Learning things, and M-eating people. (Closed)

[Leviathan]

Apparantly it was some kind of celebration of the Joor, they came together and gathered. Music dancing feasting. Feasting. Yes that was one thing that you could understand about this entire thing. Ever since meeting with that Joor de Qethseg'ol on the cliff sides he had determined that there was more to be seen beyond the coast line. And to be honest it had not been comfortable at all. Being away from the waters was. Uncomfortable. Being outside of them was bad yes, but keeping his skin moist outside of those waters was difficult. It required his power. And whilst the majority of it simply happened. Just as one breathes. Doing it in places where it was hot was most difficult. Places where there could be little moisture. And the worst thing about it was that he was Hungry.

His days of travelling had encompassed many trials. Most of which had involved people staring at him again, up till the point were one had actually taken him aside and given him something to " wear". It was strange this. They wore cloths and furs of other animals. Whilst he understood the nature of trophies that they took. He could not understand covering their bodies. Surely that would have only made it more difficult for the moisture to touch them? But then perhaps that is how the Jul and Joor worked. They did not need the mositure as he did. Whilst this would limit it to his exposed areas. And make it infintely more uncomfortable. Leviathan did not wish to draw attention to himself, that was counter active to his "learning" process.

So he accepted this gift. And then ate them. It wasn't so difficult, the Joor for the most part were fragile creatures. Their bones breaking easily under his hands. And the road had been empty. A caravan of only a few heading towards this festival of theirs. He ate their flesh. Their bones. Everything. Not a trace of them remained but the blood on the road. For awhile he did take the Dah Key, the horses to help with the journey. but after awhile they joined the table. He was hungry and couldn't really help it.

[Leviathan]

Suffice to say that eating the horses had slowed his trip considerably.

But then again he didn't really regret it, he had a massive appetite that pretty much trumped everything else on the guide book. So that needed to be saited first. It went before the practical. In his mind it had simply been a question. Could hee go there without the horses. The answer was that he had his legs. And whilst this would bee slower he would still get there. So it had simplly been a case of eating the horses and then getting a good nights sleep. And with a full stomach he had certainly done that. But then he hadn't factored in the point that the other peices of food that the original lunch ( the Joor caravan) had been packing was in the wagon. And without the wagon he would not be able to carry it all.

So he simply grabbed a leather back, put as much in as he could and then headed off. If he ran out on the way then he'd stop by in a home or an inn for a bite to eat.

Of course. He couldn't really let anyone witness this. It would be a bite out of the ordinary mong the Joor he imagined for one to be witnessing eating their own kind.Then again he wasn't really one of them and perhaps that would have been revealed in any kind of confrontation. The road was long and hot and as predicted he had run out of the food rather quickly. Luckily travelling was not so difficult in this sense. it seemed that the road these carvaners on was frequented by merchants alike. As a couple of hours after finishing off the last of the food.

Another came clicking by on her wagon.

[Leviathan]

Whilst the intial idea had been simply to jump on the wagon take her head in his hands and snap her neck.

This was unfortunatley foiled when the Jul pulled over and spoke. " Hi there!, headed to the festival?". Leviathan was caught off guard. He was not used to talking to his food and any time that he had it kind of put him off. Such as with the rock creature. He was now faced with a choice of his. Simply jump and kill, or return the sentiment and talk. A few moments later with a mouth full of flesh and blood stained around his face. Well his choice was rather obvious. WHy did they always have to talk. It made things so much more difficult. Whilst there was the fact he had hunger there was also the idea that he did not wish to appear rude.

He had a sort of, table side ettiquette if you will. He didn't want to appeear as if he had no manners whilst he ate, and Leviathans mind. Talking to your food was more or less the equivalent of talking with your mouth full. Some splashes of refreshing water on his face from the caravan supply and the blood was gone. Though he kept it in a bucket and poured it into a flask that was on the walking talking steak. Blood and water, much more refreshing than just the simple latter. It would help to kill his hunger whilst at the festival.

Whilst it was inveitable he would feed there. He would rather it be kept down to a minimum. He was here to learn. Not create a social frenzy.

[Leviathan]

To say anything, hee didn't get rid of the caravan this time, it was going to be more efficent than walking and of course there was food in the back. Enough food for one Jul. But not enough for him. His appetite was far greater than any of them. So he would need to fortify that supply. His idea after this had simply been to take the pieces of the Jul that he killed on the road and add them to a sort of butchers caavan of horror in the back. To keep it filled with enough for him to eat on the way to the festival. It seemed if nothing else an idea to keep him going. But he was going to need tools if this was going to work. He was simply used to biting the flesh off in pieces, but this would require precision that he was not used to.

