The darkness of the cloudy night was only matched by the silence. A silhouette darted through the woods towards town, followed closely by a blurry shadow.

While approaching the town, the torch of one of the guards captured the identity of the silhouette and the shadow for a spilt second but it was all the guard ever needed. The silhouette was just that, a silhouette, just the outline of a fiend filled in with black. It was a gap in space that didn't follow normal logic. As if the world itself rejected its existence.

The shadow, however, was even more terrifying as it started changing into one of the guards himself. The guard holding the torch could only shiver in terror as he knew what fate befell him. He saw both the shadows, the fiend that took his visage, though corrupted by the fiend and its shadow.

At the moment the guard noticed his distorted shadow, his throat leaked a crimson red. A gaping wound left by the dark being, no longer bound to the image of the guard. But rather a twisted horned aberration, with long hooked claws and a gaping maw.

It opens its maw and consumes the corpse of the young guard. Feeling his thirst and hunger increase it moved towards the town.

It slivers across the ground, down through crevices and in between rocks. Silently slipping into the populous town.

Unhindered and undetected in the silent sleeping town.

One by one, the remaining sentries were similarly dispatched before this shadowy fiend went to work on the town and shortly after were consumed.

The town itself was silent, fast asleep in the false security of its now deceased guards. It wouldn't be for much longer.

It stalks each and every one of the citizens, trying to find a suitable candidate to satiate it's never ending hunger.

A bloody massacre waiting to happen.

It climbs a wall, peeking inside to take a look at its first prey, with many to follow. It sinks its shadowy maw onto the flesh of a young boy hastily, devouring him before the boy could even utter a single sound.

But when the shadowy fiend had consumed the young boy, something happened deep inside of it. In the depths of the darkness that was the fiend, a shift had occurred. Was it really the fate of the shadow, to stalk the lands forever?

A consciousness started to form, thoughts inside of the darkness. Doubts.

The shadow of a young woman distorted.

The shadow's resolve wavered, part of the bloodthirst waned.

Was there a reason to kill this young creature? Was it for food, or was it simply something less that drove it?

The shadow did not know.

It felt as hollow as the void it was made of. Why, after all the bloodshed, did the life of one child matter? Why, when its entire existence was to destroy and devour, is it now that doubts begin to form? Despite its current misgivings, the shadow decided it best to empty its mind of thoughts and simply finish the job for the time being. Actions first, thought later

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The creature continued with the slaughter, devouring the rest of the family one by one.

Yet the thoughts still remain, assaulting it in intense waves.

It moves to the final sleeping human.

An old women. Wrinkled and frail.

As it reached to finally finish off what it started, it could no longer hold back its thoughts. Intense pain surged forth from the deep recesses of its mind.

An ancient multi-layered voice hammering in on his mind "Is this all your existence amounts to? Mindless slaughter? You disappoint us. We curse thee....."

Lightning struck the being and threw it into a world of agony. It thrashed about, unable to control its body.

The old woman had meanwhile woken up from the sound of thunder and stared at the scene in front of her eyes with dread. She as well as any other inhabitant of the world had grown up with the stories of the fate eaters and with the news of at least two massacred towns and seventeen villages the woman knew of the horror that awaited her.

And yet instead of being devoured, the creature reeled in agony before her. Thrashing about leaving deep gashes in the floor and the walls.

Blurry memories of the consumed flashing through its mind, completely incomprehensible.

However, what was far more intense was the emotions of the deceased. Both those just before they died, and their most cherished memories. Hope, sadness and... love.

By the time its anguish stopped, the old women's heart had already started giving out from the terror.

In her last moments an enigmatic scene presented itself as the fate eater slowly approached her slowly, wincing in agony on very step. The world blurred around her and the memories of a long and arduous life flashed by her. However, before the comfort of death could claim her soul she was ripped back to reality denying death its prey, the greater part of her memories was fading fast.

Slowly, her memories left her. Her senses followed soon after.

And now all she could feel...was an insatiable hunger.

As the hunger overloaded her every sense, her every thought, the fate eater started dissipating like mist in the sun.

A black void started to take over the old woman, consuming her flesh. Ripping apart the mortal body piece by piece. Consuming it in its endless hunger.

Thus arose a new fate eater at the death of the old one. Like a Phoenix.

This is the fate of the fate eater. Only in its death does another arise. Eating the fate of itself in the end to give birth to another eater.

This is the irony of the fate of the fate eater.

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One of the Author's Note:

I thank all the members of WriTE.

Original Thread:

http://royalroadl.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=66006

Is it just me or is it a coincidence that the link has three sixes.

Hope you all enjoy!