Upon her first awakening, Nadya had awoken to the overwhelming scent of ash and smoke. Upon the second, all she could smell was blood and the sickly sweet smell of death.
Questions raced through her mind, but the synapses were too slow to fire and she had difficulty processing what was unfolding around her. Had it been another dream? Was she safe now?
The scent of blood only grew stronger.
Nadya came to her senses slowly, and then all at once.
It was not just the scent of blood that had grown overwhelming, but also the taste. She coughed, realizing that the blood and gore had blocked her nostrils and was impeding her airways. The movement caused her to gag at something in her mouth. She fought the impulse to swallow and spit the offending item onto the blood-soaked earth before her. It was only then that the pieces began to click together. A large piece of unquestionably equine flesh lay upon the ground before her. It was then that she registered the screaming - an unpleasant, high pitched screaming that seemed to grow louder with each passing moment.
She turned to find the body of a dead horse blocking her path. The shape was vaguely familiar to her, but that was not what concerned Nadya. It was the others watching her with fear and disgust in their eyes...and they seemed to be approaching her kill. Her kill? she thought, the confusion mounting. A growl erupted from her throat, unable to be contained as others carefully stepped closer. The screaming continued, leading Nadya to more closely examine the body at her feet. It was Cecila. The one who had saved her. She had been butchered.
Nadya was the butcher.
Hilde. You've just made her an orphan.
Somewhere, Nadya felt revulsion in the pit of her stomach. The monster cast off the feeling immediately, replacing it with a sense of euphoria in light of the bloodbath. Involuntarily, she licked her blood-soaked lips. The taste of viscous fluid sent shockwaves through her system and somewhere, something in her mind demanded more.
What have I done? Nayda thought to herself, consumed in her own angst. There was another voice, then. A stronger voice, pushing away the feelings and the consciousness of what was left of Nadya's superego. You have done nothing but survive. They are weak. You are strong. You must feed. NOW. Control was slipping. Another growl rumbled from deep in her chest, shaking her ribcage.
Nadya could see Hilde cowering behind Orleans just beyond the treeline. (Easy prey, the monster encouraged.) Carter stood off to the left with a large paint mare at his right flank. The others lingered just out of sight, but their scent was overwhelming. The blue mare shook violently as she fought the monster that had taken residence within her for control. "Ruuuun," she attempted to hiss between clenched teeth, but she could not be certain if she managed to produce any sort of sound the others would be able to hear.
It was then that many things happened all at once. Hilde attempted to leap forward, towards the body of her disemboweled mother. Orleans stepped in front of Hilde to cut off her progress. Carter assumed a defensive stance in front of the two vulnerable members of his herd.
…and Nadya lost all control against the monster. She hissed and stepped over the body of her once-friend, defending it against her former herd mates. Her conscious can see what was happening, but was no longer in control of her body. The impulse to kill - to feed - was overwhelming.
Inside, she was screaming at them all to run - for Orleans and Hilde to get as far from her as possible - for Carter to take the herd and flee this terrible place. But only monstrous sounds escaped bloodstained lips.
As if a switch was flipped, everything changed in an instant.
She was running and then her teeth were tearing into flesh. She was stripping flesh from bone and crushing ribs beneath her hooves. The paint mare soon lie prone next to Cecila's body. It wasn't a difficult battle, she had been conquered quickly. Carter limped away and regrouped before turning to face her once more. Nadya wasted no time in sinking her teeth into any flesh she could reach. There was no fighting fair with a monster. They struggled, but Nadya did not feel his blows.
The battle ended when she managed to get her teeth around his windpipe, biting down hard and exposing the thin flesh to air - leaving the stallion gasping and pulling the necessary oxygen through a hole in his neck rather than his nostrils. Nadya left him prone on the ground and turned in pursuit of the others. She managed to rake her teeth across Orleans's back and pulled a chunk from Hilde's mane but they escaped through thick trees. Frustrated, the monster returned to her kills - finally landing the killing blow on the large bay stallion by crushing his skull under her hooves.
What a glorious feast it was.
She ate to the point of gluttony before retreating to the ruined, burned-out forest. She could smell the others approaching, and abandoned the bodies. Her surviving consciousness was in turmoil. She had slaughtered her friend, killed two others, attacked the survivors - what had she become? The rational thoughts were fleeting, but excruciating. They ripped through her like lightning and were chased away by the monster as soon as possible. The monster responded in kind with the impulse to destroy.
Many mice and rats lost their lives due to this impulse. The hunting in the deadlands was sparse. There was little that survived the fire. Only vermin. It was enough. For now.
She wondered, in fleeting moments of clarity, if this is what life for mother's monsters was like. Driven entirely by the impulse to feed, to kill. It was a simple existence, really. Uncomplicated by its primitive nature. Had she been cursed to become a member of her mother's other family? The alien creatures she had been abandoned in favor of as a child?
Just as quickly as the clarity would come, it would disappear. Sadness would come, rage would follow. Regret would blossom and just as quickly hunger would eliminate the feeling entirely. It was a hostile environment for thoughts and feelings. It just became easier for Nadya to give into the monster. The regret for what she had done - the true breadth - was just too much to handle. So instead, she gave herself over to the monster when the emotions became too much.
The hunger became overwhelming. Soon it was the only feeling that mattered. The only feeling that was. Hunger. Hunger. Hunger. Nothing else was real.
She foolishly tried to eat grasses to sate the ache but the grasses turned to ash in her mouth. She gagged, spitting the gob of slimy vegetation onto the ground. Movement caught her attention and before her vision could process what she was seeing, she was already moving. In mere moments she was sinking her teeth into tender flesh, pulling away hair and skin and flesh. It was only afterwards that she realized the creature for what it was; a fawn. It made little difference to her. It sated her one and only need.
The hunger persisted. Nadya began to think it was time to return to the herd, but that consciousness was still alive was still trying to rationalize with the monster that it was easier to stay away from what remains of the herd - that meals that do not fight back were preferable to those that do.
However, it was only a matter of time before her resources here ran out. As she made her preparations to return to the upper mountainside, something peculiar happened.
"Pick a number." It was a voice. A different voice. Not the voice that had been tormenting her. Not the voice that lived inside her head. It was not the monster, nor was it her true consciousness. No; this voice had come from somewhere else - it had spoken directly into her mind by an external force. She was certain of this. She knew that she would not find the source of the ghostly voice but it didn't stop her eyes from rolling madly in her skull - jumping around to each and every source of movement surrounding her like a scared animal. There was nothing; she was alone. However, she still felt compelled to answer and before she could think, the number in her head spilled from her bloodied lips.
"Five." Her voice was hoarse and thick with disuse. She hardly recognized it. There was significance to her choice as well. She was the fifth sibling in her family line - the forgotten child. She was the fifth of another kind as well. Her mother surrounded herself with four monsters - four flesh consuming beasts that lay waste to those who cross their path.
Now her mother had five monsters.
N A D Y A
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