[Flashback] The last day of freedom (Solo)

[Iskessah]

44 Summer, 444 Ssrasshiskessah stirred from her doze. She had found just the perfect rock along the trail of some beast, a rock which happened to rest in a place where the sun's light found a gap in the trees. The feeling of the sun on her skin was exquisite, and she couldn't help drifting off now and then. But something had woken her. She heard a small shuffling sound, and sensed the heat of a living creature approaching her rock. Whatever it was had not noticed her yet, so she risked lifting her head to get a better look. It was a young boar, not quite a piglet, but not old enough to be an adult either. It was a bit on the small side for a boar (Iskessah was unaware that animals tended to be smaller outside Talderea), but still large enough to make quite a filling meal. Her tongue flicked out to taste the air (it seemed that the creature was male) as she slowly slithered down from the rock. She wondered how close she could get before the boar noticed her presence. Her belly touched the soft dirt of the forest floor. She moved closer to the boar, mindful of the potential danger of its tusks and hooves. She was still a couple feet away when the beast finally noticed her presence. In stead of slithering closer, she raised her head and coiled her body, to give herself space to strike. The boar turned toward her and scuffed the ground with its hoof, letting out grunts that she suspected were supposed to be threatening. She wanted to laugh. What was it with males and their desperate need to prove their strength? If they actually had any, maybe they would not feel compelled to justify their right to exist (or so her mother had often said). Perhaps a more experienced or intelligent beast would recognize a Dhani preparing to strike, but this was clearly neither of those things. Iskessah hissed softly, a taunt. She waited with contempt as the foolish beast began his charge.

[Iskessah]

The moment the boar was within reach, Iskessah lashed out and sank her fangs into its leg. Malicious glee filled her as she felt the poison drain into the creature, tempered only by the fact that she had failed to hit a major artery. The poison would kill him regardless, but she was a bit disappointed in herself that even with her obvious superiorities, she had failed to make the perfect kill. The boar squealed in pain, providing a pleasant distraction from her dark musings. Too late, it tried to flee, perhaps back to others of its kind. But the poison made it slow and weak, and she slithered behind it at her leisure. Her tongue flicked the air, and she tasted the boar's fear and sweat. After a few chimes, she became impatient with how slowly the thing was dying, so she bit at its ankles again, and again. At long last, the panting, dying boar lost the strength to stand, and flopped over against a tree, accepting its death. Oh no, that wouldn't do. There was still so much pain to inflict. Would Siku ever let a potential meal die peacefully? Iskessah didn't think so. Stretching her body out to its full length, she began shifting into her Dhani form. She felt herself grow larger, more powerful. There was a tickling sensation as her arms separated from her torso, which itself had pulled its scales into smooth, soft skin. More flesh filled out the parts of her that now appeared human, and then the transformation was complete.

[Iskessah]

Now, what pain should she inflict first? Well, she had grown these arms, so she might as well use them. She grabbed onto one of the things' hind legs and snapped it in two, hearing the bone crunch. But she frowned; it sounded like that had been a fairly clean break. So she ground the broken ends of the bone together, hoping to get a few bone shards broken off to cause extra pain, or at least tear up the muscles. She was starting to wish she'd thought of this before she bit the boar so many times it couldn't stand. It made torturing it much less interesting. Still, it was hard not to be pleased at the unimaginable suffering it was going through as she snapped to rest of its legs, sometimes in several places. She may have messed up on the best way to get fear (to get really good fear, you needed your target to have a hope of survival), but there was definitely going to be a lot of pain before the boar was allowed to die. When she couldn't think of any more bones she could break without killing it, she sat back and observed her work. The boar was still alive, panting heavily, uttering weak squeals of pain with what was left of its strength. It wasn't enough. There was more violence she could inflict. With that thought, she raised her tail, and smashed the heaving rattle on the end right into the middle of the boar's body. Blood and ooze gushed from its mouth as its partially liquefied internal organs were crushed. A wild pleasure gripped her as she bludgeoned the creature again and again, each cry of pain bringing joy to her ears. She cried out Siku's name in the snake's tongue, the frenzy of violence gripping her. Finally, the boar stopped moving. Iskessah lazily withdrew her tail and gazed contentedly at the wretched mess of flesh and bones that lay on the forest floor. It was still all in one piece, more or less, which was the whole point, as it made things easier to eat. As much as she enjoyed the killing, she was hungry, and this boar looked like it could last her for a long time. She unhinged her jaw, and began the lengthy process of consuming her prey. As she pulled her mouth slowly over the carcass, she realized that she had wasted all the blood she had spilled. She would have to figure out how to keep the liquids in the sack when she tortured her prey in the future, or else so much of the tasty bits would feed the earth instead of her. The boar, being of Talderan size, was a challenge to fit her jaws around, but the beating and breaking she had done to it made it go down considerably easier. Still, the bulge of the massive meat sack stretched her throat to its limit as it crawled down. This was quite possibly the largest meal she had ever consumed. She tried to slither onward a bit, but the boar was so heavy, it kept her pinned where she was. She didn't think should could shift to her slightly smaller snake form without this meal splitting her open... Ever the optimist, Iskessah decided that she would just have to rest here until she had digested enough. She curled her coils into a comfortable position, and resumed her recent doze, feeling considerably more satisfied than she had that morning.

[Iskessah]

She was awoken by the unnatural sound of footsteps approaching. It was no Talderan beast, for even those giants did not tread so heavily. She lazily lifted her head, flicking her tongue. Strange, she did not recognize the flavor. She could not tell if they were prey or danger. She waited for the to get close enough that she could sense their heat signatures, and realized that the creatures were really quite small. She tried to slither toward one of them, intending to make a game out of one of the strange creatures before killing them, but she found herself held back by the boar still weighing heavily in her stomach. Ah well, the strange creatures were lucky, whatever they were. The creatures stopped just outside her range of vision. There were four of them, and they seemed to have surrounded her. Odd. What could they be up to? She felt a tiny prick in her side, and she whipped her head in that direction. Did it come from the creatures? Was that supposed to hurt? She hissed, and rattled her tail, knowing that no sane creature would be stupid enough to come near her when it knew she was angry. She felt another pinprick from the other direction, and she turned instantly and snapped her jaws in that direction. Unfortunately, she still could not move, and it looked like these strange beings were either too ignorant or too confident to fall for her empty threats. She was beginning to feel threatened, and started to regurgitate her hard-won meal so that she would be free to act. But before she could do so, a third dart pricked her flesh. She was beginning to lose consciousness, though she couldn't understand why. As her movements became more sluggish, the strange creatures approached. They walked on two legs, like adult Dhani in their third form, but these where not Dhani. Her last thought before consciousness slipped was to wonder what in Siku's name was going on... She slipped in and out of consciousness for she didn't know how long. She could tell that she was getting farther and farther from home, and she was surrounded by a number of two-legged and four-legged beasts. She once woke up enough to try to attack the prey surrounding her, but she found herself surrounded by a contraption made of rather sturdy wood. Before she could wreak any havoc at all, always there were more pinpricks, putting her back to sleep. She was never awake long enough to plot her escape, and as her home faded away behind her, she could only wonder what her future held now.

[Creeper]

Skills Detection: 1 Stealth: 1 Climbing: 1 Unarmed Combat: 1 Torture: 1 Observation: 1 Hunting: 1   Lores Detecting the Taste of a Male Boar The Danger of Letting Your Guard Down with a Full Belly   Other A nice simple thread, not a lot to be rewarded but is good for character development and progression. I'm sure Caiyha is thrilled at the torturing