I need to know how long it's been.

I walked along the darkness of the forest, feeling neither pain nor chill.

I hadn't taken a breath, nor felt a heartbeat, nor hunger, since I'd come to. It should have been odd, frightening, or alarming, but I didn't feel much of that either. Everything was muted, so much that I wondered what the point was of this second life; of this Unlife.

Even the curiosity that moved me towards Barley was but a fraction of a shadow of the emotion that once moved me.

The worries and fears that had cloaked me for so long, protecting me and binding me, were fragments. I didn't even care when I heard the rustling of leaves and the snapping of a twig. It simply was; it wasn't worth acknowledging. Even the snap of a bowstring and the whistling of an arrow didn't move me.

The arrowhead sticking out of my chest was annoying, though, so I turned around to face the archer.

Goblin. Male. One of a half-dozen. The thoughts flitted through my mind, and could see the outline of them through the darkness. A light surrounded them, their lifeforce, and for the first time I felt something familiar. The demon's hunger, almost; it had a different edge to it. A second kind of life shone just behind the pack, a lighter shade of the same hue.

The goblin gibbered and a second arrow took me. A sort of shadow leaked from the wounds, like a black mist. A third arrow, and a four soon followed, but I felt nothing more than the slightest discomfort. It was almost like standing on a small stone.

"You look. . ." I searched for a word. "Delicious."

I stepped towards them, feeling a heat come to life in my stomach, and became shadow. It was like I melted into blackness and appeared in the midst of them. My form felt uncertain, shapeless, and with something deeper than instinct I struck. My body became a mass of stakes and shot out, black spears piercing the bodies of the goblin pack. They screamed, and for a moment I stood in half-a-dozen places, seeing myself from half-a-dozen perspectives. Then they ceased and became darkness and joined with me. Flashes of memory joined with my own; granting nothing of worth. My form solidified as I looked over the remaining life.

It was a frightened little goblin woman, her name was Gree'ek. I knew it meant something like 'the one who was born near the river', and I knew she was the typical sort of goblin woman. She wanted to mate with the strongest male, even if he wasn't a goblin, and gain status by giving birth to a great warrior. She'd slept with half the pack I'd consumed for favors, and I knew she was lazy.

That desire too breed with the strong had limits, it seemed. She reeked of fear and the scent of urine. She have run, if she had any strength in her legs.

I didn't know what I had become but it had it's roots in a demon of lust, for looking upon the exaggerated curves of a goblin made it stir.

"You also," I stepped closer. "Look delicious."