Animal hunting wasn't something Meiris has ever done before, but she had the basic idea about it. At least in the sense that she had to silently approach her target as closely as possible and down it before it could escape. Then she had to prepare it for cooking.

She didn't know how to prepare it exactly, without anything akin to a knife, but maybe she could burn off the skin?

Either way, she put on the gloves and kept her eyes open, while moving towards the river. Obviously she had to stay off the road, so her pace wasn't that great.

A few birds chirped in vicinity, but she wasn't after them. For a couple reasons...

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Eventually Meiris heard the sound of the river in the distance. The current picked up past the nearby bridge as it was flowing down a valley. It didn't mean she had to give up on the hunt, but her motivation decreased a little.

Maybe she was being too naive yet again. She had hoped to at least spot a single animal. Even a squirrel- None. There were only birds.

Not that much time has actually passed. The sun was only halfway down.

However, Meiris was tired. Her legs and feet hurt after having walked for so long without shoes. She did take breaks along the way, but she still had her limits.

If she wanted to eat anything today - that wasn't some kind of a berry - she had to try and catch a bird.

Now, she thought it would be a waste. Birds were pretty, small and agile... But they definitely weren't poisonous. That statement was correct in most cases, though Meiris didn't know it wasn't a universal truth.

One blue bird with a white belly was sitting on a branch diagonally above her, maybe 8 meters away. Probably as close as she would get to one. Still an unlikely success, but she may as well have tried.

She attempted to predict which direction the bird would try to fly off in, brought up a torch-worth flame, cast two flinging spells in quick succession and... The bird flew the other way.

sigh

Realistically, casting multiple identical - or interfering - spells in quick succession didn't do much. If it was done at the same time, the spells would essentially become one spell. If Meiris was to wait with the second fling, it would be just as useless, because the flame would no longer be in range.

However, in some cases, there existed a resonance timing. With high accuracy it was possible to cast an identical or an interfering spell with over half its potential power. Resonance zones often appeared much sooner than natural spell-source dissipation, making them a valuable bit of knowledge. Though learning them wasn't all too common, because often times there were better, more reliable skills to have.

Meiris wasn't aware of the specifics and neither was she taught about such a technique. She read about it in an adventuring novel, then tried it for herself.

The author wasn't particularly open about the timing, but Meiris attempted to figure it out via trial and error. A few months before her life turned upside down.

She didn't exactly master it, but after several evenings she managed to hit a target from 20 meters with speed that was clearly greater than she could manage with a single.

Too bad she failed the timing now, but even then- Her prediction was wrong, so there would be no difference in the outcome.

The little bolt of flame didn't fly far, but it managed to scare away most of the nearby birds.

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sip

It was one of the hottest days of the year in the region, but the water was refreshingly cold.

The river Lifa originated far in the northern mountain ranges, at the edge of Modeva's territory. In the no man's land by reality and almost by name.

No longer thirsty, Meiris sat down on the river bank. She's never felt hungry before. Not that kind of hungry. But she could deal with the feeling the same way she was taught to ignore any other. It was still well within her tolerance zone.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

'So...'

She pinched a dark red berry in between the fingers of her right hand.

'Just one for now.'

...however, negligence wouldn't feed her. The last thing she needed was for her body to weaken.

She popped the berry into her mouth.

It was a tad sour, but overall quite tasty.

Nobles were often given a few lessons on poisons. Characteristic signs, symptoms, their delay... But in the case of the berries nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

If she was fine after two hours, Meiris would eat some more, before looking for a suitable tree for the night. Another thing she was going to copy from some tale.

For now, she just lied down to rest.

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Her short nap was broken when a rabbit ran over her stomach. It was quite light and didn't cause any real harm.

However... It was enough to trigger a memory from when Meiris was in the cell... A memory of that count's son kicking her in the stomach. The only child of the count who she supposedly killed. Was he acting, or was he a victim too? Whatever the truth was, the memory came with a sea of hatred that Meiris didn't want to acknowledge back then.

