Author's Note

I decided I wanted to try and show things from the Ghoul perspective. Hopefully this clears somethings up. If not, then I hope you enjoy this at the least.

Bonus Chapter: The Queen

The Queen awoke to yet another day in her colony. She let out hissing yawn as she stretched out her long, gangly limbs before standing to trot out of her personal cave. Out in the main cavern, she gazed out upon her subjects, all six eyes glancing about as she happily observed the day to day activities of the smaller Ghouls.

She watched the tall females stooping down to nuzzle and care for their foals, feeding them scraps of meat from the kill pile. She watched the males, driven on by their endless hunger, prepare for the hunt, gathering together in a fierce, snarling pack of starving beasts before all rushing out as one to find anything to sate their hunger and bring back to the colony.

The Queen smiled. All was well. She stepped out to the kill pile as the females bowed to her as she passed them by. And why shouldn't they? She was such a regal sight to behold, with her cape of writhing, flesh-covered tentacles and her bio-luminescent markings trailing all across her tight, pallid skin. Truly she was a perfect example of a Ghoul Queen.

She selected the choicest kill available, the flank of a large diamond dog her hunters had caught yesterday. She savored the taste of the raw flesh in her fangs. Sure, it was a bit old, but down here the Ghouls couldn't afford to be picky. Swallowing her meal, she returned to her cave to watch over her subjects.

Her hunters returned with a strange kill. It looked like a diseased Ghoul, the kind that were born wrong, without claws or fangs. The Queen mourned for the sickened stallion; his colony must have cast him out. Perhaps it was a colony with no Queen to heal his ailment? In any case, she treated this stallion as if he had been one of her own. She bent down to his partially eaten corpse and licked his forehead, to give thanks for his sacrifice. Then she opened her mouth, and with a sickening crunch, began to bite open his skull to feast on his brain, as was custom. Once she had finished, the corpse was to be given stripped of all flesh by the colony, then the bones would be taken to be laid to rest with those of her own Ghouls.

After the ceremony was over, she began to scan her hunters' minds to see what they knew about the diseased Ghoul. She saw their actions through their own eyes, watched them pounce on him from behind. The stallion screamed out some indecipherable noises as her starving stallions ripped into his throat. Then, the biggest shock of all, she heard more sickened Ghouls, making the same strange noises. It was all very bizarre. Was there a colony of sick Ghouls out there? If so, then it was her duty to heal them.

With a fierce mental command, she sent out a small group of her hunters to go out and watch and follow the sick Ghouls. If she had anything to say about it, she would see them healed.

Her hunters came back with quite a few sick Ghouls the next day, all dead. Apparently, according to her subjects' memories, these stallions had tried to attack her hunters, and they responded in kind. It was a shame, but she hoped she could at least help the rest.

After performing the ceremony for each of the stallions, she went to her cave to ponder with her simplistic mind. How could she get these strange Ghouls to come over to her side of things?

Once again, her stallions brought another dead Ghoul from the sickened colony. Again she repeated the process.

At this rate there would be none left to heal. She sincerely hoped that soon her hunters would be able to find a non-hostile member of this colony.

Later that same day, yet another group of dead diseased Ghouls was brought in. Not only this, but evidently one of her own had been slain in the battle. As she performed her honors, she realized something. Something horrible.

The head of her subject's corpse was missing. How none of her hunters had realized this she did not care. All that she felt was a sudden burst of rage that her subject had been desecrated and dishonored in such a way. With a raging shriek, she sent out her hunters to retrieve the head so his soul could be put to rest. She did not care if these sickened Ghouls were harmed in the process. Nothing was more important to her than her own colony.

Her hunters had retrieved the head. Not only that, but they had taken on the last remainder of this strange, malformed colony. Two of its members were dead, but two remained alive, an unconscious stallion and a pitifully small mare, shaking with fear. It was as if she had never seen a Queen before.

The Queen, seeking to calm her, projected images and memories of a good, natural Ghoul's lifestyle, killing and hunting and mating, the things that Ghouls lived for. It did seem to calm her down a bit, so the Queen cast her healing spell and projected a question, or at least a question in the form of images since she did not have language to use. It basically boiled down to this: "Would you rather stay here where it's safe or go home to your own colony?" Some things may have been lost in translation, not that the Queen would have known or cared about this.

After a moment of hesitation, the mare agreed. The Queen gestured to the kill pile, knowing that feeding would speed up the healing process. The mare obliged, though apparently still intimidated. The Queen watched as instinct began to take over, causing the mare to begin to feed... begin to change.

Her attention was pulled away as she noticed that the stallion was rising. Her response was the same, though this time the stallion refused her hospitality. She accepted his wish and was about to let him leave, when suddenly the mare, presumably his mate, lunged for him. She had finished the healing process and, now driven by instinct, wished to take part in the mating ritual of claiming him for her own. She pinned him down and began to carve a symbol matching the one on her flank into his own. Then she let him go, although unlike most stallions he did not partake in it as usual by running away for his mare to hunt him down. He had fallen unconscious. Before his mate could claim the other flank and seal the deal, the Queen stopped her. He had wished to leave, and she would respect that.

She had her hunters carry him off to somewhere he would awake safe, then explained to the forlorn mare that she would be able to hunt him down later, and either join his colony or drag him back with her. She'd already marked him, so he was already hers. She just had to give him time to heal, become a proper stallion.

Her hunters later returned. The new mare found a cave to sleep in. And thus, the Queen laid her head to rest with a smile.

All was well once again.