The corpses lay stiffening in the sun. The low buzz of the flies that formed a cloud could be heard over the argumentative cawing of the crows as they fought each other over the choice bits of the remains. As was their habit they went first for the soft flesh of the eyes, even now the feet of the birds left grooves on the corpses face as they pecked the last tender morsels from her sockets. Beside her, the rest of the flock tore chunks from the body of a horse.
"Now that my friend, is a stroke of true luck for us, isn't it?" The larger of the two men smiled as he and his companion walked their way closer. "Why, I even see packs on the horse, chances are good that poor bloke there had him quite a few goods that we'd get good coin for."
"Indeed," commented the other man, smaller and darker than the other, "and I don't see our new putrid friend here will complain much if we help ourselves to his no longer needed possessions."
"You may be right in that. I don't think he'd mind in the least, and it would be horribly wasteful of us to leave such bounty here to rot with its owner."
"Well, can't be wasteful, now can we?"
"No, indeed we can not."
The two scavengers laughed, and sauntered over to glean what pickings they could from their find.
The whispers had not ceased, following her down into the darkness. Darkness of blood, of screams and fire. They grew louder and louder, until the faint voices because a torrent of wails in her ears. Unseeing, she heard the crows, laughing, as they flew at her face, clawing at her, vicious bloody beaks stabbing at her face. She longed to scream in terror as no matter how much she tried to wave them away, she couldn't move at all, and was helpless before them. Bile choked in her throat, her chest ached to draw breath from the wind she swear she heard, howling with the wails in her ears, shards of ice carried on its freezing air slicing into her skin. Soon the tears she could not shed became mere trails of blood, as she felt her eyes torn from her.
She longed to run, to flee the ceaseless torment, she railed against the betrayal of her body that left her just laying there. Every inch of her skin was burning with pain. She could feel what seemed to be weasels gnawing on her insides, tearing through her stomach and chest and leaving only emptiness filled with agony behind. Screaming in her mind, she wished flailed her arms about, roaring in pain, in defiance, in pure desperation.
The howl of wind, of screams, of voices assaulting her, grew louder, until the very sound of them made her ears ache and her head feel as if it would explode. She there was no end to the pain, she could not clasp her hands around her ears to block out the sound. Sanity near its breaking point, her mind wailed, adding her own inhuman sheik to the cacophony that swirled around her in a climaxing furious assault…
…and then was gone.
The pain was gone. The whispers were gone. There was nothing but silence, and darkness, and cold. And hunger, an all consuming hunger. A need to fill the empty void that permeated her. And then after that brief moment of stillness, it came. Crashing down on her from all side and erupting out from inside her at the same time, shooting into every fiber of her being, one force, one word, one command.
RISE
He jerked back his hand from the belt pouch of the corpse before him when he noticed it seemed to twitch. The crows, before undisturbed by the two men who came to join them in their plunder, suddenly took flight as if a demon was after them.
"I…I think it just moved!"
His friend chuckled derisively. "You my friend have been listening to too many stories. Oh no, the dead walk at night…Bah, tales the superstitious tell to frighten their children. Cease being such a coward and search the wench. It was probably just the crows jostling it."
"Yes…of course…it was probably just the crows…" He reached down to again find and empty the belt pouch of whatever coin it carried. Nervous still, he chuckled at his own foolishness as the silver came easily into his palms. He turned and smiled at his companion. "Look! Seventeen silver! That will last us weeks!"
"Imagine how much we will get for whatever is in…these…." His friend stared at him wide eyed, his mouth gaping like that of a landed fish.
"What?"
Suddenly rotting hands grasped him by the shirt and pulled him downward. Like a woman bestowing kissed on her loved, the corpse pulled itself close to him, and locked its teeth in his throat. As he screamed.
As she tore her mouth back, hot warm blood splattering her face and running down her throat, she felt an easing of the insufferable freezing in her veins, a filling of the emptiness inside her. The terrified, weakly struggling man in her grasp filled her with so much need, so much hunger, even as the motion abhorred her she rose higher to take another bite of his warm, sweet flesh in her mouth. His struggles slowly because to cease as bite after bite she took, his blood cooling on her face, her hands, running down her chin.
She became vaguely aware of more screaming beside her, another life, more food, but it was cut off mid breath by a loud thump. She heard ripping, tearing, the dripping of blood, and the satisfied whuffing of an eating horse. She went back to her own prey, and continued to feed.
Then she felt the pull, the power, ordering her to her feet and pushing her down the road. As much as she tried to fight it she could not, it forced her limbs to obey. Her own will was gone from her, no matter how much her spirit, locked to her decomposing flesh, fought against the power for its freedom.
To Lordaeron. the ordered pounded in her head, irrefutable, undeniable. Slay the Living
Unable to resist, she stumbled blindly down the road, a creature of nightmares trapped in its own hell.
