“And I have heard of you, Life Eater,” replied Ned weakly. He was surprised he could talk. He certainly couldn’t morph or move at all. It hurt simply to talk. Everything hurt. He managed to open one eye. What he saw confirmed what he could already smell and hear and feel. He was lying on the ground somewhere in the forest. Dark stood over him in the moonlight, a black, inhuman wolf-man shape with glowing red eyes.
“Life Eater,” laughed Dark. “An apt name. I have not heard it in a very long time, shape shifter.”
“Time means little to such as you.”
“To the contrary, time means a great deal. The humans have spread and rutted their way to further dominance, since last I woke. They are generally weak but delicious and numerous. I have fed on them since waking and grown stronger. Alas your kind has, I believe, faded away in both numbers and in strength.”
“Is that why you now dare to leave the shadows?”
“Unlike your kind, who cower hiding, I always go when and where I please. Now I hunger, goat man, and the humans are but poor fodder. I would consume your folk as well.”
“We are not defenseless humans.”
“Some of you have respectable powers, it is true, particularly the one-horned ones, but that only makes you better food and more interesting prey. Still, I have not survived for eons by not being cautious.” He looked at where Dooley lay unconscious. “This human was taught words of power. By you?”
Ned remained silent.
“Still, it was far more than mere words. There was a touch of real power, power from himself but also power that he must have tapped from somewhere else. Power from your folk perhaps, or from something on the Mountain. But there is also unusual power in the human named Johnny Goth.”
Dark bent down over the goat man, so that his red glowing eyes were only inches from Ned’s, his hot, sickening, putrid breath inescapable. “There is a truly great power on the Mountain, shape shifter, a power that I have sought for eons which I mean to gain for myself.”
“Finding it will do you no good; its power is lost to you forever.”
With a snarl Dark slapped Ned’s face so hard that at first he thought that he had killed him. The People are resilient, but not indestructible. But no, the shape-shifter was only unconscious again.
“Emmmuh,” moaned Dooley, softly.
Dark smiled. The so-called People were ancient foes and prey of his, and more. They were once much closer, but he had evolved, and they had not. They were still mired in principles. It was doubtful that he would be able to extract more information from the shape-shifter. Any shape shifter would rather die than betray his kind to him, their ancient enemy, though the goat man might prove useful as a hostage. Perhaps he would let him live for a short while longer before consuming his life-force. The human that he had captured though, was another matter.