It was my turn to scream — not from the pain, but from the traumatizing experience. As the creature was latched firmly onto my wrist, I could feel my precious blood being sucked away and I was unable to escape Master Dagg's iron grip.
He allowed the creature to feed for several minutes before tearing it away from the wound and examining it thoroughly.
My eyes regarded Master Dagg weakly, not wanting to know what he would do to me next.
His pensive gaze suddenly twisted to an expression of revelation, as though he had made a new discovery. “Yes … YES!!!” his rasping voice exclaimed in approval. “You have no idea how long it took me to test this theory!” He grinned down at me and showed me the struggling creature once more.
The entrails from its severed body had now begun to heal rapidly, melding the broken, rotting skin together over the bone with newly-formed tissue. As the face of the creature healed, it reshaped itself into the harpy it had once been — the very same type that attacked me and my family.
“That … That thing!” I exclaimed. “It's —!”
“Alive?” Master Dagg interjected with a smile. “You could say that, My Dear. This harpy has long-since passed the realm of death and has entered the realm of the undeath. It feeds on the essence of life — much like your blood. It can become invigorated just by the smell of fresh, flowing blood. Harpies are vicious creatures, you know. They will prey upon anything and everything. They will strip its victim down to bones in mere seconds.”
I paled and attempted to withdraw my hand from the table, but Master Dagg continued to hold it down. It was these types of creatures that Father had feared for so long; now one of them had just taken away a portion of my life's essence.
“How could you do this?” I glared at Master Dagg. “These very creatures — harpies — killed my entire family in a matter of minutes!”
“Death is not fickle, Jasmine,” he said simply, then shifted his eyes back to the struggling harpy once more. Finally letting go of my wrist, he raised his hand, from which tiny claw-like points extended from his fingers.
I stared at his hands in awe, trying to convince myself that my mind was playing tricks on me.
His clawed hand swooped down towards the harpy's neck and tore through the thin tissue of its throat, severing and pulling out part of its spinal cord. My precious blood spilled from the creature and curdled into a small puddle at Master Dagg's feet. The unnatural healing had stopped and the harpy was once again reduced to a heap of bone and rotting flesh. The dark magic that had once possessed the creature was now long gone.
Master Dagg placed the harpy corpse onto the table and withdrew his hand, his ‘claws’ retracting.
“You are mad….” I shook my head with eyes widened in horror.
“Those who do not understand the Art of Death call me ‘mad’.” He smiled. “However, there is a reason for my ‘madness,’ Jasmine.”
“Care to tell me this reason?” I retorted in a bitter tone.
He took a moment to consider while he casually wiped off the excess blood and gore from his hands onto his dark robes. “When I'm in the mood, I might feel inclined to tell you. In the meantime, do not ask me again, or I shall re-animate this creature to feast on the rest of your precious blood.”
The sadistic tone in his warning was more than enough for me to dismiss any further thoughts and arguments on the matter.
He led me out of the dungeon and into the ‘hospitality’ portion of the cave. There were some cabinets and a pantry lining the wall of this small cavern. A small table with two chairs was placed in the center of the room. This was perhaps the most inviting of all the rooms I visited.
“Here is where you will eat,” Master Dagg explained with a simple hand gesture.
Despite all of the grisly scenes I had endured, I never lost my appetite. The thought of food immediately roused my hunger, as I could not remember the last time I had a good meal.
“Have you had any trouble finding food around here?” I inquired. “The drought took a heavy toll on the countryside. I'm curious to know if this area has been affected, as well.”
Master Dagg gave me a light shrug. “It is not too hard to find food,” he replied. “Sometimes, I find rare delicacies like eel around the swamps which lie just above this cave. I am not particular with my food and neither should you be.”
“Oh! Of course, not!” I shook my head quickly, though the sound of eating anything from the fetid swamps was not exactly appealing, either. “So, um … what are we eating today?”
“That depends on what you catch,” he said, then flashed me a fanged smile. “As for me, I feel like eating bream tonight.”
My jaw dropped. “Do I really have to catch my own food?!”
“You do, unless you wish to starve to death,” he said, nodding once. “Though, I do hope you can stomach raw seafood, because that is all the swamps have to offer — and that is the way I like it.”
There was no time for me to protest any further on the matter, as he had already left for one of the tunnel exits that led to the outside world. As I proceeded to follow, I suddenly realized that the day was not yet over and I had already found Master Dagg hauntingly intriguing.
With hastened steps, I followed Master Dagg out of the cave and was graced with the darkness and cool, refreshing air of the outside world. It was a stark contrast to being down in the rank caverns below.
The cave itself sat in the midst of a large area of swampy lands which stretched beyond my line of sight. These wetlands carried their own unique beauty shrouded in the dark shadows that the Blood Moon provided. It appeared to always be cloudy here and raining most of the time without signs of relenting, which, I assumed was the reason for the area's constant, dreary state.
Master Dagg looked at me expectantly, as though waiting for me to initiate the hunt. Tonight, it seemed, I would learn how to become a predator.
I gazed across the wetlands, frowning at my limited choice in targets. My eyes caught sight of various movements of small fish in the murky water and I approached the banks slowly. The vibrations of my footsteps were easily felt by the tiny minnows that swam about and they immediately scattered. I exhaled in frustration and could hear Master Dagg's dark chuckling behind me.
“You do not even know how to catch your own food,” he said smugly. “You truly are a pitiful little child.”
“Then, show me how!” I snapped back, not realizing the thin line I tread from my sudden outburst.
His eyes flickered at me in amusement and he averted his attention back to the water. Perhaps, my eyes were not as attuned as his, because he began traversing the waters, following a seemingly invisible path laid by the fish that swam beneath the murky cloud. Master Dagg's eyes were focused, following the slightest of movements. He sniffed once, then stood perfectly still, watching the waters. As swift as a cat, he suddenly lashed out into the water, pulling out a handful of minnows. I cringed as he showed the abundant, tiny, silver fish to me while keeping them from wriggling free from his grasp. Afterwards, he began consuming their live bodies by the mouthful, practically swallowing them whole.
My eyes widened in disgust at the sight and I finally turned away and covered my mouth as I felt the urge to vomit. The loud sounds of his slurping and lips smacking unnerved me further, practically spoiling my appetite.
“That's disgusting!” I exclaimed.
Master Dagg licked the excess fish innards from his lips and wiped the rest from his mouth with the back of his sleeve before looking to me icily.
“Such a spoiled little child you are,” he replied. “But of course, you can choose not to eat at all and continue withering away to nothing. Alive or dead, I will find use for you.”