Watabe Eme, Felis beastkin.

“Who goes there?” 

The voice that called out to the fright-frozen pair was soft and friendly. A strange note given the dark circumstances they’d found themselves in. It rang even stranger still when Eme caught sight of the mein that issued it. Cast in the soft light of the glowing mushrooms was a man that bore the head of a lion, whiskers and all. 

What Eme had mistaken for a head of wild mane-like hair was in fact an actual mane that proudly, if a bit matted, ringed the lion-man’s head. Above a thick nose golden a pair of leonine eyes stared out at them, still glittering with crystalline tears. 

“Be not afraid, lost ones. Come greet me and I you.” 

The leonine man rose from his crouch and stood tall in the light, casting a shadow on the path that lay behind him. His broad body hid from sight whatever he’d been mourning. And what a body it was. Eme’s face burned with embarrassment as the sight of an impressive manhood greeted her. She didn’t even know they came in that size, not that she was interested, you see; it was primarily an academic interest.

While Eme hastily looked anywhere else but between his powerful thighs, Delight did not. Her eyes locked onto the beastman’s mighty weapon with interest and cautious hunger.

All throughout their staring, either frightened or admiring, the lion-man remained unmoving, save for the slow sway of his tail or the occasional flicker of his ears. 

Eme, as the least aesthetically compromised, took it upon herself to address the lion-man. Exiting the darkness, the pale light exposed the desolate condition of her clothing. Embarrassed, she persevered and tried to look the lion-man in the eyes. 

Her neck hurt. 

“M-my name is Watabe Eme of the Wise Cavaliers, a-a gold-rank adventure troop. Behind me is another member of my team, Delight.” Delight gave a flirtatious wave, “Might I ask who you are, and what you are doing here?” Eme’s voice was like the mewl of a kitten as it shook with cold and fear. 

The lion-man blinked slowly before replying. 

“I greet you Watabe-san. This one is named Bahram, and as for what I am doing here? I am a wanderer, like all my people.” The lion-man smiled sadly at the pair. 

Eme’s fur stood on end as the man spoke. Ivory stalactites and mites gleamed in the dark every time he opened his mouth. A predator’s jaw. 

“W-what exactly are you? I’ve n-never seen someone like you before. Surely, if your people were wandering the empire, we’d have at least heard of you?” Eme questioned, keeping herself still just in the light’s grace. 

Bahram smiled sadly. 

“Perhaps you are not looking? I’m not surprised by your ignorance of my peoples, we’ve wandered these lonely tunnels for a generation or more. Even when we roamed the above, we’d yet to find a home for ourselves.” Bahram gave a small, sad smile. “Sometimes I wonder if we’re cursed to roam forever. As for a name? We’ve no need for one; do you call your family by their race? Those are things others give you and we have long forgotten what foulness others bestowed upon us.”

Bahram’s calm voice and friendly demeanor had a soothing effect on the pair. Eme could feel herself loosening, the tension in her shoulders fleeing, but something still felt off to her. 

Perhaps it was simply a Felis’ natural reaction to being around a larger predator, or maybe it was something more? 

Either way, it was Delight who furthered the conversation. Seeing as the atmosphere had calmed somewhat, she extricated herself from behind Eme and approached closer to Bahram. Gone was the cowering girl of before and in its place came a force of refined sexuality and confidence. Somehow, Delight made the thin and wet attire clinging to her form seem like a choice of style.

It made Eme both amused and frustrated in her own bedraggled state. 

Delight stopped just a few feet from the lion-man. Wrenching her eyes away from his muscular body she beamed up at him. 

“Hi,” she chirped, “my name’s Delight, as you heard before. I must say, I’ve never met someone of your—” her eyes flickered downwards briefly, “—‘stature’ before. Call me impressed.”

As she finished talking, Delight held out a demure hand to Bahram. 

Amused, the lion-man seized her hand in his massive paws, each one easily able to wrap around Delight’s twice over. He shook hers with a gentleness belied by his giant form. 

“It’s a pleasure,” Bahram rumbled, sending a shockwave through Delight’s form. Whether that was from the sheer force of his voice or from Delight’s own shiver of anticipation and desire, Eme didn’t know nor want to.

Cautiously, Eme followed in her friend’s wake and approached despite her instincts screaming. 

When Delight had finally recovered from Bahram’s handshake, she cleared her throat and spoke once more. 

“You said before that you live down here? Does that mean you know a way to the surface? Me and my friend are a little lost, you see, and I’d greatly appreciate it if you’d help us out~” 

Delight fluttered her bright eyes up at Bahram. Eme just rolled her eyes. 

Either Bahram hadn’t noticed Delight’s flirtation or just had a truly great Adventurer’s Gambit face, as throughout the conversation he maintained his look of mournful friendliness. When Delight finished talking, he blinked softly before speaking in his soft timber once more.

“The surface? I know the way.”

Delight’s face lit up. “You do?! It’d be wonderful if you could show us the way! Please~” 

Bahram smiled. “Certainly, but the honor and hospitality of my people compels me to offer you gifts for your journey. Food, water, clothing, anything, just ask and it is yours.”

“Oh?” Delight smirked. “Anything?” 

With one hand, Delight reached low and wrapped a hand around his mighty ‘weapon’, failing to encircle it completely. She squeezed. 

“What if what I want is this?”

“Delight!” Eme exclaimed, scandalized. Upon realizing what she was looking at, Eme averted her gaze to his backside—No wait!—to behind him. Eme’s face burned with embarrassment. 

