Hazy, muted moonlight twirled blindly in the sleepy fog, effectively disarming sense of direction. The air was stagnant and choking, like the force of silence itself was pressing down on all things, threatening and oddly urgent at the same time. The quiet was so accusing it made the land's unlucky inhabitants pace quicken - it made them nervous and calm at the same time. Loneliness was never out of the question, but it didn't shake the feeling of someone watching. The fog twisted again and pale shards of light struck the unhealthy bark of the thick swamp's trees, like tiny little spotlights from tiny little policing helicopters.

A shadow - no, it was a figure - moved slowly as the light did, showing whimsical paths and imaginary roads through the rolling trees and darkness. Zijaks padded on for hours before the light spilled onto him directly...that's when his full form was caught, instead of a glimmer of movement in the fog and reeds. But he was gone so quick it seemed like a trick of imagination. Could there really have been a large, inky canine standing there a moment ago? None the less, the hallucinations continued to cut an ever-changing path through the swamp. Breathing was getting difficult, like trying to swallow a long, cotton cloth. Suddenly everything was quiet and stiff. If you had indeed been following a figure, it had stopped. The moonlight shifted again, and the light-helicopters surveyed the gray, mangled ruins of an old building. Ignoring the nag of common sense, Jak preyed on curiosity. He wandered the broken halls, unconsciously avoiding outbreaks of weed in the concrete floor like one avoids cracks in sidewalks. Oddly shaped shadows created monsters lined against the walls, and occasionally the wolf would come across an odd bundle of wires just sticking up out of the broken floor, sometimes shooting up a spray of blue and yellow sparks that burned at his eyes. Finally Jak stumbled into a room full of tiny metal cases. They were shaped somewhat like diamonds and glowed dimly in a myriad of colors. They looked so delicate...

Suddenly voices started to strengthen into a whisper at Zijaks conscience. They were always a jumble, like hundreds of beings talking at once, in all different languages. They kept a steady crescendo, and an uncommon fear built in the male. He almost didn't recognize the feeling at first, the cold grip at the back of his spine. The voices were screaming in his head now, making his brain pulse with their animosity. One calm, firm voice stood out in his mind, the only clear one. It's throaty whisper rasped on his consciousness. Come closer, my boy..I'll make them stop...
Who are you? Wh-who are they?" Jak choked. A shifting teal diamond stood out from the rest, pulsing beautiful colors. I will make them go away, the voice repeated, reassuring. One step closer, and a hungry hiss burnt Jak's ears. Finally he broke his stunned trance and ran. As far and fast as he could.
...Zijaks...

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