...no meat on this one either...
The lifeforms that continued to eke out existences in the Vintergard outlands were often quite alike, species and such other taxonomic details aside. Scrawny, bony, thoroughly miserable creatures, animals in this region tended towards xerocole biology; sometimes eating even a fresh kill was like trying to chew through leather, butchered flesh and hides more often than not toughened by moisture-retention dermal oils and unpleasantly hard cartilaginous heat-dissipation growths.
Though Magia patrols were less frequent and came in fewer numbers with distance from the ship, they still operated at potentially any hour, leading most species in the region to have adopted habits of quickly feeding in daylight for visibility and returning to hide in burrows in the hazy dark hours between, knowing that light and line of sight afforded little cover from the watchful heatseeking sensors of the Dragonship constructs.
This far out from the ruined city, though, life was beginning to return to the outskirts as the patrol ranges tightened and the mysterious intelligence orchestrating it all turned its gaze inwards. Whatever the reason, less attention was being paid to the outlying areas where Ludmilla was currently wandering, perhaps in response to the recent incursions into Vintergard proper...or perhaps because it had become obvious that gunning down defenseless wildlife was not a good use of resources.
Regardless of what explanation may be offered, this was good news for Ludmilla. Never had she sustained such damage before, to the point of dismemberment that would have otherwise killed any other humanoid without the gift of Rhiannon's mercy. Never had she been forced to consume so much to keep her regenerative processes from halting, for Ludmilla was not so keen on spending more time than was necessary in Vintergard, several limbs and organs short.
By all mortal means, she should not even be alive right now. Her renal and circulatory capacity was entirely shot, bones were missing in the double digits, blistering burn scars stinging all over, left arm still only halfway through the process of regrowing from the bicep down...and this was with a day's worth of feeding.
Though Ludmilla vaguely remembered that there was some kind of massive bloodwurm corpse lying on the battlefield, she had seen another Starcalled tearing at it hungrily and decided that it was best to not pick that fight. Slinking away, she had been hunting and eating anything that moved while making her way aimlessly towards what was hopefully the nearest settlement on foot, having lost her bearings entirely. It seemed that the regenerative process was not without flaws, as massive chunks of her recent memories appeared to have been lost between then and now.
It mattered not. She was alive, and she could stay alive as long as there were fresh feedstocks in her surroundings. That was right...Ludmilla would survive.
Clutching the half-eaten corpse of the wasteland rat in her single hand, Ludmilla let out a delirious giggle as she took another bite.