Yet as she gazed at his toned butt—behind—to the space behind him, she saw something laying in the shadows. It was too dark in the lion-man’s shadow to clearly determine what it was. To her it looked like a rock laying in the middle of the tunnel, however, she’d not seen such in her travels as the tunnel was remarkably clear of large stones. 

Eme crept closer, aiming to edge around Bahram. 

The lion-man’s eyes watched her move, yet he did not move to block her. He just watched on with sad, melancholic eyes. 

Turning back to Delight, who still held onto his mighty ‘weapon’, he spoke with a calmness, his eyes unwavering as they bore into Delight’s. “If it’s I you wish for, it’s I you’ll have.”

“Wonderful~” Delight purred.

Languidly stroking her hand back and forth, Delight called out to Eme. “Honey, would you mind giving me and Bahram some privacy for 15—no 30 minutes—an hour? Just go away and cover your ears for a bit, would you?”  

Not hearing a response, Delight turned annoyed and confused to her Felis friend. 

“Eme? Did you hear me? Unless you want to listen to me…fucking…this…lion-man—” Delight trailed off as she finally looked at Eme. 

The Felis bard stood frozen in the shadow of the somber lion-man, gazing wide-eyed and pale down at the rock she’d found. Yet as Delight looked at it in the pale light, she too saw that it was not, in fact, a rock, but the head of their bardic friend Gérôme.

Eme stared, disbelieving. Just hours ago, they’d been laughing together. Now only his head lay before her, face twisted in a rictus of horror and pain. On careful inspection, she observed that his neck was torn and mangled, as if sharp teeth had gnawed it off.

The passage beyond was slick with gore. Blood coated the walls and floor while scraps of cloth and broken weapons lay in a grim pile. 

Delight froze in fright, far too aware of her proximity to the beastman. Gazing back at him, they saw fresh tears crystallizing in his mournful leonine eyes. 

“I am truly sorry.” He whispered to her before he bit. 

Eme watched on in stunned horror as Delight’s shoulder disappeared into the lion-man’s maw. Massive gleaming white teeth were stained red as they tore through muscle and bone. Delight screamed as the pain hit. She tried to free herself using the leverage she already had, twisting and wrenching on his manhood, but it was for naught; the beastman only grunted in pain before snatching her hand away. 

Delight’s screams woke Eme from her frightened trance. 

“Delight!” Eme screamed.

Rushing over to the entangled pair, Eme leapt onto Bahram’s back. Unarmed as she was, she lay into his face with her keen claws, aiming to blind the man and force him to relinquish his hold on her friend. Streaks of red scored the leonine face as she fought with a desperate fury. 

With frightening speed, Bahram grasped Eme’s upper arm within his massive clawed paw and flung her away, unconcerned with the stinging lines she left behind in her flight. 

Eme tumbled through the air, rolling over and over, before coming to a stop courtesy of the far wall. Pain flared brightly as she bounced, coming finally to rest on the rocky floor.

Coughing in pain, blood splattering, Eme tried her best to rise once more. She pressed her hands to the ground and pushed, only to crash back down on her face. Moaning, she looked confused over to her right arm that’d failed her. Eme stared at where her arm used to be. From her right bicep down, it was gone; a sharp claw having carved clean through muscle and bone.

Blood ran freely onto the dark stone.

“My arm.” Eme muttered in shock. 

“EME! HELP ME!” 

Delight’s screams of mortal terror echoed down the tunnels. Looking over, Eme saw that she too had lost an arm, only hers was being devoured. 

She was being eaten alive. 

Faced with the raw strength the lion-man held, she could not free herself. Her powers were useless without her being able to move; to dance.

Frightened orange eyes locked onto Eme’s wide ones. 

“EME!!! Help me! Get it off me!” 

Eme forced herself to her unstable feet with one arm. She took in the sight of her best and near only friend being eaten alive, her own arm lying discarded on the ground like a piece of refuse. With all her bravery and courage, Eme mustered herself…and ran. 

She fled. 

The sight of her friend disappearing into the darkness shocked Delight so much she almost forgot she was fighting for her life. As fresh pain lanced into her she screamed after the fleeing catgirl. “EME!!! DON’T LEAVE ME. COME BACK!!”

Eme kept running. She didn’t look back. Not that’d she have seen much with the tears blocking her sight. But that didn’t stop her from hearing. Even flattening her ears to her skull didn’t block out the sounds, the crunch of bone, the splatter of blood, the screams of pain, and Delight’s pleading calls.

“Come back, Eme! Help me, I don’t want to die, please! Eme! Please!” 

Over and over she yelled into the dark as the beast ate her. The screams dogged Eme’s heels as she stumbled through the dark tunnel. Tears now fell as free as the blood of her arm; every step sent a splattering trail onto the ground. 

Eme was growing faint. 

She stopped a moment, leaning heavily on the cool stone wall. With tooth and claw, she tore a long strip from her shirt and wrapped it around her arm, tying it tight as she was taught to. Tight so that the blood-loss would cease or at least slow.

Deep down, Eme knew she was fucked, but the fright kept her moving.

Kept her going deeper into the darkness of the world.

The screams behind her grew softer and softer as she grew further and further away, but they still lasted agonizingly long. Eme screwed her face up in grief as they finally stopped.

And in the mournful quiet the mournful sobbing began again. Eme’s eyes opened wide as she realized it was coming from all around her. 

She ran.