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[.Introduction.]

The moon appears absent tonight. You notice this because you can barely see what's ahead of you as you stumble through the blackened forest. The trees around you must be remnants of some terrible accident; they are dead, cracked, and leafless. Suddenly the trees thin and you see a mansion, blending in with the lifeless forest around it with its dull appearance. Cracks run up and down its walls, which are dirty and gray, its paint long gone. It's an enormous building, with many windows, most which are simply gaping black holes open to the wind. A few still have shards of glass in them, causing the windows to look like mouths with teeth. It appears that no one has lived in it for a long time; the patch of bare ground around it is riddled with a few struggling weeds and parched dirt. The walkway leading up to the front door is all but neat, with broken bits of stone sticking up dangerously.

As you are examining the mansion, a low growl comes from the darkness somewhere on your left. Gasping with surprise, you whirl and find a lupess glaring at you with her yellow and pink eyes. Her teeth are bared. "Why are you here?" she says in a dangerous whisper, her eyes glinting.

Startled, you take a step back, but the lupess advances until she's right in front of you. You close your eyes, waiting for her teeth to pierce your skin, but instead you hear a guttural laugh. You open your eyes and see her chuckling - or, at least you think it's chuckling, because it's more like a low rasping noise coming deep within her throat. "You creatures amuse me," she says, and turns, looking back at you. "Come."

Thinking it's unwise to disobey her, you follow her as she picks her way down the ragged walkway and to the front door of the mansion, which hangs open, barely connected to the doorpost with one hinge. The lupess takes you to a room not far from the door. Its walls match the outside, cobwebs hanging from the corners. She offers you a seat on a dusty, threadbare rug, which you take. Then she begins:

[.Personality.]

My name is Fermata. I live alone here, in this mansion that used to be my parents'. Now that they're dead, I am the sole owner, but I only spend nights here. This house holds too many memories of my father for me to live here continuously. But you will learn more about that later.

What do I enjoy? Well, that is hard to say. I don't find pleasure in many things anymore. I spend my time wandering the towns near here, though I rarely make contact with other living beings; I prefer to be alone. It is easy to think I am very sadistic, and enjoy the pain and fear of others. But in reality I don't, but usually I come across as evil and cunning. While I admit that I'm dangerous, I don't consider myself evil. I have a rather odd weakness for ice cream, which can make me feel momentarily a little happier. What makes me the closest to joyful is music, but only music that is soft, slow, and...haunting I guess you could say. Music that has intertwining melodies that hold hidden stories and changing emotions, as well as...never mind, I can tell I am boring you with my talk of music.

I dislike many things, though there is one thing I simply despise: noise. Anything loud or harsh makes me want to kill something. I also tend to stay away from crowds, since they make a lot of pointless, annoying noise. It is also for the same reason that I stay away from large cities, and sometimes even towns. Sound, aside from the music I mentioned before, makes me feel closed in and attacked. Other things that do not fall under the category of making noise include trespassers - don't worry, I forgive you since it was your first time here, but after this I won't be so forgiving - rain, and...moonlight. Which leads me to my next point: my past.

I am going to tell you a story that you should consider yourself honored to hear. I tell this to you merely because I don't want anyone else to make the same mistakes my father did. Listen closely to my tale:

[.History.]

My father, to me, was a repulsive creature. Sure, he was handsome and very intelligent. But both of those traits caused me to be who I am today. He was an aspiring scientist - more specifically, chemist - that discovered many interesting things. Every day, without fail, you could see him locked up in his lab room, experimenting until his paws shook with exhaustion. Many times, you could hear muffled explosions and exclaimations from his room, and moments later you would see colored smoke drifting down the stairs. He was rich only because of sheer luck in my opinion, coming upon many useful potions and liquids in his constant experimentation.

My mother was a gentle, shy, and obedient creature. She was beautiful, with a shining light pink pelt accented with cream, which is where I got the colors of my fur from (I got my father's eyes).

I don't know why she ever married my father; maybe because of his good looks. I don't know. But I know my father never really loved her. Yes, he thought she was beautiful, but that's as far as his affection went. I do know why my father married her though; he always needed living creatures to test his experiments on. So, you know what he did? He tested them on his kids. He kept my mother busy having and taking care of their children, and whenever he needed one he would just take them up to his lab. And if the experiment accidentally killed them, well, he had the others and the opportunity to have even more. My mother went along with this only because she was so obedient and pliable, and truthfully I think she was scared of him. But she truly loved him for some reason I can't fathom, so this apalling cycle continued.

When I was born, I had 6 brothers and sisters, and was the 19th pup my parents had had. By the time I was 14 in human years, I had lost all of my original brothers and sisters and had gained 9 younger ones. All of the siblings I had known were altered in some way. I was no exception. I lost count of the number of experiments my father did on me, but only one had left a lasting physical difference - small, useless black wings that weren't even connected to my body. But one day, my father took me up to his lab and gave me a potion that would change me even more...

[.The Monster.]

Terrified, I watched as he tied my legs to the wall. He took a vial filled with bright greenish-yellow, foaming liquid and lifted it to my lips, pouring it down my throat. It burned all the way down to my stomach, but nothing happened for a moment. Then my whole body started to tingle, then shake. In horror, I thought, Will this be my last experiment?. But I suddenly felt an anger flow through me like liquid, burning my insides like fire and causing me to release a roar of rage. I saw my father's gleeful -disallowed_word-opacity=100);border-color:#FFCEFA; border-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; scrollbar-arrow-color: white; scrollbar-track-color: white; scrollbar-face-color: #FFCEFA; scrollbar-highlight-color: white; scrollbar-3dlight-color: white; scrollbar-darkshadow-color: white; scrollbar-shadow-color: white;">

[.Introduction.]

[.Personality.]

[.History.]

[.The Monster.]

[.Farewell.]