It lay for centuries, occupying an especially low spot in a vast wetland; alone, heavy, and sluggish. It could not move from its damp depression in the ground, though it could slowly shift its mass internally to some extent, nor could it see or hear. Outwardly, it appeared inert but for its slow churning.

To the casual observer it was nothing more than a mud bog; a large, flat expanse of saturated ground of unknown depth in the middle of a huge, tract-less, useless swamp. To the more studied eye, had one ever chosen to look, it would have been recognized as a mass of psychoplasm; a living semi-liquid or gelatin-like mass, infiltrating and surrounding a matrix of fine-grained sand and clay particles. To what few observers had seen it, scientifically trained or otherwise, it was a the centerpiece of a particularly unpleasant place. With a hundred yards of it one had a sense of being ill at ease. A shorter range one had an increasing feeling of foreboding. The surrounding swamp was dark, hot, and stiflingly humid, with little or no color save a range of dark browns and insipid greens, and startlingly silent. Even birds and small animals generally avoided the area around it.

It did not feel pain, except that related to its own internal needs. It did not feel heat or cold, or any other specific kind of touch, but it could sense contact with another organism or object. It could also feel the presence of other conscious beings within a hundred yards or so from itself. For the most part these sensations were not intense but they did constitute a very distinct awareness. What it could sense with very great intensity, on those rare occasions when it was present, was the nearby availability of the only things it could feed upon; fear and closely related emotions.

Suddenly, it was aware of the nearby presence of a large being, one with enough sense of self to provide a hearty meal. At the same moment it became intensely aware of its own extreme hunger. It had not fed well for many seasons. Occasionally a squirrel or bird would become entrapped in its soft, sticky surface layers, but such creatures tended to either escape or die so quickly that little sustenance could be gained. Once such creatures lapsed into unconsciousness from the shock of entrapment, no further energy could be gained from them.

The sensation of proximity to a potential meal grew steadily stronger. The being was coming directly toward it. It could now tell that the approaching being was a human, and thus the greatest potential meal of all. It could feed off a human even without the human becoming physically trapped. If the human merely came close enough to recognize the potential horror of entrapment in its depths, it could get a moderate meal, enough to last for a season or two without another. If the human did become entrapped, it might continue to struggle in terror for many hours, perhaps days. Even if the human eventually struggled free or was rescued by another human, the energy from a day-long terror struggle would be enough to last for years.

Being very weakly telepathic, it began working as hard as it could. It wanted to induce a sense of foreboding in the mind of the approaching human, though not such an intense feeling that it might be driven away. It most urgently wanted the real prize; to lure the human closer so that it might become entrapped.

"What a terrible, horrific place this is! But I must press on. Must press on!" was the thought it tried to place in the mind of the approaching human.

The human came closer steadily. It tried to feed on the fear that should have begun growing in the human’s mind. But it could find nothing consumable. The human was not feeling fear. Perhaps the human was not susceptible to telepathic inducement of fear. Somehow the human would have to be lured closer.

It could sense the human coming rapidly closer. It seemed as though the human was coming closer entirely on its own, not in response to the telepathic message.

The human was drawing very close. The anticipation of a huge feeding caused its sense of hunger to what a human psychologist might label as near hysteria. Its huge meal was so close by, but it had yet to even taste it.

The intensity of its hunger caused it to remember the last time it had fed on human fear-energy. That time too it had been unable to telepathically induce any fear as the human approached. The too it had grown frantic with hunger. That time the human had remained apparently unaware of any hazard until it had blundered directly into the center of the mud pit and sunk waist deep into its thick, churning mass. It had felt the physical presence of the human as it struggled, lunging first one way and then another. It had absorbed huge, unending waves of fear-energy from its victim. Those waves became stronger and more continuous as the human sank deeper and deeper. It had been able to feed for hours with the human stuck up to its neck, its own wild, undirected struggles serving only to drive it deeper and intensify the panic. Eventually, the human had calmed down, from exhaustion and in realization that although it was trapped it was not sinking further. The human was able to pull itself free from the mire, but that did not matter. It fed off fear-energy, not flesh.

Suddenly it felt direct contact at its upper surface. The human, which it could now identify as a female of the species, had touched its surface just slightly. Apparently, however, the human had still not recognized the existence of a mud bog. There was still no fear-energy to absorb.

A few seconds later, it felt significant contact, and not just at its surface. This was contact like it had felt in its previous encounter with a human. The human’s legs now penetrated it quite deeply. It could feel a pair of legs moving alternately up and down as though struggling, penetrating slightly deeper with each stroke.

It searched harder and more desperately for the fear that should be overwhelming the woman by now. It found nothing.

After a few minutes the rapid movement of the legs ceased. The woman was now waist deep in the mire.

It tried harder and harder to find the overwhelming fear that should be gripping the woman, driving her half insane with blind panic. It was now expending its own energy at a high rate, one it could not long sustain. It began churning vigorously, boiling its deepest substance to the surface and turning itself inside out. A bubbling, churning mire would always seem more horrific to a human. But there was nothing. What was wrong? The fear had to be there. Why could it not feast?

The woman was now chest deep in the churning mass. It could feel the woman’s hands touch its surface. They alternately pressed downward into the ooze. The woman was trying to keep herself from sinking any further. Surely now the fear-energy would begin to flow.

It was now becoming weak from its efforts to feed. It could no longer churn rapidly except in the immediate vicinity of the woman’s body. And it could not understand why there was nothing to feed upon.

It was becoming confused. The woman’s hands seemed to be moving in the wrong direction. It was as though she was pulling herself downward, deeper into the mire. She was now chin deep. Surely now blind, unreasoning fear would overwhelm her. Nothing.

Now it began to feel its own sense of foreboding. Already semi starved, it had expended prodigious amounts of energy in its efforts to feed, all of it wasted thus far.

For a moment it could sense that the woman was completely submerged in its mass, then that she was almost totally beneath the surface, only her mouth above the surface.

For the next hour it struggled desperately to find its life-sustaining fear-energy. Its own fear growing rapidly. The woman seemed to repeatedly be engulfed completely, then rise slightly above the surface only to sink under again. It was experiencing the fear the woman should be feeling.

It grew weak. It grew weaker. Gradually its awareness of the woman began to fade. It no longer had the strength to churn its mass or even to attempt to feed.

After an hour had passed the woman began to lean forward into the mud, then lean back. Gradually she worked herself into a horizontal position and crawled forward through the mud to the edge of the bog.

The woman pulled herself onto solid ground. It, however, did not feel the loss of physical contact. It had died just before she began to extract herself.

The woman quietly and calmly wiped the loose mud from her body, using clear water from a nearby stream for a final rinse. She had had an excellent workout. But more importantly, she had absorbed enough fear-energy to last for many seasons.