Chapter 149

Food.

Food was annoying.

Annoying because Rain felt he needed so much of it to prevent himself from accidentally eating Opal or Lyra. It was a fairly inconvenient thing to have to deal with to say the least.

Worse, it was getting more inconvenient to deal with. The various animal stables they had been preying on were starting to disappear. Mostly that was because Rain had either eaten every single animal in them or because the panicking owners were taking their animals and fleeing to some other part of the vast city.

That meant they had to go further and further afield to get the meat Rain needed to remain in control.

A skeletal rat wobbled around the corner where Rain hid crouched. A skull was balanced on its head, held up by its ratty arms.

“It’s clear, no levelers to interrupt, you can go eat...” the skull lowered its voice surreptitiously, “ ... and grow.”

Rain set his lips in a line. Opal somehow finding an unlikely ally in Vash in her determination to get him to eat and grow as much as possible was probably not a good thing.

Still, Rain couldn’t deny his growling stomach and he slipped from the shadows, moving through the large stable doors and into the interior. The sound of nickering horses came from the darkness and his instincts perked up. Prey was near.

Lyra rushed by his side. She’d gotten a stick from somewhere and on the end of the stick was a ball of skeletal rats hanging onto each other. She waved the stick vaguely and the sound of alarmed horses came from the dark.

“Alright I want a nice clean operation, no slip ups. I don’t want to see half a hundred horses left wandering around the streets of Florens again okay?” She pointed to what seemed like an office. “Rain take the dead end. Vash, on me. Opal, lock and bar the doors.”

There was ... something almost a little offensive about how the sheep girl had started treating his hunting. It just didn’t seem very wild and predatory, in fact it felt more like an organised dinner event that she directed.

He slipped into the pitch black back office.

Soon after the first of the horses were chased inside, boney rats scuttling around behind it spooking the thing and getting it to move.

A massive paw reached from the shadows and gripped its neck, dragging it into the dark.

This was the fourth stable they had raided that night, and Rain was starting to feel a little better. He’d just eaten yet another horse’s head and was about to bite into its ribcage when Lyra’s voice made him pause.

“H-hey, you’re not supposed to be here! This is private property! I’ll call down the guard! I’ll call down the, uh, the Ranker! Seriously, you’ll totally regret breaking and entering!”

“This is our fucking stable you insane sheep!”

Ah. That sounded like a problem.

Rain let the meat fall with a thump and slunk toward the door, luminous yellow eyes peering from the shadowed doorway into the pool of candle light held by the one who had spoken.

A pair of rabbit eared Lapine were there, standing with a black wooled Lyra and Opal. There was no Vash to be seen. Although Rain suspected that might be a wise choice on Vash’s part, word spreading of his existence would make it harder for the necromancer.

The taller and more muscular of the Lapine leaned over Lyra, the dyed chevrons patterned up its ears unkempt and faded, along with the rest of him.

“Girl, if only you knew who you were trying to steal from. The ‘wrong kind of people’ don’t begin to say it.”

He reached out a paw and took hold of Lyra’s neck, dragging her close to his face, his warm breath on her cheek.

“Which is bad for you considering we don’t have the choice to go to the city guard. But I’m a good guy, you know, so I’ll give you a chance to make up for it.”

“Hey,” said the other peering into the dark stalls.

“-Now just get down on your knees like and open wide-

“Hey!”

The Lapine snapped around to his friend.

“What is it?!”

“The horses, it’s not just mine, half the stable is missing!”

The Lapine blinked.

“Hey, sheep girl.” The grip on Lyra’s neck tightened. “What did you do with my boss’s horses?”

Lyra made a strangled sound and flapped her hand at him in a request to speak.

He eased his grip.

“I didn’t do anything with them! how would I disappear, what, a dozen horses, in a closed and locked up tight stable! I was asked to look around for intruders by our boss, are you completely clueless? Haven’t you heard about all the stables being raided recently?”

The Lapine stared at her.

“Check the back,” he said after a moment.

Then when there was no reply from his companion he turned sharply.

“I said-”

But there was no one there.

He frowned and tried to peer into the dark, lifting the small candle he held, trying to see motion.

“ ... Hey, get the fuck back here you idiot, stop fucking around.”

The Lapine waited but there was nothing but silence.

“Left you on your own I guess harhar,” croaked Lyra from around his paw.

“I hope you weren’t referring to me as this ‘idiot’” came a new voice.

Lyra’s eyes darted to the side and then widened as a collection of Lapine came from the dark, each of them somehow even more scruffy looking than the one who held her.

The largest of them was a big wide Lapine, with arms the size of legs and dyed chevrons scrawled across his body.

“B-Boss-”

“Shut up. I don’t care. Where are the mounts? We’re going to get there late and those Drake fuckers will snatch them from under us.”

“Uh, half the horses are missing boss, you, uh, you sent this one here to guard?

The man peered at Lyra, frowning with puzzlement.

“I ... did not. Look this doesn’t matter, we’ve got to move, right now. We’ll take half of us and leave the rest behind to deal with this while we take the big bounty’s family.”

Lyra’s eyes widened in sudden fear.

“Wh-what are you saying?! Wranvyre is dead! there is no big bounty!”

“No body, no dead. He’s counted as missing, even if they found one of his eyeballs and most his teeth embedded in the walls that’s no certainty. You don’t know that snake, he breathes manipulation and lies and fakery like he breathes air. But even if he doesn’t turn back up I’m sure we can make some new arrangements with the bereaved family.”

“NO! It- He’s dead! he’s fucking dead!”

“Who are you to care so ... so...” The large Lapine frowned and peered closer at Lyra in the gloom.

As suspicion dawned on the Lapine’s face Lyra drew in a breath.

“Raaain!”

There was a series of grunts that filled the air and the Lapine boss turned to see those behind him collapsing as black things dangling from the ceiling snipped bit and clawed at the backs of their necks or pierced through their skulls, disturbing hanging stalactites of jaws and claws and coiling centipedes.

“Wh-What-- hrck.”

The large Lapine looked down to find a set of black scythes emerging from his chest. His legs gave out and his flesh parted as he fell through them, head splitting into three.

Rain let the scythe like dark paw sink back into his fur and turned to find Lyra with her hands on the remaining Lapine’s shoulders, his arms inside the wool of her forearms. The Lapine seemed surprised, but then he started screaming.

His thrashing managed to knock Lyra off him and she stumbled back, the Lapine’s arms pulling free from her wool and revealing that they were covered in knife wounds.

He stumbled back, eyes wide, and then turned and fled.