt the cold starting to work its way into his core. His shivers were at an all time high. Hunger had also begun to set in, twisting his stomach. The half moon was high in the sky, lighting up the trees that seemed to reach out to him as if trying to hold him. The dark charcoal like silhouettes craning towards him. Each and everything terrified him, tormented him. The sound of a bird, a creak of a branch in the wind, snow falling of branches, and the sound of a presence behind him. He whirled around to see the source. Nothing. Empty darkness and snow. The strike of fear that had hit him was replaced with an ever present feeling of dread. He shook his head I’m losing it, I have to stay calm and just keep moving. He continued traveling, seeing each shadow cast by the moon as an adversary waiting to strike. Until he saw something. A figure, a shape, a thing that was staring at him. Veiled by shadow it stood thirty feet away from him. He did not know what it was but he know that it was staring at him. A pulse of fear ran through him faster than he could realize. He froze in terror. He did not comprehend its form but he did its nature. It was the thing that he always feared. The shadow just always out of sight. The nemesis in the corner of his nightmares. The thing in the dark when no one else was around. The one who lingered in the mind even when they had gone from all other places. Still frozen to the spot he screamed and wailed. The thing went into the sliver moonlight. Its form just as unknowable but still staring. Still staring at him, at his eyes. Staring at him as it always had been. It felt like his blood had gone, felt like his soul was being torn into shreds leaving him with nothing. It got closer, standing twenty feet away, standing ten feet away, standing five feet away. Its now standing a foot away. Fear irrecoverably took hold of the dragonet. The thing reached out and touched the him. His mind rent asunder, unable to handle the moment of contact. The information provided by his senses was unable to be categorized and processed by his brain. He had glimpsed a thing-in-itself, a particular thing that filled him with torment and terror. It was always waiting for him to realize it and when he did not, it took the initiative. His heart stopped and so to did his fear.