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I SNAPPED out of sleep to the sound of screa awake, I fell out of my hammock, on to the hard, cold floor of my rocky cell My hand automatically darted for the short shich I kept strapped byof sleep cleared and I realized it was only Harkat, having a nightmare

Harkat Mulds was a Little Person, a short creature ore blue robes and worked for Mr Tiny He’d been huh he didn’t remember who he used to be, or when or where he lived When he died, his soul reht him back to life in a new, stunted body

"Harkat," I ain"

Harkat had no eyelids, but his large green eyes diht in the out of his haons!" he screamed, voice muffled by the mask he alore - he wasn’t able to breathe normal air for more than ten or twelve hours, and without the hed "You’ve been dreareen eyes, then relaxed and tugged his ash of a mouth "Sorry, Darren Did I wake you?"

"No," I lied "I was up already"

I swung back on tohe was an ugly build of a creature Short and squat, with dead, grey skin, no visible ears or a nose - he had ears stitched beneath the skin of his scalp, but ithout a sense of sreen eyes, sharp little teeth and a dark grey tongue His face had been stitched together, like Frankenstein’s monster

Of course, I was no model myself - few vampires were! My face, body and limbs were laced with scars and burnmy Trials of Initiation (which I’d passed at o) I was also as bald as a baby, as a result of my first set of Trials, when I’d been badly burnt

Harkat was one of my closest friends He’d saved my life twice, when I was attacked by a wild bear on the trail to Va my first, failed Trials of Initiation It bothered ht hihtmare the same as the others?" I asked

"Yes," he nodded "I andering in a vast wasteland The sky was red I was searching for so but I didn’t knohat There were pits full of stakes A dragon attacked I fought it off but another appeared Then another Then" He sighed reatly since he’d first started speaking In the beginning he’d had to pause for breath after every two or three words, but he’d learnt to control his breathing technique and now only stalled during long sentences

"Were the shadow ures who chased and torh I think they’d have appeared if you hadn’t woken reen colour - and his shoulders shook slightly He suffered greatly in his sleep, and stayed awake as long as he could, only sleeping four or five hours out of every seventy-two

"Want sory" He stood and stretched his burly ar a cloth around his waist, so I could see his smooth stomach and chest - Harkat had no nipples or belly button