by Tenebrae

Part 2

I could feel the sun setting, the burning rays dying in potency and strength. Soon I would venture forth and indulge in slaughter and warfare. I could hear the men of the town, clad in armour and armed with swords and spears. I strode forward, emerging into the half dark of twilight. The glare of their torches lost in the gathering darkness. I looked down at the humans that called themselves my children. I laughed at that idea, I thought that one day; I might follow through on that thought.

"Come my minions, let us teach these brigands the fate of those who seek to prey upon my people!" I roared with delight and they took to chanting and yelling. "Give me their scent!" I demanded and a cloth was passed up to me. I picked out the smell of my chattel and ignored it. Then faintly I perceived the essence of the interloping brigands. And for a moment I was confused. I recognised something in that scent, something that I could not place, but which was familiar none the less. I pushed the confusion from my mind and focused on the scent of the enemy. Then I blocked my receptors to all other smells and opened my senses to the smell of my new prey. I smiled, a thing that sent shivers of terror down the spines of my "Children."

"I smell them, a party of them advances upon our northern border. To arms my kith! To arms, let us teach these upstart swine the errors of their ways." I spread my wings wide and then enclosed them, transmogrifying my kine into flea like creatures that clung to my body. With a gigantic leap I was airborne and winging my way to ambush the Molachaka.

I espied their raiding party; it was more like a war party. There were at least 100 men down there. I smiled and circled; their horses scented me and began to riot in fear. As I neared the ground, I allowed my flock to transmogrify back to their original nature and as each assumed his natural form, he slipped from my hide and crouched upon the ground, waiting as I sowed a circle of armed warriors about the invaders upon their panicked horses.

With a shriek of soul rending proportions, I signalled to my slaves that they should attack. And as they closed in, I descended upon the milling cavalry and tore the leader from his saddle. His head flew across the groups, trailing a stream of blood as I hung above the crowd, sucking the blood from his decapitated corpse. Terror filled the ranks of his followers and I descended once more on the raiders seeking his lieutenants. More heads flew across the milling confusion while screams of terror and despair filled the night air with the ululations of exultation from my followers ravening at their edges.

The blood flowed freely that night. Within an hour we had half of them slain and the other half captured. I sent the captives back to town under a guard and taking the remainder of my force of warriors, we went to investigate their camp. It was the middle of the night when I had inspected their encampment from afar. That familiar smell was stronger there, and I recognised it. It was Nekrotheus, an entity like me. Those stolen maidens were either in his gullet or supplementing the beds of his adherents. This was going to be harder then I thought. I knew however that I might have at least a day before the raiders were expected to return. As I sensed that the night was aging, I called up the shade of the dead leader of the Molachaka, and gleaned the information I sought from his memory. They had planned an extensive raid, and were not expected back for two days or more. I collected my warriors and returned to the town. There I called the Priest and town elders to me as I feasted on the wounded Molachaka. Their faces were an interesting mix of revulsion and excitement as I devoured their enemies. Outside, the other captives were being branded and manacled to become slaves.

"Hear me, oh my children and know the mind of thy god!" I intoned. They bowed their heads and murmured the appropriate propitious sounds. "Have the prisoners stripped, and our warriors clad in their fashion, have the rest disguised as maidens and women, tomorrow we go to assault the foe and I shall cleanse the land of their evil overlord." There were nervous looks upon their faces as I mentioned this.

"Fear not, my children, for we have ascertained that most of their men of fighting age were sent against us this night, we shall return with a hundred of our warriors disguised as their own warriors, and an equal number of our warriors disguised as captives. As their evil overlord is not aware of our knowledge of him, I will attack him first when our warriors are discovered. Then we shall rout the enemy and expunge their stain from the Earth." They smiled at this. And as the last of the night fled the rising sun they returned to the square and gave the orders for the preparations for the following night.

I looked over the cowering captives and selected a lithe young lad. I pulled him close to me and slowly carefully pulled his skin from him, laying it in the large pan above the brazier to lightly fry while I licked the beading blood from his screaming, quivering body. As the flesh toasted and crisped pleasantly, I sucked his eyes from his sockets, munching them with relish while his surviving colleagues looked on in terror or vomited in revulsion. His screams were music to my ears, his terror and fear were ambrosia to my psychic stomach and as I pulled the muscles from his flailing frame I laughed with morbid glee. I finished him with a lick of my tongue, sucking and crunching his still pumping heart before I devoured him whole and then chased the meal with the delicacy of his roasted skin.