Down the Rabbit Hole
Fragrant pine and rich earth floated on a breeze under her nose causing an instinctual inhale before a violent sneeze. Once dangling lazily, her arms and legs clung desperately to the tree branch she laid upon to stop the sudden jerk from pushing her off. It was a great effort for her not to squeeze the heart in her hands and waste the blood that was still inside. Hearts always had such a satisfying squish, like a delicious stressball, but once pressed they were spent.
When the breeze settled the vampiress relaxed her body, stretching across the thick length of pine lazily once again. Dressed in white linen shorts and matching bralette the pale skinned, pale haired vampiress looked like a heap of snow against the evergreen. It was long past the time for snow though and even as her green eyes blended with the foliage she stood out like a sore thumb. What she lacked in camouflage and quiet she made up for with speed and prowess when it came to hunting however. Evidence proven by the meal she was near to triumphantly enjoying.
As her knees pressed against the wood to hold her in place one arm moved to act as a pillow for her head while the other delicately held onto the dripping heart like an apple. With her eyes closed she focused her attention on the feeling of it in her hand for a moment. Blood dripped along her fingers slowly coagulating and giving a slimy feeling to the rubbery shell of muscle that once pumped it. Bringing it to her nose she inhaled the familiar metallic odor she loved and brought her teeth around it for a bite. Most of the warmth had left the heart, but it was still fresh enough that it hadn't lost its flavor.
All blood had a similar taste to her, but the small unique notes that were there to be discovered kept each bite interesting. This evening's heart had come from large deer and had those gamey notes that are often indicative of wild animals. Animals had the kind of diet a human could never be satisfied with that made up the earthy notes to its blood. Animals, she found, had better tasting blood than most humans these days for a number of reasons. Especially because humans often filled themselves with so much poison and disease it was hard to find any blood that wasn't tainted with something off putting. Not animals though, the sick are easy to spot and the healthy are filled with little more than joy, fear and raging hormones.
When the last bites of the heart were finished the vampiress licked her fingers whole and, since no one was around, also licked her palms and wrist and wiped mouth clean with it like a cat. An owl that lived in the tree where she sat came to perch next to her just as she was sitting up. Deep in the woods as they were the pines blotted out most of the moon and star's light. It was just her and the owl with any sort of clear sight. Perhaps some other critters too, but who cared about snakes and bugs? Perching on a limb side by side the two of them watched the creatures moving below together. Details were hidden by darkness and reduced everything to shadows even with their enhanced night vision. She thought of Archon who often saw things this way and started to miss him.
A flash of movement struck downward from beside her and as she turned to look the owl was already back perching beside her with a mouse halfway to it's death in its mouth. Smiling supportively over his victory her head bowed a slight nod at her feathered companion. It was a good night for the both of them. Times like these required a toast or ten. Rooting her freshly licked cleaned fingers between her breast's cleavage, from within it's well hidden spot a silver flask was produced. Shaped like a small tube with a twist cap the little metal thing held only a few shots of white tequila, but it was nice to have handy.
"May we never know hunger in this grand forest forever overflowing with prey! What would we do without it? TO THE FOREST!"
Tequila meet her lips, which were more than happy to receive it, but before she could finish her drink a great rumbling vibrated all about her. As the flask fell out of her hand Jauk too fell and unable to find a graspable branch on the way down she fell the ten stories she'd climbed and hit the ground hard. "Earthquake", she stated to herself and looked around for a safe place to stand while it passed. No place near seemed to be better than where she stood even as large 'widow maker' branches fell around her and trees split at the truck, tumbling into other trees. With her two feet spread and bracing, her arms moved between covering her head to balancing herself. The noise was deafening, like a massive roar of wind and the great crunching of trees crumbling to the ground.
Blood poured from her sensitive ears and from the head wounds she'd sustained, which always bled more heavily than other wounds. Bits of debris matted to her stickied skin and covered her eyes for a moment as she moved away from a domino of falling trees beside her. Before she could have a chance to wipe them clear a branch the size of a telephone pole fell onto her back and brought her low, teeth biting into dirt. Unable to see or move more than swing her arms and wiggle her legs the vampiress thought to start digging in the hopes of being able to free herself. Even with all the strength of all her power it took what seemed like an eternity to dig herself out from under the massive weight. All the while she felt a fear she'd not known in a hundreds of years, any of these trees could easily crush her to her true and eternal death and they just kept falling.
Rising again took tremendous effort, it was clear her ribs where shattered and even as her spine was healing it felt ready to give again with the slightest wrong move. Carefully as she surveyed her surroundings she finally saw it. Nothing about it made any sense and yet it was coming at her all the same daring her to stay standing there questioning it. A mouth of darkness was the only way she could comprehend it, but with no lips or teeth or even a form, just a black hole pulling the land and sky into itself. Amazing and terrifying to behold with her eyes everything it came near it reduced to nothing but dark matter and as it neared to just a few yards from her she could feel it too. Anger, desperation, but most of all hunger and it wasn't just coming for her, it was calling to her. From somewhere deep within herself Jauk felt it's pull in every cell and fiber like a magnet. Though staring straight into it and knowing what it would do she could not turn away. Instead her arms reached out and even her hair pulled loose from it's ponytail and stretched towards it. The ground gave way before her and fell into the jaws of this beast, disappearing into an abyss she couldn't see the bottom of and then she was too. Falling towards it felt like the greatest satisfaction she'd ever known and a shiver shook her whole form as her eyes rolled into her head. No instincts of survival came to her, no desire to save herself, only the want to surrender and be consumed. When her toes began to burn up was when the dream like pleasure turned to sudden torment. Wild eyed with panic she looked down as the dark began to swallow her like through a thousand grinding gears she couldn't see and then just as suddenly she was pulled away.
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