My name was called, waking me from my slumber where I dreamt of worlds long consumed. It came as a cacophonous song that reached across forgotten dimensions, its discordant melody forming a whole that a mind constrained to a single reality could never fathom without damage to themselves. To me it was sweet and delicious, a lure I could not resist. In hunger I answered, my song joining with that distant call to create a passage through which I could claw and slither between worlds.

I rose then from deep waters, the salt of foreign oceans sliding from my scales. My summoners were perched upon the pinnacle of a great cliff, beings small and fragile, their ruddy skins little more than meaty bags straining to hold their essences together. In proof of their vulnerability, most had perished in the summoning, their minds and bodies torn apart by the glorious song. Unknown to them, their dying cries had formed the melodic undertones that enabled their song to reach me across dimensions.

Those who remained alive, seeing me rise before them, broke their calls to chant and chitter at me like rasping insects. I did not understand their language, nor did I care to. Yet I could feel the longing in their voices. I could feel their need for respite from endless struggle, a need that formed a dark hunger mirroring my own. Their despair had opened them to my dreams, and in experiencing them, made them desperate to seek me out. They hoped that by summoning me I would bring them the peace they desired.

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Plucking them from the cliffside like fruits of the garden, I gave them the peace they longed for. Their sweet darkness became part of me. Yet it did not sate the hunger I felt. My cravings were as endless as the oceans of this world. No mere appetizer could dull my urges.

So I wandered this realm, seeking out others to fill my belly. Some would fight against me, stinging and biting, but it was of no consequence. Ultimately it only delayed their ends. I razed the land, drank of the seas, and devoured the living to feed my eternal hunger.

Soon there was nothing left to eat. And as had happened before on countless worlds, my hunger, unfulfilled, turned to torpor. In this lifeless place I will rest, waiting for the denizens of yet another realm to enter my dreams and discover my name, and in knowing, sing out my name in longing. Until then I will sleep, and wait, and dream, as I had done more times than there are stars in the sky, and will do again and again until the end of time. Here I will become the empty vessel yearning to be filled once more.