I grinned as I watched Brutus throw a third prisoner in front of Hala. All in all, we'd captured five of the Misti Hawar in their ill-fated attack on the camp, Brutus responsible for three of them. For the first time, I really saw him in combat against a human-sized person, and it was inspiring and a little terrifying. With my sonic waves disturbing our feline enemies, they couldn't wrest control of the shadows enough to allow themselves to escape out of their corporeal forms. Then, it was them physically against Brutus, and there was no surprise whatsoever about how that was going to turn out.
As the last battered and completely insensate creature was dropped on the ground, I called out, "No need to capture any more. These are all that we can reliably keep from escaping."
Brutus grunted his acknowledgment and rushed back off to a pocket of four Misti Hawar that were retreating much more cleanly than the rest of their number. They worked together remarkably well, covering each other's weaknesses and openings, slashing out with claws and obviously not depending too much on their magic. It didn't matter, of course. Even if they had their magic, they would only have a prayer of escape, much less the opportunity to kill one of mine. The few Khatif that had been willing to serve as the likely first targets had been pulled back to be ministered to by our healers while those fresh and ready had torn all resistance to shreds.
One more minute trickled past, and the last of the Misti Hawar were dead. I peered into the forest where I was sure the rest of their number, however, many there were, watched. After looking for a moment, I bared my teeth before turning and swiping my tail through the snow and sending up a puff of whitened disrespect. I couldn't say whether they knew exactly what I intended, but, if they were there, I was sure they were getting the general feel. I smirked a little and turned my attention to our captives. Each one was bound tightly hand to foot, and none were in any condition to answer any questions at this time. I didn't mind that, I wasn't looking for any drawn out conversations with the creatures.
"Get this one conscious." I gave the command and though Brutus stepped forward to attempt to apply percussive methods, one of the healers stepped forward, her face unconcerned.
"I can get him awake. It won't be pleasant for him."
"All the better, so long as he can still answer questions at the end of it." My words came easily, the flicking of my tail consigning this one to a painful awakening as well as a short rest of his life. The female nodded, took all four of her fingers, and pressed the claws tipping each together before burying them a quarter of an inch into the bottom of the brutalized prisoner's skull. Less than a second passed before the Misti Hawar twitched and thrashed as he threw his head back and mewled a hideous sound. The healer plucked her fingers free and took a step back while I realized how far I had "fallen". When I was still a young keelish, I'd regretted some of the people I'd killed, though I'd always been helped along by my body's physiology not to lose myself in this melancholy for too long. Even so, to engage in such easy torture of an intelligent creature, whether they were my enemy or not, was interesting. I couldn't say that I lamented the loss of my previous humanity, but it was something that I found myself thinking about while giving the Misti Hawar a moment to gather himself.
"How have you been?" I asked with a painful casualness. "I sure hope you speak the human language. If not, all this effort would've been for nothing."
"It is not the human language." Somehow, despite the agony he had been subjected to, the Misti Hawar managed to spit the words with a surprising amount of vehemence. "This is the continental tongue, and the humans have forgotten their own previous language."
"Is that so? Interesting. Well, anyways. I did ask, how have you been?"
A gobbet of bloody phlegm that was too slow to get more than a couple feet away from his face was all my question seemed to merit in response. None of my people reacted, though a couple laughs at his weakness and lack of discipline did make themselves known. I flared my frills, then remembered how the humans communicated and nodded once.
"Well, if you can't even answer that question, I don't think your friend over there deserves to live." His face twisted in confusion for a moment as I continued speaking. "Brutus, you see that small one over there? Crush her skull."
"Wait! You animal—!"
Brutus didn't listen to him and didn't look back, merely taking two steps forward, and, with one foot, killed the prisoner. I continued watching the conscious target of my interrogation through it all, his face twisting into a snarl. Again, a cold, isolated part of me noted how different the Misti Hawar are from the keelish. Years now I'd spent as a keelish, and instead of reading faces, I now read bodies. Despite the limitations from his bonds and tough appearance, this Misti Hawar was terrified. The moment I could feel the reverberations of Brutus's step vibrate with finality into the ground, I could also see something in his bluster dissolve.
"How have you been?" I kept my tone even.
"Almost all of my friends were just killed and I just watched a beautiful woman die in front of me! How do you think I've been?" The nameless Misti Hawar thrashed in his bonds, his terror keeping him from holding his composure as he had before.
"So not so good. That's understandable. People who lose a fight tend to have a bad time." I nodded exaggeratedly again, missing the subtle tells that my people lived with. "I haven't been great either, but tonight's been a pretty good night. You know, the people who came and murdered 50 babies in front of me? Well, right now, they're paying a little bit of a price for it. So, I've been better, but I've been a lot worse. Just in case you were wondering, it's a pretty bad experience to be covered in the blood of unborn children. I wouldn't recommend it to most. Then again, I didn't get much of a choice about it myself when your ruler decided it would be fun to throw herself into our nursery and then worked to make my children die. But that's enough about me, isn't it? And said, I'm sure there are plenty of fascinating topics we can talk about. And of course, as you've learned, if you don't wanna talk, I have a couple other opportunities to help loosen your tongue while I still can." I looked at the other three unconscious bodies nearby.
"Of course, if you wanna be sure, I can let you check to make sure that they're breathing. For now, of course. After that, I've got plenty of questions. How's that sound?"
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