"Frankowski,.Leo.-.Tank.3.-.Kren.Of.The.Mitchegai" - читать интересную книгу автора (Frankowski Leo)

festivities was about to take place, the only truly important event of
the day.

The stupor of his earlier kill was still on him, and that was good. It
lessened the pain, and it wouldn't do to show any distress or
emotion in front of his highest subordinates. He watched as a
particularly fine specimen of recently metamorphosed youth was
brought caged to him, and he nodded his approval at both the
creature and his tattoos. He had, of course, along with his medical
people, carefully examined the youth the day before, and knew him
to be perfect. The face was pleasing, the body lovely and the ritual
tattoos were all properly shaped and colored. He gestured his
readiness to proceed.

As the noise of the crowd hushed, he stood, removed his Helmet
of Command, his Weapons Belt of Power, and his Cloak of
Authority. He crossed over to and mounted the great ancient
throne naked. The cage with the selected youth was placed behind
him in the proper manner, as he ritually refused the binding straps.
He knew that he would not disgrace himself in this final act. He
never had before.

A second cage was placed around him, abutting the first. It
encased his body, but left his limbs outside. It was locked in place.

He signaled his readiness with a slight flick of his claws, and the
sergeants removed the wall of the cage that separated him from
the lean and screaming youngster. The famished creature leaped
at his immobile form, instinctively tore open his brain cage, and
devoured his brain as he held himself motionless against the pain.
Even after the brain was gone, still the body rigidly obeyed its final
command. It sat frozen as the youngster ate the rest of the head,
the trunk and the tail. The arms and legs, which had been
positioned outside the cage, were then removed by the sergeants,
to be cut into thousands of tiny slices and distributed to the
greatest of his faithful subjects.

The crowd cheered wildly. A noble death!

The most astounding biological peculiarity of the Mitchegai is their
motile brain cells. The small cells of the gray matter in their brains,
which are in fact bright blue to human eyes, are not digested when
eaten alive. Instead, they migrate through the walls of the first
stomach. They are picked up by the blood stream and taken into
the cranium. This skull has flexible, overlapping plates, and can
expand rapidly if the brain recently eaten is inordinately large, as
was the case with Duke Kren's.

If the brain eaten was the small one of a juvenal, the cells would be
absorbed into the larger mass of those of the adult. They replace