Alex had rested by the light of her creep lantern, which had gone dim as the hours passed, staring at her changed face in the lake. The rest of her body had changed as well. Her muscles were less defined, her skin felt rougher, even her breasts had changed size.

The more she regarded herself, the worse she felt. Ever more alien. Then there was the fact that her shadow had gained eyes, of sorts. Spots where it simply wasn't as deep as it was elsewhere, although again - that could just be her mind playing tricks on her.

Eventually she had to move, even if it was just because she felt stiff and restless. She picked up her lantern, leaned on her spear, and started walking away from the pond. The water from it had, if anything, left her feeling thirstier than before, although the lantern had alleviated even that after some time.

Now though, the flame was burning low, leaving behind only a low shimmer of green fire to light her way through the forest. While before the odd halflight had been enough to navigate by, after spending so much time by the lantern's light, Alex found it much harder to see where she was going and how to avoid the rotten branches and roots that littered the ground.

Eventually, she came to another cliff edge, where the stone jutted precariously out over the large depression around the distant black mountain. Last time she had scrambled away - she had been afraid of heights her whole life. Now, in her despondency, she walked up to the edge and looked down.

A river of mist had pushed up against the cliff below her, and now a layer of dense grey vapour concealed the ground below her, its edges slowly spilling back towards the distant black mountain. Carefully, the young woman sat down on the ledge and put the lantern down beside her.

By now, its flames were dim, curling around softly glowing yellow-green embers within the wiry frame. Black smoke slowly drifted out, twisting into froglike shapes before scattering in a soft breeze.

Alex paid it no mind, staring out over the depression around the valley. She could see the cliff stretching around - it was not unlike a crater, she thought, as she watched the mist slowly roll back from the cliffs. It was vaguely mesmerising, like sitting in a plane and watching the clouds roll by below.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

The lantern died out, and the gloom closed in so that the brightest things were the light bouncing off the mists below and her own skin. She got up, abruptly - sitting on the cliff edge was madness, but then she had a scant two hours ago called on the forces of evil.

Admittedly, the world had judged that to be a just approach, but to her mind this world was obviously twisted. "Certainly" She muttered "from a social perspective, they're all insane." She picked up her spear and her lantern and walked back into the forest.

She had only taken a few steps when suddenly it became much brighter, silvery light streaming down from the sky. Alex turned her head, and saw a smooth, mirror-like sphere had appeared above the mountain. The starlight seemed to gather around it in a brilliant prismatic halo, and the moon's light shone down on the misty forest below.

Alex had, when she was younger, seen Star Wars. And this 'moon' filled her with all the nervousness she imagined would have been felt by the people of Alderaan, had that been a real place. She quickly turned and began marching away from the black mountain and the creepy silver moon that had risen above it.

When the singing began, she started sprinting, only casting a quick glance over her shoulder to see a variety of tiny glittering objects in a ring around the moon. Even that small distraction caused her to trip and nearly fall over a root that collapsed to mouldering dust under the force of her running.

[Technique: Sprinting - Unlock Progress: 50%] echoed in her mind, the cool voice of Justice almost a mockery of her predicament. If it could convey emotion, anyway, rather than sounding exactly the same here as the Void or when she had killed the spirit.

She kept up the run for as long as she could, collapsing in a gathering of trees so dense that even their leafless branches provided some shade from the pervasive silvery light, and there she lay shivering, hoping - but not yet praying - for the moon's departure.

Alexandra Johnson

Faction: Monster

Subfaction: Itinerant

Species: Human

Blood: 12(+3.6% Endurance, +12% Bloodline)

Bone: 10(+3% Tool Use, +10% Aura)

Flesh:10(+3% Technique Efficiency, +10% Regeneration)

Blessings: [Identify(Justice)]

Techniques: [Spear-Fishing][50% of Sprinting(Incomplete, Unusable)]

Equipment Slots: [Weapon: Spear][Offhand: Tarnished Lantern]

Bloodline: First Serpent