Sacrifices (Cayenne - Kell - Satu)

by **Cayenne** on May 29th, 2011, 10:10 pm

by **Cayenne** on June 8th, 2011, 12:13 am

by **Kell Northwind** on June 10th, 2011, 2:50 pm

Kell staggered backwards blindly. Loose fingers barely maintained a grip on his swords hilt, its blade dragging a furrow in the jungle loam. Cuts and gouges sent waves of fire across his body. But not the hole in his chest, the one Miss Satu herself had inflicted. From that he didn’t feel anything at all. And that numbness was spreading, taking with it his strength. His back hit something solid, a tree, nowhere else to retreat to. With eyes clouded by pain, and by poison, he looked to the Konti. His weakened voice shot through with pain, of the body and of the heart, “Wha…why?” A racking spasm shook Kell, and he fell to his knees, barely catching himself with his hands. He looked down at the forest floor, at the blood froth coughed up from his lungs. How did it come to this he wondered?

And from the numb pit within his chest something stirred. Rage seethed beneath Kell’s skin. Kell raged at this blight cursed jungle, with its trees so close and no open spaces for Stomrunner to run. He raged at the Myrian, this Oni, who hadn’t even deemed him a worthwhile opponent, who instead had just toyed with him, flaunting her superiority. He raged at the Konti, he had sworn to protect her; instead she had turned on him. But more than that, Kell raged at himself. He had failed. Utterly defeated, of course Miss Satu wouldn’t want anything to do with his worthless hide. He had failed her, what right did he have to expect compassion. When it came down to it, He couldn’t even protect one person, couldn’t even save himself. So this was how the life of Kell would end, Betrayed and alone, lost in this infernal jungle. No! Kell refused to accept it. And his rage flared even brighter, burning with the fires of adrenaline, and that adrenaline brought with it strength.

With the last of his strength Kell pushed to his feet, with an animal roar of pain, betrayal, and grief. Unseeing eyes streaming tears. In a last act of defiance he blindly flung his sword at what he believed was Oni’s location. He never saw it arc through the air, never saw if it was even close. He managed one lurching step towards the sound of Stormrunner’s screams before his legs succumbed to the Konti’s poison and the blood loss. He fell ungracefully to the Jungle floor, and through the haze he saw a blurred shape of what might have been Miss Satu, looking down on him with disgust.

by **Cayenne** on June 19th, 2011, 9:33 pm

Oni didn’t understand Satu’s Kontinese, but the Myrian was unphased, observant, watchful. She was intent, patient, like a hunter waiting for the prey to walk into an ambush. Was this was one such ambush? Would Oni turn on her like she had turned on Kell once she finally disposed of the weakling human male? Even as he tried to back up and away from her to get some more room, the poison from the delicate-looking blades was slowly but surely beginning to work as his steps faltered, slowing. It would go to his heart next, his traitorous, cowardly heart, leaving him paralyzed and alive to the last.

And so the Myrians watched the proceedings, which left Oni rather Disappointed. The fountain of blood would have been marvellous. Of course, a slit throat was a waste of resources, but it was colourful, to say the least, and the man’s blood would soak into the mossy, humid depths and nourish the life that would sup from it and devour his carcass. They would leave it here for the animals, an offering to Caiyha’s feral children, to rip and devour. Oh, the head would come back – skulls were always welcome, and, quite frankly, one of Oni’s nephews enjoyed playing with severed heads. Because the way things were going, the man had been dead in the water from the start. He could never have anticipated the betrayal that came from her. It was a lesson he would take to Dira.

Trust no one.

None but her could understand when she shrieked in her native tongue – the Myrians were not fluent in it, and Oni could not follow it. But the Disappointment faded as Kell finally collapsed before her, unable to go any further. If he could, he was not showing it as he hit the ground. His sword was easily deflected, and she stepped on the flat of the blade and its hilt with her leather boots. Oni wasn’t taken chances with the sword using some sort of magic to cut her from there. They had seen that before, and they were wary of it. But Oni’s weight was considerable, and unless he was a particularly strong mage, and she didn’t think he was - logic said that if he had been, he would have used it by now – that sword wasn’t going anywhere.

