Prevailing over all my thoughts and instincts, dread streamed through me. Not being able to control the body I inhabited was nauseating. My sight was

limited to what the horrid brute was able to see, so only when it widened the lens of its eye could I take a better look at my surroundings. Comparing my

abductor's size to the many other rocks around me, I realized that it was enormous. Each hand was the size of an adult human, and its arms far exceeded

that length. It breathed. The foreign movements that I felt in "my" own chest pulled me deeper into the sea of dread. Judging by the small figures that my

relatives had been reduced to in the distance, I guessed that I was about half a kilometer away standing on a steep precipice. On all fours, with its limbs

bedecked with claws of terror, it began sprinting away from our encampment. Trapped within this mind, my implorations were dismissed without effort. It ran,

and ran, and ran. Leaping from rock to rock, it performed its dexterous dance of horrors. All seconds that elapsed while I was being torn from my family

drove themselves into the flesh of my soul. In a frenzy of complete hopelessness, I began trying to think of a way to free myself from this situation. One

solution presented itself: I did not have a mouth to scream with, but I did have a brain that was willing to plead.

"Please, let me go!" I tried to think to myself as violently as possible. A chill somehow crept up my spine. No sound at all from either its head or its body

could be heard, save for the occasional loud misstep on the wrong piece of terrain. A truly nightmarish devil, this saurian abomination was. Its abilities

allowed it to steal souls. It possessed a body with which he could perform maneuvers both silent and swift over any kind of terrain. Leaving my home behind

as this thing's prey, I asked myself whether I was the only person to be caught by it. How many mortals had been snatched away in the exact same manner? How

many of them were able to return?

Was I dead already?

"Why are you doing this? I want to see my family!" I said. Again, I was ignored. "Please, I don't want this!" Right at the end of my sentence, a whisper

emerged from the back of my mind. At first it was faint, but then it crashed furiously into the walls of my cognizance. It echoed vigorously as the mental

pain enveloped all corners of my being.

"Human..." Nothing else. Only a word. I was sure that if the same reverberating attack had been directed at me while I was in my normal body, I would have

crawled up into a ball out of blinding agony. With only a single, brief stream of consciousness it had completely erased almost everything that I had the

apparent gall to think. I faded away. I became a passive entity floating in the back of this animal's mind. I observed.

Rocks. Grass. A leap of faith towards the rocks. Between trees. A cliff approaches. A cliff approaches. I returned to myself. As it kept accelerating

towards its seeming end, I cycled through spells I could use to halt the creature. Previously I had disregarded magic, for I couldn't cast anything without

the control of my hands. When all moments were leading up to my demise however, it wasn't unwise to try my luck. Using every bit of my willpower to invoke

something, I managed to bring some green particles from the sichocht into the physical realm around me. Desperately, without almost any shred of hope in me,

I attempted to cast Fas Bü. Without any auditory instructions to follow, the surrounding magic just fizzled out with no effect. Time had run out. Beyond the

edge of the crag stood a river, whose source was the waterfall covering the maw of Relix's cavern.

Right as the reptile reached the edge, it stabbed its claw into the ground with a vicious motion. As we pivoted, I let out an internal shriek. While I was

still trying to figure if this move was intentional, the mindstealer landed its back legs onto the rocky wall. It displayed a stunning lack of hesitation as

it began stealing across the steep surface. One hand after the other quietly grabbed some jutting edge or an imperfection nearby to hold on to. If there

weren't any object it could support itself with, it would slip its claws into the wall as if it was made out of some soft material. I couldn't do anything

while it continued to descend. A fall from this height was sure to put an end to my life. I didn't want to snuff myself out yet.

"Why? I want my family..." I begged one last time. The demon, either nescient or malevolent, didn't pay heed. Our downward climb went on for a while. There

was only despondence in my heart as I watched the river down below get closer and closer. With nothing to think, I recalled the last memory of Firdevie I

had. I remembered her tears. With a heavy heart I wondered why she was crying. It seemed obvious, but perhaps it was because she knew what was happening

and despaired. A much worse possibility was that what had been done to me was irreversible, so she was crying out of pure agony. As I pondered the latter

option, falling to my death in the body of this lizard felt just a little bit more comforting.

