Part 7

Dead. Dead. Dead.

“Tasty. Tasty. Tasty.”

Dead. Dead. Dead.

“New blood sure is tasty.”

Dead. Knight lay motion- Dead. Knight lay dead, dead like the fur corpse before him.

His prior urgency? Killed as bony knives opened a bloody window in the bloody corpse before him.

His prior worry? Slaughtered as a gluttonous monster slurped on the wolf’s blood. Its commentary filling Knight’s ears.

“Mmm, hahaha, got a dark taste to it.”

Dead.

Dead.

Dead.

Knight was surely dead. His only hope slaughtered before him. His only possible saviour, dead before him. Knight was dead. Definitely dead. Be it death via the glutton’s fangs. Death by suicide. Or death from the giant insects filling the forest behind him. Maybe he’d even die of guilt from letting those insects eat Rei alive.

In the end, however he would die, it didn’t matter. He wasn’t that good of a guy to donate his remains, not that it mattered in this world. And he didn’t know anyone who’d like to hold a funeral with his mangled body, never mind those who’d do it in this world. Everybody he knew in this world would die, even Cerrin and the others if they ventured to the edge of these woods. And his grandparents and sister wouldn’t even know.

“Mmmm, slurp, slurp, slurp, slurp, slurp! Ugh…I wonder if mother knows about this blood.”

Dead.

Dead.

De-

A thought cut off the endless train of death circulating in his mind. ‘My parents are dead… I wonder if…’

That fleeting thought fizzled out. Then, it was shoved aside as a torrent of thoughts flooded his mind.

A variety of expressions drifted across his face.

“Shit!” Knight spat as his hands crashed into his skull, pounding himself back into reality. “What the hell am I doing?”

It didn’t matter how he would die. It didn’t matter where. And It didn’t matter when.

‘I’m trapped. There’s no way out of it.’

There was no possible way he could save himself. Not with insect-monsters behind him; not with the glutton feasting in front of him.

‘I’m definitely dead. One thing I have learnt in this world is that my life isn’t in my hands. I can’t decide when I live or die.’

It was a depressing train of thought but it was true. He was only alive because of other people’s choices. The only thing Knight could do was prolong his death. So naturally, the best option was to stay in the bush, laying low until the human-shaped monster turned to him for dessert. At least Knight could get some peace and quiet before his life ends-

‘So, I might as well do something, right?’

With a long, exasperated sigh, Knight got to his feet, trembling as he stepped out of the bush.

“H-H…” his mouth opened, but only a trickle of noise came out. ‘Fuck…’ after a split second of hesitation he crumpled his fists, clenched his jaw, shook his head – and hardened his resolve. He wasn’t going to allow any deliberation over his decision. “Hey-”

“LET ME DRINK!” A blood-curdling shriek butchered Knight’s newfound resolve, sending him falling to the ground with a thud. “-Oh!” The feminine shaped monster dropped her fur chalice as she noticed Knight. Her scrunched-up face replaced with a pondering look. “Ohohohohohohohoh-oh?” Her O-shaped mouth widened into a toothy smile. “Hehe, sorry to frighten my food. I wasn’t screaming at you.”

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“Y-yeah…” Knight mumbled. Her apology did not lift his determination back up but forced him to gulp down the re-emerging fears as he stood up once again. “Wh…”

The feminine monster wiped the bloody residue from her lips, letting out a flirtatious “sooooo…” as she stood up from her stony cushion that was wet with blood. “You think you can…help me with something?”

Knight froze without even processing her sudden vampish act.

“Before you’re eaten, of course…hehe.”

“-!!”

Out of nowhere, Knight felt warm breath melt his frozen ears; a soft weight upon his shoulder, and a rotting, bloody scent stuffing into his noise. But he couldn’t reflex and cover his nose. The soft weight became hard and froze him in place along with another weight pressed against his leg.

“Although…we can arrange for certain parts to be… ‘eaten’ first...” The voice giggled as she let go of Knight.

“Huh…?” His body shuddered as it was overcome with revulsion. ‘Fuck that! Why the fuck is this little gremlin tryna seduce me?’ Knight screamed inside has he jumped away from the small monster.

“Well, inteeeerested in answering my question? And helping me?”

“…!” A slither of hope pressed back the disgust shrouding around him as a slight smile appeared. “S-sure…but I’d like something first, in return.”

“Uh, well…oh? Hehe, of course…” The ‘gremlin’ whispered with a toothy smirk. “Don’t complain if my fangs accidentally puncture a vessel or two when I-”

“What? No! Nonononononono. Anything but that. Not what I want you to do.” Knight exclaimed, shaking his hands and head, stumbling backwards as he rushed to create space between the two once again.

