She had to make sure the rabbit was dead.

Fortunately, he had probably died in a jolt, due to the shock.

After that, she took out a piece of rope she was carrying, and tied the rabbit’s legs with it. Then, she lifted it up and hung it from a sturdy tree branch using the rope. She took out dirk and started to skin the rabbit, starting from the ankles.

Perhaps there were better and efficient way of doing this, but this was the method she was taught since childhood, and she was proficient at it.

After skinning it, she cut open its gut, and took out some visceral organs that were quick to rot and not really edible. She took out a small white cloth from her burlap sack, and stored some organs such as the liver inside it. Now, it was time to carry this thing back to her cabin. She stored the rest of the rabbit in the sack.

She was walking back humming a tune to a song she has wrote herself in her journal.

Even when she was alone, which was always, she never sang the lyrics. Only hummed it occasionally. Perhaps, she wanted someone else to hear it. Only if mother was still alive…

She reached the door of her cabin and opened the door by pushing her shoulder against the door.

Her immediate move was to take off her raincoat and shoes. She then reached into her sack and took out the rabbit and the liver.

First, she went to the hearth that was in the middle of the room, sat on her knees and lit a fire. She proceeded to hang a cooking pot over it. Noticing the window, she got up from her knees and went there. She opened the windows and grabbed the big steel pot she had placed there this morning, to collect rain water.

She walked back to the cooking pot and poured the water into it.

Now came the hard part, to make small pieces of rabbit meat.

She reached for her sack, and took out a small cleaver. Her sack was full of tools required for hunting. And then, she set to work.

After a hefty amount of effort from her, she finished making pieces.

She had always especially sucked at this part, hence why it always took a lot of time.

She reached for her travel bag sitting on the table and took out a packet containing something white.

Salt.

She took a few pinches and poured the salt into the pot with now boiling water.

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Time for the easiest part.

She put a few pieces in the pot and rest with the liver. She wanted to smoke them later.

Smoked food always lasted longer.

All she had to do now was wait.

She took a cloth and made it bit wet using rain drops, and started to clean her bloodied hands.

Hygiene was important, mother had deemed it very important.

“Otherwise, you’ll catch all sorts of diseases”.

Mother used to say.

She smiled at this thought. She picked up her own journal and began to write.

“I hunted a rabbit today, after a long time of no hunting. Although, I wish someone else was here with me. The meat is too much for me and some of it will definitely go to waste.

….No that is probably an excuse.

I just want someone to be with me, it is very hard to go on all alone. I have no idea how to deal with this feeling, for the longest time, you were always there mother”.

For the longest time, she had been travelling using the solitary path of forests. But that would come to an end very soon. The forest was finally clearing up, her next destination was an urban city. Besides, she considered herself to be an adept huntress already, although mother would disagree.

“Either ways, it isn’t as if cities don’t have animals, I’m sure there will be some small animals here and there. I am tired of travelling like this. At least, in the cities I don’t have to worry about wild animals while traversing. Not to mention the path is clear, I don’t have to cut down every single wild plant".

The pot with the meat started to rattle, it seemed it was done.

She got up, searched for her spoon in the travel bag, and moved towards the pot. She took off the lid, the soup was boiling and the meat seemed to be done too. She used the spoon to taste some soup for flavor.

She blew on the spoon a few times to cool it down, and then drank it.

She made an unamused face as she gulped it down.

“Needs more salt?”

She wrote it in her journal on the cooking page.

She added a few more pinches of salt into the soup and stirred it a few times using the spoon. Taste testing again was the next step, from her face it seemed like she had succeeded.

She grabbed her bowl, poured it full and sat around the hearth’s crackling flames.

It was after three or four bowls that she finally seemed to be full. There was still a bit left, that could be used tomorrow as breakfast, she would have to reheat it.

Now, she proceeded to smoke the meat.

The liver would last longer.

She had enough that she could explore a nearby city without fear of running out. And if luck was on her side, she would find something of worth there as well.

However, her long term goal was something else.

When she was a kid, Mother used to talk about her hometown, mother had always expressed an interest in going back there.

As such, she had developed a very strong interest in it. After mother’s death, she had nothing better to do. She made her decision to travel and find her mother’s hometown.

Her destination, The city of Old Saints.