Raucous laughter echoed off the ruins in the moonlight. Shadows flitted over the wreckage, slithering across rocks and boulders. The scream of a hare was silenced by a gurgle as blood splattered the grass.
A hound, giant in size, dashed across the grass, claws digging into the dirt and scorching the terrain where the claws touched. The hare was limp in its jaws, its torn throat still dripping fresh blood. Something shifted on the animal's back, until it leapt for a circular ruin, spreading the remains of wings upon its back, ragged membranes fluttering in the breeze until the hound touched down again. A small, content growl escaped the animal before it folded its wings back against its back, careful to keep the spines from cutting into its limbs.
The temple, or what remained of it, was nothing more than a circular collection of marble columns that still reached toward the cold night sky. A marble podium had been cracked in half, ivy clinging to it, the remains of pews long since given to the earth. Recent signs of life could be seen in the form of pawprints in the damp soil, and something slithered over the rocks as the hound approached, setting the dead hare on the ground.
The hound's voice was deep, and crackled like flames. "Sister... I brought you something."
The second hound stepped from the corners of the ruins, her front paws braced on a marble ruin. Her wings opened with a snap, and in a blink she had descended on the hare, the neon green of her mouth snapping as she tore into the corpse, ripping away intestines and liver. Eventually something shimmery and gossamer slipped out of the corpse, and it was at this that both of the hellhounds launched for, scrambling the ground as they snapped and tore at each-other, claws and teeth flashing before the brief fight was over, and they swallowed the soul in greedy gulps.
Sveta let out a sigh, her wings folding tightly on her back. "Rabbits. We're eating rabbit souls. This is a new low, even for us, brother."
Spyridon clawed a portion of the ground until it simmered beneath him, and circled it once before he settled on top, his gaze half-lidded as he spoke. "We should have gone to Connlaoth... plenty of souls for the taking." A swipe sent him reeling, and the hellhound yelped as his sister growled at him.
"How many times do I have to explain to you how stupid that is? They'll be looking for us! That conflict of theirs will rip us to pieces! The humans will abolish us for what we are, and the mages will shun us!" She sighed, shaking her head before padding back to the podium. "Sometimes I swear you're not my brother at all..."
"You always were the brains, sis," Spyridon said, standing up and walking to her. "We can't hang out here, you know. So what do we do?" With a small "pop", a human was standing in the hellhound's place, and the man smiled as he lopped a pale arm around the hellhound who was gnawing on bones. "We can always try the cities again..."
She growled, and snapped at her brother's hand, forcing him to revert back to his hellhound form. "Not until things settle down. That's an order."
Spyridon sighed, and went back to his burning patch of grass, taking a bone for himself. "Just sayin'..."
"Silence."
