Gone. It was all gone.

Greenie and I had arrived at our cave, and the first thing I did was check inside. Greenie sat next to the Crescent Leaf plant, waiting while I checked inside to make sure there were no more surprises waiting for us. He'd found his spear, broken from our encounter with the Subterranean Rats, and was carefully picking off my baby feathers from the spear.

There was another stick on the ground next to him, waiting to be sharpened by Greenie's pink blade into a new spear.

Good idea. I mean, weapons were always a good idea.

Greenie glances up at me when he feels my gaze on him when I poke my head out of the cave.

Hungry, Master.

Yeah, I know Greenie. Me too.

I wish I could beat up some more rats right now. At least they were all dead. That's what you get for destroying the fruits of our effort! Now you're all just fish bait at the bottom of the lake.

But our precious snake meat was gone! Someone else had gotten into the cave before us and taken it away.

And all the hard work spent cleaning the cave was rendered pointless. The articles of clothing that I'd thrown outside to wash in the rain were still out there, but the pile of stuff Greenie and I had gathered lay strewn about the floor, covered in dirt.

Though I already knew what I would find, I give another once over of the place where Greenie and I had nearly died. There was the spot where Greenie had fallen, blood staining the green leaves red.

Too close, that was. But other than the blood and bits of bone and rat fur I'd ripped off, there were no actual dead rats.

We didn't even have the slain rats in the clearing to eat. Other creatures had already dragged them away to eat, the churned up grass and bloodstains the only indication that a fight had gone down here. Using Scent Detection was difficult when the smell of blood was everywhere.. And the previous rain had diffused the iron scent of blood so that it hung heavily over the entire clearing in front of our cave.

Hopefully, the other creatures missed a few rats. I take a deep breath and let the bloody, but tantalizing aroma seep into my lungs.

Keeping my body low to the ground so I can follow the scent trails, I follow the blood scent to a growth of thorn bushes. They were growing in a relatively undisturbed area of the clearing, underneath a large tree that kept it shaded from the sunlight.

The vines within the bushes shrunk inwards when I got closer to them. Making sure to keep a good distance between me and the bushes, I survey the reddish-brown bunch of leaves.

Scent Detection said there was something inside there. Something we could eat.

My stomach clenches again.

{Thorn Siphon Bush}

The bush my senses were pointing to was a messy tangle of vines and leaves. When I hop around the bush, sections of it writhe and close up tightly. For a moment there, I could see a glimpse of brown rat fur inside. How did the dead rat get so deep in there??

There was no hole that I could see on the sides of the bushes. The rats had moved in coordination with each other, all running out of the cave in one direction. I knew that was because of Thought Transmission. But a lone rat inside this bush?

Maybe up above?

I fly up and peer inside the bush. While it grew thickly in a ring, the center of it was covered with a less dense layer of thorny vines. There were more than a few rats inside there, in the center of the bushes. And the vines were wrapped tightly around each rat, eerily coiling as they pierced into the wounds I'd left on the rats' heads.

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The bush was siphoning something, alright.

I'd already come to terms with the fact that almost everything I came into contact within this world was dangerous.

Well, I'd spotted our meal for the day. The next problem was getting the rats from out of the vines. I knew the easiest way to kill a plant was burning it with fire, but that wasn't an option.

Grabbing a long twig, I hold it in my beak and poke it at the vines that coil inwards slowly. The twig was too thin to hold with my new wing-fingers, and my beak worked just fine for now.

When I move the twig against the vines again, the vines poke out of the bush and start to drag the twig into itself. It didn't react to a rock I'd dropped in from above. But when I pushed another stick towards the bush, wiggling it, it swallowed it up.

Greenie! Can you cut this off for me?

After teasing out a long vine with another stick, Greenie was quick to chop it off with his pink Soldier's Dirk.

Greenie and I both stared at the vine we'd cut off.

