Prologue

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Royal Letter A Free Stock Photo - Public Domain Pictures [https://www.publicdomainpictures.net/pictures/130000/nahled/royal-letter-a.jpg] wind spun high around the peaks of the Rancor Mountains, rising from beyond the Rubyspun Shore, only to fall and break betwixt the forlorn trees of the Nevergreen Woods. Whether this was a tenacious puff of summer air or the marrow-chilling creep of winter, it is unknown. Breezes and hot and cold, rocks and seas and trees. Natural concepts. The Entity knew nothing of these things-- for it was of the Dark, and the Deep.

It’s first sensation was an awareness of sensation itself; a breath of thought, lacking memories from which to draw understanding. There was no before; only now. There was no outside world; only itself. Ego bloomed within the Entity as it knew two universal truths:

  Existence. Hunger.

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  Hunger caused the Entity to stir, to move. Instinct begat momentum, momentum begat slithering. Concepts leapt to the forefront of its mind, categorizing each and storing for later: Solidness beneath, thin pillars of more, rough solid rising from beneath to above and vice versa, sometimes connecting. Thin shapes along the solid beneath: Mostly semi-cylindrical in structure, some curved in places, some broken, haphazardly arrayed into a cohesive form. While the Entity did not have language to name these, it swiftly catalogued every tactile sensation of finding bones. Bones. These were collected into the Entity as it moved, feasting on the tiny scraps of flesh attached to them. Vaguely… Satisfying, but despairingly little.

  The moment the Entity consumed, it knew it wanted more-- and having more would not be immediate. From this thought was born a sense of time, and it only had meaning in the search of more flesh from bones to consume. From now until then seemed an eternity.