my bones they used to glow; feast

[feast]

feast.

death inspires me,

like a dog inspires a rabbit.

How can he fear a grinning horse skull that is like those he has played amongst in the deeps of some of Pangea’s caves? Sinew taught him to never fear the bones, only the intent behind them if they shake and move by some other means than flesh and tendon. Fear, she said, can be healthy and motivating and so, Feast ate his fear and leered at his half-brother.

The illusion is still maintained, strong and beautiful in the way the gore rushes from between the teeth to puddle at his half-brother’s cloven feet. Specks of spittle and gore fly at his face and he feel stringy globs stick to his lips and cheeks. His licks his lips clean of the illusion, and it is so beautifull crafted that the globs of gore that he swallows even taste real. He ignores the brotherly snubs; he’ll take being what he is than being just another krampus.

(Controlling the fear though and manifesting it in others, he thinks, would be a dream - a powerful dream and for a moment, he is jealous of Bruise. But there are other ways to inspire fear.)

Feast has temporarily lost focus of Bruise; that is the moment in which the krampus strikes --

It is a definitive moment, to be sure.

Only Sinew has taken flesh from him in motherly chiding nips, but not like this - never, like this.

He is shocked by the sudden brutality, and the shock amplifies into fear as Bruise rains blow after blow down upon him. His ears are boxed until there is a strange ringing in them, and his skin breaks underneath the repeat beating from cloven hooves and blunt teeth -- the tender areas give way first; a rip in the ear widens like a grin, a gash in the neck grows, and the eye feels brutalized in a socket that sings rich and heavy from unfamiliar pain.

Feast stands there and takes it, torn up and terrorized but he takes it.

He makes a meal of it as Bruise continues to sculpt him into something that Sinew will not recognize nor seek recompense for - her son is learning his lesson, becoming hardened and brutal as he was always meant to be. Feast never lashes out - the fear immobilizes him enough not to do so, but he swallows lump after lump of it until his belly feels fat and full.

“No more,” he gasps, ragged and rich in both pain and pant.

He asks for an end only because his body cannot stand the abuse any further and it is through sheer determination that he remains upright, albeit swaying.