Illuminating the Dark Prince

Contention

The firelight brightly flickered across her youthful-looking slate grey face as she frowned, assessing me like the caring grandmother I knew she was. "Have you been eating enough?"

"Oh, definitely. I've practically been eating more fruit than Sagacor!" I pointed over my shoulder with my thumb towards the gluttonous undead stallion, just as he snuck a caedis fruit from some poor unsuspecting person's plate.

She tapped her chin with a claw and hummed in thought, a suspicious gleam twinkling in her gaze as it shifted between Valarendrik and me. "Hmm, child, your body needs more than just fruit. I'll bet you'd feel much better if you had some meat." She pointed to the ridiculously unappetizing remains of the three-eyed undead deer-like creature Oliver had killed. 

The dilapidated carcass had been subjected to brutal desquamation, but I could still see the long sharp quills jutting up from its spine and the fearsomely gnarled antlers protruding from its skull. A glistening puddle of black blood pooled on the cracked stone floor around its dark grey body, with hunks of dark red meat exposed where it had been cut into.

...Yuck.

Valarendrik, who had been very blatantly eavesdropping, thoughtfully glanced between me and the carcass a few times, while I tried to mask my repulsion. "Oh, um, I don't know. It seems a bit odd and unnatural for me to eat abyss meat, don't you think? My body is human, after all."

Her ponytail of tight ringlets bounced as she shrugged. "It's still protein. I'll bet you're needing better nutrition."

"I think she has a good point." Valarendrik said while caressing up and down my arm with his sharp claws. "There was much more variety for you to eat back in the forest. Here you've had nothing but fruit." His expression became extremely serious as he looked down at me. "I do not want you to become ill."

"Well, I probably will get sick if I eat a freaking zombie deer!" I waved my hand towards the disgusting thing. I felt my mood swinging hard, a wave of anger suddenly crashing over me for no apparent reason. Although, I tried not to let it show and reeled my whacky emotions back in to get a grip on myself.

Valarendrik's crown gently twitched as he carefully inspected my face with a slight frown, noticing my secret mood swing. "Would you try a small piece if it were cooked?"

"I can give you the piece that I just cooked." Oliver kindly offered while holding up a small plate. "It was for Rosalie, but she doesn't seem hungry anymore, having already eaten two servings and all." He chuckled while hugging the smiling girl a bit tighter with his free arm.

"Thank you, Oliver." Valarendrik kindly replied, not even waiting to hear my answer. A few black tendrils of shadows slithered through the air and wrapped around the plate, then carried it back to us. He grabbed the plate from the swirling darkness and held it in front of me with a wide caring smile. "Here, you should at least try it."

"Um..." I stared at it with a wide-eyed look of poorly hidden disgust. The slab of dark red meat was oozing thick black blood onto the rough stone plate and smelt like a roasted squid. "I don't kno-" Something felt like it twisted within my stomach and an unexpected ravenous sensation replaced my reluctance. It was like a switch had been flipped, making me crave the meat with strange desperation and bloodlust. "Well okay, I guess I'll try it." I hastily grabbed the chunk of bloody flesh with my bare hands, not even bothering to cut it up, and began tearing it apart with my teeth like a starving animal.

...What the hell am I doing!? And why can't I seem to stop myself!?

"Ah, you see, you must need the nutrients." Valarendrik thoughtfully mentioned while happily watching me feast like a flesh-hungry grue. "I shall put more on the fire for you."