Fresh Meat

She trotted off into the traveller's camp, and her eyes were instantly wide with apprehension, but also more than a touch of curiosity.

They were all human, as far as she could see, but they weren't dressed like it. She walked by someone chopping wood whilst wearing a regal outfit in the elfin style. Meticulously folded silken cloth, hand died into a set of tribal colours.

Two younger humans ran by, laughing and rolling a barrel of alcohol that they'd managed to sneak from somewhere. Off to throw a party, just full of all the irresponsibilities of the newly come of age.

An elderly woman paused as she was hanging out her washing at the front of a carriage. Groaning involuntarily as she hefted a grass skirt and tried to lower her hips, casting her head down to avoid Valai's gaze.

The people at work, assembling more firewood, or skinning newly hunted animals, or washing clothes, all copied the elder. As soon as any of them saw her, they gave a stiff greeting like she was someone important, but one that they felt comfortable around.

She felt like a titled lady being welcomed home.

"Valai!" A voice shrieked excitedly, interrupting her thoughts as she saw Dolly wildly waving at her from a seat out the front of a hideous red carriage with golden leafwork all over it.

She made her way over hesitantly, swallowing nervously as she saw the other person sitting with her friend. A person with both face and hands hidden within the depths of a bright white cloak, with a fierce green lining to it.

The other domba jumped to her feet, and wrapped her in a tight cuddle. Squeezing the air out of Valai as she let out another excited noise, and nuzzled their cheeks together.

As she rubbed Dolly's back, she saw a small hand emerge from the stranger's cloak, and they poured a cup of tea. The hand was pink, purple, and wrinkled from some kind of hideous burn.

As sympathetic as it made her feel, Valai's skin crawled at the idea that the woman's entire body might be like that, beneath the coverings.

"I think -"

"- we should adjourn within, to avoid your old would-be lover." A cracked and wispy voice finished for her.

Dolly grinned briefly at her, before bounding into the carriage, tail shaking with far too much enthusiasm. Just because this was Valai's last resort, didn't mean that she trusted them. At all.

Inside the carriage, three tea cups were laid out on a tiny table, and a clothing trunk served as one seat, with a bed serving as the other. The liquid within which jumped to steaming with a wave of a hand hidden within its sleeve, as the stranger took the bed for themselves.

They sat on the edge, slowly and deliberately hooking one leg over another. Revealing nothing more than a tiny bit of femininity, but not enough that Valai could take a confident guess at the person's gender. She wasn't even completely convinced that they were human.

Dolly grabbed her teacup excitedly, slurping it loudly, "It's mint! Can you believe they have dried mint leaves!? I haven't tasted proper mint since I was a lamb! Plague always wrecks it."

"We have... Our ways around the plague." The raspy voice croaked.

Valai sat down on the trunk, crossing her arms roughly, "Not here because -"

"You believe. You do not." The figure finished her sentence, "You just have no desire to be Lord Oen's latest plaything. But if you run from Lord Riveranda and..."

The person paused to let out a loud hacking cough, making Valai's ears cringe at the pained noise. They took several wheezing breaths before continuing, "And Lady Peip, then you must never stop running... I know, and knew. We have prepared space in a carriage, for you."

She rolled her jaw, "What's up with the bowing?"

"The people know you are the Chosen." The figure croaked enigmatically, "We have come a long way to find you, Valai and Dolly. Both of you. It is not birth that has made you important, but life. Ones that are worthy of Tra'arsk."

"Dark god." Valai ground her teeth together, as Dolly happily sipped away at her tea.

"A life lived, a life to be rewarded." The stranger stated, sounding like they were offering some blessing, whilst not really saying a single thing.

Dolly smiled over the top of her teacup, "Tell her the best bit! She's not going to listen, until you do."

"How long have you been here?" Valai shot a glare sideways.

Her friend blushed and looked down, "F-first thing? The guy we... We met last night? He brought me fresh damper for breakfast... So I... Came to... See things."

"You've been hanging out with the drifter weirdos whilst -"

"You have been training to be Lord Oen's new toy." The stranger pissed her off by, yet again, finishing one of her sentences. None of which had been that difficult to predict, if you had an eye on the happenings of the village. Her trip to the tailor would have spread like wildfire.

