- Character Profile
- Profile
The forest was quiet. So… so… quiet.
In the hazy light of dusks onset, no birds came to flitter about the branches, no foxes squealed in the undergrowth, no snakes nor bats nor rabbits came to enjoy the twilight as they would have done throughout their entire existence. Standing there with bent legs, a doe with wild-eyes kept her bow-legged stance as carefully as she could, daring not to stir not a single leaf as her cloven hooves took a tentative step… nothing came. If animals were blessed with the ability to sigh in relief she would have done as much in that darkening moment, teetering perilously forward with another gentle tread. And nothing came. Maybe, amidst the smoke of the evening mist, there was nothing to fear in the yawning darkness between the trees, maybe that vague feeling of danger every one of those poor beings felt were but a trick of the mind, a rouse; and as she raised a tilted head to spy an owl hidden, pressed against the crook of a tree in absolute quiet, she dared to let the moment pass her without any show of prior carefulless--
The snapping of a twig was like a gunshot.
Suddenly filled with panic the doe started forward with a bleat, only to find the world spinning around her as she came crashing to the ground. Brown eyes swept backwards, horror, the entire back half of her body was missing and the spilling of her innards came with such delayed pain that she suddenly could not stop her catawailing-- but even that was silenced in an instance as great jaws crushed her into nothingness and swallowed the second half down greedily. All that remained was the dark puddle of blood… and, in its endless hunger, the patch was devoured as the jaws bit at the earth until only a few scattered drops remained and mud lined its yellowing fangs.
And the beast was gluttony given form. A huge, black and red being that crawled upon its belly, carving a great trench into the earth wherever it so roamed; so slow in its movements that one would not think it would be capable of any real speed. However, when the owl shimmied but a touch to the side it took less than a second for those terrible jaws to simply cleave the tree in two, chewing ravenously upon the wood and the rot like a rabid dog. Shards fell from on high, it came down from two legs back onto its front, and wistfully watched the erratic bird climb into the sky… a miss. But there would be more. It shook its flabby hide free of branches and twigs and foliage and once again began to drag itself forth with splayed front claws digging deep into the ground, waiting for something, anything to catch its ever swivelling eyes.
It was the mist, the cool air against its burning hide, the sway of its tall spikes, the crumbling of teeth falling and regrowing and falling once again. And it had one thing on its mind.
Consume.

