Stars of Blood

Twenty 𖤓 Diah

NOTE*: This chapter does contain nudity. There are no descriptions but it is implied. I thought I should warn just in case!

I wrinkled my nose at the scent.

Peppermint and rain, like old rotted wood with a sprinkle of sugar. It was like smiling, saying they love you when in reality they were planning to abandon and leave you for dead.

I didn't like it.

The voice in my head growled at the smell. She pushed forward, begging to be released.

No, I couldn't. She needed to suffer just a little longer. If she could, I would let her tear them to pieces later.

Unmoving, I listened as footsteps echoed throughout the passage. They stopped after getting close, a knock sounding on the bars of my cage.

When they cleared their throat, it was obviously a woman and when I looked at her I realized she was a very small woman. And old. Although she looked young, she was like me. Ancient, one of the first pyuwas ever created. She had met our creator, crafted by his hands. It was why she smelled so... off. Old and corrupted.

But when she smiled, she didn't seem like she smelled. She seemed kind.

The angry voice in my head felt threatened.

"Hello," the woman said. "May I come in?"

I didn't say anything and she didn't wait for my answer.

My never left her as she opened the door, closing it behind her. She held her hands up as if to say she was harmless. Everyone knew no pyuwa was harmless, especially when they had their cravings. Over the years I noticed haed had quenched it, so much so that they didn't remember what their lives used to be like. The Clan Leader was the only one that truly felt the effects of his ancestors. Just from his scent I could tell there was little haed in his system, he drank the blood of his subjects to survive.

And if the guard from earlier was correct, I would be next.

"Mind if I fix that for you?"

I turned my attention back to the woman. She was pointing at my arm, her expression soft.

"I'm afraid it's been dislocated so long it won't go back to normal," she spoke honestly, "but I can heal it as best as I can. Put it back in place?" She said it like a question, as if I would refuse.

And I wanted to.

But when I tried to move, my whole body felt like it was on fire. When I looked down at myself, I realized I hadn't moved in hours. I was still in the same spot from when they had thrown me in here. I had left my food untouched and had not even moved to go to the bathroom somewhere else in my small dungeon. I took a deep and almost choked on it. Without realizing it, I had peed on myself.

The pain was unbearable.

"Why?" I croaked out. My throat was sore and dry. The inside of my mouth tasted like iron, blood.

"Because no one deserves to sit here like this, soaked in their own urine."

I almost laughed. "I–I think not... not when you've done–seen the things I h-have."

"But," the pyuwa said, "do you deserve this?" When I didn't respond, she concluded, "I think what the young clan leader did to you was enough."

I bared my teeth, though less threatening in human form. I had been in my kit form for so long, it felt weird in human skin. 

"That boy... don't blame him."

"Then who should I blame?" she asked. "For making you such a way? And wasn't him that set the trap that captured you? If he and his men never set it, you wouldn't be here."