And ate the fellow, raw

[belladonic]

WHO: Claudia and 🥩you🥩
WHERE: Near the mine entrance, and near the fountain
WHAT: Claudia is always hungry
WHEN: After being freed from the Warrens
WARNINGS: Read this before tagging! Animal death right at the top.


a. outskirts
The stench of the carcass worsened as the blood cooled and congealed. It was already strange and sour, more than the usual earthy, gamy taste of a wild creature, tainted with fear and sick with watching fire rain from the sky. The thing had been thin and trembling, venturing at long last back to a familiar grazing ground only to find no safety there still. Claudia sat hunched on a felled log next to where it remained, its wild blood warming her through and staining her from chin to navel. Worse still, it was in her hair. Hair that had been growing increasingly untamed, difficult to control under the best conditions and with the help of expert hands, now subject to being torn through with a brittle stick as Claudia tried in vain to comb it. The struggle made it almost impossible to appreciate the hum and sing of nightlife around her, insects and frogs, or what sounded like them, darting through the underbrush, fat and unafraid after their predators were drained from the veins of this wood, flowing away from the volcano, and leaving the earth lush under the density of ash. It should have been a welcome song after being in the unnatural depths of those tunnels. And then there was the smell.

It hadn't taken Claudia long to return to the site of their burial, tiptoeing curiously around the mouth of that cave, sniffing the air for the fungal presence of the dancing mushrooms. The dark of it seemed to crouch threateningly in the moonlight now, and she had thrown a stone into that gaping maw, listening to it clatter down the tunnel until the sound had disturbed something above it. It made her stomach growl. Sniffing at it now, she wasn't sure how that was, and yet even with the taste still on her tongue she felt the hunger claw at her again. She brandished the stick she was trying to use as a comb at the carcass and admonished, "I don't even like you," like the rot and bones could do anything about it now. In response, a beetle came wiggling up through the slick of it, torn skin sliding off of its polished shell. Claudia bared her fangs, and turned her nose up to the wind again, searching for another warm body.

b. downtown
Without the glownies in their enclosure, the wind seemed to rattle the rafters and the straw on the ground looked one more night from blowing away. The flies didn't even remain, followed to wherever the herd had fled when abandoned, leaving only Claudia sitting on the fence where she could kick her legs and look mournfully into the empty sprawl. It wasn't even that she wanted the glownies to be there, for a fact; with no trace of them, she could only imagine the great mass of them all running together through the trees, and that was wonderful. And they weren't even that appetizing. But she was hungry, and one of those beasts would have at least come and eaten from her hand with its big, stupid eyes, completely unaware of its impending end. The other beasts around here weren't so easy to find out at night. Maybe, if she was lucky, she'd spy one wandering through he square, alone as most of them ever seemed to be, trusting the world to be so gentle with them even after it had spit fire at them.

She slipped from the fence and went skipping out into the fresh air, under the shimmer of the moon at its peak in the sky, and paused there to carefully fix her skirt and her hair, and tested a trembling pout before evaluating herself with a slightly unimpressed twist of her mouth. It was probably convincing enough for the meat. Now she just had to wait, turning her ear up to listen for any approach, like she wasn't in the centre of the city that should have been teeming like blood under the skin even at this hour of the night. Instead, it was like she was waiting for a lonely farmer to stumble out to the swamp to relieve himself.

There, a sound. Claudia glanced around herself to pluck up a stone torn loose from some damage to the building above, raising it over her head to drop unceremoniously to the road and let the sound of it ring through the dark streets. A beat later, she cried, "Oh, no," as miserable as she could manage. It took her another second to consider that she should maybe be on the ground for the most effective performance, and gingerly lowered herself, patting away the pebbles that might dig into her legs where she lounged.

Comments

[belladonic]

It was a monster that still yelped with surprise and annoyance, immediately letting him go to bring her hands up to her face though the damage was already done. It send her jerking back, sitting up straight, almost tipping back on her heels while she spluttered and blinked and neither of those really helped to clear the dirt from her mouth and eyes.

[thepurpleone]

Donnie didn't waste a moment as he felt her weight shift, and he braced his hands against the ground, shoving himself up, hoping to throw her off his shell. His neck ached, his jaw throbbed with the rest of his head, and pushing himself upright made everything around him swirl nauseatingly.

Still, he dragged his knees under him, feet finding the solid ground beneath it and pushing off to propel him forward

[belladonic]

Claudia gave another whimper as she went tumbling back, flailing a hand out behind herself to she landed sprawled and with a bruised tailbone and ego, but not so humiliated as prone. Her other hand remained up, rubbing at her face now, frustrated with the dirt and her own tears that were only partially from the irritant. At least she wasn't in any rush to catch up with the awful, annoying animal, confident that he wasn't going anywhere fast enough, and had no police to cry to. She could take her time climbing to her feet, teeth grit as her red tears were smeared black with ash across her cheek by the heel of her hand, and she let him run, eyes on him despite the pain screaming at her to close them.

[thepurpleone]

He didn't dare look back, too focused on simply trying to keep his feet under him, put some distance between them. The command to run seemed to override any other thought.

