The Year Walker should always exercise caution when interacting with any being encountered during the ritual, as the motives and nature behind an encounter are often unpredictable.

III

I reach the town diner. The streetlight above now glows a pale green color.

I haven’t eaten in so long, but looking at the sign still leaves me with a queasy feeling.

I am starting to feel less cold.

More at home in the quiet night.

Each footfall more inevitable than the last.

There is an immense amount of trash strewn about the area.

Some bags have left the ground, seemingly suspended in the air and kindled in a cool blue light.

At first, I think the ravens present here are feeding on the trash, but they seem to have gathered for a different purpose

They stand rigid, waiting patiently, following a rough line trailing up the far side of the diner.

That’s when I see it.

A great hulking thing has settled here.

The old walls of the diner groan against its weight.

Slowly, methodically, it works its way through the birds waiting before it.

Each raven seems to give itself over willingly.

And with each bird eaten another reappears from the stomach kindled in that same blue light. Each raven takes heaping strips of the being’s flesh in their beaks.