Emerging from the blinding thicket of the timber wood sauntered a canine mass of tangled limbs, its physique hardly discernible in the shadowy twilight of the night. Its charred black flesh and patches of greying, matted fur burned hot enough to send cinders floating skyward in a vortex of diabolical predatory menace. Rows of bony protrusions lined its bulging musculature, coal-fired eyes and gleaming obsidian dagger-teeth beaming brightly with dire intent.<br/><br/>It trotted forward, into the clearing of the graveyard, largely uninterested. Each charcoal-studded paw struck long lines of ash against the plush, heathen flesh of the ground. For such a large beast, it had moved with surprising stealth, leaving behind only a trail of large, crumbling flakes of gnarled flesh and its heinous odor. Staring with massive, compound, heavy-lidded eyes and a slack jaw brimming with pitchfork-pointed teeth, its facial features accentuated with a skeletal look, it clicked its mandibles. Its face prolonged in a beak-like fashion, forward teeth terrific, long as a man’s arm, its mouth a gaping abyss, remnants of its former victims splayed throughout.<br/><br/>It ghosted through the obstacles of the location, like a shimmering mist, diffusing in and out of existence. One moment, it was a hulking creature of unimaginable magnitudes, the next, an all-consuming blackness. It was nothing at all then, it cast no shadow, made no noise and gave off no odor, only a faint outline of its bulk remained imprinted on the canvas of the forest behind. The faint sound of dirt loosening became apparent as it navigated the maze of the graves. Under the veil of black, mist lingering, it began to emit a series of rumbles and clicks, the rustling noises seemingly coming from all directions. The darkness was its cradle, it preserved its decaying skin, brought purpose to its grotesque and contorted figure.<br/><br/>Flaring its molten nostrils, it dipped on its knotted haunches. It stooped its wrinkled, skinless face, the aura surrounding it enough to make any sane person piss their pants in a moment.<i>Prey lingered nearby… </i>The carriage-sized ribcage vibrated and it shifted back into reality. The crystal-cut eyes finally settled on a succulent horse, left foolishly unattended. A brief ruckus later, the mark found itself gorged upon, spear-teeth moving independently, clawing, crawling its was up the muscular body like a snake wrapping around its helpless victim. The entirety of the mare dissipated into the maw with slippery glurk, the beast’s neckline blown massively out of proportion as it passed down its system with an audible splash, the ground below, muddied, saturated deeply with the blood that the initial, heart-ripping killing blow had coursed. The abomination rumbled its contempt, then eyed the surroundings with its poor eyesight. The pilfering pillars of smoking coming off its body wrapped it in an intense heat, the scent of burning meat, pungent.