Valai blew at her fringe, and then yawned, "If you stop doing that, we can think -"

"About friendship? No." The hooded figure scoffed, "Friendship is not afforded to someone like myself, little lambs. I offer guidance, because the alternative is Tra'arsk burning another hole inside my soul. I am no friend to the living."

Dolly looked at her with an innocent face and held up both hands, "Wait! Wait, wait, Valai. I know, she's not very nice. But she hasn't told you the thing, yet!"

"I'm not going anywhere, Dolly." Valai rubbed her temples, "I... Can't. Lord Oen wants me for something, and I ran away. So... I have to run away. With these weirdos. I'm sorry. You're losing your best friend."

"No, she's not." The hooded figure croaked, "For that, you would need to leave this town. You will, one day, but not today. Not tomorrow. That is not your destiny, and it is not her destiny. And speaking from experience... Running from destiny is a shit idea."

Valai rolled her eyes, "Derby would gladly burn the whole forest to get back at Dolly and me. That ram, he isn't what I'd call stable. So no, if you're not happy to shelter me, I'll risk the open road."

"That's not the thing!" Dolly said, turning on the chest and quickly grabbing both of Valai's hands. The domba took a deep breath, looking excitedly through her white curls at her, "She knows... Who... Your dad is."

She choked back the urge to spill that she knew who Dolly's father was, and nodded slowly, "Lady Peip suggested that she might know, and that I was better off without the knowledge. That it was sort of a kick in the donbalan."

"Of course she knows. They all do. Even your... Precious... Derby." The hooded figure coughed roughly, "Your father is not some... Mysterious old... Man. He was... Buried by the dickhold who... Calls himself Riveranda."

Valai decided that she'd had enough of the mysterious and all knowing act. Especially from a demon worshipper whose health seemed like they'd pissed off a god, at least once.

She gave a yawn, pretending that she was braver than she was feeling, and then she stood up. "Derby should have pissed off, by now, shouldn't he? You lot seem to like to party. With the way things been going, I could use a party. I'm going to go check out the dancing square."

Without another word, she spun and skipped out the door.

As she went, she could hear the hacking cackle, as if she was amusing the creepy old prophet. Valai was fairly confident she was going to hate living with these folk. Thankfully, living with them probably meant meeting other drifters and travellers in the coming weeks and months, and she might just be able to sneak off with those instead.

"Valai!" Dolly scrambled out from behind, launching herself to hug onto her arm.

The dark skinned domba bleated and nuzzled the top of her friend's head, "Shh. S'okay, Dolly. I'm not in a mood. Not running off."

"I'm... I'm staying, too." Dolly said with more surety than the anxious woman usually had available.

Valai smiled at her, and for once, didn't feel like shooting down her friend's idea. She kept the bow stowed, and squeezed one of the hands on her arms. "Well, I figure you've spent most of your time with... No one told me their name. Wanna see if there's any men worth fighting over, for tonight's dance?"

"She's the Grand Soothsayer!" Dolly said with the pride of someone who had lived a lot longer as a member of this little herd, than either of them had.

She looked at her friend, "Right. Uh... Comment on the dance for tonight?"

"Oh, we're totally going to fight over him." Dolly replied, and waved a hand around at the drifters around them, all of them hard at work. "Can you say anyone is even half as cute as the one who talked to us, last night?"

"Met him, again, on the way in." Valai stated cautiously, "Aw, crud. That means he's the one who spoke to Derby when he came slinging to hang me up by the neck. Do you think Derpy would have broken his nose?"

"Gods, I hope not. He looked so refined, almost lord-y, but like... Not an asshole." Dolly said dreamily.

"Not Derpy." Valai agreed.

Dolly snorted and grinned at her, "You're in a mood. I suppose this running away thing, has a bit to do with our ex-boyfriend?"

"He jumped onto my bloody roof and pulled a sword on me! Guy fucking hates me, still." Valai kicked at a loose stone, sending it nowhere as it immediately got stuck in the grass.

The other sheepgirl frowned, "What in the Void!? What exactly are you even running from?"

"Lord de Oen. Apparently he... Asked for me... By name." Valai shrugged. "Had a nightmare about it, after I fell asleep in the library. They were making me study his family history."

Dolly looked confused, "Oen?... Asking...?"

"Don't know how he knows me, don't wanna know." Valai replied grumpily, "Lords and ladies, that's how exotics like us end up dead or worse."

