SERIOUS: On the run...
Vaalm paused to rest a moment, panting faintly. He had been travelling for three days without finding a suitable victim and was famished. He had been able to keep his energy up by draining the occasional animal, but animal blood doesn't sustain him very long. He needed the blood of a sapient or better yet, a sentient being in order to regain his strength.
Life for a Teuzo was hard out here in the native lands for suitable prey was spread out so much. His kin in the cities had it much easier...preying on the homeless. After all...who would miss a homeless individual? He was starting to regret ever leaving Carthag, but his last meal turned out to be a rather important glukkon...how was he to know that gluk was a well respected detective maskeraiding as a homeless glukk to catch a dangerous criminal? And the problem was that he was knownin Carthag...some of the slave masters would occasionally hire him to track down an escaped slave...and dispose of him or her.
He had to admit...he liked those occasional 'jobs' as slaves tasted were higher up on the taste ranking then homeless folk. Those were always fearful of getting caught and killed, most of the homeless could careless...so deep in their sorrow and pity for themselves. And sorrow and pity were the worse tasting emotions in a Teuzo's book. Fear was much higher up and was considered a staple of a Teuzo's diet. Yes, he had made the homeless fear him successfully on occasion...but most knew of him and often asked idly 'who he was going to take tonight', which was boring...no suspense, no fear, no nothing...they had come to expect death by his hand...and someone expecting and wanting to die were the absolute worse tasting.
But now they wanted him dead..due to a mistake. They should have informed him that that gluk was going to be in the area...he would have left him alone and chosen someone else. Something in the back of his mind was telling him that he had been set up, but he know that since he actually did kill him...there was no way he could clear his name. He managed to escape the city...but how he got to this huge forest was nothing but a blur to him at the moment. But right now there were more importent matters...such as finding food. So he shook himself out of his thoughts and continued on.
He strode through the forest easily enough, his long limbs carrying him a good destance with each stride. Vaalm's kind were tall, thin, scraggly looking creatures, looking for the most part reptilian. The head was much like a komodo dragons, save for three fleshy protrusions starting just behind the nose and arcing all the way to behind his head, one on top of the snout and one on either side of the snout; these served as his heat sensors. The head also sported a total of six, completely black, eyes, three on each side. The neck was long, about two feet, and the top part covered with hard scales, not unlike a crocs. Along his shoulders and backside was coarse hair, which at the rear end hung down like a boneless horse tail. His limbs looked wirery and thing, and they were long; his upper arms themselves were two feet long. He had three taloned fingers and toes on each limb, on the heads one finger was reversed and served as a thumb. His hind legs were ditigrade and had a foot long 'spur' protruding from just below his knee: his lower forearms also had these spurs...on the outer side just below the elbow.
The whole package was a matte black in color and stood ten feet tall; when he could be arsed to stand up fully on this hind legs. His kind tend to prefer walking on all fours, lowering his height almost by half. This made them less intimadating and more animal like, therefore, if a victim spotted them before they could strike they were more likely to thing they were 'just a weird animal'. That is as long as they didn't notice the two inch long fangs protruding from their mouthes.
He stopped in his tracks, his heat sensors were tingling like crazy, meaning: warm bodied life form nearby.
Probably another animal... he thought, frowning. But in his weaken state he couldn't afford to pass up a meal. So moved his head about, discerning what direction the lifeform was in. Once he found that out he set out in that direction. As he got closer he got more info from his senses: small to mid sized creature, the scent of oil, motor oil, which meant this was an industrial creature.
He smiled: that meant it was at least sapient, which is just what he needed. Quickening his pace, but being careful not to make too much noise, he beelined for the creature, stopping behind a bush.
It was a slig, looking rather annoyed. It was looking around at the trees, apparently it was lost, or looking for someone or something. Vaalm didn't care though...
"Lost little sliggy?" Vaalm said as he burst out from behind the bush and stopped just in front of the slig, who toppled over startled. "Too bad...you'll serve my needs perfectly..."
"Piss off!" the slig growled as it leveled it's gun at him, something Vaalm didnt' see before...not that it really mattered.
"Tisk..." Vaalm said unconcerned and snatched the weapon out of the sligs hands, "Don't you know it's impolite to point?" He stood up fully now...towering over the slig and bared his fangs. The slig, clearly frightened now, picked itself up and bolted. Oh the fear! How tasty! Vaalm with sadastic glee, took one leap and had the slig pinned under him. With one hand he ripped the slig out of its pants and held him aloft.
"Don't worry sliggy..." he cooed softly, "Your blood go to a needy cause..."
With that last word he bit down ont he sligs throat, preventing any screams of help from happening. The warmth of the sligs blood flowed into his mouth and down his throat; he could feel his once waning strength returning. But also with that he gained snippets of the sligs memories. He had hoped this slig would have knowledge of a nearby town he could 'hang around' in until he was fully recovered, but he found himself disappointed.
Tossing the now limp slig's body aside, Vaalm snorted with disappointment. No matter, this meal will keep him for a day or so...time enough to try to find a town and then figure out what to do with himself.
Leaving the sligs body behind, he set off once again.
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