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All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Author's Chapter Notes:

Right. So this is another short story set in the same universe as 'Sweet Tooth' or 'Time Out'. You don't really need to read either of them to understand this story as neither of the main characters from those stories appear here. Though I'll shamelessly plug both of those as being enjoyable as well!

As a note of forewarning this story does have some bloody bits. So if you are squeamish, run fast run far.

Without further ado, away we go.

Freshly cut vegetables. Fruit in a basket. Meat fresh from the pigs and ready to cook. The pungent aroma of a slow burning fire. These scents assaulted Rayner's nose all at once, making him constantly aware of exactly where he was. Normally they would set his mouth watering, the promise of a home cooked meal so carefully prepared. Now however he found the pit opening in his stomach as he stared out clear glass, the fog from his breath only obscuring the sights around him ever so.

Tink! Tink! Tink!

Towering pots and clean platters. Shining glasses reflecting the lambent firelight. Gleaming knives freshly sharpened. These last ones Rayner caught himself staring at for what seemed like the hundredth time. It didn't help that the glass prison had been placed so very close to the cutting board. Upon its surface he could make out the gouges of manage cuts and perhaps it was a trick of the light, but he could have sworn there was the reddish tint of dried blood in places. A cold sweat broke out across his body and he swallowed hard, his mouth suddenly very dry for some reason. Funny how that worked.

Tink! Tink! Tink!

The sound of fists on glass sounded out constantly, echoing through the prison. Dull grey eyes turned from the sight around the glass prison and directed their gaze inward. Directly across the way was a large man, naked as the day he was born pounding over and over against the glass. The mountain of meat looked as desperate as they came, his fists red and bloody from his efforts. Rayner didn't blame him, indeed his own fists were bruised purple from the effort and stung something fierce when he clenched his fists. Little good the pain had brought him.

To his right were a man and a woman, the latter clinging to the former as her body was wracked with soft sobs. Lovers perhaps? Husband and wife? Brother and sister? Honestly it didn't really seem to make much difference to Rayner. They might well be complete strangers seeking solace in the company of one another. In this situation he couldn't exactly bring himself to blame them if that was the case.

Four more were standing around, two looking skyward for some way to get past the stopper placed on the top of their prison. Rayner looked up at the cork with narrowed eyes. Even if they could somehow climb up there the odd of actually pushing it out of place were slim to none. The remaining two seemed of a similar mindset. However as he understood they had been born into this sort of life. Rayner had been disgusted by it at first but given the looks of easy acceptance on their faces he found himself envying it now.

Oh he was piss scared. Just staring out at the massive kitchen all around when trapped at his inch tall height was enough to frighten him. Rayner had heard legends of elven cruelty to their captives but this went way beyond his wildest nightmares. He longed, for the hundredth time, to simply close his eyes and wake up in his tent in the army camp. Even war would have been less harrowing that this. The tall dark haired soldier opened his eyes and the world didn't magically change. Of course it didn't.

"We are so fucked..." Muttered one of the men in the middle of the bottle.

Rayner found himself agreeing with that assessment though clearly the blonde haired man to his right didn't. "Shut up." He gritted.

"It's true tho-!"

"I said shut up!"

"Hey you wanna try and climb up there, be my guest!" The despairing man said, pointing up at the cork.

The blonde man's response was less verbal and more physical as he tackled his bald companion. Rayner frowned as they started wailing away at each other. The scuffle didn't earn the attention of the big man pounding away at the bottle but it did get the attention of the couple. The man shifted just a bit to position himself between the fight and the woman. The woman simply seemed to sob all the harder.

Rayner could feel his own nerves getting agitated watching the fight so he walked over to the scuffle. "Come on, that enough."

"Fuck you; I'm the only one trying to figure out a way out of here while you all just mope around!" The blonde man growled as he punched the other man in the eye, taking an elbow to the ribs right after.

The former soldier frowned and promptly kicked the blonde in the side, hard. He let out a cry of pain and fell over onto his side, clutching it in pain. The bald man took the moment to catch his breath, nodding in gratitude to Rayner. Before the motion might well have brought some swell in the dark haired man's chest. Now he just felt irritated for having to push the other man from him. Fighting wasn't solving anything.