"Noooo arguments." Dolly nodded firmly, ears loosely lagging behind her head.

The two of them paused at the same time, as they saw the same person, at the same time. The young man who had met them the night before, with an overconfidence that was now somewhat intriguing, now that she had to be a part of this little herd.

Dolly shot her an innocent look, as her tail started to wag like crazy. Her friend put her hands behind her back, and smiled broadly.

Valai didn't wait.

She sprinted off in the direction of the man, who was standing with one foot up on a stump, and seemed to be talking to a bunch of people cutting up firewood for the night's events.

"No fair!" Dolly yelled out from behind her, but the both of them knew who was more fit.

She got there ahead of her friend, skidding to a stop in front of the man. She smiled nervously and opened her mouth to deliver a poorly thought through one-liner, when Dolly ran into her back and nearly knocked them both of their feet.

The man caught her lightly by the shoulders, and gave a small laugh, "Easy there. Don't want to go spoiling tonight's guest of honour."

"Which one?" Valai glared at her friend, who showed no guilt at all.

"You, of course. Dolly's special, but she's the got another job, tonight." He stated, and stepped off the stump to look at the both of them, "She said you'd be staying. She's always right. Have to admit, that still wigs me out, a little. But she is always right."

Valai frowned, "Aha... So... Uh... You know both our names."

"And aren't they lovely? The darling Lady Valai, and the gorgeous Miss Dolly." He flirted, without hearing what she was asking.

Dolly stamped a foot, "Why does she get `lady', and I only get `miss'?"

"Because she has royal blood? And your father was a trader?" The man dug himself a permanent hole.

The two domba exchanged a tired and determined look, interlinked arms, and immediately decided to be elsewhere. Cute or not, there was a limit to sticking your face into an asshole's gas cloud.

They ignored his fast questions and confused begging for answers. They didn't live long enough to waste time on dicks.

Dolly nuzzled her shoulder briefly, "I don't tell you enough, do I?"

"Tell me what?" Valai looked around for some entertainment that wouldn't have the two of them dragged into getting the preparations together for the bonfire. She might be wanting to join these people, but she also wanted to laze after all the headspace stuff from this morning.

Her friend squeezed her arm, "That I... You know."

"I love you, too." Valai said, still distracted. She could see a few places beginning to prep for food, but it was all gross and meat. Nothing for a herbivore, at all. Maybe that would come later, so it wouldn't wilt.

Her stomach tightened and rumbled, reminding her that the lord's manor might have thrust a whole huge library on her, but they hadn't given her so much as a snack, and she'd run to the roof straight from bed. She hadn't eaten at all.

"You... L-love me?" Dolly's voice shook, sounding even more emotional than usual.

Valai rolled her eyes, and opted to sit down by the side of a fence, where more than just one cluster of sunflowers were growing. She plucked one of the grassy-coloured branches lightly, and tossed it into her mouth. "As a friend. Mmm... Family? We're practically sisters, Dolly. Of course I love you."

The other sheepgirl looked beyond nervous as she sat down next to her. Staring at the ground. Too scared to look at Valai, and oddly too nervous to look at the drifters who were about to become their neighbours.

"Something's up." Valai glowered, "Did you already sleep with the jerkface? Is that what this is? If you beat me to losing it, I... I'll mind, but that's just my own insecurities. You should be happy."

Dolly went even whiter, "What...? Um, no. That's not it... It's... Uhm... Something they want me to do? I... I don't want to. I don't want this."

"Who's bullying my sister?" Valai bleated angrily.

The sheep shook her head, and held up a small tin flask, "Um... For courage...? I... I need a minute."

"Then I'm not the one needing a drink." Valai took it, and swallowed a mouthful of what tasted like extremely stale mead.

As it sank down her throat, her tongue went dry, and felt like it was swollen or numb. She blinked twice in confusion, and mumbled incoherently, "Vwaredyagitdis?"

The darkness punched her in the face.

---

Valai's nose twitched as she started to wake up. One nostril felt all blocked up, like she was about to snort a dried bloody chunk.

She opened her eyes, and immediately let out a terrified blood curdling screech, as fear that she had never known overwhelmed every single one of her senses.

The smoke alone could send any domba into a blind panic. It stung her eyes, burned her bloodied nose, and had her wheezing as she tried to control her breathing so she didn't end up coughing.

It wasn't thick, but it was swirling all around her.

