Rapture

Heart

Lily raises an eyebrow over the maidens in white kneeling in the sand.

"Why are you witches on the wrong direction?"

"We have made it first to endpoint, and decided to come bearing gifts to you, oh greatest of us all." Their leader, the elder witch, lifts her gaze, staring up to Lily with glimmering eyes.

"Uha..." Lily tilts her head to the side. "What did you bring?"

"Our sisterhood hails from the mountains of snow, but we know you faced the drought of the desert. We have brought something to quench your thirst." The witch rises with a wicked smile, at the quick clapping of her hands, two girls with chains urge werewolves forward.

The wolves are linked with metal bars strapped on their backs, carrying a silver box on a pedestal between them. The two girls kneel again, and the elder witch lifts the silver lid.

"Ice?" I ask out-loud, unable to hold in my disappointment.

"No dear," The witch guffaws at me as she reaches in between the crushed pieces of ice, pulling out a heart that's bigger than both her palms. "The heart of mountain pack's alpha."

She extends it towards Lily, thick blood dripping between her fingers to the sand. "The harvest is fresh, of course."

"How kind of you." Lily grins, and reaches to take it, but stops her hand.

"Wait, you should taste it first. You're probably dying from thirst, being used to the cold of the mountains."

The elder witch blinks. "I-I wouldn't dream to take the honor from the great Lilian..."

"None-sense, I insist."

"Oh, what an honor..." The witch gulps on her spit as she raises the heart slowly towards her face.

"Mhm." Lily taps her foot on the sand. The witch stares wide eyed at the heart, gulps her spit again, then bites it. She clenches her jaw in struggle, and it looks like her teeth might give it before the meat does. Blood runs down her chin, and finally, she manages to chew a piece down her throat.

"Oh my," The witch coughs a little and starts to lose balance on her out feet. One of the girls rush to take the heart from her grasp, but none holds her from falling.

"The taste is quite strong..." She murmurs on her knees, staring and blinking at her own hands.

"It is isn't it?" Lily asks, grinning behind her.

"Yes... A fine gift... Just feeling a little..-" The witch chokes on her own words, then snaps forward onto her hands. Her spine arches in a swift crack, and she howls towards the sky in volume that croaks her voice. An impression even the bounded werewolves seem to find pathetic.

For a minute, we all watch speechless as the witch becomes possessed with an attempt to become a wolf. Her mouth foams and her bones crackle in the process. Until eventually, her eyes roll into her head and she dies to the sound of Lily's laughter.

"Thanks girls, great gift." She keeps laughing as she walks past the petrified witches.

I crouch to snatch the waterskin from the dead witch's belt, then rush after.