Totentanz

Book 1 Chapter XII: Das Schicksal

Warning: doesn't technically contain cannibalism, but does contain one sort of supernatural creature eating another.

DAS SCHICKSAL
German, "the fate"

And at once he went on with his burden, as though afraid that he might already have said too much in this country where the past was sharp splinters embedded in men's minds and an ill-judged word a false step in the dark. -- Richard Adams, Shardik

Once again Diarnlan and Karandren's magic put their metaphorical heads together. Sending Karandren back without his memories hadn't worked. What was left for them to try? They pondered it for a long time while Diarnlan and Karandren themselves got drawn into yet another pointless duel. Well, "pondered" wasn't quite the right word when they had no brains. They communicated mainly by sending feelings of confused hopelessness to each other until they came up with something they hadn't tried yet.

We should send Diarnlan back without her memories this time, they decided at last.

So that was just what they did. Diarnlan and Karandren yelped in surprised alarm as the world disintegrated around them while they were still mid-duel.

Diarnlan awoke with a headache and a curious pain in her hand and eye. She stared up at the ceiling while she waited for them to fade. I've forgotten something important, she thought. For a while she pondered this. Is it Mother's birthday today? That didn't feel right. Have I missed an exam? That still wasn't the answer. At last she remembered. I forgot to buy ink and sealing wax yesterday.

Even that didn't seem right, but she refused to waste any more time thinking about it. She had a potion to brew. Then she could go to the village, buy the ink and wax, and write her monthly letter to her parents. Well, it was supposed to be a monthly letter. In practice she rarely bothered writing more than once every three months. This time it was closer to four.

She got up. The room spun around her. The next thing she knew she was lying on the floor with a splitting headache.

I must be sickening for something, she thought in alarm.

She tried to remember if she'd met any obviously sick people recently. Instead her mind presented her with a chaotic blur of images that could only have come from half-forgotten nightmares. Giants, sharp teeth, staring eyes, and flashes of a thousand other alien things filled her mind. A sharp stabbing pain shot through her chest. The pain in her eye returned in full force. It felt like someone had driven a knife into both her eye and her chest.

Diarnlan grabbed the bedside table and pulled herself to her feet. She closed her eyes to stop the light hurting them even more. With one hand pressed against the wall, both for support and to tell where she was going, she staggered into the bathroom. She kept a supply of pain-killing potions in the cabinet ever since her attempts to build her own wardrobe had lead to a nasty cut. With her eyes still closed she opened the cabinet, grabbed the nearest one, and drank the vial's contents with only a brief grimace at its bitter taste.

Her headache and chest pain faded to a dull sense of discomfort. She stared at her reflection in the mirror as she waited for the room to stop swaying like a boat in rough weather. Goodness, she looked like she'd just seen a ghost. If she was just a little paler she'd look like a ghost herself. The feeling of forgetting something important returned in full force.

Diarnlan scowled at the mirror. Something was badly wrong here, and she didn't know how to fix it.

Someone knocked at the back door. "Diarnlan! Hellooooooo!"