"You need food, don't you?"

Sin whined.

"Well... Alright. That's going to be... tedious. Why did I keep you again?"

Sin let out a slight growl.

"Ahaha, that's right. You're adorable. Well, I'll see what I can do. I hope you can sit tight for a while." Hungry paused. "Do you even have a mouth?"

He lowered his head to sniff about the fawn again, until he eventually heard a kind of smacking sound near the front. It sounded like enough of a mouth to him. He nodded, said a farewell, and made for a different exit. After an hour or so of wandering around carefully, he finally spotted a doe that looked to be weening her child. He cautiously pursued her, and when she was alone, gave her a strong blow to the head.

It was infuriating restraining to eat her. It had only been two hours since he consumed his fawn's mother, and he was already starving. The period of satisfaction had been growing thinner and thinner every time. But he put it out of his mind. Sin needed her more. His curiosity for this fawn's life span was getting the better of him.

Hungry dragged the doe down into his dark abode. While she lay there, still unconscious, he led Sin over to her so he could suckle. This is what awakened her. When her eyes finally opened, Hungry put a hoof to her throat.

"If you say one word or try to run, I will kill you. Understand?"

The doe nodded.

"Good girl." He lifted his hoof. The dim light from the few holes in the ceiling was barely enough to give her a good look of his face. It was enough to make her realize that he wasn't messing around. "This is the deal. You nurse my fawn until he's old enough to eat solid food. When that happens, I'll set you free. If you try to escape, I guarantee you will never see your child or mate again."

The doe finally realized that his alleged fawn had already started nursing. She looked down, only to find a quivering, fleshy mass. She tried her best to stifle a scream. It was all she could do to keep herself from hopping up and running. But she wanted to see her family again. She did what she was told.

"Good to see you're trying," Hungry said cheerfully. "So you understand the rules." He stepped closer, enough for a ray of sunlight to glance over his face. "Now that that's out of the way, why don't we get to know each other? I am The Hungry. This is my boy Sin. And you are?"

Her mouth went agape for a moment or two before finally answering in a pitifully weak voice, "Mint."

The name alone made a string of drool seep from the side of Hungry's decaying mouth. He so badly wanted to devour her, his hunger came back in full force. But looking down at Sin, filling his own stomach, or whatever it was he was filling, was enough to distract him.

"This is your new home now. You are not to leave this corridor. I want Sin to find you easily. He doesn't have much of a voice, you see. If you do what I say, you will see your family again."

Mint blinked incredulously. "Do you promise?"

Hungry simply laughed.

A few minutes later, and Sin had pulled away from his surrogate mother. He stood and let out a coo, and Hungry joined his side. He was carried into a smaller, warmer room, with a soft floor. This floor was actually the accumulation of skins and furs from small animals Hungry had eaten over time. The walls were inlaid with luminescent stones, which gave off their own faint heat as well as dull light. Sin poked around the welcoming bed, and finally settled to nap. He had had a particularly rough first day.

Hungry strolled about the halls in boredom. He didn't need to watch his step or be careful, for he had memorized every bump and crack in this complex. After a short time, he felt a draft of air hit his neck. He didn't remember there being another passage down this way. When he stepped into the tunnel, he immediately knew it was unfamiliar, and took his time exploring.

The cursed deer finally came into an opening, and a rather large one from what he could gather. With the use of air currents and echolocation, he could make out, roughly, what the room looked like. The room was circular, and had a large object in the center of it. The walls were covered and surrounded by gigantic roots. He could hear the very faint hum of the Great Oak just above him. Before now, he thought there were no tunnels here because of those roots.

Hungry approached the object in the middle of the room. Poking with his hooves, sniffing, and rubbing his face against it, he could mentally shape the very bottom of the object. It was a statue. It had four legs, standing atop a slab. It seemed to be made out of stone. After rearing up and trying to feel a bit more of the statue, he concluded that it was of a deer.

This didn't seem to strike him at all. If he had the ability to see, maybe it would have been different. He knew the Oak was close to the Twin Gods statue, but the fact that it was a deer made no difference to him. It was probably some remnant from when the old inhabitants and the new inhabitants mingled amongst each other. In truth, this statue wasn't just of a flat-faced deer. The deer took a triumphant stance, with great thorned antlers, and a mask of death.

With his disappointment in the statue, Hungry took his time to explore the rest of the room and see if it had any other tunnels he never noticed before. There were none, so it seemed to just be a room he had missed while exploring. It still made him wonder how he completely passed by this corridor when he still had his sight. He was sure he had gone every direction he could before going blind.

With a slight sigh, he made his way out of the room, before stopping at a slight breeze.

"... Did you say something, sir?"

. . .

"My mistake. I am a bit tired..."

"Hungry."

"Oh, so you did say something! I'm sorry." He turned around towards the statue. "Oh wait, you're a statue. Statues don't talk, last time I checked. Silly thing, trying to make me look crazy."

"Come back, The Hungry."

"I didn't hear a please." He waited a moment. "Well alright." He stepped back into the room.

"Your time is coming."

"I thought everyone's time was coming. Time likes to come and go a lot."

"Do you know your life before you were hungry?"

"Not really, no. It's all a bit of a blur. I remember being able to see for a while, but that was a long time ago. I also remember having lips. Lips are useful. They keep you from drooling."

"Do you wish to remember?"

Hungry thought about this for a moment. "I'm not really interested."

"Do you wish to see?"

"What are you driving at, Mr. Statue? You might as well be offering me a device that sucks up dirt."

"Your child is in need."

"Who, Lumpy? Well I'm not surprised, he is a newborn tumor. Although he isn't really mine, you know." He paused. "Actually, I should probably check on him. Pleasure chatting with you, Statue of a Deer." Hungry trotted away, bumping into the wall a few times before finding his way out.

While he was making his way back to where Sin was sleeping, he passed by the kidnapped doe. He paid no attention to her and after a moment was back next to Sin. He was still asleep. He took this as an opportunity to sleep himself. Sleep was a rarity for Hungry. He was always too distracted by his stomach. But he tried, and managed to slowly fall into slumber with Sin by his side.

"Your time will come, The Hungry. And when it does, I trust you will make the right decision."