Never mind that she was a hypocrite, it was dead, it wasn't going to hurt her, aside from her own uncharacteristic clumsiness. Valdis stared at the skeleton as the pieces moved back together, "It's still dead, Miles. It's just..."
Leo's hand on her shoulder broke her focus and she shrugged him off as the skeleton fell quiet, though more intact than before, as if the scattered pieces had moved of their own will.
"I don't know what that was," she reached out again, wiping her blood from the fang and wondering, once again, what happened to this strange creature. It's small, about the size and build of a goat, though more slender, like a deer. Its fur is black, and its hooves are cloven in three rather than two. But the bigger picture tells her nothing.
But the second touch sent a sharp jolt through her mind and everything changed.
*** Fear.
The animal is restrained, its legs bound together and laying on its side. The crew members, so familiar, she knows them, she's seen them. They're looming over it. One of them holding a knife.
"Just get it over with," says Al'amar, looking away.
"No," says Nerrin, bending to light the candles. They're arranged in a circle along with several chalk markings on the floor and the animal struggles wildly at the center.
"It has to be done right." There's nothing but grim determination in Nerrin's voice.
The creature doesn't die a quick death. Things are incomprehensible in the blinding white-hot agony inflicted on it. But there is the feeling of something at last breaking, like the parting of clouds after a long storm, before it finally draws its last breath.
***
The scents of the sea crash back in, but the terror of the creature was still forefront in her mind. Her entire body was stiff, her skin paler than it should be, she might even be shivering. Valdis had no idea what they had done. Or perhaps she did, and that made it all the more terrifying.
CW: Animal death
Leo's hand on her shoulder broke her focus and she shrugged him off as the skeleton fell quiet, though more intact than before, as if the scattered pieces had moved of their own will.
"I don't know what that was," she reached out again, wiping her blood from the fang and wondering, once again, what happened to this strange creature. It's small, about the size and build of a goat, though more slender, like a deer. Its fur is black, and its hooves are cloven in three rather than two. But the bigger picture tells her nothing.
But the second touch sent a sharp jolt through her mind and everything changed.
***
Fear.
The animal is restrained, its legs bound together and laying on its side. The crew members, so familiar, she knows them, she's seen them. They're looming over it. One of them holding a knife.
"Just get it over with," says Al'amar, looking away.
"No," says Nerrin, bending to light the candles. They're arranged in a circle along with several chalk markings on the floor and the animal struggles wildly at the center.
"It has to be done right." There's nothing but grim determination in Nerrin's voice.
The creature doesn't die a quick death. Things are incomprehensible in the blinding white-hot agony inflicted on it. But there is the feeling of something at last breaking, like the parting of clouds after a long storm, before it finally draws its last breath.
***
The scents of the sea crash back in, but the terror of the creature was still forefront in her mind. Her entire body was stiff, her skin paler than it should be, she might even be shivering. Valdis had no idea what they had done. Or perhaps she did, and that made it all the more terrifying.