"Just calm down and think. We can't climb up and we can't break out. How do you expect to escape with those things being true?" Rayner asked calmly.

"You- You don't know that! We could try to climb, maybe if we stood on each other's shoulders or something!" Blondie shot back, the desperation clear in his voice.

Rayner shook his head. "Even if it was tall enough between all eight of us we couldn't possibly push the cork out of the way."

"How do you know that?"

"I helped build siege weapons in the army. You pick up a thing or two."

At the very least the man looked pacified for the moment though his eyes were still searching skyward in desperation. Rayner sighed and walked back over to his spot. The last thing they needed was another desperate idiot trying to smash their way out. Honestly he didn't know what they needed. Looking around he would have settled for a divine intervention. Other than that he couldn't see a way out of this.

A loud creak sounded out and the clatter of sandals on stone followed. Rayner's eyes flicked to the looming figures in the distance and he felt his heartrate rise. They were beautiful, heart achingly so. Their delicate and angular features were shaped beyond what he had ever seen in human women. They were fair skinned, perfectly formed creatures that filled him with both fear and an odd longing. One was possessed of dark hair and the gentle beginnings of crow's feet around her eyes, denoting her as truly ancient among elves. The other was a blonde as youthful as they came. Both wore loose fitting plain clothes and set aprons over their fronts.

"Isadelia, chop up those vegetables and set them in the stew." The older one commanded.

"Yes, Mistress Sevilis."

A shadow loomed over the bottle and Rayner felt himself take a step back. There were cries from most of the humans inside of the bottle as this elven titaness' hand passed over the bottle and reached over to gather a few carrots. Her other hand seized a knife and she started chopping away, the clatter of the blade upon wood drowning out the desperate pounding of the large human trying to escape.

"It's a full house tonight, Mistress. Do you think this little jar will be enough?" Isadelia inquired as she chopped away at her carrots, her hands moving with expert skill.

"We have a few other bottles in the pantry, once you've finished with the carrots go ahead and set them out." Sevilis replied from elsewhere in the kitchen.

Rayner's heart skipped a beat. More? They had others trapped just like them? How many more? Dozens? Hundreds? His fingers curled into fists and he felt weak in the knees as he leaned against the bottle, trying to come to grips with this situation. As he did a hauntingly beautiful melody sounded out through the room. She was humming, Isadelia. The tune was unfamiliar but the lyrical nature of her voice soothed at his nerves strangely enough. She happily hummed away as she chopped her carrots paying no mind to the various mental breakdowns occurring inside of the bottle.

The blonde elf finished her chopping and moved over to the stewpot, removing the lid and scraping the carrots into the stew with the side of her knife. That done she placed the cutting board back on the counter and was about to move away when the voice of her mistress suddenly stopped her.

"Wait, before you fetch the others, hand me a few from that jar. A couple of uptown folks want Sitria Soup." She said.

"Yes Mistress."

The cork was promptly torn off and gravity shifted. Rayner found himself and many others tumbling towards the now open part of the jar towards the soft pale hand now below the tipped bottle. The dark haired man clawed at the side, trying to find purchase along the smooth side of the bottle but found nothing. He wasn't ashamed to admit he screamed as he felt open air hit him as he fell away from the bottle.

Rayner landed with two others in the palm of Isadelia's hand as she offered then out to her mistress. The older elf looked down at the offered squirming and naked humans before reaching down. Rayner felt his heart stop as the shadow of her hand descended upon him, Blondie, and the man who had been pounding at the jar. This was it. This was how it all ended for him it seemed. Made into some elven dish.

The older elf gripped Blondie by the leg and then the big man by the arm, dropping both in some strange wooden contraptions with handles on them before closing the lids to trap them inside. "Those should be good. Save him and the rest of that jar for the lettuce wraps. Three for each bowl."

"Understood. ...I take it that means I can prepare them this time?" Isadelia asked, some eagerness in her tone.

Mistress Sevilis sighed. "Yes. After you get the stew ready. Judging from the crowd, bloody would be best over whole."

