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<b><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#b30000">Ashel Norwood</span></b>​</div><span style="font-family: 'Didact Gothic', 'sans-serif'"><br/>
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<span style="font-size: 15px"><span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(179, 89, 0)">In a small village, deep in the dead of night, a charmingly handsome young man awoke suddenly with an unfamiliar fear settling deep in the pit of his stomach. No nightmare preceded this shocking return to the waking realm, leaving him gasping for air. In fact, there was seemingly nothing at all that should have provoked such an intense feeling of terror. Confused and reeling from this sudden panic, the man sat up in his bed motionless, trying to will his senses to heighten and take in anything at all that he might use to rationalize and dismiss that awful feeling. He sat listening, staring off with eyes that failed to focus on the shifting darkness in his room. He jumped slightly as somewhere outside something let loose a deep guttural sound, followed by a much louder sustained cry that pierced the thick silence of the night. A wolf, no doubt, but there was something in the timbre of it's howl that triggered some ancient instinct, left over from times long before his grandparents, or even his grandparents' grandparents. That was enough for Mr. Ashel Norwood; there would be no more sleep for the time being. He yawned as he rolled out of bed and ran his hand forward from the back of his head down over his face, wiping away the cold sweat that had seeped involuntarily through nearly ever pore in his body, just minutes earlier. He reached for his trousers and a shirt, fumbling through the motions of getting dressed. Now stumbling towards the dinner table, he pulled out a chair and plopped down into it. With the fear starting to fade like a bad dream, he sat for a moment and began to think about what he would do with himself for the remainder of the night. The feeling had passed, after all, and he was almost fully awake now.</span><br/>
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Cool breezes began to flow in through an open window in the kitchen, carrying all the scents of the nearby forest, which only served to further invigorate him. "Well, can't sleep", he said, "I think this is a sign that I may as well go for a walk." He thought cautiously about that deeply unnerving bellow from earlier, but immediately dismissed it as an irrational fear. "Wolf be damned.", he said to himself with a smirk. The decision was made. A quiet walk through the village would ease his nerves well enough so that he could at least get that last hour of rest before dawn. Ashel shoved away from the table, stood up, slipped on his sandals, and yanked his coat from the hook where it was hung before he proceeded to head out through the front door and into the night without another thought. <br/>
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Ashel loved walking through his sleepy little town at any time of the day and had a particular route that he frequented most often. He decided on this night, that would be the one to follow. It took him past the church, through the graveyard, and out to the edge of town where the trees took over the earth. He plodded along without event, simply pondering what could have caused his episode earlier, but he really hadn't a clue. He hadn't really been paying much attention to where he was going, either, as he let himself get lost in thought. When he looked up, he was at the edge of the forest, and through the trees he could see a light where there should be none. "Now what could that be? This night continues to grow stranger." He approximated that he couldn't be more than a short distance from the light. He double checked to make sure he was carrying his knife and upon confirming this he made the impulsive decision to trek into the forest in search of the mysterious light.<br/>
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<span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(179, 89, 0)">Tromping through the forest now, it didn't appear to Mr. Norwood that he was getting any closer to the source, despite having walked straight towards it for at least a couple of kilometers. Almost ready to turn back, he realized that he had actually approached the bottom of a large precipice, though. No climbing that, no sir, but now he felt like he was getting somewhere. He hugged the wall and headed off towards the light again. This time, it was only a matter of moments. Earlier it had continued to evade his tracking, but now it seemed to appear in front of him much sooner than it possibly could have. He was close enough now that he could smell the smoke. Suddenly alarmed by the prospect of a forest fire, he sprinted towards the source of that tricky flickering light. He realized that he was now standing at the mouth of a large cave, and deeper inside the cave he could see a raging fire... and maybe something else? It was hard to be certain with the tendrils of black smoke swirling around him, making his eyes water profusely. Nevertheless, Ashel decided to make one more bold move that night. He entered the mouth of the cave and stepped into the smoke. It was at that moment that he was suddenly overcome by another strange feeling; the uncanny feeling that he was no longer alone. He decided to call out before going deeper into the cave. "Hello? Is there anyone in here?" He heard a faint noise somewhere in front of him, but again was unable to make out anything through the haze of the smoke. "Hello? Are you hurt? I live nearby, I was just out on a walk.. If you need help I can take you back to town." His voice echoed through the cave, and then the cavern was silent. Somewhere just outside the entrance of the cave, however, that terrible cry from before shattered the silence and reverberated against the cold stone. The sounds come from every direction. Ashel reacted on instinct and leapt further into the cave, straight into the haze, hunkered down behind a rock just feet from the fire, and simply waited. As he sat there sweating, his head grew heavy and his eyelids refused to obey his commands to stay open any longer. Each blink took seconds now. Either the lack of sleep was catching up to him or he was suffering from smoke inhalation. Either way, poor Ashel Norwood lost consciousness moments later and crumpled with a thud into to the dirt.</span></span></span>