Jade had always been a little too rebellious for her own good, somewhat reckless, somewhat fearless.  Normally people said this not as a compliment to her, and it was proving that this day when she woke up in a cage in some dark lonesome tower.  The last thing she had remembered was a forest where she was hunting down some large beetles, then a smothering darkness took her.
	"Nnnngh...where, whah?"  She rubbed her woozy head.  "This isn't the forest."
	"Indeed it is not."  A looming voice came from the darkness.  "Welcome my little shipment, how are you?"
	"I uh...wait, why am I in a cage?!" she grabbed the bars.  "I was s'posed to be hunting beetles in the Beezer Forest!"
	"Well, now you are not."
A snap of the fingers lit up the room, revealing a laboratory with the finest alchemical instruments.  Burners, weird flasks and thaumaturgical meters filled the desks that circled the room, where various fluids turned solid or gaseous inside their tubes, yet never became trapped.
An odd meaty smell filled the air, but not like a delicious dinner.  More like being inside a meat locker in the start of summer, warm, thick and wet.  Jade was a kobold of soft green scales, with yellow horns and golden strips covering her thighs, wrists and ankles.
The one before her was a bipedal red dragon, dressed in long blue robes that were patterned in stars and moons where every movement shifted the constellations.  Her natural instinct was to bow, but she remained steadfast as the wizard took off his peaked hat.
	"My name is Garfrond," he bowed with a long grey beard, "you are to be my haruspex, a great honour I think you shall see."
	"A what?" she scoffed.  "Did you kidnap me to be some kind of sex slave like a creep?"
	"Ohoh no no, nothing of the sort, this is far more important.  I have an experiment that requires a living body, and yours fits the bill exactly.  The experiment did specify kobolds, so I naturally had you brought here."
	"What...kind of experiment?" Jade cocked her head.  "Because if you just wanted a sap to drink stuff I would have said yes, but not anymore!"
	"Well no," Garfrond offered a glass of water, "speaking of would you like something to drink?"
	"Oh, uhh, alright thanks!"
The kobold took a drink, feeling quite parched from her drugged sleep as Garfrond smiled stroking his hat.
	"I'm just going to check on something here, if you need some more water just let me know."
	"Oooookay?" she shrugged smacking her lips.  "But why am I here?"
	"A-tut-tut, give a moment."
He stirred a flask and watched a green liquid turn into yellow, hardening into a spongy custard that he pulled out to form a spool of rubber.  Taking the whole solvent out of the glass, the dragon grinned at its stretchiness and rolled it in his hands, snapping it like string.
Jade looked on with a curious eye, drinking up the rest of her water as she noted an odd metallic tinge in the flavour.  Not that it bothered her, she had drunk worse in the taverns, and having a body so small that she barely reached the wizard's thigh, she had little tolerance for alcohol.
The air in the laboratory was strangely heavy, a sickly sweet stench like that of mushrooms which only further reminded her of the drunken revelries she had enjoyed once in a while.  As fun it was to get drunk every once in a while, it made her an easy target in a way that she sometimes enjoyed the thrill of danger, which helped keep her cool in a wizard's cage.
	"What's that you're making?" she asked.
	"Gelatinous Proxima," said the dragon, "thinking what appliance I can sort this in public."
	"Not big on the name," Jade poked her head out the cage, "gotta have something more snappy, it's stretchy stuff right?  Call it Stretcher or something."
	"That's not very alchemical."
	"People don't care about alchemy they care what it DOES!"
	"Haha...I suppose you're right," Garfrond looked to her with a smirk, "you seem to be awfully bold, for a kobold, hmhmhm."
	"Ehh, it's not that unusual," she laid back, "this is like the third time I been kidnapped this year."
	"I would hope you don't plan on escaping."
	"Depends, are you gonna tell me why I'm here?"
	"Well, simply put," the drake put his Stretcher in a box, "my experiment requires living tissue, a set of ingredients that involve your organs."
	"My...organs?!"  She cringed reeling back.  "Oh this is DEFINITELY a sex thing, ugh!  You wizards gotta be so creepy, why can't you just be blunt?!"
	"I thought I was my dear, I require your organs for an incantation."
	"Oh is that what we're calling it?" Jade rolled her eyes.  "You know there's places you can go where kobolds do that, I mean shit I would've if you paid me enough."
	"Hm ha ha ha," the dragon shook his head, "the supplier said your recklessness was unique, perhaps an underdeveloped amygdala."
