"What a wretched night!!!" Old Ashufu spat angrily as he tripped over yet another nigh-invisible root in the darkness. It seemed the tangled forest had taken an immediate disliking to the elderly man and decided it was going to do its best to trip him up and make him fall and snap his scrawny, little neck. The sliver of a moon was covered by black clouds, which allowed precious little light to see by. No matter how he squinted his ancient eyes, Old Ashufu would always miss a root or a rock and down he would go again.
      "This forest is cursed is what it is! Crazy demons hiding in the tree branches and laughing at me while I fall on my fat nose!" He exclaimed with disgust.
      Somewhere in the dank smelling marsh to his left, a bunch of frogs suddenly broke into a mating chorus, drowning out the gentle creaks of the crickets and the occasional song of the night birds. Old Ashufu jumped.
      "Shut up you toads!!! An old man lost at night in the woods has enough problems without you slimy things driving him mad!!!"
      Ashufu noted with satisfaction that the frogs immediately obeyed his command. Grimly, he continued his trudge on through the inky wilderness. What you ought to do is find a comfortable tree to lean against and take a nap till morning comes the ancient traveler lectured to himself.
      A drop of water struck his forearm and interrupted his thoughts. Then another landed on his hand, and another. Soon, it began to rain in earnest. Thunder rumbled dully in the distance.
      "Can this night get any worse?!" Old Ashufu murmured as he pulled his tattered jacket closer around his bony shoulders to protect himself against the sudden chill in the midnight air. Lightning flashed across the heavens, and in that brief, unnatural light he just barely glimpsed another gnarled root before he stumbled upon it.
      "Hah! Perhaps this storm is good for something after…" His words were cut off as the skies exploded above with a deafening thunderclap. He instinctively moved to cover his ears as he leapt a foot in the air, clean out of his sandals!
      "Eeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! My poor heart can't take much more of this!" He gasped, clenching his chest. It felt like a small rabbit was trying to escape out of the cage his ribs formed.
      "My ears will probably ring for a fortnight; if this rain doesn't give me a cold and kill me first that is…"
      The skies churned noisily again and the rain descended even harder. Small hailstones stung Ashufu's baldhead. Unexpectedly the downpour suddenly stopped. It didn't taper off; it just simply ceased to fall instantly.
       Old Ashufu studied the vague clouds in the sky incredulously.
      "What strange weather! Never in all my years have I seen a storm end so…"
      KA-BOOM!!!
      The blast that ripped through the sky made the previous ones seem like utter silence. Old Ashufu fell to the ground clutching his throbbing ears, tears spilling from the corners of his eyes.
      He really had gone deaf. A faint buzz echoed in his skull, but that was all. He could feel the earth and sky shaking as the thunder continued, but his ears refused to register it. Ashufu mouthed something, or at least he thought so - without the under-appreciated sound of his voice, it was difficult to tell. He stared with fear and wonder at the suddenly silent darkness around himself. Ashufu could still smell the rain in the air and feel the cool breeze on his hairy arms, but other than that, the world seemed much like a clever painting without the luxury of noise.
      And then it got worse.
      There was a flash - lightning, but much, much too close for comfort. Fire seared his skin and roasted the air as everything went white. No, Ashufu though to himself in terror, now I'm blind too! But he was mercifully wrong. It took some time before Ashufu's eyes re-adjusted, but his sight did return. Phantom fireflies still danced before his eyes, and no amount of shooing would dispel them.
      A great, glowing crater sat before him. And in the bottom of it lay a naked man, curled into a ball. He was young and well muscled, but his short hair was white as snow. How on earth had he gotten there?
      Are you all right? Those are the words that Ashufu shaped with his lips, but whether he actually spoke them or not, he could only guess.
      Obviously he had, the man's head slowly turned and regarded Ashufu. He had a handsome face, but his gaze was terrible to behold. Lightning danced unnaturally in the two dark holes where other men had eyes!
      Ashufu stepped backwards in horror. The young man smiled cruelly and his lips formed something as he rose out of the pit the lightning had created. What he spoke was lost upon the old man.
      Ashufu died screaming, although he did not know it.