[Thumbnail Art by vetiver.fox on X and Instagram]

Why are you here again? Which way leads back to familiarity? Honestly at this point you might even struggle to know up from down. Everything was fine and dandy, like… sometime ago, you think recently. Then it got really foggy, and for whatever reason- your brain became foggy too…

Your feet squish into the muddy earth, and honestly you’re just hoping that if you wander long enough you’ll end up somewhere. Every step you take has your legs feeling heavier. Is that tree the same one from before? W- Wait. There was a shape just now, a silhouette moved. It could be your brain playing tricks but then you hear a wet splat- a step perhaps? It wasn’t yours, it was louder- weightier.

The mist grows thicker, your head spins when your eyes catch something emerging from the haze. A large shadow approaches you, it’s long and winding like a serpent. Two milky eyes that gleam like the pale moon peer into you. Your vision makes out a dragon with moist murky scales and fog billowing out from its lips and nostrils.

Then it speaks, its voice deep as a bog - rumbling into your flesh.

“All who find me are lost, body and mind…”