I cannot believe what I am seeing right now. This fabric bag, bloodied, contains 4 living chickens, battered and injured, and is surrounded by a circle of red candles all lit up.
"What is that?" I ask in surprise while I try to brave forward.
The act is cruel in itself, and it seems like some type of ritual. What kind of mess did I just stumble into?
The poor animals are breathing hard and agonizing, their movements are slowing down, not making any noise with their mouths.
On their necks, I notice a piece of paper tied, stained with blood, and something is written on it. I reach to take it and-
"Yo!" Someone greets me.
"Ah!" I jump further into the alleyway, Karina screams too, and I shoot a firebolt in their direction!
BOOOM!
Aurelia, who just appeared into the alleyway, tanked the bolt with her face.
"Hey! What's the big idea?!" Aurelia yells at me, baring her teeth at me.
"Shit! Aurelia, you scared me!" I can feel my heart hammering like crazy on my chest!
"And you tried to blast my face with your spell, we are even."
No, we are not!
"And what are you doing here? I thought you wanted to rest…" She looks inside of the bag and her reaction is as expected. "What the fuck?"
"I don't know, I saw someone leave the alleyway and left this here…" I open the bag once more… The chickens are dying already. Lisa is not here, she could heal them.
Aurelia reaches and snaps the neck of the last one alive with both hands.
I look at her, in shock. That one was still alive…
"The bird was suffering…" She answers.
I am in shock from her resolute act. For an aggressive dragonkin she sure is resolute about not letting others suffer.
"Don't tell me you were thinking about saving them? They would have suffered and died when you got them some help." She answers.
She read my mind on that one. I was thinking about how to save the chickens.
The poor things were left to suffer here and then they died while agonizing during their last breaths, without their feathers and injured… What is the meaning of this?
I take the paper on one of them, I have to break the paper to pull it out.
Written in black ink is a name.
"Maria…"
I check the others.
"Alex… Marcel…" then the last one that Aurelia killed. "Leiva…"
Leiva…
"Isn't Leiva that teacher we met earlier?" Karina comments.
"I remember that name! That is the woman guiding all the brats we saw today!" Aurelia comments.
The more I see the setup, the more having these names in the necks of the chicken makes me shiver. This is screaming a form of ritual, one that I have no idea what it is.
"Aurelia, did you see anyone around here when you arrived?" I ask her.
"Nope, the street was clear and I cannot remember anyone nearby."
I look at Karina.
"Nothing, I don't remember noticing any soul close."
Then they were left here to die until someone found them out of curiosity.
And to make this happen out in the open…
I look around the alleyway but I find nothing else. Not any drawing, not a mark, not anything that could pass like a ritualistic tool to sacrifice anything. I take one of the candles and the only blood I find with the faint light is the ones on the bag.
And I cannot find feathers anywhere.
Normally I would just look away and act like nothing, but the presence of the teacher's name is what makes me feel uncomfortable. I have that weird sensation of when you can tell something bad is going to happen at any moment, anxiety in your chest as you have no idea what is about to happen.
"We better leave…" I say, afraid that we might find ourselves again with our mysterious hooded person.
"Ugh… can we eat the chicken?" Aurelia asks.
…
"No, you don't know what they did with them." I was about to say sure, go ahead… but you never know about meat used in rituals.
********************************************************************
Back in the room, we do find Lisa there.
"Where in the name of the trifecta were all of you?!" She asks. She is wearing a night gown, long, modest, barely revealing.
But I can see a bit of cleavage.
"You are a lost case… a priest?" Karina says when she notices where my gaze went.
I don't answer just to not tell on myself by accident.
"We saw something suspicious outside… I just went to investigate and Aurelia found me." I cough and answer.
"And Amber here made me have to throw away some good chicken!" Aurelia points.
"No it is not… That chicken was used in a ritual!" I answer, trying to make me the guilty party instead of just not taking any stupid risks!
"Wait.. Priest! You maybe know about this!" Aurelia eyebrows go up and get closer to Lisa. "We found a bag with chicken that were slowly dying, bloodied, all their feathers plucked and with a name around their neck… oh! and a circle of red candles!"
Lisa takes a step back when Aurelia gets closer, surprised with the sudden interest of the dragonkin.
"W-well.. I don't really know of any ritual like that… but… I think I heard something from the Mother in the temple I went to visit." She stands straight again. "I remember her mentioning something about someone finding a bag with dead chickens in the slums area."
"Eh? Then there was another find?" That made it weird. We are in the commercial district of the town. "I guess tomorrow we will visit the mayor and the temple to ask questions." I stretch my arms and yawn. "Now I want to sleep."
"I hear you, boss." Aurelia agrees. "Let me get more comfortable."
Comfortable? But all that she has on her body are her scales.
Then… for my complete surprise… her scales slowly retracted into her own body until it was just skin visible, and she was completely naked.