The night was fleeting and the sun was on its way up. As if in last, desperate struggle, the night sky shined its deepest, most beautiful shade of indigo, making the darkness pleasurable yet more.
Under such a sky, a lone bat fluttered past the buildings and the alleys on the outskirts of Soleda. Its wings failing it and its breath too rough for itself, the bat's flight lowered and lowered, and before it knew it, the bat crashed into a pile of boxes in an alley between buildings.
"Haah…. Haah…"
With each breath, a black haze spilled out of the bat's mouth.
The black haze lingered and tolled around it, and within moments, the length was the bat covered through.
Strength was distant, will, a luxury.
The bat heard.
It heard voices of children crying in the night.
"Oh dear, what happened to my son~"
The parent waking up from their sleep.
"Are you hungry? Hungry?"
"Kraaaa!"
The bat screeched.