//------------------------------//
// Prologue - One Week Ago 
// Story: The Thing from Whitetail Woods 
// by Revenant Wings 
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	Caramel woke up in a dark clearing as though from a deep, hazy sleep.
Pine, oak, and birch trees were all around him.  There were three exits to the clearing; one that led deeper into the forests, one to a patch of rather sweet blueberries that Caramel had been picking not long before, and one that led in the direction of Ponyville, just out of sight.
Caramel groaned and picked himself up.  He shook away the last of his sleepiness and looked around.  Not too far away, his basket lay toppled over on the ground and a good many of the berries he’d collected lay scattered around the clearing.  He wasn’t sure why he got there, or what had made him fall over.
Nor why it was so late at night.  Caramel only just realized that the moon was shining brightly overhead; the light gave the white branches and trunks of the surrounding birch trees an eerie glow, and the dense forest covered the path in near impenetrable shadow.
Impenetrable except for a pair of glowing yellow eyes.  Caramel made contact with the strange eyes floating in the darkness but was not afraid.  A long figure that supported the eyes could almost be seen in the shadows but its color was so dark that Caramel couldn’t see what the exact shape was.  An odd noise came from the shadows, silent and almost a whisper on the nighttime wind.
Despite facing what seemed like some sort of peril close to the village, Caramel was calm.  For some reason Caramel felt as though he would not be harmed by the strange glowing eyes and whatever they were attached to in the darkness.  A sort of peace came upon him and he merely stared curiously at the eyes in the shadows.  He picked up his basket unhurriedly and gathered together his berries; some of them were dirty from spilling onto the ground, but he could wash them off at home.
Caramel started off towards the path back to Ponyville, but turned around to look at the glowing eyes once again.  They sat, unmoving, in the shadows.  Caramel stared at them for a while before unhurriedly setting off for Ponyville.
But the further he walked away, the more a sudden fear seemed to strike him.  The forest wasn’t as dense and the moonlight could be seen shimmering through the trees, but Caramel suddenly felt a prickle on his back.  It felt strange and uncomfortable and he had the feeling like something was watching him rather intently. 
Caramel picked up his pace, now going at a trot.  The shadows seemed to crowd him in.  The branches of the oaks and birches looked like strange claws reaching out to grab him.  He felt himself begin to sweat and his breathing became quick.  He felt like he was being strangled and couldn’t breathe.  He picked up the pace again and set off for Ponyville at a gallop.  It felt like something was following him, something was on his hooves, it would catch him at any moment...
There was suddenly a burst of moonlight and Caramel found himself sprinting along the path that went from the Whitetail Woods back to Ponyville.  A few berries fell out of the basket over his back, but Caramel didn’t mind it; he just wanted as far away from the Woods as possible.  It seemed strange to him that something so frightening could live in the Whitetail Woods instead of the Everfree Forest.
But that didn’t matter.  Caramel ran and ran until he was safely inside his own house.  He locked the door, placed the basket on the counter, and jumped into bed.  He pulled the sheets over his head and did not dare to come out until the sun began to shine.
But, as he lay there, he felt a strange need to go back.  Something about needing to go get more of the berries...