With that the mistress picked up one of the wooden devices and Isadelia turned away. Rayner had just enough time to glimpse what the device was for as the mistress leaned over a bowl of soup though he wished to every god he had not. Slowly the elf started cranking the handles around and the screams from inside could only be described as inhuman. Red flakes dropped from the bottom as the older woman cranked, which didn't take much imagination to guess what they were. The screams went on and on and the sound of grinding bones filled the air nearby. Rayner was glad for the distance between then though he was left staring straight ahead in shock.

As soon as Isadelia set him back inside the jar however he felt like he was going to start retching any moment. He had seen many things. As a soldier who worked siege weaponry he had seen men, crushed, impaled, and sliced clean in half. However this was a whole new level of gruesome. They had ground him away while he had still been alive. As what? Seasoning? A sprinkling of pepper upon some dish? The look on his face was enough to translate what had happened to those others in the jar. The woman started crying and her companion looked pretty close to breaking down as well. The bald man had taken up punching the glass in the place of the larger man.

Isadelia hummed as she returned with two more bottles, each one holding eight tiny humans inside. She took the corks off of both and seemed to consider something as she looked at them. Rayner, in some brief moment of hope, thought the expression on her face was one of conflict. Indeed she bit her lower lip and seemed to be very deep in thought as she stared into the new bottles. He swallowed hard as the elven maiden drew back and spoke her mind.

"Huh. One of these humans looks just like my pet, mistress. Maybe they're brothers or something." She said aloud.

"Get move on Isadelia, that soup isn't going to ready itself."

"Yes, mistress. Just kinda funny really. Small world I guess."

Rayner's heart sank before completely freezing as she took up her cutting knife. Her free hand drew out a squirming and screaming man from one of the jar. No. No, no, no! This wasn't happening! The elven maiden hummed softly as she pinned the tiny human's hands above his head and his feet together at the bottom, her knife gleaming malevolently in the firelight. Rayner wanted to look away, to shut his eyes, to not watch this casual display of cold blooded murder play out before his eyes.

One chop. That was all it took. One quick and skillful chop. If one blinked they might have missed the movement really, a testament to the skill of Isadelia he supposed. The might have missed the movement, but the after math was impossible to miss.

This was the moment when Rayner truly learned what a blood curdling scream was. He had heard mean scream and die on the battlefield; however that was nothing compared to this. This scream pierced all of his sensibilities, freezing him on the spot. It set a cold sweat running down his body. It sent his stomach doing flip flops. The scream was bad but the sight, the sight was in a league all its own.

From the once whole man there were two halves. He had been cleanly severed at the waist, hot blood pooling all around him. The upper part of his body writhed and his mouth screamed and screamed before it became closer to a gurgle than anything else. His legs twitched slightly before all movement halted. Blood dripped from the blade above, the splotch upon it from the initial spurt once the cut had been made. The man was maddened by the sheer pain that was obvious to anyone.

Isadelia continued to hum as she pushed the halves of the dying man to the side with the side of her knife. It was then that it really slammed home for Rayner. This was nothing to her. They were nothing to her. In her mind this was no different than peeling an orange or slicing vegetables. She hadn't just killed an equal with his own hopes, dreams, and aspirations. She had prepared another ingredient for the stew.

The worst part was knowing that she was far from done. Most in his jar had the good state of mind to force themselves to look away. The bald man had curled up into a ball and was muttering under his breath while the woman wailed away. The two elven bred humans didn't seem overly disgusted; in fact they were the only ones beside him that could bear to look at it. Considering the world they had been born into he could see why.

Isadelia didn't always make clean half cuts. No, occasionally she would switch it up. Rayner nearly threw up as she pinned a woman down with her fingers and methodically sliced her limbs off. The wet squelch of tearing flesh and spurting blood was a constant sound along with the screams. They were always followed by the scraping of the blade upon wood as the elven maiden pushed the pieces to the side of the cutting board.

It was bloody pile, one more gruesome than any he had ever seen. Limbs were scattered about in the pile, the smell of blood fresh upon the air. There was writhing in the pile of tangled flesh, muffled screams from those still alive and trapped beneath. Rayner wanted it to end but it seemed like it never would. The veritable goddess of pain and death above was content to take her time finishing off the humans. Any story he had ever heard of elven cruelty was laughable compared to the reality of the situation.