If he was going to act like a Joor. To work in plain sight. Then he was going to have to need to think like one. What did these weak creatures use to cut the meat when their teeeth could not handle the biting. When their nails coul no strip flesh on their own? The answer was simple enough. The same thing that they did when anything else like this came up. They created a tool for the job. So how was he to make a tool?

He could see nothing that would work for the task. The blades that the female merchant had kept in the back served little use. By the looks of it tis was a fruit selling caravan. And whilst he would eat mostly anything meat was his preference. The fruit would only last him so long.

So he had to craft somehting on the sly. He looked at the horses. He was sure one could pull as well as two.

[Leviathan]

Snap.

The bone of a horse is far stronger than the bone of a human, of a Jul. He ate some of the horse. enough to expose its leg bones. And with the work of his hands. Broke off the legs. It exposed a sharp edge. And with the stones lying around him. He formed pieces of the horses leg bones into sharper instruments. They would never be considered weapons. But certainly gave him the precision that he required for cutting up the meat. Hi first test and experiment in this position was the body of the horse in front of him. It was such a waste, sparing the food and allowing it to rot like this. But then there was a way that the Jul had to stop things from rotting. He had seen it before.

In the world of beasts, which included him to a certain extent. Raw flesh was the best, but unfortunatly the downside to eating ting raw was that they very rarely stayed in prestine condition. THe moment something died and the light faded from it. The dark began to creep in and claim what was rightfully its. The only way to stop the enroaching dark was to devour it completely and allow it to be converted. To have the death serve a purpose. But the humans did not like their flesh raw. Nor did they like to eat all of it. Which in his mind was a total waste.

But there was a method to delay the dark. Salting the meat. He had to find salt. Normally if he had been in the sea this would not be a problem. But the sea was not near this road. So, he had to search the caravan for it.

[Leviathan]

He found some salt.

In a sack in the back of the caravan. It wsn't difficult to find, it was the only thing in there that tasted mildly of the sea. Shared some of its scent. it was, comforting. He would not waste the salt by simply spilling it out onto the meat. So he took some of the spare water within the back and poured it into a bucket. And began his work. It was sloppy with the tools and of course experience. But the meat was cut. Sliced into seperate poritions for seperate meals. He dipped it into the bucket of water to give it the consistancy that he required to press it against the salt and for the salt to cling. Once it had he used the hooks that had been before handing fruit. To hang the pieces of meat.

At least, thats how he thought it was done. He had only witnessed it the once during what the humans had called a market. It had been difficult to control his bahlock then. His hunger. So much food and meat on display. The man salting it. Then hanging it on hooks. Giving it time for the salt to sink in. The meat had hung there for the days of the market never moving but at the same time never returning to the dark. Never growing rotted and filled with maggots. And then someone had take it away. Exchanging peices of shiney rock with the man for it. Not rocks like the Joor had eaten. But different. They seemed to have some strange value among the Joor.

He stepped back and looked at his work. The other horse. It seemed nervous. Jittery by the sounds it was making. Of course,its master and partner were dead. And now its only company was a monster who would rather eat it than ride it. But fear seemed to permiate every pore of it. Good. Fear was good to control them. And ultimately if it came down to it. Made the meat that much more delicious.

[Leviathan]

As he had seen, the salt had kept the meat fresh, and by the looks of it had provided him with a suitable alias. How nice. The Jul now thought him some kind of meat peddler like the ones at the market places.

They thought he was on the way to sell his meats at the festival. Well that was one way to hide in plain sight he supposed. Not draw suspicion. But keeping a low profile on the way there was difficult. And not eating all th meat at once, and his main source of transport and now his alias. Even harder. But the bloody water, it helped. Although it was soon stale. It killed some of his hunger but was begining to fade into the dark. The blood within congealing and becoming solid. Whilst not making it undigestable. It was less pleasant to the tongue. Two days had passed and unfortunatly most of the butchered horse had been devoured. So he had no choice but to make a stop and replenish his supply.

An inn, near the festival now. The road was becoming more busy and it was unlikely he would have the chance to continue this business elsewhere. So he parked the caravan up and tied the horse to a post. He gave it one last stare to inspire further fear. And the shade in its eyes confirmed that it would not move. Good, at least some of the creatures in this land knew their place in the world. Unlike the Jul and their false claims on the oceans. From what he had witnessed in the waters edge. The places that smelled like this. Like poison. Would be good for catching his prey.

