"Whatever you do… do not move."

In the blink of an eye, colossal daggers ripped through the Binder's gut. Its stomach spilled open, and long spindly stretches of string, dripping with clumps of blood, unraveled from inside. The tree-sized claw dug into the dirt, and the beast skidded to a stop. A rough crimson tongue slinked out from its mouth, and lapped at the strings, taut between the corpse and the huge claw. Then, the strings snapped, spattering a mix of thick red liquid and black ash across my face and the rest of the clearing.

My stomach churned and everything inside was violently expelled. Chunks from dinner last night and glittering pleasure-drink matted the grass below.

The creature's tongue slithered back into its mouth, and it gradually turned towards me. Hollow eyes glared straight at my soul.

My tremoring arms let the sword sitting in my palms slip, falling to the ground with a dull thud. I reached for the knife attached to my thigh, but before I could unclasp it, the creature's legs crackled. It leapt towards me faster than a bolt of lightning strikes the ground.

Keeper's shears had somehow made their way in front of me; claws stopped the instant before they would’ve torn me into piles of string.

"What the hell are you doing? RUN!" The girl brought her shears closed and the thing's claws pushed away from them. They soon hurtled back towards her, and her arms heaved the weighty chunks of metal into the air, slashing at the creature's forearm.

Clarity returned to me and I skittered to the spot where we'd wandered into the clearing. A second enormous pair of claws ripped through the dense forest, launching trees into the air and shooting splinters into my whole body. One tree floated above me for a moment, and then, it slammed down hard. A fat branch drove deep into my shoulder. I cried out from the white pain. Blood sprayed from the empty socket of my shoulder, and I rolled into the upturned soil.

The beast swiped at the log that covered me, shattering it into bits. I scurried to my feet, whipping my head around wildly. Where's Keeper?

A heavy boom sounded from the woods and a wide trail of destruction led to it. I set off in a sprint, but heaving claws crashed into the ground and sent me thundering forwards. I tore into the earth. Dirt and grime covered the side of my neck and face. The grit forced heavy blinks from my stinging eyes. Large chunks of terrain surrounded the crater I'd made.

A crater. And Watcher's question suddenly came to mind. "Why didn't you simply devour the Nightmares that attacked you?"

I tried leaning on my arm to stand. But it was gone. My legs couldn't move either. I might actually be paralyzed this time. Toes won't move. It's getting closer. I need to Consume. Come on. I am Death, I am the one who kills. Now… CONSUME.

My legs swirled to form a single piece of darkness and my upper-body split open into an enormous cavity. But before my fangs could clamp down on the shadow in front of me, its razor sharp hand swiped into my lower jaw. Instantly, I reverted to my human form. Three stained gashes spread across my chest, all the layers of my clothing mangled into threads, carelessly swaying with the chilled breeze.

The towering beast stood at least twice my size. The leaves overhead ruffled and let through a deep blue luster to fill the clearing and frame its silhouette. Solid, angular trunks sprouted off from either side, each with three careful points curled into the ground to support its weight. Its legs like springs were thin in comparison. Its face held only the hollow nothingness of sunken eyes and a spot where its blood-red, dripping tongue emerged.

I retched up the contents of my stomach again. Far less pig and far more dream-liquid spilled from my mouth this time around.

I tried for my blade. The empty socket of my shoulder had healed over in the transformation, but the arm was still gone. I slid the knife out from its sheathe with my other hand while a slow shiver settled into my legs. The forest spun. My head pounded, wavered. Not now.

The beast drew itself forwards. But It didn't leap. Only lugged its own bulk with one claw at a time. Are its legs injured?

It dragged towards me, and the claw dropped directly into my bile. It exploded. Before I could process what had happened, a white smoke filled the clearing and the monster had reeled back, crashing into the forest behind it. Gods' vomit. The Dream Essence.

I focused my blurred eyes across the unrecognizable clearing, waving my arms to clear the smoke. I spotted an upheaved chunk of earth covered in the thick mud of last night's dinner. My feet shot me straight to it. I slathered my bone dagger against the chunks of meat until it was wet and rank. The stench caused my eyes to water.

Through the slowly dispersing white fog, I could see the creature burdening its weight on one arm. Its claw was shredded, missing two talons. A shockwave boomed in from the direction Keeper had gone and cleared the fog instantly. The creature lunged, though much slower than the other had. It is injured.

I watched the massive claw swipe towards me and stuck my Essence-coated knife out front. The claw slammed into the knife, and into me, shooting off another burst of smoke. The explosion rang in my ears and crushed my body against the ground. A spray of stinging pain hit me all at once, thin slivers of bone slicing into my skin. The knife had shattered.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

I clutched the only solid piece of clothing left on me, my cloak, and wafted the smoke away. A heap of panting shadowed mass twisted desperately on the ground. Both its arms were blown to nothing and leaked pools of dark clotted fluid. The creature's misery forced me to close my eyes. Consume.

My massive jaws twisted into being and snatched up the thing's maimed body. I returned to something human-looking right away. But not quite human. A surge of confidence rushed through me and prickled my inner pathways. Warmth ate my body from the inside. And then, as incessant as the taxman's knocking, my stomach grumbled. I found myself craving meat. A fat slab of cow. Screw a steak, I'll drink the juice on its own.