	"HEY!" she grabbed her chest.  "My amygdalas are just fine, kobolds don't even have those, what do you think I am a mammal?!"
	"Anyways, I am here to inform you that you are to be dissected, as a haruspex of sorts and I do need you to be alive as long as possible so your organs remain the freshest."
	"Dissected?"  She twitched shaking her head.  "So, that...that means I'm gonna die?!"
	"Indeed," the sorcerer nodded, "now fear not, the water I gave you contained some medicine that will reduce the pain significantly."
	"Oh is that why it tasted weird?  Hold up."
She grabbed the bars and slammed her head into them, surprising the wizard as the kobold looked up with a grin.
	"Wow, that didn't hurt a bit!  That medicine's good, I thought you were gonna drug me asleep!"
	"I could have, but it helps if my subject is willing."
	"To be killed for your experiment?" Jade sneered rubbing her neck.  "Why you think I would even say 'yeah sure cut me up', that sounds pretty messed up."
	"Well now hold on," the dragon put up his hands, "let me pitch this for you.  How have you lived your life until now, miss uh...forgive me I did not ask your name."
	"Jade," she crossed her arms, "but sure, pitch me my death, this'll be fun."
	"From what I gather, you are a reckless sort, diving headlong into terrible risks by either some thrill of adventure or to appease some excitement in your mundanity.  Nothing wrong with that I assure you, but consider if you did perish out there, alone in the woods, your body rotting away to be picked apart by beetles."
	"Not convincing me yet old-timer."
	"Now, while your feeding some beetles with your remains is not an ignoble gesture, consider this.  I take your body, and revolutionise the world with an exceptional remedy that will cure the fiendish bloodrot!"
	"Hmmmm...bloodrot IS bad," she tapped her chin, "and you can't just take like, one organ?" 
	"Unfortunately not," Garfrond shook his head, "every organ is dependent on a precise acidity, a cure for one organ's decay could easily encourage another's!"
	"That makes sense...I guess you would just have to have a victim-"
	"Ah-ah, not victim!  You are my haruspex, an assistant of living ingredients, I would not disdain you with the title of victim.  If I did, I would not have spent two weeks brewing a medicine that reduces your pain during the procedure."
	"It DOES taste like the medicine I had when I broke my leg," Jade bit on her lip, "would be nice to do something good to the world, and you're right that I do get into a lotta trouble."
	"So why not apply that to a better science?" the dragon clasped his sleeves.  "Don't think of this as an execution, but a contribution!  One small sacrifice of an inevitable death, made to better the world before doing so."
	"I...yeaaaah, you got a point actually."
At the start of all this she had been very against the idea, out of a natural survival instinct.  But the more he spoke, and the more that strange water settled in her gut, the kobold started appreciating the idea more and more.  What Garfrond had not told her, was that the water contained an additional chemical and lowered her impulse control.  A perfect cocktail for one so foolhardy as her.
	"Mmm, alright!" she clapped her hands.  "I dunno why but, I'm really  warming up to the idea, if you say it's gonna help a lotta folks with the bloodrot."
	"Good!" the wizard unlocked her cage.  "I shall credit you as my assistant on the research paper, so you shall be honoured posthumously."
	"Thanks!" the kobold walked out over to the table.  "Wow, I get to be in a paper?!  And not related to a crime?!"
	"Absolutely my dear Jade, now please, step up here and lay yourself down."
Hopping onto the rack, she slipped her hands in a set of restraints for her arms and legs as the dragon tied her down.
	"Just to keep your body stable," he said, "involuntary twitches and the like."
	"I getcha," she giggled, "I can't control my body all the time, especially when I'm drunk."
	"Hah, very true!"
Firing up a portable cauldron with his flame breath, Garfrond watched the water bubbling up before adding some ingredients, various powders that shifted the colours from blue to pink to magenta.  Once it was all ready, he brought out a rack of various sharpened blades.
	"I am just going to open your torso and remove your organs one by one."
	"Ooooh, you taking yer time?!" Jade poked out her tongue.  "Not many guys do that yanno."
	"I always like to ensure a lady's pleasure comes first."
He gave a wink and a deep growl, making her blush with a giddy cackle as Garfrond pulled out an exceptionally thin knife.  Placing his hand on her chest, the sorcerer felt for her ribs as her face turned redder, finding the diaphragm before pressing the blade down and separating the flesh.
With her nerves now deadened by the tonic, she felt only the cold pluck of her skin as she watched with a morbid fascination at her evisceration.  Blood slipped free over her verdant scales, draining out as her beating heart throbbed a little slower.
