The thresh remained in darkness while the filthy minion gorged itself on meat that rightly belonged in their gullets. They had been the ones to lay the fear on the prey as the calflings rode along so proudly on their captured beast of burden. Did the minion think it was easy reaching out to the mind of such creatures, traveling at great speed, fast enough by their reckoning to outpace a full grown wulfin?
Short answer, no.
Because minion just didn’t think at all. Thinking and minion were as inimical to each other as vampyri and the dawn. Minion were best at charging and biting and tearing the limbs from enemies and prey, none of which required a great deal of thought. Just lots of teeth and claws and fast springy haunches, of which minion had an elegant sufficiency.
They were also, the thresh admitted, not so bad at biting and tearing considerable chunks of hide from unwary thresh that strayed too close to them, especially in the first moments of a feeding frenzy.
Thresh, however, prided themselves on their thinkings and ponderings. And right now these two were pondering how to distract a stupid, puckering sphincter of a minion from its dinner long enough that they might enjoy a nibble of their own. A while longer and this one would be slow and even stupider than normal with the carnage coma their gluttonous kind always suffered. But likewise, in a little while longer that greedy bastard was going to scarf the whole thing! They cautiously scouted the scene, looking for a way in.
The great armored chariot whence the prey had been pulled looked to be the possession of a mad wizard of immense wealth and power. A throbbing, thumping sound whumped methodically at the humid air around them, a mourning cry for the half-consumed master who lay on the ground in a strange, ceremonial robe thrown asunder. The magic chariot itself was a blaze of gold and sparkles on the hide with luscious hide seats of blood red on the inside. Many a magnificent beast must have been slaughtered and drained to provide the opulence for this mode of conveyance that the Queen herself would be proud to rest in. Even the wheels were fashioned of pristine silver that reflected the light from a thousand unseen candles.
The minion could hear the thresh as they maneuvered through the ruins of the calfling village, around the edge of the kill, careful never to stray into the burning light of the carrier beast’s enormous eyes. But the minion could not hear them as they conversed and plotted, for thresh made no noise at all when doing that. Instead, the thresh remained within the shelter of a brick structure possessed of a red metal roof that held the distant memory of meat, spice, and calfling musk. A fallen temple, perhaps, given its size and complexity. They stayed away from the glaring yellow light of another calfling temple where dead flesh was burning, filling the air with a stale, nasty, oily odor that clashed violently with the sweet, delicate scent of the fresh kill.
They spoke into one another’s minds with nary a whisper on the cool night air to give away their communication. Indeed, that was how they had brought down the prey in the first place. Forcing, with great difficulty, a mirage into the mind of the rider who held the odd reins of the golden chariot. The constant drumbeat—whumpety-whump-whump-whump—pounding from the chariot made it difficult to penetrate the comparatively feeble mind of the wagon’s driver.
Surely not a wizard or sorcerer; this mind had been cluttered, addled with drunkenness and some toxin the thresh could not quite puzzle out, for they were both immature and lacked the thinkings of a full grown Thresh or Threshrend. Nonetheless, little did it matter as they shivered and hopped in hungry frustration while other calflings stayed under the protection of great candle lights that burned everywhere. They screamed in fear and anger while holding up charms and glowing amulets as if to ward away thresh and minion alike.
Futile, of course,
So no, it had not been at all easy reaching out into the mind of the chariot master, and the effort had left them exhausted, which was why that minion really was drinking the urmin piss, slouching out there in plain view gobbling down their dinner. After a good while circling and stalking about in the dark, the same thought occurred to both thresh at the same time, as such things often did.
Why did they not flinch from the light of the carrier beast’s eyes? So bright was it that their own eyestalks should have shriveled and burned black from the intense glare. The two shadow creatures exchanged a significant look. Slowly and as quietly as possible they crept upon the feeding scene. They could sense the fevered terror of nearby calflings, but they paid them no further heed. For one, the filthy minion was dining magnificently on the repast that was rightly theirs. And for two, there was the troubling truth of the second minion, or rather its carcass, brought down by some dark magick a calfling wizard had unleashed before the minion overwhelmed them.
They remembered and looked at the crowd as they emerged slowly, cautiously into the light, all the while keeping an eye on the remaining minion. One calfling wizard-warrior, braver than the rest, stood a little forward of the mewling pack. He had long locks of dark hair and wore white robes cut to display his own tattoos. That gold chain might mean something. The strange headdress with a flat tonguelike protrusion was surely significant. A strange, indecipherable rune stood out on it, 
, a sign of the human wizard’s magical order. In consulting the memory of the thresh, they found nothing to aid in their considerations. None of the magic amulets or boxes spoke the word of death or gave the sign of flame that attended it. That was a relief. Wizards and amulets seemed in copious abundance in this realm.
That, the thresh agreed, was the only explanation for the vexing problem of how calfling prey had brought down a single minion at all. Best to ponder such things at leisure, however, after eating.
The thresh hopped out of the shadows of the red building and into the road. They stalked around the wreck of another magic chariot, fearful that at any moment a stray shaft of light might fall upon their oozing hides and flay them off in a bright phosphorescent burst of white fire and pain. But even as they crept closer and felt the familiar and disagreeable tingle of strong moonlight on their backs, they sensed no threat from the blazing eyes of the carrier beast or the tall candle pyres that threw their own weak glow over the village ruins. It was as though the chariot beast’s eyes were alight and yet dead at the same time, possessed of none of the malevolent puissance that attended illuminations here in the upper realms.
Perhaps the stories were wrong, they exchanged in silence. Perhaps it had been so long since anything had hunted in the realm of Men that myth and legend had replaced true thinkings and ponderings about the Above.
The thresh crouched closest to the greedy minion suddenly started in a panic when an eyestalk dipped and noticed a thin red point of light lying across its forearm. The opalescent pus that ran from its pores should have ignited. But instead it merely glistened in the cold, harmless fire of the light. The thresh skinned back their thin lipless mouths, exposing rows of serrated teeth as a scheme passed between them in a glimmering of quickthinkings.
One hungry, surly minion might well pull the big thinking head of an unwary thresh clean off. Well, maybe not so clean. But one bloated, bood-drunk fool of a minion, engorged with man meat and dizzy with the marrow spins, was almost certainly not a match for two of the quickest, thinkingest thresh the nest of il-Aron had ever hatched.
Their fangs, glinting in the harmless light, began to move along the gum track in their distended mouths, building up such speed that they soon blurred into a single cutting edge, superhard, razor-sharp, and positively humming as they burst from concealment and fell upon the hapless minion.
In the distance, a strange howling sound filled the air, rushing toward them. Perhaps another creature was feeding tonight.