Author's Note: I'm going to try to start this back up and work on it more regularly. For now, here is a party consisting of Ebony, Plague Doctor, Hood, and Offering. Credit to Hood and Offering go to Muscarine, along with others of his/her characters I'll be using. I hope I capture them alright.
Wisely, she would not be taking her new ingredient with her back to the Hamlet just yet until she spoke with her mortal master first.
She wanted to bring a monster into the Hamlet after all, one that had nearly killed the four, her latest mortal master included, that had first explored the Courtyard. Even if her intention was to slaughter it for a meal at a later date, she wanted to make sure no one was killed by it and no one killed it before it was ready.
As for her old friend, Eliza...
"I am ready to go." The Crimson Cursed plague doctor said as she stepped beside the cook. She did not wear her mask, at least not at the moment, so it was easy to see just how far the curse had spread through her.
Eliza's body was harder than a human's, her face had grown a beak-like protrusion the same as the esquires and manservant but retained the shape of her mask's beak, and her hands were more claw-like as the keratin of her nails had become a part of her hands. In places, her skin had hardened into a shell-like carapace, giving it the texture of a grasshopper, but it maintained the malleability of human flesh.
In truth, she only had to keep her mask, gloves, and a long-sleeved dress on to keep up her impression of a human, perfect given her normal attire, but that did not stop her craving for The Blood. She was too far gone for normal food consumption, or so she believed for the moment, to be known as human again.
Ebony turned her head and looked up at the cursed human. "Have you been eating well? If not, you're about to." She said with a bright smile, drawing one of her dagger knives and holding it in her hand. "I'm almost as skilled in carving as I am in cooking."
The plague doctor's head turned down and the resemblance of a smile could be seen. "You are very kind, Ebony, but I fear your skills will do little for my palate." Her mouth moved, but it was easy to see that dental work would never again be needed for the plague doctor.
The smaller creature covered her mouth and chuckled lightly. "Is that a challenge? If so, I accept! What food do you like? Seafood? Protein? Eastern? Fowl? Egg? Liquid? Well, that last one obviously, but in what way? Do you like soups, stews, creams, hot or cold, gravy..."
"Just blood is fine. You do not need to prepare anything special for me." Eliza informed, stopping the cook. "For now, let us be off. I am sure you wish to return to your other patrons."
"Okay, sure, and, when we get back, I'll make you something that will have you joining everyone else at the dinner time. You even start counting the hours until its chow time!" Ebony replied, to which Eliza's response was a defeated sigh. "I'll prepare a creamy soup with a stew."
The journey to the Hamlet would take them past the Warrens first, and then back on the road through the Weald. A few days through the estate before they could return to the safety of civilization.
Or so that was the original plan.
The problem was that Ebony had a need to look over whatever they came across to see if it was edible and worth preparing in a meal. It was commendable, and the duty to profession was something both the plague doctor and cook shared, but they both had a mission to return to the hamlet post haste.
"Do you need any specimens for your research?" Ebony asked as she stared into the woods, seeming to have spotted something. "We could go a little ways toward the Warrens and get one or two of the swinefolk, but there is a distance I cannot follow."
Ebony was bound by her contracts and pacts, normally made with those she fed and her Great master, but she also had the pacts with those that ruled the other areas of the estate. Without reason, she could not enter the burrows of the Warrens the swine made theirs.
Eliza considered this offer. "I do not know if The Thirst can affect swinefolk. Normally, the Viscount would have them captured, prepped, and served on his table before I could so much as take a blood sample. He even drank the blood, usually from a pitcher or mug." The plague doctor informed with an annoyed tone. "If it is not too much trouble for you, I would like to run a few tests on their blood, of course. A living body would be last longer and provide more materials." She replied.
Ebony looked at the plague doctor, smiled, and nodded. "Oh! That gives me a few ideas! I can take one alive and cut off its limbs for food if we meet anyone else, or prepare as jerky. We should go a little ways off the road and see if we can find any of the hunting patrols." She suggested before looking toward the woods. "Do you want to stay here, or should we go together?" She asked.
She considered the offer. "I will stay on the road and continue to the Hamlet. I am sure you will catch up when you have finished." She informed. "I will be alright on my own. Do not forget that I have lived with a curse for a little more than six decades, and chemistry is not the only thing I have worked on." She informed, drawing her straight dagger briefly to show that she was armed.
"I know you hunger, I can feel it, but it is a different hunger from what I am used to."
The girl startled awake and immediately checked to make sure her hood was still on her head and her bag at her side. "Oh no! My clover's gone." She said, noticing it missing from the button of her bag, before she began to look around for the tiny flower.
"You are a strange one, and that's something coming from me. You will be a challenge to keep fed."
Hood blinked her eyes as she looked for her clover, pausing only when the cart she was on bumped on a rock and her companion let out a shriek; causing their captor to turn its head and squeal at them.
Hood ignored the squeal and watched her companion as she shuddered from the pain, the chain that connected to her current heart dangling over the side of the cart. "Are you talking to me? I could use a slice of cake, but I really want my clover for luck."
Offering did not reply, her body twitching from the glorious pain she had just subjected herself to, and seeming to be going through an experience Hood was very familiar with, only with a partner and from another P-word.
