Prologue

The morning dew was fresh upon flower petals, whom so arrogantly distinguished themselves from a society of leaves, and assuredly a cock was brandishing its throaty howl in light of a pink sun somewhere amongst its kin. However, this could be anywhere, but it was not here.

Rather, the scent in the morning air was stale, smoky-a sweet oak-reminiscent of the sacred herb enjoyed from fine briar the evening prior. A porcelain moon was found flaunted before the wood of the hour. The wood of a sleepy traveler, whom was found arising to an arousal that permeated and diffused throughout his being. A strong correlation too, we might consider, between his senses and the milky seductress before him. Alas, such a desire was not to be sated this morning; and how unfortunate that her departure will imbue a distanced sensation between two unsuspecting lovers.

In angst by the abrupt departure of the aged succubus he loved to die for, the sleepy traveler throttled a nearby viper, whom eventually offered up a waxy venom; spewed across the traveler’s hide, leaving his mind numb and him with a vacant eye. Upon visiting a waterfall that flows warm and forever on towards the master’s desires, the traveler found a once bearded companion stroking his ego in a world nonexistent, yet as perceptibly real as the mind might require. Such stroking endured hour after hour, until the masochist within broke free and suffering was required to appease this higher power.

Thus, the ego-strokers departed and went their own ways; the once bearded companion to a land far away, while our traveler distanced a mere five minutes this day. To a crimson bricked structure with the name of a shad did our traveler proceed. A structure internally washed clean, with such purity alight, one might have questioned whether it were once diseased. Regardless, the masochism was about to begin.