Wait, what about Keeper? She's made of meat… Wait, what? I need to help her, not taste her. She's fighting a monster… which is also meaty. I'm sure I'd be allowed to eat that. Another lurching crash blew a wave of dust through the clearing. Again, I instinctively leaned on my arm to stand, and this time it had grown anew. Only now, it dug three deep trenches into the ground. A nightmarish claw formed at the end of my blackened arm.

A scream cried out from the forest. Keeper.

I pushed off with my new limb and broke into a sprint. My whole body was lighter than normal, and my stride reached longer than before. I leapt across a stack of fallen trees. My legs sprung me ever slightly higher into the air.

Soon, the disheveled shape of the girl stood in the distance. Her back arced heavily, leaning on her shears. The half-living shreds of a creature panted before her. I changed course, launching myself into the air with my claw, and careened into the dark mass. The heel of my foot slammed into it, and deep navy sludge spilled from its wounds. Blood.

I buried my three talons into the creature's body, but the beast's legs crackled and a shockwave exploded into me. My shadowed limb caught most of it, but the rest of the blow sent me sailing into the air, ramming hard against a tree.

My toes couldn't move, neither could my arms. The creature's legs boomed once more and its silhouette appeared in the sky above me. Well, nothing to lose.

I closed my eyes and focused my attention on one specific part of my mind. The part that spurred awake when I transformed. The familiar wobble of a formless blob, morphing and opening at my chest. Then, I redirected my attention to the quality that healed my wounds. And a word came to mind without effort: Repair.

Before my eyes could even open, I swung my large claw above me, connecting directly with the falling beast. In that heartbeat, I pushed with all my strength, and the creature landed to my side, missing me by a hair's breadth. Then, a sudden flash of exhaustion rushed over me.

I held my grip on the creature at my side, and from the tips of my claws, I felt the thin bend of a spine. I flexed and pulled, ripping it into tiny fibers of dark dripping flesh. My tongue set ablaze, and the exhaustion vanished. Blood.

My mouth watered. I leaned over the creature's half-dead body, shivering from the pleasurable scent of rich blood. Thick blood. Wonderous blood. A long, thin, winding tongue slipped from between my teeth. It pressed against the creature's open wound and drank from the cup of the gods.

I savored the recent hints of Binder's blood. The pleasantly bitter, burnt tones of other Nightmares. The vague sweetness of Dream Essence, not overwhelming nor poorly executed, perfectly sprinkled in, exactly a replacement to the fresh nutty spices of my hometown. And one more flavor. Something I couldn't quite place. Barely able to taste it at first, but soon overwhelmed in its unique quality. Indescribable. Like an exotic dish from a world far gone. Like a brush on the cheek from a lover long forgotten. Like the ever-yearned taste of recognition, retribution, or even…

"STOP!" The shrill voice broke my concentration.

"Keeper, you're alive. And you look… delicious." My mouth began to salivate once more. "You're bleeding, let me lick your wounds."

"Ferro, you're not lucid right now. I need you to trust me." She pushed against her weapon to stand erect.

Keeper's words didn't make sense. "Of course I trust you… Unless. Are you tricking me into awakening a third time?" My giant claw retracted from the barely breathing creature's body. "If you tell me I can't lick your wounds, I'll know that's what you're up to."

"No, no. I would never. You can… lick my wounds," she said. "Just keep your eyes on me." Her body was battered and bloody.

Why am I listening to her? There's so much to eat right in front of me. The greatest meal you've ever had, standing there, ready. Weak, powerless to stop you. Come, Ferrowill. You're hungry, aren't you? Billows of black ash bloomed into the air, cutting my thoughts short. I coughed, disoriented. "Keeper?! Where are you? I'm starving, Keeper. Would you kindly tell me where you are?"

Her voice caught my ears, muffled through the dust. "Jump." And then, from the sky, the girl's knees pressed down on my arms like three great barrels of stone. Her weight made no sense. I slammed into the ground.

Before I could even start to complain, the tip of her shears shoved into my mouth. They didn't slice my gullet from the inside or hack my neck wide open. They only sunk deep into my throat. I gagged on the cold blades. I could picture them reaching down, further and further. Until I couldn't handle it anymore, and puked one last time. Black ash mixed with bile.

A rushing pain shot along my legs and down to the claw on my new arm. It felt like I'd resurfaced from an all-encompassing trance. Repair. My body briefly turned to slime, then back again. The pain wasn't much better though. "What just happened? Why am I… starving?"

"You…" Keeper struggled to stand, wavering above me. "You ate the Mauler," she said, then collapsed to the dirt.

I tried to catch her, but my arm was gone again. I struggled to my feet and rushed over to the injured girl.

"I'm fine." She pushed a hand out to stop me. "Gimme a minute."

I stumbled to my knees beside her. The patch that covered her eye had fallen off. The eye itself was gone, and only the gash from The Dream Eater's fang remained. "Keeper… Is it bad that I ate that thing?"

The girl leaned against a tree. She scanned the spot where my arm should be. "Basically." She gave off a hollow sigh. "I don't think you can awaken. Or eat The Nine. Or get back home."