“The Hunger Beneath”
In a forgotten village nestled between the mountains and the mist, there lived a healer named Elira. She was known for her wisdom, her kindness, and her uncanny ability to mend wounds that others deemed fatal. But Elira carried a secret—one that pulsed beneath her skin like a second heartbeat.
She had been born under a blood moon, a night when the sky turned crimson and the wolves howled without pause. Her mother, a midwife, had whispered that Elira was touched by something ancient. Not cursed, not blessed—just different.
Years passed, and Elira’s fame grew. People traveled from distant lands to seek her remedies. But one day, a stranger arrived. He wore a cloak stitched from raven feathers and spoke in riddles. His name was Kael, and he claimed to be a scholar of forgotten truths.
“I’ve heard of your gift,” he said. “But I wonder—do you know what lies beneath your own flesh?”
Elira laughed, brushing off the question. But Kael’s eyes lingered too long, and his presence unsettled her. That night, she dreamt of a forest where the trees bled and the earth whispered her name.
Days later, Kael returned—not as a scholar, but as a seeker of something darker. He brought with him an ancient blade, etched with symbols that shimmered like fireflies. “I must know,” he said. “I must see what you carry inside.”
Elira tried to flee, but the village had changed. The people who once adored her now watched silently, as if under a spell. Kael approached, and with a voice like thunder, he spoke a word that froze the air.
She collapsed.
What followed was not a slaughter, but a ritual. Kael opened her belly—not with cruelty, but reverence. And inside, he did not find organs or blood. He found light. A swirling mass of memory, pain, and power. It was not flesh he consumed, but truth.
As he devoured the light, Elira’s body faded, but her essence remained. The village awoke from its trance, and Kael vanished into the mist. From that day forward, the forest grew wild, and the wind carried Elira’s name.
Some say she became the spirit of healing. Others say she was a warning—that knowledge, when consumed without compassion, becomes hunger.
