When Aydin plunged into the unknown swamp, he neglected to inhale deeply before diving. In his panic, he turned back.

His heart raced.

Had the Gorfs discovered him?

Submerged, his hearing was null; he dared not open his eyes, fearing what might appear. He couldn't even let out a whimper, afraid it would be too loud.

All that remained was the trembling lip of a child who longed to cry but was paralyzed by fear.

In that moment, the humiliation of being mocked by his siblings for wetting his pants became inconsequential, and he relieved himself without a second thought.

The next thing Aydin realized after leaping into the frigid unknown was the sheer underestimation of its chill.

He even denied his body the shiver that the biting cold warranted, all due to fear.

Fear, fear, fear.

He had been unaware of it until now.

Certainly, he had experienced it before, whenever his father posed a random question to test if he had studied the politics of the regions for his homework. If he failed, his father would administer the punishment himself. Following the beating with those flexible branches, sometimes drawing blood, his father, panting and sweating from the exertion, would claim it was for his own good, and that one day he would understand.

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Aydin would meet his father's gaze with his own sorrowful eyes, aware that his father understood what Aydin was thinking. Yet, his father remained indifferent.

This fear of punishment was different than this new fear.

This fear led to absolution. It was profound, governing every bodily mechanism like a tyrant whose sole decree was survival by any means necessary. This could mean holding one's breath for an unexpectedly long duration, as Aydin discovered he could, or breathing so subtly that the mist from his breath merged seamlessly with the swamp's fog, not altering its pattern. Remarkably, his body grew warmer in the frigid water, defying the expectation of becoming colder.

This tyrant fear also ordered if closing eyes mean surviving more, then damn with all that curiosity to see where Gorf was.

Was it gone to find another prey? Was it sniffing the air to see where his prey disappeared? Or was it approaching to his location?

Aydin wanted to open his eyes to answer those questions, but the tyrant fear overruled any stupid notion that could expose his location.

Stay Still, and blend to the environment. That was all it was saying in repeat. Over and over again. Stay Still and blend.

After a while, To Aydin surprise for not being discovered yet, he tried to open his eyes ever so slowly. Yet, his eyelid after accumulating so much dirt and mud, it refused to open like that. It took him a little bit more time to clean the area around his eyes by his dirty hand, and after that he opened his eyes.

To his relief, there was no Gorfs in nearby area. So he raised head a bit to hear noises. He heard all sort of animals in forest were anxious as well.

To his dismay, he saw the start of fire from where the castle and village was located. Those flame was fighting off the darkness of night.

From where Aydin was located, he could see the pulsating orange light in the dark times of night was rising up and going down like a wave. He also heard the shrieks of animals close to that area.

He didn't know what to do about this, if he ran, there was no guaranty that he wouldn't meet a Gorf or something worse than Gorfs, like Kerlis, or Plangor. And many more that even the bravest huntsmen didn't dare to adventure around their territory.

Aydin didn't know what to do, but the tyrannical fear knew.

Stay Put.