The dagger cut through her flesh like silk, tugging at her nerves that screamed with a silent pain she never heard nor felt, only a mild discomfort at the metal streaking through her skin.  The red dragon carefully opened her folds and nailed them down either side, admiring her splendorous anatomy.
	"Goodness dear," the wizard stroked his beard, "what a gorgeous body you possess, all of your organs in such fine size and health."
	"Heheh, thanks," she grunted looking away, "is this...kinda weird, I mean I'm more naked than ever."
	"Are you embarrassed?"
	"I...what SHOULD I feel, my organs are all out there like a butcher's shop!"
	"It's just an experiment," the dragon waved his hand, "think more professional, you are my assistant and haruspex containing all of my ingredients inside your delicious body."
	"Delicious?"  She squinted at him.  "You better not be planning to eat any of this, I won't be happy!"
	"I give you my word, none of your organs within your body cavity shall be eaten."
	"Hmm...good."  Jade nodded.  "So uh, once you take my heart that's me dead right?"
	"And your lungs, which I shall only remove one of before taking your heart."
	"Okay, cuz I would like to breathe still-nnngh!"
His hand reached inside to feel around her liver, squishing it carefully with a grin as the slippery dark meat twisted in his claws.  Her body was like a gruesome cabinet, a set of ribs above her tender heart pulsing away, every organ twitching to itself with a tapestry of veins decorating the back wall.  A stomach, two lungs, a pair of kidneys, some intestines and other miscellaneous organs clustered towards the bottom, all packed tightly inside her smaller frame.
	"Not too bloated, some signs of alcohol poisoning but no more than the usual taverncrawler, perfect average."
	"Aww thanks," she grinned, "no one ever called me average before-EEEH!"
The knife came sliding under her liver to sever the cords, plucking it off like fruit from a tree before Garfrond dropped it in the cauldron.  A sizzling froth emanated within as the liver's juices turned hot, causing the organ to bulge floating in the water before it gently burst to descend.
	"Now I do have to take these in a certain order," said the mage, "but your heart will be the last, that will be the augur by which to repel the bloodrot."
	"R-right," she shuddered, "sorry it's...getting a little cold."
	"I'll try to be swift."
He took a smaller knife and worked his way towards the kidneys, cutting them off in one swipe and yanking them free as two small ballons shaped like beans.  Those were dipped slowly into the pot, a scorching sizzle burning their ears as Jade whimpered in a strange excitement.
	"Th-this is...k-kinda wild," she muttered, "feel a lot colder though, you didn't warn me about this."
	"That's the blood loss, please hold on best you can," he smiled, "I need to take all the parts that relate to your blood cleansing.  Did you know kobolds have exceptional sanguine regulation?"
	"N-no?!  What's that?"
	"Essentially how well your body cleans the blood," the dragon twirled his knife, "basically, certain organs in your body can flush out poisons that creep in, or strengthen the blood by various processes.  Your lungs maintain the acidic value and regulate the aerosolvents in your blood; your kidneys establish the water balance; and your liver removes the toxins."
	"Huh...th-that's kinda neat," Jade grunted, "s-seeing it all working out there, makes me really appreciate it a lot more."
	"I hope you're not having regrets dear Jade."
	"N-nah!  Mmmph, just...makes me realise how much more my death means to ya.  Kinda nice to think I'll be dead soon."
	"I'm glad to hear," Garfrond petted her cheek, "now I just have to remove two more things before the heart, then you shall have served a better purpose to this world."
	"Great!" the kobold grinned rearing her head.  "Cut me up good doc, the sooner I die the better we'll be!"
	"Indeed!  Now let me just take your intestines for uh...later research."
He went back to work, pulling out an entire ball of fleshy serpents in the form of her intestines.  So lengthly they were he had to place them down on a separate table.  Snipping off the end tips to separate them fully from her body, the dragon watched the intestines swing down against the table leg with a wet splat before rolling them up.
The hot slimy offal drenched his hands as he licked his lips, hiding his hunger from Jade before washing his hands and taking out the stomach.  Luckily it wasn't too full, having explicitly asked for a kobold who had not recently eaten as he cut both the top and bottom free, then pulled it free to place on the table next to Jade's bowels.
Grabbing a serrated dagger he sawed through the bronchial tube and took one of her lungs, causing her to gasp with a shuddering cough.  To stop her suffocating from external air, he blocked the pipeway with an inactive resin, a plug that was airtight as she now struggled to breathe with her singular lung.
