Page 16 of Meat

Ravnar had taken Krogg’s place on the log seat. He stretched his wet feet to dry them by the fire.

“I told you,” he grunted. “That little critter bit me. Rotting hard.”

“This little thing?”

It was so small and weak, it hardly seemed like something dangerous. Still, Krogg knew as well as anyone that even the meekest little animal could be dangerous when cornered.

“I’m telling you,” Ravnar snorted. “It may not look it, but that thing’s got a set of teeth on it. A few inches to the left and it would have bit my piss stick right off.”

Krogg burst out laughing. The sound startled the bound animal.

“So what is it?” Jale asked, peering over Krogg’s shoulder.

Krogg combed his fingers through his beard. “Not sure…”

It wasn’t a nith, that was for rotted sure. Nith had jet black skin, bumpy like tree bark, and elongated snouts. This little critter didn’t match that description.

It could almost be an ukkur like Krogg and the others, but there were too many differences.

For one thing, there was the size. Far too small for an ukkur. Then there was the matter of that strange little mouth between its legs. The ukkur didn’t have one of those either.

Krogg swiped those soft lips with his finger. The animal whimpered at his touch. Something about that weak, helpless sound excited him.

He was about to insert his finger into the hole but thought better of it.

“This little mouth,” he said to Ravnar. “Are there teeth in there?”

Ravnar shook his head, and a smirk twisted the corner of his lips.

“No teeth.”

So, the hunter had inspected that tight little hole, had he? Krogg was not surprised. There was something about that alien orifice that excited him, that sent a rush of blood and desire flowing straight into his stick, hardening him with urges he did not understand.

It merited investigation.

Krogg greased his long middle finger with his saliva and shoved it into the nether opening. The creature yelped. At first, Krogg thought he had hurt the little thing, but as he worked his finger around those soft inner tissues, the pained sound transitioned into a different kind of moan.

That weird little mouth watered and seemed almost to suck at his finger.

Krogg drew his digits out, slick with the creature’s saliva.

He sniffed the fluid.

Licked it.

No, it wasn’t saliva, was it?

His eyes flicked up, and he saw Ravnar watching over the top of the fire with a grin on his ugly, bastard face.

“Tastes good, doesn’t it?”

“Aye.”

“Let me taste,” Jale said, and reached for that hole. Krogg swatted the young ukkur’s hand away.

“Not now.”

He looked back at Ravnar who was reclining on his log seat, his back against a tree trunk, fingers laced behind his shaved head. Ravnar quirked a smug eyebrow, proud of his unusual find.