"All done~" The elven maiden sang as she picked up the cutting board.

The waters of the stew bubbled and broiled with a blistering steamy heat. Rayner watched in horror as Isadelia promptly scrapped off the cutting board, sending those still living into the pot of stew. He could hear the screams of dying people as they were boiled alive, immediately and suddenly drowned out as she set the lid back on. The silence returned, as oppressive as it had ever been.

"Oh my gods, oh my gods, oh my gods..."

The mumbling from the bald man was clearer now though Rayner wished it wasn't. It was just them now. Just the six of them left. His heart thundered in his chest as he awaited the return of the elven maiden. What gruesome fate awaited them? Not the chopping board perhaps but what if there was something worse? He felt his knees buckle and promptly knelt down, trying to reconcile what had just happened in his mind.

Unfortunately he was given no time as Isadelia returned with two small bowls and some strips of lettuce. The shadow of her hand hovered over the jar and for once the tiny woman did something other than cry, she screamed. Everyone screamed as the elf plucked the man that had been comforting the woman from the jar. With nimble fingers she pinned his arms to his sides and started rolling one of the bits of lettuce around him tightly. The man was trapped in the wrap and set inside one of the bowls. It was then that Rayner could guess they would be following him.

One by one Isadelia removed them. The two elven bred were next, joining the woman's companion in one of the bowls. They didn't struggle or squirm much. "Mistress you need to buy more home bred humans. Seriously they are so complacent it makes the wraps much easier."

"I'm told they taste somewhat bland. Some people like the kick from free range."

"I never noticed the difference myself. Human is human, tastes the same to me."

With that Rayner suddenly found his arm pinned between her thumb and forefinger as he was yanked up. He felt and heard a slight pop as the rough handling dislocated his shoulder. He wasn't ashamed to admit he cried out in pain, struggling and kicking and screaming like a bat out of hell.

"Let me go! Let be the fuck go!" He yelled as he found his arms pinned at his side.

Rayner felt his world spin as cool vegetation was wrapped tightly around him, pinning him completely between the wrap of lettuce. With his secure the elven maiden set him in the bowl. He tried to squirm his way to freedom or to rip his way from the prison. All he succeeded in doing was rolling over onto his dislocated arm, earning another sharp cry of pain from him. It wasn't long before he felt the weight of the bald man and the woman fall upon him, only further compounding the pain.

Isadelia sighed in satisfaction once her wraps were finished, picking up both bowls and heading over to her mistress. The older elf gave them a good look over before nodding her approval and gesturing to the tray with the two bowls of soup upon them. Chopsticks were set over the top of both with spoons on the side. "Take it to table seven."

The elven maiden nodded and set the small bowls beside the bowls of soup. She then picked up the tray itself and headed out of the kitchen. Rayner could hear the sobbing above him and the muttering of the bald man, the noises slowly driving him up the wall. The constant jostling of each and every step jarred at his brain, making it impossible to really think clearly. He could see Isadelia though, the elf constantly looming above him.

The assistant cook placed the tray down at table seven, smiling at both elven women seated there. Both were rather finely dressed and youthful, daughters of noblemen or wealthy merchants most likely. One was raven haired, while the other was as blonde as she was. She set out the bowls of soup and the tiny bowls of wraps and leaned back, looking to either woman.

"There you have it, Sitria Soup. Was there anything else you two needed?" She asked politely.

The raven haired elf shook her head. "No thanks, we're good here."

With that Isadelia was off, leaving Rayner and his companions in the charge of their apparent buyers. The raven haired elf leaned over her steaming bowl and inhaled deeply, letting out a sigh of satisfaction. "Damn, ol' Sevilis makes the best Sitria in the city. Don't know how she does it but it's worth every coin, Hisala." She said as she picked up her chopsticks.

The blonde, Hisala smiled as she looked down at her meal, which included Rayner's little bowl. "Certainly smells good, Isani. Never had it myself." She said, picking up her chopsticks.

"Oh, you're in for a treat then. Gods my mouth is watering just smelling it!" Isani said, picking up her own chopsticks.