It was the closest Jade felt to pain, a raw burning in her throat that made her choke as the bag-like organ inflated then collapsed.  The fleshy sac was rippling with nerves as its sister was soon put in the pot, a limp hanging sack that wheezed in its fugue before popping from the heat.
The water frothed to a bilious red, marked with spots of white like chalk dusted across as the wizard stirred it carefully.  The potion turned more ichorous, fresh and thick with a crimson texture that made him gasp with glee before turning back to Jade.
	"Now, I'm going to have to open your head, just to take a few thalami here and there."
	"Wait, my head?" she gasped.  "I thought you were just taking organs from my body."
	"I am, but also removing parts of your brain that help regulate the blood.  Don't worry, I shan't remove anything you will still need."
	"Well, a-alright then...sorry, just a li'l nervous."
	"That's perfectly fine dear," he gripped her horn, "just hold still for me please."
Pulling out a thin circular saw, the wizard began carving a circle round Jade's head that dug deep into the skull.  Cracking shards deafened her ears with a deep vibration through her scalp, her eyes turning bleary and a dull throb emanating from inside before the pressure suddenly released.
	"F-feels, haaah, c-c-cold, like I sh-shoulda worn a hat."
	"Fear not," said Garfrond cutting through.  "Oh my, you have quite a few dents in here!"
	"Haha well, y-you know how it is, adventuring!"
	"What's this scar on the back here?"
	"Oh that?" she looked up.  "Baby owlbear, nasty li'l guy, thought I was alone in that cave."
	"Goodness...well, glad you survived so we could meet."
The saw would scrape and delve through the layer, before water started running out as the signal for the red drake to stop.  Pooling behind her head, he pulled her horns free to let out a thick gooey water, spilling down the neck and the back of the table.
	"NNNGH, hey!  What's this stuff?!"
	"Just some brain fluid," said Garfrond, "keeps it steady in your skull, like pickles in a jar."
	"Ughhh, I hate pickles," Jade rolled her eyes, "look gross, why does every tavern have those?!"
	"I would suspect some sort of housewives' remedy.  Now, let's see that beautiful brain of yours."
It took the wizard great restraint not to salivate at her brain, rubbing his hands after putting the saw away to savour the juicy medium-sized vessel of knowledge.  The kobold brain was a classic reptilian sort, long and oval with a bend in the hemisphere line as the dragon searched carefully around the medulla oblongata.
With two scalpels he carefully pried open the wrinkly surface, searching for the chemoreceptors that through years of study he had memorised the location of.  Small polyps nestled in the wrinkles were pulled by a pair of tweezers, like plucking grapes as Jade felt the tug and squish of her brain shifting.
	"OOH, haaah, th-that tickles!"
	"Goodness this is rather stuck in," he murmured, "I may have to take out more, this will be quite delicate."
	"What's uh, what do you mean?"
	"Well if I cut the wrong part you stop breathing, or your heart stops beating, and we don't want that just that."
	"Oh, hah,  yeah that would suck."
She smiled with anxiety, her natural instincts fearing for her life slowly overridden by the tonic as Garfrond continued.  The slicing stab of cold steel scooped out parts of her medulla, carefully removing the least-important parts of Jade.
The kobold tried to swallow, then found her throat had turned slack.  The muscles wouldn't respond, and her saliva dripped down the back of her tongue unaided which caused it to build.  She started to drool, licking her lips with a strange thirst, as well as the slight pang of hunger she had now suddenly disappeared.
	"Hey, my uh, my throat feels kinda weird."
	"Just part of the process," said the drake, "I'm not hurting you am I?"
	"No no, no it...just feels weird, like wearing a cold hat that's got little spikes on the inside."
	"Anything else my dear?"
	"Well...uhhh."  Her eyes drifted slowly to the left.  "I uh, I-i can't move my eyes."
	"Ahhhh, there it is!"  Garfrond twisted the piece out.  "Come to papa little growth!"
With a sucking gouge, he pulled out the chemoreceptors along with the parts that controlled swallowing and eye movement.  Jade was more confused than afraid, glaring across the table towards the cauldron that bubbled with her remains.  Garfrond stepped over to her view, picking apart the piece of her brain and dashing bits of gristle into the stew.
	"Lovely," he sighed, "alright, now the glands in your neck, and your heart at last."
	"My neck?!" her mouth flapped with unblinking eyes.  "Well...at least I won't feel it now."
