Hunger is an emotion almost as primal as fear, and is by far the most powerful driving force when it comes to hunting. A hunter whose belly is full has little chance of catching a meal, compared to a hunter whose belly is empty. The closer to starvation a hunter becomes, the greater their senses, reflexes and determination, as they know full well that a single sign of danger would send their meal, in a fear-driven panic, far out of their reach.
Nothing is harder to escape than a motivated hunter, and Lisa was ravenous.
Her saliva dripped, eagerly, from her half-open and fully malformed mouth. Her nails were razor-tipped and her claw was carried steadily by her side, awaiting immediate reaction when Lisa needed it. Every step she took was deliberate and calculated, her photographic memory of each splinter of rotten wood acting as her guide to keeping absolutely silent.
To an outside observer, the humming in the wall opposite Lisa might've been barely noticed. But to her, it was deafening.
She crouched along the side of the wall, feeling its surface with her claw. The humming's source was pinpointed, and with her ear now to the wall Lisa could make out subtle clicking noises alongside it. Her claw was pulled back and aimed at a small crack in the wall.
It bursted straight through, with a combination of wood, blood and screams filling the air when it did so. Lisa licked the red covering the tip of her claw. The blood fuelled her instincts and the splinters reformed themselves as part of her mouth.
The leaking wound that Lisa had created left clear marks for her to follow in the mud. She parted a few reeds and rounded some corners before finding its host. They soon lay slumped on the ground, crying, with Lisa once again licking her claw in delight.
The morsel was than placed on Lisa's shoulders, held up despite her crooked posture, and struggled all the way to the piercing metal it was placed on. Their screams garnered Lisa small satisfaction, as she could not indulge herself to the taste of their flesh just yet. But every scream brought her closer to doing so.
Lisa placed her signs around the dangling meat before letting her eye drift from them and onto the misty landscape. It always felt a little odd to her, looking away from trapped morsels. They were always bleeding, sobbing, and struggling in order to free themselves, so very temptingly...but she knew that the beast watching from deep within the fog would come out if her stomach got the best of her mind. And so the morsels remained.
More signs were placed around the rotting wood and sinking earth, with every darkened sigil furthering Lisa's chance of a victorious hunt. The feeble minded morsels could scarcely avoid triggering them and Lisa's claw was eventually wrapped in a dank bundle of red-brown sinew.
So thoughtless, she pondered, as another one was strung up on crooked steel. So aimless, so weak...so delicious.
Her hopes and spirit reached greater heights than the shrieks of her victims as one of them was carried off into the sky, their shadowed silhouette being devoured by the familiar clutches of orange mandibles, and Lisa was all but certain that the others would soon follow.
She crouched and listened along the rotten boat's starboard bow. More of the humming, beckoning as always, was transmitting from its centre. Accompanying this audible target was more clicking. Lisa pushed herself against the side of the ship and peaked over its helm. A startled face looked back at her for a split second, before it sprinted away at high speed.
Lisa pursued it until they both reached a raised wooden platform, just losing sight of it as the panicking, gasping morsel, slipped behind some convenient cover. She grasped the wooden beams holding the platform in place and was tempted to knock the entire thing over, until she noticed one of her vital hooks on top of it, then thought better.
Eagerly, she climbed up and surveyed a multitude of crates and barrels, each likely to contain her prey, and started slashing at them, hoping to see blood among the splinters.
But as she reached the last crate at end of the platform, she flinched as a scream came from her rear, and Lisa was promptly knocked over the edge.
The mud was wiped from Lisa's sunken eyes as she desperately looked for what had attacked her.
Not even trying to hide itself, a morsel stood, triumphantly, at the edge of the platform. It waved and jeered at Lisa sitting in the bog, embracing their momentary glory for all that it was worth.
Lisa stood up.
She raised her claw directly at the fool who had felled her.
And just before charging headlong into the wooden beams supporting the platform, she shrieked.
Hooks be damned!
This conniving vermin would be rendered asunder!
The platform toppled over as the beams were smashed effortlessly.
The ground quaked, and was immediately covered in mangled wood.
The morsel lay squirming, trapped, under the avalanche of its own doing. Lisa, scarcely slowed by her demolition, stepped onto the morsel.
Its eyes were filled with terror and tears...then blood.
Lisa licked her bloody lips with unequaled satisfaction, then started towards the remaining machines.
Lisa couldn't have cared less about the crows watching in the trees. But they showed great interest in her recent stunt, and circled overhead, their cries ignored.
A few swooped near Lisa, but were battered away without care.
She didn't need a reminder of the consequences would be, should the remaining morsels escape. That had already been permanently stitched into her subconscious.
But her rage had subsided and she was once again in a state of focus and calm.
More traps were placed and set off, their phantasms either carrying Lisa closer to the morsel, or them closer to her. The remaining morsels tried so desperately to stay alive, but neither of them had the courage to out pace Lisa's hunger. To her glee, their sinew and bone was more numerous than their cunning and bravery.
As she watched the last shadow being carried off into the sky, Lisa sat down, and experienced the pleasure of a full stomach.
Completely, and finally, satisfied.