In a few minutes, the hole was deep. Saaral barely felt the exertion. She kicked the body into the hole and buried it, brushing the earth from her hands as she stood.

Then, she calmly walked back to camp. For a moment, she considered walking away as she did every night, but where would she go that Kuluun would not find her? He told her every night.

“If you leave, I will fly out and find you. Send one of my sons in every direction until they track you down and drag you back. Then I will bind you in my tent every night. I will bury you when you sleep, so you wake with the earth in your mouth.”

If there was any threat that Saaral feared, it was waking with the earth in her mouth. It struck a primal fear into her that bordered on madness. She froze even at the thought, and Kuluun knew this.

But as she crossed the river, she saw him. His glare chilled the blood in her stomach, and she suddenly felt like vomiting up every drop of blood she’d taken. He knew. He would be able to see her energy. See the flush in her face. See the life in her eyes.

In the blink of an eye, Saaral ran.

She ducked back into the copse of trees, darting this way and that, running under the branches where the monsters could not sweep down from above. But in too short a time, the trees ran out and she faced a broad meadow. She could hear them behind her, the humans crashing through the brush, the swirl of Sida above. She had nowhere to turn. Going back into the brush put her in the path of the humans. Going forward put her at the mercy of Kuluun.

She felt her fangs drop, and she ran into the meadow.

Perhaps, the blood of the old man would make her strong enough.

Perhaps, she would make the distant stand of trees that promised shelter.

Perhaps—

“I told you, Saaral.”

He grabbed her by the hair.

“No!” she screamed, her voice rang thought the cool night air. “Let me go!”

Kuluun swept her up, jerking her closer as she struggled against his hold. She tried to reach for the blade at his waist to cut off her long braid and release herself, but she couldn’t reach. He saw her trying for the knife and backhanded her, causing her vision to blacken and stars to flash at the edges of her vision.

“I told you.”

“Just let me go.” She twisted and fought, desperate as she hadn’t been since the first night she’d been taken. “Please, Kuluun,” she begged. “Let me—”

He cut her off and pulled her to his face, baring his teeth and hissing in her face. “You are mine. You do what I tell you. You drink what I give you. And you will not forget it again.”

Then Kuluun shook her so hard, her brain rattled and she heard the bones in her spine crack. Her body fell dead as she lost the feeling from her neck down. Her limbs hung loose, flapping in the cold wind as Kuluun circled and turned back to the camp.

She stared helplessly at the stars, letting her mind go blank.

Dark.

Quiet.

In the blackness, her senses clarified.

Everything in her stilled. She focused on one sensation.

One thought.

She enjoyed the feeling of the wind in her hair.

Saaral woke with the earth in her mouth and a burning hunger in her belly.

She tried to scream. She tried to struggle. But as she desperately dug her way to what she thought was the surface, a hand plunged into the earth and grabbed her neck. It twisted until her spine cracked again, and she lost the ability to move. Then she lay still and terrified in the darkness as distant voices walked away from her, leaving her alone.

She panted, the dust creeping into her lungs until she was forced to close her mouth. Forced to stop breathing. She lay in the silent earth, unable to move as her body, starved of fresh blood, slowly repaired itself.

Hours later, the voices approached again, but they did not come close. She could hear the screams of human captives. She heard children crying and men laughing. The humans had gone on a raiding party that day, and Saaral recognized the sounds of fresh slaughter. Her throat burned in hunger, but she had no relief. Little by little, the feeling returned to her legs.

She felt a hand reach down for her, testing to make sure she remained in her living grave. Then it withdrew, and she was alone again.

She closed her eyes and tried to imagine the wind.

Nights passed.

Weeks.

Months.

Saaral woke every night with the earth in her mouth. She did not move. She no longer struggled. She never spoke. She left her body, watching from above as Kuluun, Suk, or Odval checked her each night, sometimes giving her pony blood to keep her alive, sometimes giving her nothing. Always twisting her neck so she was captive to her own useless body as they had made her captive to the earth.

And she watched from above as they dug her out, raped her, then buried her again.

As the months went by, she watched more often from away, leaving the prison of Saaral’s body and drifting above, rising out of the tent and into the skies above until she was part of the darkness. The moon spoke to her. The stars embraced her. The night wind whispered its secrets as her seasons in the earth passed.

By the time Kuluun dug her out of the ground, Saraal had become nothing.

Chapter Three: The Madness

Saaral watched her flit around the tent as Odval grunted between her legs. The laughing creature pointed silently, mimicking the look of pained pleasure the Sida wore as he found his release.

“Ungh, Saaral,” Odval said. “So tight. Not like the humans.”

Odval was so hairy, Saraal wondered whether he’d needed to wear clothes when he was human. Perhaps he had run naked like a pony. He had that much hair.