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“What do you mean you only eat fresh meat?” the boy asked.
“And how fresh is “fresh”? asked his guardian, his voice filled with suspicion.
“If you wish to be technical about it, then I suppose the most accurate answer would be… it must have never been less than two degrees lower than living body temperature for the animal we are feeding from,” She replied. “Or in the vernacular? …Still twitching.”
Their faces twisted into various expressions of disgust, some more subtle than others.
“And you eat the whole animal? You waste nothing?”
This came from an Elder.
“We eat the meat and the skin is consumed along the way. We also suck the marrow from the bones. The internal organs and the viscera are left as a tithe to the carrion eaters.”
Came her unruffled reply.
“Tithe?” The boy’s guardian spoke, his voice filled with incredulity. “You WORSHIP carrion eaters?”
She smiled briefly, but there was very little humor in her gaze.
“No.”
She looked at the assembled Clan and then plucked two small stones from the ground in front of her and held one in each fist.
“Always tithe to the carrion eaters. They are integral to the survival of every world. They take the meat that has been poisoned by the sun and the elements and remove its pollution from the environment. They, not the predators, are the true top of the food chain; because in the end even the predators will die and their carcasses rot.”
She took a breath.
“When the environment thrives, the carrion eaters live in perfect balance with nature. When the environment dies the carrion eaters thrive.”
She tightened her fists minutely; her knuckles going white as her gaze grew distant.
“Imagine that suddenly the grass dies. Anything that feeds on grass will die. Both the large animals and the small will die. But the vermin, predators, and most importantly, the carrion eaters will feast. The predators and the carrion eaters will then prey on the vermin that no longer have food, and they will feast. Then, the predators will die and the carrion eaters will feast. And as the carrion eaters feast they will multiply. Eventually they too will die, but not before feasting on each other. In essence, in a famine, the carrion eaters will outlast everything in their environment.”
She paused for a deep breath, as if to focus herself.
“And if you are smart, if you are patient, if you are quick, you can feast on the carrion eaters. Nothing lasts forever. You can outlast a famine if you are lucky and you respect the carrion eaters.”
Her fists opened. In her left palm, was left nothing but dust. In her right palm, was a shining gem that glowed in the firelight.
“Time is a grindstone.”
She poured the dust to the ground.
“It is up to you to decide whether you will perish…”
She held the gem up into the light.
“Or if you become something greater than you were before.
And that is why we Tithe.”