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As your gaze sweeps the landscape, you notice something you'd never noticed before. A figure stands, a fair distance away...He wears a cloak, with the hood down, and you long for the days when you could wear something like that. Something that could make you feel like you were on a great adventure. The figure watches you, but it stands too far for you to make out any of its features. You do notice however, that it carries a lantern in one hand. Its eerie blue flame wrestles with the darkness and the smokey haze it creates clouds your thoughts, and stirs up vertigo in your mind. You linger in a state somewhere between wonder and fear, and you quickly realize that your legs are frozen, as if bolted to the rocky ground. You are suddenly struck by the notion that the figure has not moved, not in any way that you would notice, yet is somehow much closer than before. You begin to make out more of its features and you are not the least bit surprised to realize that whatever it is, it is not human. You think back through all the mythical creatures you've read about...all the books that would clutter your bedroom...that would make your backpack just a little heavier than the other kids. It appears to have blue skin because of the lantern light, but it is just close enough for you too see that it is in fact green. It stares at you through large yellow eyes, and you can just see a forked tail sticking out from the back of the robe. It looks like some sort of dragon, only if the dragon were old, an old man dragon, hunched over, walking on two feet...but it is small. It stands only up to your waist, and it looks as though it were a gentle creature, if only you weren't standing before it. You wish its face would show some emotion, but it is blank, emotionless, like someone who knows something about you; about something you'd done wrong a long time ago. You are suddenly frightened at the realization that it is standing right in front of you, and that in the other hand, it carries an knife. "Um, hi, can you understand me? If I've done something wrong, will you tell me what so I can apologize?" You feel a bit relieved that you spoke so bravely, and that you are not as frozen as you thought you were. But that relief doesn't last long, as it just stares silently back, as though your words fell on deaf ears. Your head starts to swim a bit, and you feel as though you may faint, when suddenly...as suddenly as anything that takes your breath away...as suddenly as anything that unexpectedly takes your life away...you look down in complete horror as he juts the knife deep into your soft belly. Warm blood begins pouring down your legs...or is it urine? You decide that it is in fact both, as you look up with so many unanswered questions in your eyes, only to see his copper lantern, with its blue flame so cold, swinging quickly at your head. You never knew it was the last thing you'd ever see...
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