Magic, and by some extension her mother, were still terribly forbidding things. Salvia understood what she could touch. The earth was real. Water was real. Blood was real. This was what she reminded herself as she watched the ceremony unfold. Fire was sacred in all forms, but more-so when it was used in ritual. Even the rabbit, so simple a thing, was not overlooked for its purpose and form. She observed because this was vital; this was as much a test now as her passage through Inferni’s borders and into the heart of the beast. Had she been caught, she might have been killed. A slight shiver rippled up her spine, but of fear or excitement, she did not know.
A bone knife, simple in its shape, gleamed out of the darkness that both surrounded and was her mother. Salvia reached out with one slightly-trembling hand and lifted the dead thing. It was lighter than she imagined. If she had any concept of the life behind this tool, she might have imagined it to weigh more. Had she known the woman whose daughter this once was lived among them, she might have cried out with wonder. Yet it was only a dead thing to her, nothing more.
Her eyes turned towards the rabbit. She moved slowly, extending one hand to grasp the animal. Bound as it was there was no need for her to do such a thing, but her behavior was driven by a sudden bloodlust she could not control. With one jab she struck the femur-dagger into the chest of the rabbit. A scream broke from the small thing as she dragged it down, cutting open the body with slowness nothing less than cruel. Her face showed no joy, but her pupils had gone wide and sucked in this misery like a vampire. Her lips split, white teeth gleaming, tongue pressed against the bottom of her lower jaw. Then there was silence.
In a daze, she looked at the dead thing and found she saw nothing. Unwilling to let her mother be disappointed, Salvia began pulling at the innards. Nothing. She toyed with them, turned them over, but even as she emptied the carcass nearly completely she knew that this was not to be. Sadness and fear of disappointment overwhelmed her and a low, nearly silent whine escaped the girl.
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