But right now her consciousness was still elsewhere, none of her safeguards applied.

She was slowly coming to her senses, calming the thoughts which were thrown into chaos, only just realizing she was sitting up and...

"What the-"

Less than a meter away from her right hand laid a charred rabbit, the smell and smoke coming off of it still fresh.

It wasn't a clean catch. The small crater of burnt grass was enough to encapsulate four rabbits. Kind of expected, given the fact she was basically more than half-asleep when it happened.

Though the way she cast the magic... She didn't remember it. Could she have forgotten already?

It seemed as if she cast the spell before even instinct - which she didn't have - could kick in... Yet she never heard about the possibility of casting spells subconsciously. Which did sound like something important to teach before spellcasting lessons, so why wasn't it taught?

It only intensified the doubt she kept near. The doubt whether she was really human again.

However, she couldn't do much about it now. No matter if it was true.

'Suppose at least I have a dead rabbit for dinner now...'

She leaned closer towards the corpse.

It was the first life she's taken, disregarding bugs. Accident or not, it wasn't a pleasant feeling.

Funnily enough, she didn't like death, but it was a part of the world whether she liked it or not. Some people dreamed to change that, some reveled in taking lives away. There were those who only did it for survival...

Ultimately Meiris was near to being in the middle in many ways. "Destruction and creation are closer than people think." - An unfortunate citation of a self-proclaimed king who failed in his rebellion, but one that stuck with her long after the history lesson she heard it on. She simply didn't like unwarranted or too extreme of a destruction.

Perhaps her execution could have been means of creation too. How, why or of what- That was both beyond her knowledge and care. It was her life. No one had the right to take it away.

As for the rabbit-

Oddly enough, she felt something was off. Yes, the fact of her killing an animal for the first time and having meat for dinner to satiate her hunger resulted in some fairly conflicting emotions, but... This was different. Hypnotizing...

She felt heat dissipating. Not in the sense of touch, certainly not from the rabbit that was still a short distance away from any part of her body.

Yet... It was as if she was touching something in a dream. Hard to put any shape behind the senses, but there was a suggestion...

Eventually the heat was almost completely gone. A few... strands? remained, but probably not for long.

Other than them, the texture of whatever she sensed wasn't changing. Though it was unlike anything she had ever put her hands on.

Or maybe... Like those weird geometric carvings in that paperweight her father brought from the far west... That was the closest thing she could think of. A far fetched comparison no less.

Then Meiris snapped out of it.

*'Is... Did I just *feel* it die? No, more like...*

'Its soul left?'

That couldn't have been normal. If that's what people felt after killing, then she would have learned about it long ago. Surely...

So why?

After all the things she's been through recently, the oddity of the situation itself didn't move her much. Though she was definitely uneasy about this whole experience. Especially about how soothing it felt.

Despite that, she tried to reinitiate the connection, but failed. It was still there, she just didn't know how to do it.

'Just... WHAT the hell am I?!'

The frustration all those questions she had unanswered caused- It was too much.

If those warm currents - the things she felt - were indeed the rabbit's soul, and not all of them were gone- Did this mean she would be eating its soul? Was that a thing?

'No. Screw that.'

She shook her head and looked at the rabbit's corpse again. It looked much less appetizing now- Not that it did before.

sigh

A moment of consideration later, Meiris got up and went to find some sticks.

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An hour passed and she was now chewing on the meat by a small fire. Good thing she had her flames, otherwise she wouldn't have any idea how to start it.

Her mood from earlier has only worsened after she had to work around the rabbit without any knife, forget a plate or a fork.

The taste wasn't great either. She had no spices - no idea how to use them - and parts of her meal were burnt. Oh how she would have liked to taste a steak with garlic and a salad...

But at least she wouldn't go to sleep hungry.

Tomorrow she was going to be back on the road towards a village that shouldn't have been much further, while being far enough that she - hopefully - wouldn't be recognized.

Maybe she would find her footing there.