She was on her knees, upright, and tied to a wooden pole that went through a wooden platform. A platform that was flickering with a light from below as the smoke's source poured through the gaps, and around all of the edges.

She bleated out a prayer to any god that might be listening, and pulled desperately at her wrists. She couldn't even stand up from the position, thunking the back of her head into the pole was about the limit of her movement.

As the panic went from overwhelming her, to something involving a little less flight, but still not much fight, she became aware that she wasn't the only one on this platform of doom.

There was someone standing there in front of her nervously, by a ladder, holding a knife.

Dolly looked at her, with tears in her eyes, "I-I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I-I'm sorry."

Even as Dolly continued to whisper out her endless apology, Valai's attention drifted behind her, to where the drifters, the humans, were gathered. The strangers who had promised her escape were somewhere beyond the smoke, chanting softly in a language that she didn't know.

It only took a few moments for her to piece together blindly that it was a prayer of some kind to their dark god, and that she... She was to be a sacrifice to Tra'arsk.

Dolly shuffled a step closer, the hand holding the knife shaking in fear of what she was about to do.

Valai squeezed her eyes shut, praying it was all just a nightmare.

---

"I think we'll skip that part."

Valai bleated in terror, and looked around wildly. She wasn't anywhere near the fire, and couldn't even see a fire, anymore. The domba breathed a very heavy sigh of relief, before screwing up her face in confusion.

She looked around for the source of the voice, "What... Part?"

She didn't just fail to see anyone who might be speaking, she also noticed that there was some kind of sourceless music. Something that sounded like it needed a whole stringed orchestra, vibrating and singing on the wind.

"The dead part. It gets messy, right before." The voice spoke into her ear, and she shivered and looked down as two vines sprang up out of the dirt and wrapped themselves around her ankles. "Forget about that... This part? This part is far more... Interesting."

Valai's throat bobbled as she gave a terrified swallow, "I... I'm... Dead?"

"No, yes, no. But most definitely yes." The voice replied with a tired and irritated tone, "It's... More complicated, and far too difficult for you to really understand. So why don't we throw aside the hard questions, and focus on the easy ones, precious?"

She winced, "Uhm... Like... Who are you? And... And... Where are you?"

"By the graces." The woman muttered in irritation, "You think those are easy questions? There are lifetimes spent trying to answer each of those, and the mortals have never got even close to encompassing the truth... But I suppose... You could call me... Bella. Yes, Bellona. I don't mind that name."

Valai gave an involuntary shudder, and looked anxiously down at the two vines that had crept high enough to be wrapped around her knees. "And those are yours, Lady Bellona?"

"I am no lady." The voice went instantly sour, "I serve no emperor, and have made many bow their knee to me! I have no title, for none would be worthy of my -"

"Sorry!" Valai bleated quickly, hoping a show of genuine emotion would undercut whatever tantrum was brewing. The vines around her legs noticeably loosened, and her eyes spotted one or two tiny thorns receding.

She did not want thorns to go with the vines, that seemed to still be crawling up towards a very private place.

Soft lips pressed into the black curls on one of her ears, and the invisible friend chuckled softly, "Adorable. Which is why I chose you, afterall. They tried to sacrifice you. To earn a divine favour... So how's this for irony? I'll give you one. A wish. Any wish that you want."

"Ch-chose me? D-divine... W-wish?" Valai felt her stomach flip nervously, as another vine curled around her waist from behind.

"There's a price, of course. Even one as naive as you should know that everything comes with a price."

She winced, "Always."

"Oh, it isn't too much, precious. It is what you hoped for tonight, instead of that voidscape." Bellona gave a small laugh, "I would simply like... To get to know you. On a physical level, if we can generously call what is happening here and now, physical."

"Not... Physical?"

Two vines twisted loosely around her wrists. Not squeezing, but gently encouraging her to lean backwards. Silently making it plain that they wanted her to lie down, and that it was her choice to do it. She ignored the suggestion.

She frowned, and cocked her head, looking around at the garden. "Is this... Your garden, Miss Bellona?"

"No... No... That would be too simple. Sorry, precious. This garden... Everything that you see... Is me. Pieces of me. I am as much the flower, as the bee buzzing above it. The bee making love to the pollen. The vines caressing you, holding you. Asking to make love to you."

Her skin was too dark to flush visibly, but she certainly still felt it.