The Forge couldn't be far. Get there, shut the door, she'd never be able to get in after him. He nearly tripped as his toe caught on the uneven road, but Donnie still threw himself forward, his next step jarring but keeping him on his feet. He could barely make out solid edges in the night that made out the scattered buildings in this part of the city. Run, his brain insisted, as though he weren't already doing so.

[belladonic]

She was in front of him. Claudia didn't even hear the whisper of the grass this time, or how the chattering had crept back into the treeline, like the toads and beetles gathered to watch the carnage. The hammering of this beast's heart was all she heard, like a war drum, like an invitation, like a dinner bell. The next time he stumbled, she struck out, open hand across the face for the indignity, powerful as a punch, her claws out to rake his skin.

[thepurpleone]

It was like some kind of magic act, clear in one instant and then she was there in the next. His body responded faster than his brain did, still fumbling to register this trick. He threw his hands up, still in no way prepared for the impact that followed nor the burn of her claws as they shredded through his sleeve and bit into skin.

Donnie was on the ground again, this time on his back, an uncomfortable position for the awkward bulk of his armored shell. Although it simultaneously saved him from knocking his head against the ground, it did nothing for the preexisting pain of his strained neck, but he was already flailing in an attempt to roll onto his side, to get up again.

[belladonic]

The armor under his clothes seemed to be working entirely against him now as Claudia caught the edge of it under her foot as he made to tip to the side, rolling him back toward her and starting to giggle again with the absurdity of it. She leaned over with her foot braced on him, bowing over her knee where she could properly consider his strange, green face in the starlight while her hair fell around her own, heavy with blood and shadows. Funny beast.

"Have you reconsidered yet?" she offered one last time. "I'll remember it forever, I promise. I write them down, every one."

[thepurpleone]

It wasn't until then that he had a good look at her, and even then she was still hard to make out, the light at her back, the shadows providing her a natural mask. He knew now that some of those marks were more solid, could smell that faint tang of copper as his eyes widened, taking in the streaks that went from face and straight down the front of her dress.

He grabbed at her ankle, wincing at the fresh throbbing of his forearm and the unsettling warmth that soaked his sleeve. "What are you?" he couldn't help but blurt, even if he was beginning to have some very high suspicions. The teeth, the blood, the inhuman strength and speed, those were very difficult things to ignore, and yet the logical part of his mind was trying to dig its heels in upon the fact that such should not exist. It was admittedly rapidly faltering in its attempt to stick to this position.

His other hand tried slipping behind him, under the edge of his hoodie, fingers seeking for the cold metal of his weapon.

[belladonic]

He had already made his guess, and she had already told him, so Claudia only smiled, charmed that he still hadn't gotten it straight. They wouldn't be unique last words, unfortunately, Claudia had definitely written similar in her diary before, but maybe there was a poetry in that, the confidence in some people's definition of her in the dying wisdom, the ignorance to the very end in others'. All he really needed to know, ultimately, about her and what she meant to him, was delivered sweetly, "Hungry." Then she was upon him again, dropping down onto her knee braced on that armor, hand on his head again to shove it back, the other snarled around the collar of his shirt to expose his throat to her teeth.

[thepurpleone]

He gave a strangled groan in protest at his poor abused neck, feeling the edge of his battle shell at the base of his head. All sense of trying to keep calm had long since fled and only kept further at bay as he saw her teeth once again up close and personal.

The turtle had shifted his hand from her foot in some attempt to push her back, his feet scrabbling against the dusty ground, but he had no desire to accidentally shove her forwards when that was the direction she was already headed. It was impossible ignoring the scent of blood now, and he felt something tense even further within him like a clock spring too tightly wound as he realized there'd only be more.

It was hard grabbing his tech-bō when his shell was being ground into the dirt, the compacted thing wedged tight between. He ignored the protest of his wrist as he twisted it this way and that until he felt his fingers brush the end. He shoved against the street with his foot, trying to ease enough of the pressure off his back so he could grasp it, just as he expected he'd quickly be shoved back down again, but all he needed was a brief opening.

The shock of teeth breaking skin nearly made him lose his focus, but he had pulled his weapon free, and with another uncomfortable turn of his wrist, thumbed the switch to extend it, the capped end of it flying towards the girl's side.

[belladonic]

She was already gone. Faster than she had appeared at the edge of the forest, without even the whisper of her wake, the dry grass around him still and undisturbed.

Too far away to hear, Claudia was yelping as she was suddenly dropped into cold water, washing the taste of blood from her teeth and staining the serene fountain with a billow of red.

[thepurpleone]

It happened all too fast to register, and even once it was, it still didn't hope to clear anything up. But the fact seemed to remain; Donnie was alone.

Panting, he shoved himself to sit, grasping the titanium staff with both hands now, eyes darting as he looked around in the darkness, wondering if this was another one of her games. The stillness was uncertain, but he disliked waiting to be proved wrong even more, so he hauled himself to his feet, wincing at the ring of metal as he planted the butt of his staff on the ground to lean against.

And then he was running for the forge again, pure adrenaline carrying his steps. He was still clutching his weapon, looking about feverishly, half expecting her to appear in front of him or lunge out of the shadows. It wasn't until he was behind that heavy metal door and it was sealed behind him that his legs folded beneath him, and he curled in on himself and around his tech-bō. The thought that he should probably do something about the bleeding was a fleeting one, exhaustion crashing down all at once, his heartbeat still thudding erratically in his ears.