“Oh. I see. What do you want then?” The humanoid monster asked with a tut, throwing her newfound cheekiness back into the depths of her mind.

“…” Knight held his head with a long, irked sigh. After a few seconds, he shook his confusion and aggravation off. This was his chance. “W-Would it be possible to-”

“Errr, no haha. Sorry but no. Ahahaah… I’ll do what you want after,” A laughing voice froze Knight’s growing hope – the one thing keeping him sane.

“W-W-W-What? What d-do you m-mean a-a-after?” He threw his words out of his mouth without even realising her growing irritation.

“After you-hehehe-HAAH-” She stuffed her hands into her mouth, squashing her oncoming laughter, “Ahfter you ahnswer my qwestion,” she stated, her hands muffling her words. “Cwome to the fuwwy fwood.”

“…!” Her choice of words lured Knight’s gaze to the countless corpses littered around, prompting a sudden urge to vomit.

“Hehe…I don’t’ have alllllll day,” she moaned, scratching her lips instead of covering them.

“…” Knight gulped down the heavy disgust suffocating him and traipsed to the small, gluttonous women.

“Haaah,” she let out alongside the crack of her neck. She closed the gap between her and Knight and grabbed his forearm, scratching her tongue as she dragged him to the wolfman’s corpse.

As she loosened her grip Knight snatched his arm back and clenched both fists to take his attention from the dead before him.

The gluttonous women crouched down, giggling to herself as she dipped her fingers into the small pool of black blood. The three crimson irises on each of her eyes watched the blood trickling out of the wolfman’s wounds. “S-so, do you know what’s up with this?”

“…U-Up with what…?”

“W-hehe-with my food’s blood,” she clarified, still scratching the inside of her mouth, unable to stop her erratic laughs.

“Huh…?” Knight let out as he stared at the dark blood dumbfounded. “It’s just-” Knight instantly caught the words that were about the come out of his mouth.

“Just what?”

“N-Nothing…”

“Ha-huh? Don’t lie,” she laughed, speaking whilst her fingers were scratching at the inside of her mouth. “When I... I tore this guy’s b-body up he was just as bloody- hehehaah- as all of my other prey. I was just…just drinking the blood that pooled up in the hole I opened and-ARGH!” Her stuttering rambling was ended with a scream as tore at her mouth. “I don’t need to fucking explain it! The puddles fucking small and not because I slurped it.”

“…Oh…” Knight was taken aback from what was happening to the thing before him. From playful to having gales of laughter. From solemn to insane. He couldn’t even process what she meant as she rapidly tore at her mouth before him.

“AND MY MOUTH IS FUCKING ITCHY! HAHAHAAAH! It feels like something is brushing against my throat, my teeth, my tongue, and my lips. Tell me, tell me, what the hell is up with it?”

“Wh-what… (the fuck?)” Knight was just as confused as the glutton. He had no idea what she meant but it made her act a completely different kind of insane to what she already was. ‘Okay, okay… What do I do for fucks sake?’

“Hahaha-haah… Oh, look at this.” The glutton laughed to herself. It wasn’t the uncontrollable laughter. That insanity disappeared with her normal laugh. She turned to Knight with a bloody, torn, mouth bringing two of her fingers to his attention. “Ahhh, gone, gone, gone. Most of the blood disappeared from the floor. And most of the blood on my fingers I dipped in the blood has gone too. Ha-ha-ha.”

It was true. Black blood trickled down her fingers as she lifted them, but it trickled from a small source. It was like only a couple of drops of blood landed on her fingers. It was like she never dipped them in to begin with. It was finally something Knight could process.

‘…No…what IS up with this blood?’ His thoughts moved from the disgusting scene and the glutton’s antics, narrowing in on the blood.

“Soooo, what’s up with it?”

“I-!” A thought crossed Knight’s mind and caused him to stop his words. He could use this. “The thing is, I can’t really explain it but… butbeforeyoueatme I know who does!” Knight spewed his words out as he saw the glutton’s expression changed. “Th-There was a little girl with me and the wolfman and she knows what to do. The only thing is th-that some insects t-took her when you fought the wolfman.”

“Ah. Well…” the gluttonous woman stood up straight and cracked her neck. “Well, well, well. Let’s find them then.”

A bloody smile peeled across her small face.

“Hehe-haaah… huh? Come on then, hehe haha, take the lead.”

“…” Knight gulped down his hesitation, and with a quiet “Kay…”, sheepishly took the lead into the predator’s forest.