2: Feed

One dark, slimy tendril tapped on Nem's right shoulder.

"Is it that time already?"

Nem glanced backwards at the mass of tentacles behind him, then looked up towards the sky, seeing the sky high up in the clouds weakly shining down on him. The cold chill of winter bit at his toes as he slowly stood up in his sandals and socks, not entirely comfortable with the footwear. He quickly dusted off the backside of his long pants and carefully readjusted his tie before properly turning and acknowledging his friend.

"Alright, let's go Victor."

The creature let a few clicks and croaks escape its flame as Nem spun around and stopped seemingly randomly, beginning his straight line down the direction he was facing. Victor followed directly behind, the occasional loose tentacle coming close to brushing up against Nem's legs as they moved forward. The pair continued past the edge of the clearing and into the forest, with Nem still following the same direction he had before.

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I don't think we're going to see any squirrels this time around. Last time I came out this direction with Mic, there were a few still around, but they're probably all starting their hibernation now."

Victor replied with three croaks, starting with the highest in pitch and ending with the lowest, stubbornly shifting the gap in its tentacles upwards towards the branches of particularly large trees.

"Well, you can try, but don't say I didn't warn you. You're not allowed to chase anything though. Last time that happened it took us six days to get back."

The creature croaked twice, the gap in the tentacles widening slightly as it began to switch from branch to branch even quicker.

"Oh, and obviously you're not allowed to wake them up while they're hibernating either."

Victor responded with three loud clicks and reached outwards with its spare tentacles, but Nem responded quickly.

"My bad, my bad. I'm sure you wouldn't do that."

They continued through the snowy forest, quietly continuing down their line until they had walked for almost an hour. At this point, their location was almost foreign to them, which was precisely what they wanted. Without any warning, Nem flopped down onto the snow-covered grass and looked up towards the sky, leaving Victor to accidentally walk over his feet.

"Come on now. Let's get it over with."

Victor clicked three times with the tones getting higher each time, quickly 'crouching' down next to Nem, letting his tentacles push outwards along the ground. Without another word exchanged between them, the flame residing in Victor's tentacled frame slowly pushed out of its host body and gently pushed forward against Nem's arm.

Within an instant, the flesh on Nem's arm almost instantly evaporated in the searing heat of Victor's flame. The flame slowly pushed forward for a few seconds, quickly burning through flesh and bone until there was a large hole left in the arm, along with a few embers that lay on the grass, coming dangerously close to starting a fire. Victor quickly moved the flame back into its tentacled shell and shifted its gaze towards Nem, who seemed lost in his thoughts, staring up into the sky completely unphased.

Victor clicked and groaned a few times, extending a tentacle towards Nem's face, but it stopped when it saw the man roll his head towards it, smiling gently.

"It doesn't hurt, don't worry."

For a moment Victor paused, but eventually it recoiled its tentacle and moved onto Nem's other arm. Then his legs. Soon they had severed half-limbs alongside a man who was bleeding profusely out of four clean cuts, his body slightly charred from the process. Victor collected all four of the limbs and placed them around himself, picking them out in the order that he cut them and slowly pushing them into its flame, consuming the flesh, bone and remaining blood. As it ate, Nem watched on in silence, a strangely gleeful look creeping onto his face.

After about eight or so minutes, the all the limbs were gone, leaving a few patches of blood and a majority of a human body on the grass. By this point, part of Nem's limbs were already coming back; around ten centimetres for the first limb and eight for the last. The grass under his body began to lose its colour, with the vibrant green grass shifting towards the yellow of spoilt milk.

"We'll be here for about another fifty minutes, I think."

Victor 'nodded' and moved to lean his tentacled body on a tree, the hole in his shell quickly shifting around to get a good view of the space they were in. Nem simply lay, looking towards the sky, a peaceful look on his face as he felt the cool breeze on his face and stumps.

After about twenty minutes had past, the pair of them heard the crunch of sticks snapping underneath a hard, flat surface. Almost immediately, Victor's shell shrunk down into a ball and he rolled around the tree, taking the side opposite to where the footsteps came from. Nem simply closed his eyes, a slight frown crawling up onto his face as the noises came closer.

"Oh my... what in the world happened to you."

Nem opened his eyes to see a young man standing above him, wearing a jacket with dozens of pockets on the front and back and jeans. On his back, he held a battered looking rifle which looked far too large for him despite being slightly taller than average. His eyes were skittery and face was clean shaven which matched the clean and slightly oversized boots he wore.

"I'm... dying and stuff?"

The stranger raised an eyebrow, but upon glancing at the blood that pooled around parts of Nem's limbs and the black grass that lay under him, he took a step back.

"You're one of those... conspiracy nuts aren't you. The ones that believe these black marks can bring you to..."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

For a moment it was silent between them, with Nem glaring up towards the stranger with a furrowed brow. The stranger seemed completely unaware of the malice that was directed towards him.

"So anyway, could you help me out. I was with my pa and a bunch of his buddies, but I ended up getting... a little lost. I'm Ingal, by the way."

"Nem. Why is your pa out here?"

Ingal looked puzzled for a moment, but after a few seconds of internal debate that played out on his face, he came to a quick decision.

"Well... we're on a hunting trip. This is my first expedition, but I haven't sh..."

"I've heard enough."

Nem's voice was firm enough to get the stranger to continue his life story, a skill he had learned after becoming an exposition dump a few too many times. He rolled his head to the side to face the tree and spoke gently, as if speaking to a baby, to nobody in particular.

"Victor. Hunt."

Ingal crouched down to hear Nem, tilting his head at the man's words.

"Who's Victo..."