He was paike. Predator. And this was his hunting ground. There were very few among the prey stupid enough to poison themselves so that they would be more suitable targets. Fortunatly for him. The Jul were among that elite few who carried that level of stupidity.

[Leviathan]

Monster, thats what people called things like him.

Of course his was a far grander name. Leviathan. A name that bore respect. Awe. But yet he didn't feel like there was much awe to be gained here sulking in the shadows like a Lo Lun, a leech. But ultimatley it was the only way that he was going to learn about the Jul in such a sufficent way that he would be able to understand just how they functioned. That was the end game after all, to know just how and why these weak things were able to subdue the mighty oceans. Well subdue was such a strong word. They ruled the surface. They hadn't seen the dark that was below. hadnt lived in the dark that was below.

But still even to have command over the azure surface, it was confusing to him. Surely the kraken the mighty opponent of his people. A word that in the knowing meant Hokor'on. Enemy. He waited here outside the palce that stunk of poison. Waited till one wandered out, intoxicated as if he had stood on a rockfish or had suffered the wrong side of a giant jelly. But this was no sting, nor was it unwanted. These fools actually let this poison into their blood on purpose. Did they think themselves so strong that they could weaken themselves and still remain untouched? He came up from behind. And took them in an embrace. Covering their mouthes and strangling their neck. He wouldn't kill them. Not yet.

Not yet.

[Leviathan]

He repeated the process several times, although each time he collected one of his prey he had to ensure that they were alone, that no one was watching. And that wasn't hard. Emerging from the shadows. Grabbing them. Choking them out and returning to the dark, his blue eyes, the last thing to disappear into those shadows. With five of them, he moved off road and into the more darkened point of the wilderness. He broke their arms. Their legs, so that they couldn't move.

Stuffed their mouth with their own shirts. They would of course awaken at one point.Squirming in agony on the ground. Like worms. Maggots. Totally unable to defend themselves. Maggots. THat point he found almost symbolic. They were useless. Pathetic. Swarms of things that spread over land and more importantly sea. Maggots on the corpse of the world. He spat on them. How oculd these things rule oveer the sea. How could his people simply disappear in light of these creatures? Surely his people had not been killed by them? He thought it impossible. It was almost insulting enough to consider it blasphemy if he considered it a religion.

But then when one holds an idea so close to their heart. Perhaps it is a sort of blasphemy in that light. Leviathan had one thing to gain by keeping them alivve. They would have a day. He needed their blood and their flesh. His butchering bone in his back pocket. But whilst the poison they ingested had made them easier prey to catch, it also meant if hee had butchered them at the time. Their blood would still be stained by the poison and thus he would too be ingesting it. Tainted meat. Couldn't have that.

[Leviathan]

When the sun fell. And the light faded, so did the time come for their light to fade. One by one he killed them. Some tried to wrigle away, but with broken arms and legs they didn't get too far. They were not built for such things. Yet he was impressed by the effort that they made, there was some sense of will and purpose behind it.

But it changed nothing. He made an intital bite as he always did into each corpse. Then began the work with the bone tool. Cutting bits off meat off their bodies. Unlike the horses these ones didn't have as much meat, but then thats precisely why there was five of them. First task of course was draining the blood. Which is why the intial bite was always made at an artrial location. He'd brought buckets that seemed to have once carried plants from the caravan and into each poured as much of their blood as he could. After that. The process of stripping the meat. The meat went into sacks. Well what meat was worth stripping. The rest, he simply devoured where it lay. Organs, bones.Those kinds of things that he was unlikely to get away with at the festival location.

It took two trips back to the caravan, two sacks and two pots/buckets of blood. Once both had been taken care of it was the early hours, so he had to work quickly on the salting and the blood. Likely the salting was going to draw less attention than the blood. So that was taken care of first. Diluting the blood with water from a nearby well, placing it into flasks ( washed out flasks that seemed to contain the same kind of poison the men had been ingesting). These would help greatly with curbing his hunger and keeping his levels of water high enough for comfortable travel. Next the meat salting which he had become rather proficent at. Hanging it on hooks as he had before.

Only then did Leviathan afford himself a few hours of sleep. Waiting for the dawn, when it seemed more suitable to travel.

