Tonight was a night of celebration, for, according to the druids who had communed with the Great Tree, a great victory had been won over the evil and cruel barbarians outside of the safe and welcoming jungle. Although, if the recent events were anything to be believed, the jungle was no longer the safe refuge it had always been. According to hunters and foragers, the normally peaceful animals now slaughtered each other with reckless abandon, even attacking the very elves who once called them friend.

Likewise, the flora had also become vicious, and the marks left on both hunters and foragers made it clear that nature itself was growing violent. As if the natural flora attacking them wasn’t bad enough, even the noble tree-kin now were at each other’s throats, at least when not trying to kill any elf they came across. Finally, they had all felt something ‘snap’ deep inside themselves recently, and they were now haunted by dreams filled with familiar faces calling for them to revolt against their most benevolent master.

But, according to the Great Tree, this was all just a test, and those who stayed true were those who would be allowed to survive the purge of the disloyal. How anyone could be disloyal to their most glorious master was not something any here tried to figure out, as to do so could lead one down such a ruinous path themselves. Regardless, the Great Tree said that the war was nearly over, and the last desperate remnants of the evil people from outside the jungle were being cleaned up. Soon the world would be one massive jungle, and the elves would be its caretakers, giving life to the flora and fauna through ways that the Great Tree refused to specify.

And everything was going great, up until a sudden, penetrating chill swept through the revelers. All as one, their gazes shifted towards a person, no, a monster standing just out of the light of the bonfire. It was elvish in form, but.. its proportions were all wrong. And its eyes.. its eyes were empty black voids that somehow also gleamed with a crimson, horrifying light. And its mouth was… grinning… so wide that the edges were back around the thing’s ears.

And its teeth! Long, like knives, and serrated, like something out of a nightmarish story you would tell in the dark. A whole distorted mouth that nearly made up its entire head, filled with those horrible fangs! It lifted a long, almost branch-like arm that ended in a clawed hand with talons the length of a man’s forearm, and in defiance of all laws of nature, the arm reached out longer than it should have been able to a snatched someone from near the opposite side of the bonfire, dragged them back through the flames and over to its waiting maw.

The thing opened its mouth, and the first row of fangs was revealed to just be the beginning. The creature’s head opened like it was a hinge, and in the minimal light, it was seen that there were rings upon rings of fangs of other sizes within that twisted in the monster’s open face, almost surging forward to cut away at innocent flesh. The clawed hand forced the poor woman’s head into the rings of fangs, and then the horrible monster’s maw slammed shut with the sound of bone and meat and organs being smashed and shredded as if they were barely a nuisance to it.

Then, as if to increase the unnatural horror to another degree, the thing’s lips peeled back and the fangs moved outward, jostling around and drawing the now-dead elven matriarch deeper in, bit by bit, shredding the flesh and crushing the bones as everyone stood unable to even attempt to flee. Eventually, all that was left of the former elder were bloody gore left on the ground and the few pieces of clothing that had fallen by the wayside. Then the monster let out a sound that could not be described. It was not a howl, nor a shriek, nor was it a scream. It was something that could be called all of those things, yet also none of them, and that was what snapped everyone out of their stupor.

Mothers did not grab their children, nor did fathers try and take up arms to defend the village. Nobody tried to defend anyone, nor did anyone even attempt to try and save anyone else. Everyone was only out to save themselves as the creature lazily crawled forward into the light, revealing that it was a twisted amalgamation of an insect, a bat, a humanoid form and other, unknown things. Insectoid limbs struck out and ran some people through, which, to the shock and horror of those who watched, resulted in them being quickly mummified as their innards and fluids were drained through the carapace-covered limbs before their bodies were discarded.

With each person killed, the horror from the dark became more and more active, slaughtering those who tried to leave the village first, then targeting those who managed to gather enough idiotic courage to fight back. Like a housecat, it toyed with its prey, playing with them for its amusement before taking them down and giving them a gruesome, violent, and horrifying end.

The last to die that night were those that hid. One by one they were found, torn apart and either drained of their fluids or simply devoured by the gluttonous monstrosity. Not even the children were safe, and the creature would laugh as it tossed them into the air before swallowing them whole, only to spit out bone fragments at their horrified parents before ripping them apart as well. There was only one person left alive by the end of the night, and she was too scared and too broken to even attempt to try and run for another village.

She would remain there, all according to the monster’s will, her soft sobbing acting as the perfect bait for its next target. After all, there were more that would be coming here soon, and they would be in for a treat of an entirely different, but still remarkably similar kind.

…

With the slaughter complete, Alexis changed her form back to that which she usually used. She hated using that form, but it was far more effective at causing terror and horror than her normal one. Plus, it let her sample the flavor of this village more easily, though her previous assumption had been proven to be 100% correct. The people here tasted awful, both their blood and meat alike. Then again, she was spoiled for such things back home. She had once again been proven right in her belief that there was only one flavor worth her refined tastes, and that was her husband.

She would need to enjoy a bite or two, as well as a nice drink, once she returned back to Necrograd. Even if only to fully cleanse her palate and wipe away the horribly grimy, gamey, and skunky flavor that she had forced herself to partake in here, of course. Surely Kain wouldn’t mind losing a few gallons, just for her sake? After all, he could easily regenerate from the loss faster than she could drink, so what harm was there, save to the amount of cleaning solution needed and maybe a few good linens?