![[DARK] Prehistoric Swapyre - Bodyswap by Transviscera](https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/87684d17-8b34-4054-a6cc-9b9e97dcb44a/dg6fgub-edb7e4d1-b9d7-4eb8-ba95-a0284b0797a2.png/v1/fit/w_150,h_150,q_70,strp/_dark__prehistoric_swapyre___bodyswap_by_transviscera_dg6fgub-150.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsImV4cCI6MTY5MjY1NjMxNiwib2JqIjpbW3siaGVpZ2h0IjoiPD0xMDcyIiwicGF0aCI6IlwvZlwvODc2ODRkMTctOGIzNC00MDU0LWE2Y2MtOWI5ZTk3ZGNiNDRhXC9kZzZmZ3ViLWVkYjdlNGQxLWI5ZDctNGViOC1iYTk1LWEwMjg0YjA3OTdhMi5wbmciLCJ3aWR0aCI6Ijw9MjQ1MCJ9XV0sImF1ZCI6WyJ1cm46c2VydmljZTppbWFnZS5vcGVyYXRpb25zIl19.rtg_qP7Pf2iKe8KUC8j3P8vPGKwW1e-HvtaUzYSRfys)
As we move from religious doctrine to science and reason, may we at last turn the light of truth upon those most shadowy of creatures and in so doing perhaps banish them, for long have they darkened the doorway of mankind. A most perfidious predator, it is held in fear not by our weakest but by our strongest, our healthiest, our wealthiest citizens, whom it covets and whom, in the prime of their lives, might have that life so cruelly ripped away with a touch.
But what are they, and from where did they originate? Are they, as the scriptures would have us believe, spirits or demons? Are they merely an anthropological quirk emerging spontaneously from base human stock, a means of survival no different than longer claws or sharper teeth?
There is of course, the tantalising and terrifying possibility that, to glean their origins, we might simply ask them. Some of the more braggadocious specimens have claimed upon capture to have survived for centuries, leaping from vessel to vessel down through the ages. If they are to be believed, there exists the potential that far older specimens might have made it to the modern era. Thousands of years old, perhaps even tens of thousands. Maybe even the first of their kind, from far back in the dawn era of man.
My anthropologist's heart flutters at the thought!
But then... one has to consider that such a creature would be, by process of elimination of those that weren't, a creature of cold cunning, ceaseless paranoia, utterly cold-blooded to its uncounted victims and of such vast, amassed experience as to be all but inhuman.
Let us hope then that such a creature does not stalk our streets.