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Part II
Chapter 1:
Kritzia Returns
Kritzia awoke in the early evening with more thoughts of the past. One cannot imagine how difficult it was to live one life, knowing that you had another, oh so long ago.
Kritzia sat up, looking around. She noticed the rest of her hoard, in the cave, sleeping on the ground or upon boulders near the glowing embers of what was once a grand fire from the night before. How had she managed to create this “empire” of minions in a hole in the ground?
She had been cursed now, these last fifteen years; bitten by the beast, and then cast away from her village and her first love with nothing but an old cloak, a small basket of bread, and a pouch of water.
It was in the hills where she learned to survive, before the change, before the hunger overcame her. Her first feeding was a wild rabbit, and then upgraded to a boar, then a cow. It wasn’t enough. She needed more.
Her first human kill was a young boy. He was easily taken and without as much as a yelp, it was done. From then on her tastes developed. She began to not only feed on humans, but their essences as well. She could taste their fears, their hopes and their dreams. Sometimes, she found it amusing, or even arousing. Other times, she found it horrifying.
Often, she thought of what her first love would have tasted like, or perhaps her own father; the one who cast her away.
If her dreams and flash backs were any indication of the future, she might get her chance to find out.
***
Marcus sat at a small wooden table, barely big enough for two, across from an elderly woman. Margaretta, a once beautiful woman, sat knitting by candlelight; listening to Marcus and his story about his past, and his nightmares from it. Margaretta listened intently, occasionally nodding her head.
She finally stopped Marcus in mid sentence. “Do you know what this means”, she asked?
“Huh?” Marcus replied wide-eyed.
“This means you will be seeing her again.”
“But she’s dead. Isn’t she?”
“No, Marcus. I believe you will be running into her, and sooner than you think.”
Margaretta resumed her knitting.
***
Kritzia could feel her heart pounding, as it usually does before the hunt. Her minions were emerging from the caves ready to feast. Kritzia was the first to shed her robes and make the transformation.
“Tonight we hunt on the eastern side of the mountain”, she said right before the change.
As she finished her metamorphosis, Kritzia ran off over the ridge toward her next meal with her pack in tow. She was headed for the village of Krodasch unaware of what would be waiting for her.
***
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