	"Exactly," Garfrond twirled his knife, "would you prefer to see it, or not?"
	"Ahhh, doesn't really matter," she smiled, "I'm glad I'll be dead."
	"That's the spirit, alright miss Jade, I won't be a moment."
Bending down over the kobold, the dragon sorcerer slipped the knife into her throat, and carefully cut out the parathyroid glands.  Four little peas formed a U-shape at the bottom of the neck, as he sliced off the skin to form a flap that he pulled up, stabbing and twisting each gland out carefully like pulling corks out of bottles.
The wet suck made the girl shiver, her neck completely still with all its muscles gone limp as she kept drooling down her lips.  Unable to swallow, she blushed with eyes still staring towards the table, at the pot where all she was would soon disappear into a meaty soup.
	"Damn, I-i must look a mess!" she laughed dripping spit.  "S-sorry if I look it."
	"Nooo not at all," the wizard stroked her brain, "you're a perfect little kobold, I'm so glad we met."
The four para-glands were snicked off and plopped into the potion.  A pair of pliers hung above her, coming down towards her beating heart as Garfrond slowly cracked her ribs.  The crunching snap made her shudder in reflex, moaning as she tried to lift her head but finding her muscles too weak to support it.
	"Something wrong?" he asked.
	"C-can I...see?" she whispered.  "My head's not moving, and my eyes won't either."
	"Oh, my apologies."  The dragon lifted her head forwards with one hand.  "Are you ready to see your death?"
	"Yeah," Jade sighed, "go on...kill me."
	"Are you happy to die, Jade?  Let me hear it, one last bit of joy before I end you."
	"Y-yeah...maybe I always wanted to die for this long so...thank you fer killing me."
	"My absolute pleasure."
Cracking open the ribs, the sorcerer pulled off the cage with one hand and grabbed for her beating heart.  The lack of mortal fear aided by the medicine helped keep it a steady rhythm, but with the prospect of death ever looming it started thumping a little faster at his touch, like being touched by a lover.
His claws wrapped round the pumping organ, letting it throb in his fingers with joy for the end as he pulled it carefully from her chest.  Tension filled her veins, the arteries snapping off in bloody spurts as Jade gasped with a suffocating shriek.
Her eyes turned wide without her lifecore, the last thing she saw being Garfrond's smile, and her heart beating frantic in his hand.  Slower and slower it began to cease, her eyes glazed over as he dropped her head gently back, letting her drift into the abyss.
	"Goodbye my dear," he dropped her heart into the pot, "and now...for my personal fee."
He wiped his hands clean with a cloth before stepping over to her brain.  Taking a knife he sawed through the stem, snapping it off like a rhubarb stick as he walked to a separate table with a hotplate.
	"Making potions is hard work," he chuckled, "can't expect me to do all this without lunch now can you?"
Plopping the brain down on the plate, he burned a hot flame underneath and brought out the last tool of his set.  A spatula that he flattened the brain with into a sizzling steak, watching the wrinkles smooth out before cutting the hemispheres in half.
One side was once full of knowledge, all of Jade's intelligence and quick-thinking reflexes now a slow-burning saucy platter.  The other side once had her creativity, her spirit, her dreams and memories disappearing into steam.  All of her life was reduced to meat, as Garfrond switched between his work and his pleasure, completely ignoring Jade's lifeless corpse.
The kobold cadaver sat on the central table, head empty, eyes gone pale and her body cavity now mostly hollowed out.  The bloodrot antidote was bubbling away nicely, with Jade's other organs put aside into a box of ice for dinner tomorrow.
Once her brains had been properly grilled, Garfrond sat himself down and brought out some long bread, making a brainy baguette that he chomped down in with a squishy crunch and a big smile.  The red potion kept bubbling as he enjoyed his kobold meat, scarfing half her brains down in two bites.
	"MMMPH, mmmmh!  Lords that is just simply marvellous, dear Jade you were delicious.  Can't wait to enjoy your offal tomorrow, you were such a contribution."
Jade's eyes kept staring at him, her head dripping fluid and saliva as he devoured her mind.
	"Mmmhhh, exceptional, a little black pepper and your brain is just divine, far better use filling my belly and the medicine cabinet than being alive wasting the air."
Finishing his lunch, with brain gristle squeezing out between the bread, he wiped his hands and went back to work.  The potion was almost ready, as he took the time to fold up Jade's carcass, and put her in a box for disposal.  Amongst old rotting herbs and shards of broken glass, her dead blank expression stared up with a faint glimmer of peace.