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Eventually, a hole of great proportion appeared on the cliff face. My horrid body didn't immediately pivot to its direction. Only when I became parallel

with it lower lip did I change direction and made for it. An almost slithering motion got me inside the burrow. At first, only the entrance and its edges

were visible to me. Concealing the back end of the cave, a darkness was present. From those depths, the sounds of ominous clicking and squeals came to my

ears. The beast proceeded. Alarmingly, its eyes adjusted to the pure abyss very swiftly. Its wretched progeny, covered in white scales quite unlike their

parent, cried out for something. Not even the slightest bit of mercy was shown to me as it gave its order. "Get out..." My shrivelled, incorporeal form

was spat out. Unyielding in their efforts to consume, the reptilian's offspring began biting.

"Dance... Perform..." a breath, more odious than the state of things, ordered me. As they made their way towards my spirit, a startling facial detail

of the juveniles jumped out at me. They all carried faces that were disturbingly similar to a human's. Eager to defy my captor, I turned around. What I

encountered as I made this egregious mistake shook me to my core.

My kidnapper's visage was identical to a human's. Its skin bled into the rest of its scales at its neck. Despite resembling a serpent with its claws and

dark green skin, its dead eyes and mammal-adjacent figure made it quite distinct from one. Not willing to await my response, it spoke with its "mouth"

again. The words violating my mind didn't match what its lips were doing.

"Move..."

One of the mutant children snapped its jaws right through my arm. A portion of my spectral digit turned into dust and was whisked away. Another fetid child

was hurriedly proceeding towards me, and so I had no choice to obey the fiend. I used all of my remaining might to summon... something. It didn't matter

what would result, I just wanted to stay alive. Through this theater of nightmares, I unwillingly bowed down to my overseer. They gorged on the materials of

my being as all I could do was weep. Another alarming particular quickly alerted me of itself: My swaying and twisting under the gaze of the Ollaphaer

still resulted in my appendages crumbling into small pieces, albeit sluggishly. Even if I kept trying desperately to please the dreadbringers, my untimely

end would still come crashing down upon me. Tears, or at least the spiritual essences of tears, evaporated out of my eyes. As they devoured the blue mist, I

wondered how such creatures, hellbent on sustaining themselves by eating minds, could even exist. Not long after the sweetest fruits of my torture were

released, the parent Ollaphaer slapped me away. I violently flew across the cave and rammed into a nearby wall. I suffered not injuries, but their effect.

My senses were taken away once again by the numbing, white pain.

"Why..." I was now far away from the damned beasts. A lightless nothing shrouded them from across the stone hollow, although the rotten noises they created

simply by existing didn't fail to make me aware of them. I heard the repugnant claws of the father demon approaching its progeny. Without so much as a

thought, I got back up on my feet. Realizing that the creature had made the terrible mistake of throwing me closer to the entrance, now blazing with the

light emanating from the slightly sunken sun. It didn't even occur to me that I was running as I heard the parent monster turn and chase after me. I made

a leap off the edge as the horrific thing blew a final, decaying breath my way. While falling into the river, the luster on the surface reminded me of

grandmother's smile.

Unconsciousness followed.

In an endless pool, a void, I sat adrift. Unwillingly wandering the non-halls of insentience. Peering into death. Itself. Inescapablee night, impassable

Banasc. All was naught. Until things started to come back again. From within what felt like a windowpane, I peered onto my comatose body from above. Right

next to my body sat Firdevie. Her eyes were red and swollen, most likely because she had cried almost incessantly since my departure. Standing beside her

was Relix, with his arms crossed. "Gran..." I tried to call out. The druid spirit took notice of my call. He looked right at me, but I didn't have enough

courage to continue the dream.

I woke up on the edge of the waterway. Along the course if its length, it had gotten narrow and shallow enough for my body to get stuck. Without any true

wounds to keep, there was no physical agony. The moon in all its melancholy, had risen above the stalking night. No useful actions remained for me to do,

except for trying to make my spirit join its counterpart. Lacking in hope, feeling and the energy to cry, I began yet another journey. This time to get back

what was stolen from me.

Rising up to my transparent feet, I realized that I had exited the canyon long ago. Though I could still see some rocky formations in the very far behind

me. Were I to follow the river, I would surely encounter the distant forest. Its lush, towering trees looked quite menacing under the veil of darkness.

Deciding to try my luck, I began making way towards the left of the canyon. Perhaps there was another way to the temporary encampment from there. Maybe

there wasn't. I was the lamp whose oil was aspiration, and aspiration was all but spent. Right before I set out on yet another perilous journey, I decided to

take on last look at the sky.

I didn't know until then that a lunar glow could bring a boy to tears so quickly. I collapsed on the floor again.

"Please," I begged from behind my strained throat, "I-I-I want to g-g-go home, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, it's so beautiful." I took a deep breath.

"I'M SORRY!"

I'm sorry.