Hisala promptly went for the wraps first, plucking up the bald man's wrap first. Rayner felt his blood chill by the sound of his scream as he was lifted away. The elf plopped the squirming human inside of her mouth and immediately started chewing, lettuce and bones crunching easily as a little bit of blood leaked from the side of her mouth. She lifted a handkerchief to her mouth and wiped it away as she chewed away.

"Hey, what are you doing!?" Isani exclaimed.

The blonde elf looked at the shocked expression on her friend's face, swallowing her gruesome meal and sending the slush of meat to her groaning belly. "Eating some of the sides while I wait for it to cool."

Isani shook her head. "Right, it's your first time. There is a traditional way to do it, ya know. Much more enjoyable. Here, let me show you."

The raven haired elf plucked up one of her wraps, the one with the woman's partner in it and promptly set it in the red tinged soup. "You have to let them soak a little, get a little bit of the soup's flavoring on them. Back when the dish was first conceived it was the stage where we give them moments to understand their place in the universe. The wrap symbolizes their bondage to their superiors and the soup peppered with their kin symbolizes our power. We give them a taste of our strength. Hence, Sitria, or Strong Soup." Isani explained as she let her wrap soak.

After this she lifted the wrap out of the soup, the man inside coughing and sputtering. "Next you have to give them a full minute to recover. This lets them remember the face of the one to eat them. The soup was created when many elves were still alive from times of our slavery to the old human empire. It was done so that former masters would know their folly in binding us." She continued.

With that done she opened her mouth after a minute had passed and plopped the screaming and coughing human inside. Her full lips closed around the lettuce wrapped treat and she held him there for a moment before leaned her head back and swallowing her meal whole. There was the slightest of bulges visible before he vanished beneath her collarbone. She sighed and leaned back in her seat, patting her belly.

"You have to swallow them whole so that their last moments are spent in fear. If you chew them it releases their souls too early and they escape but if they perish in your stomach their souls will be yours in the afterlife. At least that is what is said." She finished her explanation.

Hisala looked down at her two remaining wraps. "Huh, didn't know so much thought went into it. How did you know all that?"

Isani laughed. "Are you forgetting how traditionalist my family is? My mother was having me down Sitria Soup by my knee high years."

"Wouldn't that be dangerous? I mean I've heard younger kids choke on humans. I've always chewed mine."

The raven haired elf shrugged. "Nearly did my first time but I choked her down. It's all in the throat muscles. They slip down quite easily if you can work them right. Feels pretty good, more solid and filling than just chewing them up. Now you try."

Hisala looked down nervously at the two wraps remaining and plucked up the woman between her chopsticks. Rayner heard her screams cut short as she was set inside the soup as instructed. The blonde stared down at the soup before looking over at her friend who smirked at her and offered a wink. Hisala blushed slightly, flustered and embarrassed before something came to mind.

"So do you believe it?" She asked.

"Believe what?"

"The bit about their souls being ours in the afterlife."

Isani shrugged. "Nah, not like how some profess. I think it's more likely their souls marinate in our stomachs forever. Cisi swore she heard moans in her stomach one night and I've never known Cisi to lie about that stuff."

"Spooky. Not sure how I'd feel about that." Hisala said nervously.

"Pffft. I've downed more humans than I can count in my life. If they're in there they can't do anything to you or me."

"Maybe. Still kind of creepy though."

"Ah, Hisala, might want to take her out now."

"Wha- oh!"

The blonde removed the woman from the soup after having let her soak for several minutes. She was completely limp and showed zero signs of life, having drowned in the finely crafted soup. Hisala bit her lip while Isani laughed. Laughter that brought a hot wash of shame and embarrassment to the other elf's fair cheeks.

"Don't worry, takes time to get it right. Go ahead and eat her. Try swallowing, get your throat used to it." Isani said.

Hisala looked at the dead woman and plopped her inside her mouth, tasting her before letting out a low moan of pleasure. Clearly she approved of the extra flavoring. Next she tossed her treat to the back of her throat and swallowed hard. She made a gagging sound before swallowing again and managing to get her going. Hisala took up a cup of water and drank a bit to ensure she worked her way down properly.

"There ya go. Here, let me help you with this one. Keep the water on standby, the live ones wiggle going down."