The cut off vine writhed in a slow manner. Movement wise, it was like an octopus, curling in and out. Eventually, as we watched, the reddish brown vine went still.

We repeated this a few more times till there was a small bundle of {Thorn Siphon Vines} at our feet.

The plant itself wasn't sentient. But it responded to outside stimulation, much like a Venus Flytrap did when it sensed movement in its mouth. I wrap a vine around a thicker stick and poke it inside the bush. This time, the bush doesn't try to swallow the stick, but makes way for the vine. Even when the long stick goes into the very heart of the bush where the rats were, the vines move out of the way.

Ok Greenie. Here's what we'll do.

Give me your stick.

The furrow between his eyes growing deeper, Greenie makes a confused expression.

We kill the plant, Master? Plant not taste good.

But he sets the long stick on the ground before me anyways.

No Greenie, we're going to steal from it.

The rats in there were ones that we'd killed to begin with. Instead of stealing, it was more like taking back what belonged to us.

Let's wrap these vines around the stick first.

Like this master?

Perfect, Greenie!

I make sure to send feelings of happiness and satisfaction to Greenie. It must be his skill, Odd Weapons Crafting, that came into effect.

It doesn't take long until the long stick that was to be a spear was covered in the vines that Greenie had cut off.

We need to do one more thing. I look around the clearing for a flat object to add to our strange tool.

Flying to a nearby {Cottonpine Tree}, I rip off a piece of peeling bark. It was quite sturdy, but not as impossibly hard as the Ironwood tree. It comes off cleanly when I use [Razor Bite].

Add this to the spear by tying the vines around it.

I transmit the tool I was thinking of. In shape, it looked like a lumpy hoe. And it was wrapped in the vines we'd harvested so far.

Greenie bares his teeth at me, in his version of a confident grin.

I do it, Master!

And he did. His fingers move with a dexterity that surprises both of us. Must be the difference between having 3 and 4 fingers. Evolution really was important to our survival. It didn't take long until the makeshift hoe was completed.

And now to test my theory:

Greenie.

I call to him with my mind, interrupting his excited stabbing motions using our new hoe. Greenie stops and looks at me.

New spear, Master?

It's a sort of spear, Greenie.

I set a small pebble in front of me.

Using my own smaller body to illustrate what I wanted him to do, I grab a stick, poke a leaf onto one end to mimic the hoe, and cradle the stick in my wings into a stabbing motion.

So you stab behind the rat, but then you-

I pull backwards, making the leaf catch on the pebble and bring it back.

Pull!

Can you do it?

Yes, Master, Greenie can do!!

Greenie looks excited trying out his new item.

It's easy for him with his strong muscles to pick up the makeshift hoe, made much heavier with the vines wrapped around it, and stab in into the bush.

The vines twist themselves away from the hoe, welcoming it in like it was one of their kind. Exactly the reaction I'd been hoping for.

It worked!

There were six rats in total that Greenie dragged out.

Each one was the size of a small dog.

Eat now, Master? Greenie looks down at me with sparkling eyes. It wasn't a very beautiful sight, seeing a ugly goblin in a loincloth looking at you with puppy-dog eyes. But he'd grown on me. I was starting to think he looked a little cute, even.

The pain in my stomach told me to get out of my feelings. Snap out of it Raven! Sustenance first and feelings later!

Yes, let's eat.

Greenie quickly peels back the skin of the rat like I'd done with the snake and cuts off a large chunk for me first, setting it on the ground.

Thank you, Gree-

.....And then he goes HAM on the rat. His teeth, sharper after the evolution, makes light work of the rat, ripping off the limbs with his teeth and gnawing off the meat to reveal white bone. The way he ate it made it look like it was the most delicious thing in the world, and I-

I couldn't control myself either.

I hunker down and gorge myself on the rat meat, ignoring the taste of gamey rat flesh that somehow tasted not bad and swallowing down large pieces.

Man, was I hungry.

I didn't even stop to think that eating raw meat straight off the ground was dirty.