"Deliciousness?" The undead kitten instantly perked up as soon as the smell coming from the pot near the fire reached her.
"That's not ours."
"Please." The kitten's large eyes stared at the elf above.
"It's not ours, Kia," Iris ran her finger through the glum kitten's black hair. "I can make you something thought. How about I make a sandwich?"
"Nyo."
"Huh?" Iris blinked at the girl, stunned at her response.
"Meat. Only." A strange animalistic spark twinkled in the kitten's eyes like a roaring fire ready to consume all in its wake.
"Are you sure about it?"
"MMmmMm-" Kia shook her head up and down vigorously before her wounds decided to remind her of their existence.
"If you are happy with your decision."
The elf grabbed the solid hunk of stone-hide bear dropped by the carnivorous kitten and began to prepare it for the girl. Laying the meat on a rock right next to the fire Iris lifted the lid on the metal pot. Inside the slightly rusted pot she saw a dark brown broth with bones and what looked like heavily cured meat inside with no greens in sight.
"Kia, could you give me a loaf of bread?"
In Kia's small hands, a large loaf of still-steaming bread appeared out of thin air, it was maybe more of a bun as the bread was circular but she didn't care enough to care. She took the luxurious white bread from the girl and held it under her nose. The mouth-watering smell of a bakery filled the elf with an irresistible desire to eat. It might have been her bias from her previous life where such a piece of bread was almost unheard of, reserved for only the most special occasions happening to the richest farmers in her village but Iris cherished the loaf very much.
Snapping herself from running her fingers across the bread's crust, the risen swiftly cut the loaf's bottom creating a large circular plate the girl could eat the juicy meat from before she cut the bread further into small slices and swiftly returned the bread to the girl so that the bread wouldn't lose its freshness.
The suddenly hungry elf sneakily cut herself thin slices of the slightly pink bear meat and put them under the last of the green leaves Kia had left in her inventory. From what she could remember their supplies of food were running low with the exception of spices and cookies Umbria had given to the adorably impatient girl.
"Did you put all our food in that ring?" Iris asked as she noticed whenever the girl pulled out food the ring would begin to glow slightly.
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"I did." Kia replied, her tone betraying both her admiration and surprise.
The mage's admiration didn't last long as Iris gave Kia her meaty meal. The devourer inside the petite girl's body didn't even notice Iris sitting down next to her and lifting her carefully onto her lap. The necromancer munched loudly while the elf bit into her sandwich taking a small bite out of it.
"Oh, I see you are having your supper before us." Shiro's voice sounded from the risen's right side causing her head to turn in that direction.
"Yummmmmmm!" Iris looked down at the girl and found her balanced sandwich had a huge bite taken out of it with a large green leaf sticking out from the shameless devourer's mouth.
"You said you didn't want greens in your meal."
"I-I did? That doesn't sound like me." The bad-at-lying undead seemed genuinely surprised by the taller undead's words before trying to sneak another bite from the sandwich.
"I know," Iris said to herself before scratching the girl behind the ear not noticing her meal getting smaller every moment she was wondering about Kia's unsual behavior. She had heard that people who are low on mana experience various side effects and maybe memory loss was one of them. "What happened to her." Iris pointed at the woman behind Shiro dragging her legs barely being to lift them.
"She is evil." Nakatei stared blankly into the air in front of her as she collapsed on her bed roll like a corpse.
"I just learned that as a young shaman, she never had to leave her village or do anything remotely physical. Spoiled I say." Shiro's voice was quite serious but on her face, a devilish smile appeared as soon as Nakatei couldn't see her.
"Auch!" The fox grabbed her ass where the snow-furred tail with split end whipped her.
"I don't want to hear you moan that you are hungry tomorrow. Eat and then you can rest." The ember-haired fox barely managed to sit up, murmuring about her sore body before having a bowl of dark broth forced into her hands by her merciless guardian.
"I thought undead don't need to eat." Nakatei opened her mouth trying not to drop the bowl in her hands.
"I don't need to eat but... I can still taste the food." Iris answered finally noticing the little thief's mischief, she then kept her food in constant motion not letting the kitten eat any more of her sandwiches. "Would you like some bread for a bowl of that broth?" She asked as the ever-hungry feline in her arms began to grow restless at her constant failure to take a bite from Iris's sandwich and accidentally biting her wrist, at least she hoped the girl did it on accident.
"That's white thing?" Nakatei asked Iris.
"Mine and Nakatei's tribes can't eat pink-skins food but if there is anything left you can eat it, shame to waste good food."
"That's a shame, you miss so much flavour in your lives."
"Isn't the food you eat turn to soot?" The older beast woman pointed out as she finished her meal and began to groom her tail.
"I'm not a vampire, I can taste everything like normal."
"Ohhh, I thought you are a strange sub-species of a vampire. What undead are you then?"
"I'm not something to write songs about."
"Mmmm, yeah, come on spill the blood. I fought many undead and none of them resemble you." Shiro said while her companion observed silently from the side.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"Your skin is as pale as the snow and the stink of death and carnage hovers above you but at the same time hot blood spills out of you. You have a set of razor-sharp nails but you primarily use a weapon to fight. Undead don't show emotion on their face, except anger but you seem perfectly able of showing all emotions although you are hiding it behind that frown. Also, monsters usually come with knowledge of how to use their weapon effectively but you flay that spear of yours like a peasant swinging his pitchfork, completely relying on combat precognition. Is it an F rank or an E rank? I lean more on the F but I didn't fight you for long enough to judge accurately." If not for Iris's race she would be sweating buckets as Shiro's keen crimson eyes watched her. She never liked how people possessing high level knew so much about things that even inspect couldn't show. "Come on, you piqued my interest and I don't feel like beating an answer out of you." Shiro flashed a perfectly innocent smile at the risen.
"I don't like when she does that." The shaman seemed to shrink as Shiro's sinister aura hit them all.
"I'm a risen," Iris finally said. She wouldn't risk a fight at forty per cent mana which she needed to keep high to keep Kia alive. "And my ability is at F+ rank."
"Ayaya, those pluses and minuses I tell 'ya," The warrior shook her head in annoyance before speaking again. "I never heard of a risen."
"Me too." Iris responded, shutting any questions the nekos might have asked.
"?"
"What's that?"
"Something is approaching." Iris said aloud as both of the demi-human had their ears perk up in vigilance.
Everyone except the undead girl sensed something approaching them from the other side of the cave. The sound of feet hitting the stone floor grew slowly above the roar of the river before a crack of a whip echoed throughout the cave.