The World of Bones is a harsh reality where humanity is little more than prey for the myriad of creatures with monstrous appetites. Mankind organises itself into small villages and tribes that scrape a living out of the feral forests of teeth and blood. Only their evolved ability to rapidly breed allows their kind to flourish in the deadly wilderness. A girl grows up knowing with certainty that she will one day meet her brutal and gruesome death at the claws of of a towering Histscream, live impaled and roasted at the hands of a rival tribe, or impregnated by a parasitic Grey Stalker, whose offspring devour their hosts slowly from the inside out. A young woman's highest aspirations here are to find one of the rare males of her species and to bear and raise as many of his children as she can before she is ripped screaming from this world. If she is exceedingly lucky, and gives birth to one or more male heirs, she may be rewarded by a compassionate lover with a swift beheading. In the world of Bones, death is a constant daily companion.

Elizabeth was taking two of her many daughters on one of her daily gathering trips into the village's local forest.
Melissa had journeyed with her mother on this relatively safe exercise many times while growing up. For Cassie, however, it was her first time, having only just completed her ritual of ascension that marked her as one of the adults of the village, and subject to their responsibilities. Cassie wore her hair in pigtails that hung over her cute freckled face. As they approached the watering hole, Cassie's fresh young eyes darted around looking for signs of danger in the unknown. Elizabeth and Melissa walked over to the crystal clear lake with a practiced confidence.... unaware of the new danger that had grown in their safehaven.

In the last moments before the Venus Mantraps sprung their ambush, Cassie's eyes fell on the bloody remains of the last villagers to pass this way; reduced to a pair of grinning skulls by the shoreline. She screamed and spun around as a slippery tongue wrapped around her mother's unaware neck. hoisting her into the air. Elizabeth gurgled out a muffled shriek of surprise as her eyes widened in abject horror. Her legs kicked in unladylike panic as she dishonoured her ancestors by letting a stream of warm urine project forth. Pissing yourself in your death throes was considered an act of cowardice, and was enough to have your name stricken from any historical records you may have achieved.

Melissa stood frozen in quiet fear as her mother was lifted bodily towards the gaping sphincter. Her mama was about to be consumed right in front of her eyes. In her lifetime, she'd seen many friends and acquaintances meet similar messy fates. Why, only last week, her childhood friend Tiffany Walker had been ritually disembowelled in the main street of the village. But this was her mother... somehow this was different... startling. Melissa found herself quite unable to budge an inch, which was unfortunate for her as a thick slimy tongue slorped down in front of her face. She pulled at her hair and choked out in a squeaky voice "Mama"

Cassie's legs took her as fast as they could in the opposite direction from the nightmarish scene.
Behind her, her very own man eating plant wetly launched its wet appendage to arrest her.