Rayen had rather quickly deteriorated into bone and flesh. The famine had hit everyone hard though the chocolate coated female had been certain she would straggle her way through the hard times ahead. Alas, it was not meant to be.
Instead a quiet night found Rayen shivering for warmth outside her den, though it was June, and her stomach clenching with painful hunger. She would not last until the morning.
By the time the sun had come up, Rayen's body was stiff and cold with rigor mortis and her heartbeat had stilled. She had died with her honey eyes open, peering upwards into the heavens and the tiniest smile on her face.
the famine had claimed many, and this time, starvation claimed one of caiaphas' own.
it had been easy to consume the straggler; his face she did not know, though she came to know the taste of his flesh. he had been meat, not comrade. his bones had been committed to the same fate as any other prey's, and while she did not develop a taste for her kin, he had filled her belly and given her another day in which to claw life from.
but for rayen, there was not another day.
the siren queen inspected her solemnly, her stomach turned. a sour expression poisoned her dark countenance. this was a comrade -- a friend -- and the only solace caiaphas drew forth from rayen's death was the appearance it seemed she had not suffered. sick to her stomach the wretch paced, trepidation seizing her. she was hungry -- she was so hungry -- but for the first time in her life, the snake wrestled with her own conscience.
A crewmate had succumbed to hunger. It riled her up to know that one of her mates had died, rather than some unfortunate loner with no one to miss their loss. But it couldn't be helped. She had fallen.
Maude approached the Cap'n and the corpse tensely, seeing the confliction on Caiaphas' face. She hadn't known Rayen for very long, or very well, but she decided that Rayen was a stand-up guy...girl.. Caiaphas' relationship with Rayen however...that was different. No wonder that the Cap'n took a while to take a bite.
Maude lingered near the corpse, watching Caiaphas to see if she would take part in the meal. Maude had no qualms against eating her crewmate, especially in dark times such as this, but she would never overstep her boundaries as a lackey. If Caiaphas wanted a bite, she would go first. If not, Maude would have the carcass - for it was no longer the body of a crewmate now - for herself.
it took caiaphas a moment to rally up the courage to lower her head; seeing maude approach and stand alongside her seemed to restore the siren queen's usual pragmatism about food; and particularly, wasted food. without much in the way of pausing she swallowed any trepidation she had and clasped rayen's stiff haunch. the meat was cold, and stiff -- and at first her expression seemed warped and wrinkled as if eating something disgusting. two or three bites in and the flavor hit her tongue; taut but rich notes of salt and blood awakened her disquiet hunger and before long she was simply a wolf engorging on a lucky meal.
dig in! i'll be rolling in the Cannibalism thread for prion diseases if u want to too!
It wasn't long before her Cap'n broke, finally clasping onto Rayen's (or what was once Rayen) haunch and beginning to feed. Maude circled around the coywolf, maneuvering herself towards Rayen's front leg, tearing into the shoulder, beginning to open up the cadaver. In such lean times, she didn't immediately turn towards the soft gut for nutrients, knowing that there was energy stored within Rayen's lean muscles, especially in her limbs. She ate heartily, forgetting that this was once her crewmate, only focusing on the fact that this was meat.
caiaphas stopped, having ate her fill. maude fell along the corpse, eating without trepidation. if anything, the grisly act cemented caiaphas' conviction this was okay -- though she did feel inwardly a slight pang of grief that rayen was gone. the wolf had done saltwinter one last boon by providing them with her body for meat -- and for that, caiaphas was grateful.
last post from me!
She ate her fill, substantially more than Caiaphas, perhaps thanks to her familiarity with gorging in lean times, or her lack of reluctance to eat wolf flesh. As Caiaphas left, she tore one last strip of flesh from Formerly-Rayen's body, scarfing it down quickly as the Cap'n left. There was still quite a bit of her left, but the wench was full. Maude knew that leaving her here was just a waste of good meat, especially if the crabs got to her. She dragged the carcass away to a safer place, where Formerly-Rayen wouldn't be disturbed, and she, or another crewmate, could gorge on one of their own.