[Leviathan]

His arrival within the festival was indeed interesting. It was strange to be here in such a place. Among so many of the jul and the joor. They came in many sizes, all of which looked equally ediable. Curiousity rose within him as to just what each tasted like. Well all ecept the humans and the Hylians. Those ones he already knew what they tasted like. Hylian was more like chicken where as humans tended to give offf the equivalent idea of beef. White meat and red meat. Each equally tasty but with their own parts of advantage and disadvantage.

Unfortunatly though this was not going to simply be a case of transforming and devouring everyone in sight. As much fun as that would no doubt have been. Leviathan wasn't stupid.

There were Joor here with weapons. They wore skins of metal that would likley be tough to bite through. Scales as tough as his own in transformed state. Best he just ride by and smile. Whilst the feast of them would havee been fun, it would have been ultimately short lived. nd that was not something he was willing to become. His species were gone, and he was the last, he did not intend to allow the Leviathans to simply fade out of existance without some kind of struggle for their anesteral home land. The ocean. And that was why he was here. In the form of a Jul. His pale blue eyes, they told of a purpose.

Of a passion....and of hunger.

[Leviathan]

His caravan was stopped at one point eventually seemed to be a kind of checking post for those coming with things to sell. Of course. The idea that he was not walking in, and of course the meat in the back would indicate he was some kind of peddler. Likely the butcher alias those on the roads had thought. It made things easier, but also being around the steel skins made him slightly nervous. He was stronger than them, and they had numbers. In this form it would be easy to take down maybe one. But he would need to change to take on them all.

And of course him changing would likely bring more. And in that form escaping outside of water would not be simple. One of them kept in front of him whils the other checked the back, his hands on the reigns of the beast of burden he looked ahead.

The steel skin in front began to speak. " So sir, did you see anything suspicious on your trip here?". A flare of something, he shook his head. The other one nodded. Did the Jul know of something? Did they know of the disappearances? Would they be able to tell of the meat in the back whether or not it was of their own kind? There was a shout in the back. His animal instincts immedietly wanted him to kill, or run. But he did neither. He would ride this out like an uncomfortable storm. " Looks like he's selling salted meat, nice snack for the crowds at the tournie". He nodded. " Yes, salted meat". With a few more questions, mostly simple ones. How long would he be here. Did he know of any good inns to stay.

He'd answered yes. Avoided complications.

[Leviathan]

Passing the guards, wasn't much of an issue. He even gave some of the steel skins the meat. They seemed to enjoy it. Like the one he had met on the cliff sides. Sharing food seemed to be a way of getting people to like you here. My the Jul were so fickle. Little did they knnow what they were eating. Leviathan had a feeling that if they did they wouldn't be enjoying it so much. But then again, who knew, perhaps these Jul were more like him than they wanted to admit. Not that they came anywhere close to matching his stature. But more in the aspect of being Paike. Self devourers.

He continued on with the caravan. Stopping near where others seemed to have parked their own. Climbing out of the saddle and then running a hand along the side of of the horses mane. It shuddered mildly. He had a feeling that the horse knew just as well as he did that the stroking was merely an act. A show for those who were watching to keep him out of suspicion. But that wouldn't matter soon. Though it did seem that the horse itself was undernorished. Perhaps he should go and get something for it to eat. But then he did not know just what these beasts of burden ate. A quick look around to those others who had parked up. Something in a bag. Not quite sure what. Perhaps it would be an idea to take it for himself.

But then again. That would attract attention. Attention he didn't want. Just what did they do in times like this the Jul? Trade. Yes. Trading might just work. So he approached the Jul with the bag his horse was feeding from with an offer.

[Leviathan]

So this whole tradinng thing, it wasn't as hard as he thought. Just giving of one item for another. He offered the other man some meat in exchange for some " oats" to feed the beast of burden. A trade was agreed and more salted flesh was passed along. It seemed that the Joor liked their meat as much as he did. Well maybe not that much. But they did like it enough to pass along a good sized bag that would keep the horse fed for at least a day. He needed to keep up its strength. And its content. After all...it would become lunch one day. Couldn't have it be all bones.

So it was time for a little interaction among the peoples now that he was here. Some of the other caravaners were up and selling their wares. He couldn't quite do that. He needed that meat for himself. He took a swig of his blood and water flask. Kept that hunger down just a little bit. Moved it from a raging inferno into an ember. He could control it. Hopefully he'd be able to keep it under control long enough to last out this festival. After that he'd be returning to the sea for a little gorging on the Jul Paike. Grabbing a little satchel, removing some of the dried salted meat from his caravan and placing it inside. Leviathan would move out into the crowds. Blending in as he could.

Time to mingle. Find out a little bit more about this world and its many....flavours.


END