"Cake I can do, but your true hunger is very interesting. I am heading back to the Hamlet. Would you allow me to take you there with me and my friend?"
Hood stopped looking, and began listening. "Only if you find my clover." She said, prompting her captor to turn its head again and squeal at her; this time, it was more of an angry command.
"Does it have to be that specific clover? I might be able to make you an even better clover on the way to the Hamlet, and then you'll have it safely in your belly."
"I don't- oof!" Hood began to say, but then the cart was dropped, immediately and without a word or squeal. She fell forward, attempting to catch herself with her hands, but the length of her bindings prevented from doing so, resulting in her hitting the the bottom of the cart with her shoulder.
Hood pouted as she rose, sitting up in the cart, and rubbed her shoulder as she looked at her captor. "Big meanie! That hurt!" She said as the swinefolk drew its serrated cleaver in one hand and wrapped the chain of its heavy iron ball around the wrist of the other.
Her eyes turned to see a small figure approaching, walking calmly along the road.
"Give me a moment. I made a promise to a friend."
It shook her to her core.
The pain! The incredible, exquisite pain that surged through her!
She felt herself smack against Death's door at that moment before being thrown back into the world of life as her body convulsed and writhed in pleasure.
"Are you alright? You seem to be enjoying yourself, but doing stuff like that will get you killed."
Offering wiggled against her restraints, bindings she herself had to tighten lest they were too loose for her liking. For a captive, she did have words of criticism for how the swine could have done a better job.
Then again, she was only a farmer's daughter. She knew how to tie several knots, but she did not know if there was a technique to tying binding knots.
"Are you gagged or just not paying attention like the other one? I tend to all kinds of hungers, after all. You wouldn't be the first masochist I've taken to the grave."
Offering rolled her head back and forth as the pain of her heart being run over faded, the demon's magic that kept her dying of normal causes that a human would die from; such as their heart being outside their body and extreme trauma to it.
This did not stop her from trying to make it stop. Not that she was suicidal, but she loved the thrill of the pain and hurting.
"Hmm. Let's talk over dinner then. Think about what you'd like to eat."
Offering then felt the cart drop as the swinefolk let go of the handles. She heard Hood speaking, clearly this time without the influence of pain, and took a deep breath before attempting to raise herself up.
Ebony's approach to the cart was not one out of necessity to rescue the humans within it, but one to investigate the pig before her.
The swine chopper, however, threw its spiked ball at her with a squealing battle-cry before beginning to move toward her.
The ball hit Ebony in her head, the impact causing her to stop mid-stride as her leg touching the ground tensed to keep her upright, and then her leg in the air came down on the ground when the swine pulled its mace back toward itself.
Ebony's head had an impression half an inch deep in it from where the ball had hit, her right eye had been piercing and oozed, but there was no blood, she did not seem to react, and her smile turned into a toothy grin.
The ooze from her eye was already being drawn back in as the wound sealed and the impression on her head began to fill.
"Hock, knee, pastern, cannon bone, dewclaw, and feet are probably going to be for me. I'll have to clean the meat too." She spoke aloud, looking at the swine as the distance between them lessened more and more. "I'm looking forward to cooking your ham and shoulders. The flanks and loins will likely be jerky for the-"
A diagonal slash from its cleaver silenced her, the blade driving in through her head until it met resistance in the form of the end of the jaw on her body, cutting through her head with ease and the mouth of her head.
Ebony looked up at the chopper's face with a smile from both side of her split face, much to the surprise of the swine.
She did not bleed. She did not show pain. She did show interest in the creature, or rather meat, in front of her... and a trace of hunger could be seen in her eyes.
Wisely, the swine tried to tear its blade free and raised its other hand up to slam the iron ball on Ebony like it was a flail, but the blade, stuck in the bone of her body-sized jaw, did not move, but the iron ball did strike her and cave-in nearly half of her upper right torso.
Ebony's response was to reach with her right hand and grab the swine's chain-wielding wrist, digging her four fingers into the swine's thick, meaty flesh; drawing blood and a squeal of pain from the meat.
Ebony's body then snapped back together, save for where the cleaver was still in, and her teeth, normally like hill, shaped into sharper ones (much like peaks or spikes), changing and moving in her jaw like a shark's might. "To be fair, I would have gone looking for you later anyway. After all..." She began to say, but paused when it drew its hand back, letting go of its cleaver, and snatched that wrist too. "I hunt the wolves that raid my pens and steal the flocks and hens within."
The swine tried to lift her off the ground, and succeeded given her small size, but, before it could do anything else, her feet went up, her legs stretching, and the toes went toward its throat, grabbing on and digging into the muscles.
As it tried to shape and pull her off, her mouth opened... and she pulled herself closer to it.
There was a crunch as powerful, otherworldly jaws bit through thick fat and muscle and strong bone entrap and encircle the swine's head and neck, and then disappear into her maw... and that was all it took.
Ebony's momentum sent her forward, past the chopper's shoulders, and causing herself and the body to fall in front of the meat wagon it had been carrying back to the Warrens. At least she was able to land on her feet, but the swine's body landed with a thud and spraying blood all over the small cook.
She paid no mind to the blood bath and instead looked at the wagon, tilting her head and smiling as the two within managed to get themselves up and able to look at their savior.
"So... what part would you two like to eat?" Ebony asked.