MEGALITH Long ago, Humans walked the Earth. Knowledge in one hand, fire in the other. And with their fire, they sealed away the Abyss, which has existed since the beginning. But one day, the Humans left, and took their fire with them. Only the Megaliths remained, the monuments which cast long shadows over the world. Thus did the Abyss return, reaching out from the shadows, and surging forth by moonlight. One by one, the lanterns were snuffed out by the creeping claws of the Abyss. One by one, the flames were quenched, and those who cherished them fled for the dawn. And when the last light had faded, darkness descended upon the world, and feasted upon every living thing. Only two lights remain to keep the shadows at bay: The Sun, and the Final Flame. The Final Flame of Man’s departure formed giant dunes across the world. Oceans of ash and molten slag, where nothing but the bones of trees remained. And at its center, there was a smoking crater: The Firepit, where the Final Flame smoldered still. Once, the Sun rose upon the ashes of the Firepit, and a creature emerged from it. One that shone like the sun. Journey to the Firepit, and you might find her pawprints pressed in the ashes still. A trail which leads out of the ash sea, and into the shadow of the wild. The amber of autumn was upon the Earth that day, and so too were its long and terrible nights. The days were growing shorter, and soon the guidance of the sun would become a fleeting thing indeed. It is easy to imagine, then, how the daylit beasts would cherish the warmth of the Final Flame. ====================================== THE RUNE-TAIL JOURNALS, VOLUME 1 Morning Comes at Midnight It’s difficult to express what a stinking heap my village was before Solace came. Every night, the beasts would come to claw at our doors and skulk about in the street. They would take anyone who was foolish enough to be caught outside at night. I know this because I was one of those fools. A young doe that had grown sick of hiding. At that age I knew nothing of seduction - of the sacrilege that echoed from the deep. All I knew was that I wanted to see for myself what was lurking beyond the dark. I knew not what a fool I was. Once, when the sun was beginning to fade, I walked bare-hoofed into the open plain. I wandered out into the Towershade, to places untouched by anyone. And when the sun vanished behind the Tower, I looked to the sky and saw the Moon was guiding me. Darker and darker, until no light remained, save for the glow of the distant Moon. And so it was the moon that guided me out to a moonlit expanse at the base of the Tower. And there, I crouched in the grass and waited. I waited to see them - to find night-prowling beasts on the hunt for whatever it was that they craved. But it was I who was found. They knew I was there from the moment I stepped into the Tower’s shadow. I don’t remember how many there were. All I remember is how quickly they forced me to the ground. The sharpest, longest claws I’d ever seen - the most teeth that could possibly fit in one maw. I was naked in seconds, stripped bare and pinned to the grass before I could even scream. Claws sank into my legs, my bottom…and around my neck. I couldn’t breathe. A muzzle pressed against my cheek. Whiskers brushed against my fur as a wicked whisper made its way into my ear. “Precious prey, be silent. Let us love you with our teeth.” Every now and then, I still hear that voice, echoing from the shadow of my dreams. I hoped that keeping my mouth shut would spare me a worse fate. But then they sunk their teeth into me, and I cried and screamed for help anyway. They didn’t eat me - not at first. They wanted to savor me. To lash their tongues and teeth against my fur, and taste every inch of me. I watched them clamp their teeth on my nipples, watched them suck and lick and pull on them. It hurt so much, and it was only the beginning. Claws tightening around my neck. Gripping my ankles and pulling them back. They forced my legs so far apart I thought for sure my hips would crack. And then I had snouts pushed against my crotch, and teeth buried deep in the meat of my legs. It sickens me to imagine how hungry my fear must have made them. Surely the one between my legs could smell it - as if my screaming and weeping were not enough to tell. My crotch was soaked by the heat of their breath, and the spit that they left behind with every lick. I watched one of them drag his tongue from the base of my tail to the tip of my hoof. “Enough! Let her bleed - just a little.” Suddenly, the beasts yanked their teeth out of me and stepped away from my bleeding body. My legs were red, marked by dozens of piercing teeth. The blood and saliva which soaked my fur was dripping into pools on the ground underneath me. I started to cry so hard that I couldn’t breathe, much less talk. I wanted to beg them to let me go, but I didn't have the strength to. Not with a dozen glowing eyes and a thousand knife-teeth hanging over my body. And so, I cried. I cried so deeply and sweetly, in my lost mother’s voice. Because I knew, deep down, that this was her fate, too. This was what she felt before she was devoured, and I never saw her again. I had no time to make peace with my suffering, nor my imminent death. “Come. You are first.” All I saw, in the darkness, were eyes. Glowing green eyes, staring so…lovingly…into mine. It made me…so sick…to see him look at me that way. To stare into my spirit while he forced himself inside of me, as if he were doing it for my own good. I felt every inch. He did it slowly on purpose. Slowly, so I could feel him pushing me open, and feel the bump when he got it all the way in. And there, he stayed. Just so that I could feel it twitch and swell inside of me. There was absolutely nothing I could do to stop them from having their way with me. My wrists were above my head, and they were pushing my legs back so he could get deeper inside me. His shoulder was within reach of my jaws, and yet I couldn’t even muster the strength to bite him. Not that it would have done much good, anyway, helpless prey that I was. And while I was being raped, there was one who licked my cheeks and spoke blasphemy into my young ears. “Sweet prey…Must you place your faith in that which blinds you?” His words made me sick. I almost preferred the sensation of being penetrated to the things that he put in my head. The ideas that he tried to nurture in my broken little spirit. “Come, now. Your smell is familiar. If you behave, we might be able to find…something you have lost.” I shook my head - as much as I could. I knew, in my bones, that he was lying, as much as I wanted it to be the truth. I would endure hours of it if it meant that my mother could be brought back home. But they were only taunting me, and they were going to ruin me regardless. “Why wander into the shadows if not to be set upon by beasts?” he laughed. “Little doe, surely you knew this would happen.” I wanted to deny it. But I had been told, perhaps hundreds of times, that I was not to leave the village at night. That is when I stopped listening to him - to his sick, twisted words. At that point, the feeling of having my insides forced open was preferable to that. I don’t remember how long I endured it. How long the beast had his way with me. It was so dark, and my cunt was so numb, that I might have taken more than one in my body. It didn’t matter. In my eyes, I was already dead. Now I knew for myself, the defilement my mother suffered at the claws of the Abyss. I knew that, by the time they were done with me, I would pray for them to break my neck with their teeth. And I wept for my mother, knowing that she had experienced the same fate. But, there was Solace. I saw, at the corners of my vision, the glow of the rising sun. I saw the shimmer of the divine, the ray of golden light that pierced the darkness. Beyond the edge of the meadow - beyond the uncertainty of darkness - the Sun’s only daughter had come. And when she drew closer, the beasts fled - oh, how they fled! To this day I have never seen such fear in a creature so large. The moment that the light had touched them, they left me where I lay and vanished into the night. And though I was broken, I was blessed. For I knew, when I saw her face for the first time, that I was in the company of a god. A young girl, a five-tailed cat draped in sunlight…she fell to her knees and cradled me in her arms. Weeping tears of amber onto my blood-soaked fur. Somehow, morning came at midnight, and carried me home in her sacred arms.