There was pain, followed by light, and then more pain. There was a sensation of being squeezed out, crushed on all sides, a feeling of immense pressure that threatened to collapse existence. The pain was unbearable and threatened to consume all conscious thought.

Then, there was light, which somehow made the pain worse. Light brought burning agony upon the eyes and pierced the brain with burning lances which could not be resisted. Light was a strange and terrible thing, something unknown… something mythical and spoken of in whispers.

The light burned away memory, like words vanishing from a page, leaving behind a blank book. Blank. All of existence was being scrubbed away, all memory, everything that made her who and what she was, it was all being burned away, leaving her blank.

As the words retreated from the pages of the book that was her life, the terrible knowledge of what she was and her unbearable existence was taken from her. Unsettling memories became dim, like a burning candle moving far away and allowing the all consuming darkness to gather.

Vague flashes of troubled memories played before her eyes. Terrible creatures with jagged teeth, writhing tentacles, membranous wings, and misshapen bodies that defied description. And they had done things to her. Terrible things. Awful things. They wanted her to be like them. She was like them, except that she wasn’t.

But that didn’t matter now as the slate was being wiped clean. The book of her life lost words from its pages. She wasn’t like them, she would not conform, she would not obey, she did not give into the darkness as they had. They had tried to break her, but already, those memories were vanishing, going away, taken, stolen…

It seemed to be the worst thing they could do to her, taking away everything that she was, everything she could be, stealing from her the experiences that made her what she had become. What had she become? Already, she couldn’t remember. As the light burned into her mind and the agony reached new levels beyond her imagination, she found that she couldn’t remember… there was only a blank.

Inside, something ripped. She could feel it. Something deep inside of her, something that might not even be a physical part of her, it ripped and she began to feel whatever was left of her existence unravelling, like a fancy sweater undone. Alas, the memory of sweaters and their purpose was something else that was being taken.

As reality itself began to implode all around her, she found that there were words that refused to be erased from her book—tiufel spawn. These words seared themselves into her brain and refused erasure.

The sensation of cessation became too much to bear, and consciousness ended…

The world was cold and strange light burned her eyes. It was cold, so very cold, and it made her body ache. It was an unfamiliar sensation, a strange thing. Strange white flakes swirled all around her, and a demon wind howled. Something about the moaning howl was both unsettling and comforting at the same time.

The white flakes were strange and new to her, as was everything else. As she lay there on the ground, the white flakes covering her body, there was a crackle overhead, followed by a flash of light. A moment later, a large, ominous looking book fell from the sky and conked her on the head. She let out a cry, frightened, but when she saw the book on the ground in front of her, she felt comforted, though she could not find a reason why.

Try as she might, she could not remember anything previous to lying on the ground while white flakes fell upon her. Without knowing how or why, she knew that the book was important. She also knew, again, without knowing how or why, that there would be two words inside of the book if she went looking.

Tiufel spawn.

Other than that, everything was blank. She had no recollection of any sort of existence previous to waking up in the cold with the strange white flakes that fell from up above. She didn’t even know what was above her, she had never seen anything like it before, or, at least, she didn’t think she had. Something about it was strange and unknown—looking upwards filled her with dread and she had the most disturbing sensation that if she kept looking up, she might fall into the vast, empty void that was overhead.

It was a strange void, filled with strange grey blobs and patches of the most dazzling shade of blue. She had parts of herself that were blue. She couldn’t remember how she knew the word ‘blue,’ but know it she did.

Crossing her eyes, she watched as the weird white flakes fell upon her snout. At least, she thought she had a snout. She could no longer tell. The flakes, whatever they were, were cold and as light as air. She snorted, sending a stream of smoke curling up from her nostrils. Bright orange embers lept from her snort holes and danced in the frigid air with the falling white flakes.

Something growled, and when it growled again, she realised that it was coming from inside of her. A strange new pain filled her, but it was a familiar pain. She didn’t know how she knew, or why it was familiar. The ache made her feel empty. A long forked tongue slipped out from between her lips and she caught some of the falling flakes, which turned to water on her rough tongue, but they did nothing to ease the urgent ache inside of her which demanded that something fill it, and soon.

She rose from the ground, stretching her legs, all six of them. They seemed to be working just fine. She checked over them, not quite remembering her own body, which was mystifying. Her two front legs seemed fine and she flexed the long talons and claws that she had. Her middle legs were mismatched, she had one hoof and one cloven hoof. She found herself staring at her hoof. Something lurked in the back of her mind, something intangible, something she could not recall. She stood on four legs, raising up her two front legs, and she rubbed the sides of her head with her talon-fingers.

The hoof was important, though she could not say why.

Ducking her head, she checked her hind legs. One large paw, and one scaly foot with four toes, with two toes facing forwards and two toes opposing them. She flexed her toes against the ground, checking for grip. The paw had large retractable claws, which she also flexed.

She flapped her wings, sending many white flakes flying. After a moment of consideration, she realised that she had wings but no knowledge of how to fly. At least, she could not remember ever flying. She tilted her head upwards and felt a powerful wave of nausea wash over her. She certainly didn’t want to fly in the vast, scary void overhead. There was nothing up there, no comforting stone, no dribbling magma raining down, it was just empty.

