Bearclaw Valley [m] go back to sleep

Mature Content Warning

This thread has been marked as mature. By reading and/or participating in this thread, you acknowledge that you are of age or have permission from your parents to do so.

The participants have indicated the following reason(s) for this warning: gore, animal death, body horror, general fuckedupness and delulu

wake up, athalia.
the girl's eyes snap open to see burning amber, whisked up in a chain of smoke tendrils. it was so late. what did mother want now?
she pads outside to feel the coolness of the air, the grass crunching beneath her feet. it feels as though there are twice as many stars as there normally are. mother is gentle, kind; she kisses the top of athalia's head and leads her out into the shade of the mountaintops.
i have brought you here because you have a job to do, mother says. you do not want to disappoint me again, do you?
athalia's lip trembles. no.
good.
there is a rabbit emerging from a nest a few yards ahead, and the beargirl's blurry gaze focuses hard on the lumpy shadow as it hops further from safety and closer to her. a smile is etched onto the face of mother with long, spiny teeth poking from betwixt her jaws. don't you want to know what a beating heart looks like?
the pupils dilate. yes.
though unsteady, athalia lumbers in a mad dash just quick enough to seize it by the foot; its loud howl of panic fills the crooning silence. athalia's jaws crush down on bone, and it breaks with a loud, satisfying sound. but the rabbit is still alive, very much so.
slowly, athalia begins to slice down the middle of the now immobilized creature. a visceral scene of scarlet now coats the ground. she laps at the fat and muscle and bone, but not to eat — to learn, to taste. everything remains intact beyond the unnaturally clean slice. she can see the large, pulsating muscle, she watches as the lungs fill and deflate; and she especially notices when it slogs from an erratic, deranged high-pulse to a devastating slowness.
by the time the rabbit is dead, mother is gone, and now she is left alone with what she has done.