Rayner's heart stopped as the raven haired beauty plucked him up, his muscles refusing to so much as budge. The chopsticks pinned his arms, the burning pain of his dislocated arm only being further compounded. He was lifted up into the air and positioned over the red tinged soup. Looking down into the mixture he could see another very gruesome sight. Ground up and sprinkled over the surface were bits of gore. Eyes, fingers, hands, and bits of brain matter. What was left of one of the people the mistress had ground up.

Rayner was dunked under the surface of the warm water, struggling to hold his breath. He squirmed in his wrap trying desperately to escape. This wasn't happening! He closed his eyes one last time, trying to wish himself inside of his tent. He was a few days march from a castle or trapped in a dungeon even. Anything than what was happening right now would have been better in his opinion.

He opened his eyes. The soup was still there and he couldn't hold his breath any longer. As he opened his mouth, the spiced and prepared soup flooded in and crushed out his breath. He couldn't breathe! Suddenly, as if sensing his distress the chopsticks raised him up out of the soup and into open air. Rayner coughed and sputtered, trying to get his wits about him. It was in that moment that he finally and fully saw the face of Hisala.

He had thought Isadelia beautifully but even she paled in comparison to the face before him. Fully pouty lips, high cheek bones, gold spun hair gently framing her face. Green eyes peered down at him, lustrous and almost hypnotic to look within. Her angular beauty was seemingly the work of the chisel of a god. He was looking at the apex of physical perfection surely, a goddess given flesh.

"Open wide~" Boomed the voice behind him.

At the prompting Hisala blushed and her lips parted, giving a very good view if her mouth. Warm breath washed over him, strands of saliva breaking and forming and dripping down from the roof of her mouth. Blood was smeared across her no doubt normally pearly teeth and he could see bits of flesh stuck between them. It was a reminder that this unearthly beauty was indeed a maneater.

"No, wait-!" He tried to scream before Isani promptly plopped him in Hisala's mouth and her lips closed behind him.

Again Hisala leaned back in her chair and moaned as flavor exploded across her tongue. Her delicate and red painted fingers held the cup of water at the ready as she tasted at her treat. Normally she bit them by now so it was a little interesting to feel how this one squirmed on her tongue. After a long while she finally leaned her head back and pushed the human to the back of her mouth. This done she worked her way through her mental block and forced herself to swallow.

Her throat muscles constricted around their prize as they pulled Rayner down. There was a slight bulge visible as he was worked down and it was then Hisala learned why Isani had recommended she keep water nearby. He fought, kicking and screaming the whole way down. He tried to stop his progress by blocking her airway, earning a choking sound from the blonde. She quickly lifted her cup to her lips and started guzzling down the water.

At first it did nothing, but the combination of her throat muscles working and the gallons of water rushing down did the trick of dislodging the stubborn human. She let out a gasp as she pulled the cup away, feeling him just pass her collarbone. At that point the tiny bulge vanished completely. Hisala was left gasping for breath from the effort and from nearly choking, feeling the struggles continue deep into her body.

Eventually she felt him squeeze through the entrance of her stomach and found herself placing a hand over it as she let out a weary sigh. Isani was laughing her head off from how the blonde look slumped across the table, earning a playful glare from Hisala. This most certainly was not funny!

"Ha! Lightweight. My mother made me choke down my first without water. Said no daughter of hers would dare choke on a measly human." Isani said, shaking her head.

"Your mother is crazy." Hisala remarked.

"Hey, worked didn't it? I'm still here and I can down em' by the dozen no problem. Still, how does it feel to be a woman now?"

Hisala took a moment to consider it, leaning back in her chair as she patted the squirming meal in her belly. "Its... interesting. Pretty intense though if you aren't prepared for it. Little like taking a drink of whiskey for the first time."

Isani rolled her eyes. "Don't worry, little princess, I heard the stew they make here is palatable for your oh so delicate sensibilities."

With that the pair of friends enjoyed their dinner with banter and teasing, only one of millions of similar meals occurring all through the elven lands.

Chapter End Notes:

So I'm calling this series 'Humanity's Downfall'. The world itself is fairly open for many different allowances and I've set up as a moderated series. If you have interest in trying your hand at it, feel free to let me know.

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