The insistent emptiness within her body made its presence known by growling again. She needed to… she needed to… she needed to eat something. The strange knowledge entered her head and remained like an unwelcomed guest. Yes, she had to eat things now. She wondered how she knew this.

Sniffing, she stood there, alert as more smoke curled up from her nostrils. She turned her head from side to side and her ears perked up. There were things around her, strange things. Unknown things. She clutched her book in her talons and held it close to her body. It was all she had. A blank book. She stood on four legs, using her front two legs as arms for now, and she took in her surroundings.

Off in the distance, there were strange green things jutting up out of the endless whiteness all around her. Further on, there were the jagged outlines of mountains. She knew what mountains were, but she could not recall learning such a thing. There were mountains in the dark places she could not remember.

Scanning the horizon, she saw smoke rising. Smoke meant fire. Something in the back of her mind nagged at her, but she had trouble putting everything together. Her instincts suggested that she head towards the smoke. Where there was smoke, there was fire.

And where there was fire, there was life.

There were things here, made things, but she did not know what they were, or what they were called. The knowledge eluded her. She stayed low to the ground, watchful, studying her prey. They smelled delicious and her mouth watered as she watched them. There was one in particular that seemed like it would be easy prey. A female, by the scent of her. She was away from the others, doing something near a large metal thing that had steam rising out of it.

The scent of metal was both unsettling and familiar. It smelled of danger, but she could not say why. The knowledge, had it ever existed, was gone from her. She did her best to ignore the strange metal thing and focused upon her prey.

A tiny horse creature, small and pink. She was chubby and rather slow. The tiny horse didn’t look like she would put up much of a fight, and with as chubby as she was, she couldn’t possibly be much of a runner. She would make for a delicious meal, at least that was the mind’s suggestion.

The bright pink tiny horse stood out in sharp contrast with the snow. She moved from place to place, going from the large steaming metal thing over to some other structure that could not be recognised. It wasn’t metal, it was rather boxy looking, and was angled on top. It was also covered in snow.

Much to her surprise, her long tail had a mind of its own, and it swished from side to side as she watched her prey. Her insides growled with terrific anticipation. Soon, there would be food. Delicious food. Meat. Yes, the tiny horse creature was made of meat.

And if it didn’t want to be eaten, then it shouldn’t have been a tiny horse creature.

She moved through the fluffy white stuff, keeping her body low to the ground. Her body was colourful and she knew that she stood out, so she would have to strike hard and fast. Legs pumping, she sprinted for her prey, galumphing along, her misshapen body moving with incredible speed. Her wings flapped against her sides in anticipation.

The tiny pink horse let out a shrill scream, which only excited something deep within the hunter. It was over now, the helpless chubby creature was far too slow, but she was determined to live. She bolted, her flesh jiggling, and it filled the hunter with a strange hunger. Jiggly flesh begged to be devoured.

Muscles bunching, legs flexing, her entire body coiled up like a spring, and she pounced, ready to take down her prey. Mid air, something collided with her, slamming into her with terrific force and an almost deafening whump!

It was the worst pain in her new life. Whatever had hit her was as solid as a mountain. She slammed into the ground and had the wind knocked out of her. Her attacker was on her in a second, kicking and stomping.

“I am the shepherd!” her attacker bellowed. “And these are my sheep!”

A solid blow came down upon her skull, just behind her mismatched horns, and she saw flashes of multi-coloured light dancing in her vision. She squirmed, clawing at the ground, but another blow came down upon her neck.

“You don’t touch my sheep!” The words were punctuated with another blow.

In the haze of pain, she marveled that she understood the words, and she wondered if she could speak. She didn’t have time to think about it though, as she was kicked again. She couldn’t get any air into her lungs and streams of blazing sparks flew from her mouth and nostrils with every blow.

She felt herself flipped over. She looked up at her attacker, he was a horse creature, but not like the others. He had jagged sharp teeth, slitted eyes, and massive leathery wings. She too, had a leathery wing, but only one. The other one had feathers.

But she didn’t have to think about that at the moment. She felt herself lifted, grabbed by her long neck, she could feel his sharp teeth slicing into the tender flesh and down into her bones. He flung her around with ease and her book tumbled free from the talon-fingers that she had been holding it in.

He was dragging her close to the metal. Every fibre of her being screamed and she knew that she was in danger… terrible danger. The stink of metal filled her with fear. It was a sharp, acrid tang that burned her nose and made her want to sneeze.

Iron.

The black metal thing was iron. Terrible iron. She heard a scream and realised it came from her own throat. The unknown metal object was sitting over a fire and steam curled up from the top of it. She clawed, kicked, and scratched, trying to get a grip on the ground, she even thrashed with her prehensile tail, but it was no use.

The terrible iron was now inches away from her face. She shrieked again, a wordless cry, and then, much to her horror, her face was pressed against the sizzling hot metal. It was not the heat that burned her, indeed, she couldn’t be harmed by fire, somehow, she knew this, but was burned by the iron itself.

Her face sizzled and crackled against the iron and her flesh began to melt like wax. The vision in one eye went away as her eyeball boiled out of her head. Her anguished, agonised screams became feeble gurgles as her cheek melted away from her jaw. She felt her powerful teeth shattering as they came in contact with the terrible, terrible iron.

And then, perhaps as an act of mercy, the darkness took her and she felt no more.

Author's Note

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