“Cut out his heart,” Oni told her unflinchingly in Common, her voice deadly serious. “Cut it out while he still lives, offer it to the Goddess. Drink it. Eat it!” If she was in her right mind, she would have remembered the stories – stories of the cannibalistic Myrians who ate and preyed on anything and everything they caught. She would remember a man in Mura who had been missing an arm when he arrived, and she would remember hearing that he had lost the limb when it had been torn off in a fight with one of the dark-skinned warriors, who had retreated into the Syliran wilderness when a company of Knights had responded to the sounds of a fight. He claimed that they had found bits and pieces of the entire company over the next ten days… all of them dead. Those were the stories.

And now… now, she was in one of them.

by **Satu** on July 6th, 2011, 4:22 am

“I will not go back Kell! I will not!” Satu said forcefully, oblivious to the Drykas’s plight as the man fell to his knees. She talked to the fallen man as if she had not attacked him and they were still on the jungle trail. “You can not ask me to give up so easily…” His Rage bubbled and seeped into the Konti, and it grew and expanded in her HeartSense, empowering her. Satu drank it in willingly, and lifted herself up with its power. But it was clear that her gaze was unsettled. Would Kell even see the uncontained madness there? Would he understand there was no reason for his death? Satu could not see clearly, for she only saw the world through demented eyes. The horrors of the past were too close, too raw to find the compassionate Konti buried beneath the immensity of her insanity.

On his knees, Kell flung the sword away from him with a roar of pain. Satu did not even watch where it flew. It meant nothing to her. She was not scared. She was nothing beyond the Myrian emotions that filled her, and upset the delicate balance of her mind further. Satu hesitated in the moss and earth. Looking at the fallen man, she forgot everything as lucidity returned for the briefiest moment. But one by one, the spatters of blood, the dripping suvai, and finally the powerful Oni drew her gaze. Barbaric aggressions batted at her tentative sanity over and again. It did not stop. It would never stop! Slowly Satu turned in a confused circle, the weapon limp in her hand. The force of the foreign emotions pounded heavily in her HeartSense, and the wearied Konti had not the will to fight against it. “Cut out his heart,” Oni told her, directed her. And Satu’s wild mind needed that direction, that strength. Lost in red madness of feeling, it seemed the very trees urged her to do it. Slowly her eyes descended to the fallen man, then to the suvai in her hand. Terrible heat burned from within, and she cried as she knelt to roll the Drykas over onto his back.

“You have forced my hand Kell,” the HeartSeer whispered, as her fingers caressed him with the lightest of touches. “I will help you… do not worry,” Satu’s eyes burned with mania. “You will be free. It is a beautiful thing…” and suddenly she ripped open the shirt at his chest. Her eyes closed briefly, the pressure pounding ever harder in the prison of her mind. Satu was in a dream of fog and smoke, and boiling, crimson blood. In a haze she gripped one suvai with two hands and plunged the foremost prong of it into his chest, below the breast. Blood spurted across her face, and she blinked. She had to let the pressure out! To recover herself, she had to do this thing! But the hole made in his flesh was not large enough! Again she sunk the weapon in, and again. How many times did the whale bone strike? Satu could not have said, and the suvai could not cut through bone. “Do not fight me Kell. It is me, your friend Satu… Let me in…” she sang lowly, in a melodic voice. “Let me in…” she pleaded.

With gentle hands she laid the suvai aside. So beautiful she looked, with her wild hair, and her blood streaked face. Delicately, lovingly, she stuck her fingers into the ragged hole at Kell’s chest. With a feminine grunt, the muscles in her arm forced her whole hand into the opening. Easily it slid, blood soaked and wet. And with her other hand she felt the solidity of bone and pulled upwards, trying to move it aside, a loud crack sounded as ribs snapped violently. Kell offered no fight, and Satu took his paralysis as acceptance. Her hand slid further in and rotated to grasp the pulsating heart.

How Satu loved him in that moment! “It is strong Kell. So strong! I can feel you! Beating and beating!” she almost cried again as the Drykas’ heart throbbed against her hand, its rhythm in beat with the Myrian emotions that assailed her. The Konti’s mouth opened to breathe, but air refused to flow. Why was she so dizzy? Suddenly the suvai fighter pulled with all her strength and Kell’s heart gave easily, ripped from his body. Falling back, Satu cradled it in her dripping hands and stared at it. She was at a loss. Where was the Strength now? It seemed to be fading and the loss triggered something within, and Satu faltered. Her hands were bloody… her dress too! “Kell… what is happening?” she begged the ravaged man, as her bewildered, young gaze rose upwards and rested upon Oni, as if seeing the powerful Myrian for the first time.

by **Cayenne** on August 10th, 2011, 12:37 am

Before her, the body slumped and twitched, blood soaking the torn clothes as the man was conscious, only barely, as the flow of blood stopped. In her hands, the heart continued to beat, slowly, throbbing, as it was beginning to run out of blood, dripping down her white skin, staining it crimson, much like the faint remaining colouration on the Myrian’s blades. His heart may have been ripped from his chest, from its protective cage, but his eyes were open - if he saw anything, Satu could not tell.

