Who can know the mind of a being so unlike our own; the machinations behind it's thoughts, and, by extension, it's motives.

I already considered myself well acquainted with the new Appalachia since leaving my home underground. The wilds were vast and full of beasts both familiar yet no longer. Still, I thought I had seen everything the bombs had wrought. Then... something new...

I was traveling the cliffs to the east of the Savage Divide. The sun was slowly drifting below the horizon, and the sounds of night were creeping in. Perhaps it was the twilight that set me on edge, or maybe it was the paniced voices of my companions... regardless, my first sight was that of two glowing red eyes looking back at me from down the cliff face and just at the edge of a copse trees. I could make out no form, as the shadows had all but enveloped the creature.

"We should just walk away", one of my companions nervously suggested.

In hide sight, that may have been the best of suggestions. I, however, was never one to let the unknowns defeat me. I lifted by rifle and before either of my companions could say or do anything about it, I fired a round aimed between those red eyes.

I wish I could give you a detailed account of the events that followed, but events happened so fast and the cacophony of sounds and fleeting images so numerous and intense, only fragments remain. One thing I knew for sure, the creature behind those eyes could move faster than my bullet, as it was suddenly before me faster than I could blink, yet still I could not make out it's shape. My companions were shouting and gunfire filled the night air. The creature moved with unnatural speed, seeming to dodge any round my companions or I could fire. And the sounds it made... I cannot accurately describe to you that sound, but I can never forget it. There were even moments it felt as if the creatures cry itself was trying to tear me apart.

We lived, of course, though, I cannot tell you how. Did we scare it off? I highly doubt it. None-the-less, as fast as it set itself upon us, it had vanished.

The Mothman. It took some time, but eventually, we learned this creature was a once thought mythological entity called The Mothman.

It was quite some time later, with no further sighting of the Mothman that my companions tracked me down with news. "The Mothman has been seen by the Lighthouse, and it's granting boons."

I was wary, but intrigued, so I set out with my companions. It turned out a ritual was involved that culminated in the lighting of the once dormant Lighthouse. When the first rays shown forth into the wilds of Appalachia I heard that sound again. It nearly vibrated down to my core, but it wasn't as loud and without the feeling of being torn apart by it. Down the multitude of steps from the top to the base, and out the door, sat... The Mothman. It's eyes were green and it's body seemed to be covered in a pearlesk coat of fine hairs that caught what little light there was. My companions walked up, as if fearless, and seemed to listen as the Mothman's mandibles clicked away at them, each in their own turn. I heard no words, but my companions seemed delighted with the experience. Then, my turn. With some trepidation I slowly stepped up to this creature that seemed to emanate wisdom and knowledge far beyond anything I could comprehend.

With a calming voice, it spoke, "My gifts, this day, are yours." It said, and I felt a wave of excitement, even if I knew not why. The excitement ended quickly, however... replaced with dread. "I remember you, and I will see you again."

As the days, then weeks, then months rolled past I had an almost never ending sense of being watched. While I hunted, while I battled, and while I slept, the feeling of the Mothman's eyes upon me never ceased.

One dusk, I was traveling the broken highway somewhere within the Mire, as I scouted for a new place to set up a camp. I was alone this day, but I was at ease. The usual beasts and mutations had been gracious enough to leave me be for a long time... and, yes, that, itself, may have been a warning of what came next.

As I strolled past one of the many abandoned husks of a truck, I saw them... two large red eyes staring back at me. This time I did not have the luxury of distance, as they burrowed into my soul from merely a few yards away.

"I REMEMBER!" The Mothman shouted without words or language. The shimmering, kind form from the Lighthouse so many months ago replaced with a vengeful, black, form. It's cry once more tearing into me.

I threw myself back behind the abandoned truck... perhaps the only thing that saved me from it's first volley. I was delayed in readying my rifle, though, as the Mothman's cry still had hit me and my body only slowly recovered. I am not too proud to admit, I may have soiled myself.

As I brought my rifle up and looked back around the vehicle, the Mothman shot up into the air faster than any living thing had any right to be able to do, and just as quickly deposited itself back to the earth behind where I crouched. Barely thinking, I rolled myself along the body of the truck while the Mothman's cry seemed to rend even the metal I had once hid behind until I once again had some portion of the truck between me and this Vengful Mothman. I brought up my rifle and let out a shot that I would have sworn was placed right in the creatures center mass, but the Mothman continued screaming, and the truck groaned. I could still feel the pain of the Mothman's call, blunted only because of cowardess in the face of vengence. I steeled myself, took aim, and landed another several rounds before the Mothman, once again, took to the air.

Quiet returned to the road... to the Mire. The Truck's groans echoing away into the encroaching night. Mine lasted a little longer, though. After many long minutes as my heart finally began to settle, I finally moved from against my vehicular savior and began, once more, moving down the broken highway. I needed a river, I thought. I needed to get clean.

With my nerves shot, my gun down, and my person soiled, Mothman returned from the sky, landing before me. I could easily make out it's shape now, as it's body glowed with only half the nuclear hellfire of it's large, knowing and unknowable eyes.

"I... WILL... ALWAYS... REMEMBER... YOU!" Said the Glowing Mothman.

At that moment... humanity left me.