I am so undeniably, inevitably screwed both figuratively and literally. Seriously, I've got two hunky werewolves nearly drooling over me with nothing but my bra and panties left on. I should have run when I had the chance, but no, I just had to do as I was told like a good girl. At least, if I'm getting used as a fuck toy, I'm being used by two hot guys. I expected drooling, overly hairy and incompetent beasts.
Everybody in the village has been hyped up about the full moon this month, and for a good reason. Well, not hyped up so much as nervous and scared. Lately two werewolves have been prowling around the borders of the town, wandering through the woods all night to find something. It's been a whole month already, and the two have become more aggressive every night, almost like they had been waiting for something. Turns out, that's exactly what's going on, and they've actually waited patiently compared to their predecessors, at least according to some really old documents the priests found in the archives at the temple. Almost two hundred years ago, our village had stopped participating in ritualistic sacrifice. They abandoned the practice since the wolf pack had left, hopefully dead though more than likely just gone to prey on a different village. No one cared about the why, they just had a few massive parties to celebrate to end of the grotesque tradition.
Apparently in old times, werewolves had been at war with the centaurs, to the point that their numbers had dropped rather low. Specifically, the females, as the centaurs made up for their own low numbers and lower ferocity with strategy. Instead of only attacking the warriors, small units sneeked into the pack's territory to kill the women and children. The idea clearly had been to eliminate future fighters, since they had such trouble killing full grown werewolves. It would have worked too, except the current leader had decided that if werewolf women weren't around to have their children, their future warriors, then human women worked just as well. So, they went to all the nearby villages and snatched up virgin maidens to use for breeding. After the war ended they continued to do so, except they only took one every ten years for the pack. The humans had no chose, if they didn't comply their village was doomed. The wolves either took them out their selves, or left the centaurs to do the dirty work. So they gathered all the eligible women into the gathering hall and one got randomly selected by the head priest to be the sacrifice. The others were released, often going home to a celebration they they'd made it through, while the chosen one got prepared by the priests and priestesses. After a full day of prepping the sacrifice was bound and left alone deep into the woods by the villages strongest warriors. The books never do say what happens to the women afterwards, since none ever came back. It's theorized that they were bred until they died or became too old, and then became a quick meal. Some more optimistic writers thought the wolves may just keep them alive to work until their bodies gave out.
Either ending is enough to send shivers down my spine as I squished in between two other girls around my age. We'd been gathered up just like in the old times, except there are probably more of us now than before. Apparently parents would marry off their children extremely young, even to older men just so they weren't eligible to give away. Sure, your child gets married to a creep, but at least you can intervene if it gets bad, or even just divorce after the wedding night. Some men even took advantage of the situation by offering their 'services' to richer families to avoid the whole ordeal. I think there's probably more of us here this time than previous ceremonies, since we didn't have enough of a warning for us to decide whether we'd risk wolves or a total stranger. After all, there's approximately forty of us, some are in denial about the possibility of being chosen. A few of the more roughed up women/girls who'd spent a decent portion of their lives hunting or fighting had tried to argue that they weren't pretty enough to sacrifice since they were covered in scars. It didn't work, even for people like me who had large scars somewhere on their bodies.
"Hey, Amanda?" The tiny brunette, Tina I think, spoke up. This is girl is timid-looking, almost like a little doe. A fitting analogy since she may get eaten up by hungry wolves later. "Are you scared?"
Deep brown eyes starred up at me, getting cloudier as they filled with tears. "I suppose I am a bit scared, but I wouldn't worry too much until they pick some one. I wouldn't want to spend my last moments in the village just shivering and imaging the horrible things that might happen to me." She nodded and, bless her heart, attempted a brave face that fooled no one. Although at least she did better than others, not sobbing uncontrollably. Not many here are older than me, as I am seventeen and the cut off age is twenty. Of those few though, many were crying, which is only serving to make the younger girls here feel even more afraid. In an effort to reassure her, I held onto Tina's little hand and gently rubbed the back with my thumb. She seems so strong for some one so young, she can't be older than fourteen. "They wouldn't want you anyway, you're too young to even give the werewolves any babies. They'll definitely take some one older, like me."
"I don't want them to take anyone! It's not fair!" A small, bitter laugh escaped before I could stop it. It's not fair, none of this is fair, and it's not funny. In a few moments the sun will set, then one of us will be dragged into the temple to be prepared.
"But if they don't, everyone will die. Which is more fair, sacrifice one person or a whole village?" I know she's too young to see the logic in that, but she'll see when she's older.
We both umped as one of the lower priests banged the large gong at the back of the room. Several of the religious figures stood on the small platform there, all wrapped in scarlet robes, except for one, the high priest in pure white. He raised shaky, wrinkled hands to slowly pull the hood down. His cloudy blue eyes stared out at us all, the weight of his burden clear to us all. He is going to doom one of us to an awful life and an awful death. "Today we are gathered to chose one who will save the rest of us, by sacrificing themselves. This is not an easy decision," He paused to lick his lips, "but it is one that must be made. I am sorry to the one who must fulfill this role." A priestess brought him a small bowl with names written on tiny slips of paper. Four in total sat on a counter, grouped together by age. It's unspoken, but we all know only the oldest of us were in the bowl he dug through now.
He pulled out a single piece, and held it up, trying to read the poor girl's name. He licked his dry lips again before speaking. "Amanda Moore." I swear my heart stopped beating.
This really wasn't meant to be more than a one-shot, but once I got started I just couldn't stop writing! I like this so far and I hope you guys do too. Please let me know what you think, even if it's not positive!