But Oni could.

“Eat it,” Oni told her when Satu looked at her, horror and confusion and shock evident on her face. “He’s watching you. Waiting to see you eat his heart so that he can die. You fought for it. You want to survive, or do you want t die here beside him? Show me what you can do,” it was an order, a command, a dare. Her life was on the line here, against this woman whom Kell had never had a chance, and she likely wouldn’t, either. But that was what this Oni had said, Authority ringing in her voice, that she had to cut his heart out and eat it if she wanted to go to Taloba.

She had managed the first step. Now she had to eat the lifeblood of her companion to prove herself capable of continuing. His horse had disappeared into the jungle - though somewhere, Satu could hear the panicked screams of the horse, though she could not see what happened to the mare.

It could be you next, a tiny little voice told her in her head. That could be you next.

by **Satu** on August 13th, 2011, 4:52 pm

“Eat it…” Satu whispered on a breathy exhale. Oni’s words rang in her ears and Oni’s Authority beat at her HeartSense. The blood trickled through her fingers to trail down her arms. She held the lightly pulsing vessel as if it was a treasure. Staring at it, the heart became magical and to the HeartSeer it became the World. Unfocused, the Konti’s sapphire eyes worshipped it, and her hands brought it closer to her crimson smeared face. Kell waited! Kell wanted this! Satu bit into his heart and blood exploded in her mouth to seep past her lips, and dribble down her chin. Teeth stained red, she pulled against the tight skin. But to one who had never eaten meat, the texture was foreign and terrible. Its taste made her head swim, and Satu’s senses reeled.

Raising her beleaguered face, Satu looked to Oni for confirmation. Even as she deferred to the Myrian warrior, the Konti was not even aware that she did so. The jungle was eerily quiet around her, but she knew it heard the horse’s screams, and the pounding of her own heart. Suddenly, the suvai fighter bit into the fleshy mess again. And then again. And then she tore at it, uncontrolled and vicious. Her nails gripped the heart so tightly the flesh was punctured in multitude. Satu couldn’t stop, and she consumed it frantically. If there was any shred of sanity left in the Konti, it was lost in the horrific action that gripped her. The trees commanded her to eat it, Kell wanted her to eat it, and Oni required that she do so.

The heart fell apart in her hands. The white haired girl could not hold the slippery pieces together! They fell about her lap, and one rolled towards Kell. Her hands let them be, Satu could lift them no longer. Wildly she looked about, unable to settle her breath. A strand of blood stained hair caught against her cheek and stuck in a soft swirl. Satu tried to understand, but nothing made sense! There was only one anchor to be had, and that was Oni. On some unconscious level Satu knew she needed the Myrian, not to survive the jungle, but to survive her own madness. Oni, larger than life was only steps away, standing tall above the kneeling Konti.

But Satu’s delicate Konti stomach knotted with pain as it fought the meaty, blood soaked intrusion. It knotted terribly, and Satu cried out to Oni in Kontinese. Her hands clutched her midsection, as she bent double against the sudden pain. Straining she tried to keep the bile down, and her throat worked furiously to swallow. Kell no! Satu thought. He tried to escape! And he beat her from the inside! Again, her stomach heaved and twisted. The Konti fell forward onto her hands and knees, as the once beautiful creature retched violently before Oni, onto the wet ground.

by **Cayenne** on August 28th, 2011, 9:38 pm

With each stab of the suvai, with each application of her nails, the organ jerked and throbbed in her hands, so fresh, so raw were the nerves in the muscles that it was twitching. The precious blood dripped down from her hands to her elbows, dripping into the leaves, the moss, the mud, dripping, dripping, staining her dress, torn and muddy and soaked with sweat from the humidity and the fight. She was a fright. She was another person from the serene and gentle Konti that she had been back in Mura, before she had felt the Call.

Oni said nothing, just watched her, staring at her with the eyes of a predator as Satu bit in, savagely, smearing her face with the warm, sticky blood that oozed out of her fingers and the torn veins, staining her once-pristine skin with the blood of another. She made no sound or appearance of Sympathy at Satu’s inner torment, at the way her stomach could not accept the bloody pieces of raw meat. Cooked, maybe it would be palatable. Raw? Never.

