The streets were always quiet by
this time in the early morning. Traffic had died out, save for the
odd traveler passing through on the way to some other destination;
many restaurants, despite their claims of being open “24/7” had
shut down their kitchens; and most bars had finally shooed off the
last of their regulars and locked their doors.
It was from this final venue that
Pepper was quietly making her way back to her apartment from. She
bobbed her head side to side to offset the sway of

Ulna stopped to catch his breath. He
leaned to one side, supporting himself against the root of a giant
tree, his free had clutching his heaving chest. His eyes darted left
and right, his head turning and jerking at every sound. He was deep
in the woods now, unknown miles from the walls of his village, and,
hopefully out of the territory of the creature he had fled from.
Hours had passed since his escape, and twilight threatened to fall as
the patches of sky that shone through canopy above grew

“Hunny,
I'm hooome!" "Ah!
You're early! What's up?"
"Heh,
that's the greeting I get?" "Oh,
shut up, you." The
naga laughed and slithered up to the young man who had just walked
in, pulling him into a kiss and pushing the door shut behind him with
her tail. They pulled apart, smiling at each other for a moment
before the man cocked an eyebrow. "Pretty
good greeting," he nodded. The
naga giggled and shoved him backward, turning and slithering further

“People usually don’t like to
know who they’re eating. I don’t know what it is, maybe some
sense of guilt or something; it doesn’t really make sense to me.”
Soft, scarlet lips kissed the rim of a wine glass and parted only
enough to let an ounce or so of its dark contents. “I rather like
knowing about them. It seems to me that the worst thing a person
could do is pick some stranger off the street and wolf them down
without giving them a chance to let themselves be remembered for wh