Oh great. Now I’m going to have that looping in my head as I die.I’m contemplating my horrible untimely death, as the creatures close in on me. Two of them reach down, pulling my boots from my feet, and one of them lifts my left foot to its face. It’s cold and slimy tongue wiggles between two of my toes, before he curves his tongue around, flicking it across the bottom of my foot. I’m terrified, but that doesn’t stop the involuntary laughter that bursts out of me at the ticklish sensation.
The creature stops and cocks its head, turning to its companion on its right side.“Mmm, delicious,”it says in itshigh-pitched musical voice.“Here, try this, Shazeke. Have you tasted such a thing?”
Every horrible fact Knox told me about the nemins’ eating habits repeats in my head, but when the next nemin copies its friend, licking my feet with its furred tongue, I can’t help laughing again. My stomach clenches as I’m helpless to stop myself. The only good thing right now, is that I still seem to have control over my inner muscles and my bladder, so I haven’t peed myself. Yet.
The nemins’ tongues are worse than feathers, and as they take turns licking my feet, tears of laughter soon stream down my cheeks. One of the nemins sucks on my big toe, his lips pressing together, while another lightly scrapes down my foot with its clawed finger.
Knox really understated how bad this would be, because it’s true torture. I know I should be grateful the pain hasn’t started yet, but the ticklish sensation is unbearable.
I fight to control my limbs, desperate to kick out and get the little creatures away from me, but my body won’t obey.
“Please stop,” I beg through tears of laughter. A tendril of power flicks out from my academy ring, but the magic is even harder to grasp than usual. The toxin in my system must be affecting what little power I’ve managed to harness in the past, and my eyes grow heavy, exhaustion trying to pull me under. I curse under my breath.
Still, when another tongue licks up the bottom of my foot, I manage to focus a small surge of shadow magic. It zaps out, a tiny, snake-like shadow flicking the creature who was licking me. The nemin yelps in surprise, its already comically large eyes getting even wider.Ha!I give myself a mental pat on the back.
“A strong one, this one is,”the shocked nemin comments, but it’s not too fazed, and my moment of triumph is fleeting as it goes back to licking and torturing me.
Another one of the nemin pauses, lifting its head to lick his lips.“So tasty,”it says in a musical voice.“Must savor this one for days. Might not get another like it.”
Days? Stuff that.
“Yes, days,”another nemin agrees, echoing its companion.
“Hmmm it’s suspicious to be so delicious,”rhymes the nemin who had serenaded me earlier.“Too strange, but shouldn’t complain.”
Another of the nemin, pulls back from my foot, cocking its head as it observes me with its large, circular eyes.“Tell us, tasty morsel. Why so much flavor? Not an ordinary human, are you stranger?”It stares at me with curiosity as it lets out a high-pitched whistling sound, before the noise cuts off again.
“Wish I knew,”I croak deliriously through laughter. My so-called mates still haven’t come to my rescue, and I really am starting to wonder if this will be how I die. It seems a ridiculous way to go. Not that I was expecting a warrior’s death or anything, but this seems seriously anticlimactic.
My laughter tapers off, and as I blink through my tears, it takes me a moment to realize it’s because they’re no longer tickling me. When I peer down, all of the creatures are standing still like tiny statues, and they’re staring at me with the same odd expression.
“Did you hear that?”one of the nemins finally says.
“It responded,”replies another.
“Understood you,”adds a third.
“Well yeah,”I answer, panting as I catch my breath.“You asked me a question, and I don’t want to be rude.”My throat is burning and raw from all the laughter, but I decide I need to keep talking to distract the creatures from the fact that I’m their dinner.“It’s nice to meet you. I’m Shade.”
The nemins are gaping at me now, which kind of makes sense, because I doubt they were expecting small talk from their meal.
“She can hear us,”a nemin comments.
“So peculiar,”another one adds.
“Disconcerting,”says a third.
“Hold on, can’t humans normally speak to you?”I ask, now completely weirded out. I decide I’ll have to try and unpack that discovery later. Right now, I’m wondering if this piece of information can work in my favor. The nemins all shake their heads in answer, and I remember what Galen said earlier about the little creatures being superstitious. It gives me an idea.“I mean, of course, you’re right. I’m no ordinary human and eating me would be a…a bad omen. You’ll be cursed. For eternity, or however long you creatures live.”I’m obviously making this up, but the nemins look unsettled now, so my comment has managed to hit the mark. A spark of hope ignites in my chest.
The nemins exchange uneasy glances like they’re not sure what to do, but one of the largest of them roughly grabs my foot again.“I don’t care, I’m starving,”it says, dipping its tongue between my toes again.
It’s barely there for a second before the first nemin who spoke slaps its companion hard, making it drop my foot.“Do you want to be cursed? We should leave her. Let one of the other creatures kill her while she’s vulnerable, and then we’ll recover our meal once she’s dead.”
I grimace, not sure if my plan is really working out for me.
The nemin who was slapped makes a disgusted face.“And eat it when it’s already dead? You know I hate it when my food goes cold.”
“We all do, but better to have it dead than suffer an unknown curse,”the nemin who slapped him explains.