On her hands and knees, as she finally stopped her regurgitation, she was vaguely aware of the wide white flat of Oni’s blade at her chin, the tip pressing her head up, forcing her to look up at the leather-clad Myrian. There was no Compassion there, nor from around her, though the Amusement at Satu’s stunning display of digestive pyrotechnics swelled like a crushing wave from those that surrounded the pair. If anything, there was some Impatience. That... that was a marked difference from the Hostility. “That is not good enough,” Oni told her, as if scolding, like one would a pet or a small child. “Again. And this time? Keep it down.”

by **Satu** on September 16th, 2011, 6:37 pm

The blade, cool in the heavy humidity, pressed against Satu’s chin. Danger swirled at its touch. The Konti slowly and carefully raised her head as the weapon guided her to look up at the Myrian. Dark Oni stood above her, Impatient and Commanding. And it pained Satu that she had caused Impatience to surface in the strong warrior. Such was Oni’s power over the HeartSeer that the suvai fighter wished not to displease her further.

Oni said, “Again…” so again Satu lifted the remaining pieces of Kell’s heart and ate its meat with tender crimson lips, like a human child forced to vegetables with a parent watching. The tears stood out in her eyes, and with each bite, Satu willed the Drykas down, to bury him deep within her soul, from where he could never leave. He would be loved forever through her lives.

The compulsion to overcome her body’s aversion to meat encompassed her. But Oni wanted it. And Oni was the strongest person Satu had ever met. Her HeartSense burned from it, as she sat on the blood drenched ground. There was no choice but to listen, and to follow. Oni owned her.

Once she paused, as Kell threatened to explode from the depths of her belly, and she squeezed her eyes shut with the effort to contain him. The wave of nausea passed. And finally it was done. The Heart was gone, and Kell’s physical body lay motionless beside her. Satu knew he was dead. He had been consumed in spirit. Food for her wild, lost mind. Slowly her eyes rose from her hands to meet Oni’s, and a look of pleading filled her sea blue eyes. She needed acceptance and approval. But most of all she needed to be grounded to reality, and she knew not how to find it.

by **Cayenne** on October 12th, 2011, 3:28 am

Oni watched, her manner almost imperious as Satu looked up at her, barely comprehending, unable to understand the significance of the impromptu ritual that the painted, dark-skinned warrioress was demanding that the broken, half-crazed Konti perform. If she knew of the effect that it was having on Satu’s psyche, she gave no indication of it, much less that she gave two blind damns about it. She simply expected to be obeyed. She demanded this dark, gory ritual because to her people, to her way of life, this was how they lived and died. To consume the heart of an enemy was to consume their strength, to show that they conquered them. It was also a tactic of intimidation. Oni had come across Konti before, none so frazzled and rattled as the pale creature on the ground before her, soaked and stained with blood as she tried to keep her very fresh meal down. She wanted her uneven and unsettled, because it handily nullified the Konti’s natural perceptiveness

And above all, the Myrian wanted to show her who was in charge. This was a way of preparing her for what she was about to face - it would not be pretty. It would be very, very difficult. If she could not survive this, she could not survive the jungle. Emotions flooded around her as Oni put her swords in their sheaths. Amusement. Annoyance. Disappointment. Hunger. Anger. Contempt.

Disgust.

But there was also the beginning seeds, only the faintest, that hadn’t even taken root and might never take root from those that surrounded them, of Acceptance. Oni Accepted her, if only because she had done what Oni had demanded. She would have a chance to prove her worth. If anything, she had bought herself some time. The one who could be her anchor, who could pull her to a stop amidst the aimless drifting of her shattered mind and heart, eyed her as a massive tiger, bigger than any Satu had ever seen, emerged from the thick jungle around them. Closing behind them were a number of these dark-skinned humanoid people, wearing mud and leather and animal skins. The dark-eyed feral woman eyed Satu then, dominance in every aspect of her. She was full of it, so much that it practically seeped from her mud-covered skin. more than one of them grinned at her menacingly, baring sharp-looking teeth. Satu had no way of knowing that they had been filed into that shape, rather than being naturally formed. The dark, striped creature stopped beside the Myrian. “What do you call yourself?” Her companion had called her Miss Satu, but Oni wanted her name. Names held power.

Because if, at the end of this, something interesting could be made from the Konti’s bones.