29.1ᴘᴀᴛʀᴇᴏɴ.ᴄᴏᴍ/sᴛʀᴀᴛᴏᴛʜʀᴀx

Inside the breeding pens dried grasses covered the ground and the air stunk of musk. Muffled voices hidden by wooden walls broke the silence.

They paused at the corner of the first wall and Rain poked his head around. A pair of Goblins were arguing beside some kind of lumpy blanketed table.

"It's my turn!"

"Your turn? This is the end of the tribe. If we're all gonna die I want to go out riding dick!

"W-what! That's ridiculous! I'm on the schedule for today, look, look, my mark is on the schedule. It's clear that you haven't a leg to stand on, he's all mine. "

"Fuck the schedule, and fuck you."

The Goblin punched the other Goblin in the eye, she went reeling and sat down with a thump.

"You bitch!" said the Goblin, rubbing her eye.

The Goblin who had thrown the punch was no longer looking in her direction however and was pulling aside the sheet. A pair of stumps, legs that had been severed at the knee, were revealed, as well as a wrapping of chains, then as she pulled the sheet back further a loincloth.

She licked her lips and crawled up on top of the table.

A growl from behind made her freeze up and slowly turn around. Her eyes glanced over the corpse of the punched goblin lying on the ground and then up to the massive blood covered black wolf monster.

"Ahaha heyyyy there. Don't suppose you'd let me have a little fun before you get me? maybe?"

"No."

A paw flashed out and she was dragged into his jaws with a squeal of fear, swiftly ending her life.

Rain tugged on the chain and the Elf-sheep who had been holding onto the wall to keep herself up whimpered and tottered after him. Her entire lower body was trembling uncontrollably now and she looked near ready to keel over.

Rain walked to the far end of the table and pulled back the sheet. A pure blood Minotaur's head was revealed, his head encased in a metal frame and his jaw forced open with a metal bar. Scars marred his face and one of his eyes was missing. The good eye looked up at Rain, pleading. Rain tilted his head to the side, he didn't think anyone about to die by his jaws had ever given him that look before. He gave the Minotaur what he wanted and ripped out his throat. The look of sheer peace that crossed the Minotaur's face gave Rain a moment of pause. It was incongruous with his experience and it bothered him, prey normally did not want to die like this.

The elf-sheep appeared at his side.

"He was a Minotaur, one of the most prideful species. I think this must have been a hell tailored to his worst nightmares, poor guy."

"I assume he tried to escape more than once going by the wounds."

"Most likely. Some species do much worse than others in captivity, some better. This tribe should have been exterminated a long time ago, if only the local town ranker wasn't a lazy asshole."

"I know of him. He is on my list."

"What list is that?"

"The list where they get eaten bit by bit while still alive."

The Elf-sheep shuddered and gave him a wary glance.

"Is this what you wanted to show me? Because it's not enough to save your life."

"N-No! No, this is something else, I didn't know about this guy or what was being done to him. What I wanted to show you is further in, I think… I hope."

"Hope?"

"Know with absolute certainty to be one hundred percent factual. I have supreme confidence that it is the case with zero doubt whatsoever that it is anything other than what I know to be true."

Rain squinted at the nervous looking Elf-sheep. Then tugged on her chains and they passed through to the next partition. A pair of human women were curled up in the piles of dry grass. Rain realised that this was what the Elf-sheep had wanted to show him for they were both clearly pregnant. The pair looked up at him with fearful eyes and scrambled back.

The Elf-sheep stepped forward.

"It's okay now, everything's going to be fine."

She turned on Rain with a quietly confident look.

"See, told you, it's something you wouldn't want to deal with."

"Why."

"Well, it's obvious, isn't it. You're not going to eat pregnant people!"

Rain furrowed his brow in thought.

The Elf-sheep blinked and then worry crossed her face.

"Y-you a-aren't are y-you?"

Rain knew he was now a monster and no longer Human, it was just a fact, not that he had led a particularly normal Human life. Still, he remained at his core Human, even if he was now drenched in so much blood.

This feels like a line that Human me really doesn't want to cross. I don't want to cross it either, but I'm just so hungry, so painfully hungry, and they are just there, but they're not like bloodthirsty monsters, or even regular callous and cruel levelers, or the already dead, this is...