My belly groans. I’m hungry. Time to eat humans. Just kidding. There is a perfectly half-burnt wolf soup pot right there…

And of course it was toppled over by some monster fighting. Just my luck. I raise the pot and lick the remaining soup on it. There is blood spit over it, and the bottom is all burnt because nobody stirred it. They were probably busy running away from some scary monster… AKA me. My head bends down, and the girl touches my elbow. Whoa!

I look at her, and she is holding a small piece of bread. Black bread. I slowly pick the bread and put it in my mouth. Hum, I didn’t expect the bread to be this soft. Yeah, nice. But small. I think I am the one on the big size.

She laughs, and points at the Red Streak. Then she points at my mouth, makes a chewing motion and rubs the belly.

“Eat wolf?”

Humm… Maybe… I walk back where the lackey wolves were, and pick up the corpses, the knife and the cutting board. Broken.

I gather all the fallen wolves and the read streak. Then I find some trees close to each other, tie the wolf legs to the trees, and begin to skin the wolves (badly). I hurt the pelt several times. After skinning two wolves, something pops up:

- Skill [Skinning] level 1 acquired.

Heh, cheat abilities. But level 1 is easy. Lets keep skinning. After finishing all the normal wolves and the lackeys, more messages pop.

- Skill [Skinning] increases to level 2.

Now I’ll remove and meat from the skin. I gain [Butchering] level 2 after cutting the meat. Now only the corpse of Red Streak is left.

The girl is washing her robe and bedroll while I work. Where does she get the water? Then when I am about to discard the bones and entrails of the wolves, she raises a voice while pointing at the wolf skull.

“Wolf pemadra, mijoda?”

Eh, here we go again. There seems to be something in the wolf skull that piques her interest. Lets crack it open. Ok, wolf brains. Suit yourself lass.

She takes the knife from the ground, and carefully pokes the brains. Then something comes out. Seems like a cyst… some kind of round thing. Disgusting. She picks it up, and scrapes the surface with the knife. A black stone the size of her thumbnail is inside the cyst. Then she pulls the cyst membrane and a black spherical stone thing covered in thick mucus is on her hand. She smiles, and shows the stone to me.

“Pemadra!”

Ok. This thing is called a pemadra. I nod, and then she points at the other skulls. When I nod again, she turns the knife around, and presents the handle to me. I ignore the knife, and use my claws to crack the skulls and remove the stones inside the cysts. Squish, squish. They are all smaller than the first one, some are irregular. I am the boy here, why am I the one disgusted at the sticky goo? Because I am a modern monster with a refined taste? Eh?

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“Beenaadra?” (Do you want this disgusting thing, lass?) - I offer the stones to her. If I only could join my lips together, I could make sounds like P and M.

“Pemadra, wow!” - Her eyes are sparkling.

I hand over the pemadras to her. She seems to be very happy. I don’t understand, but these things must be valuable. She goes back to her rucksack, and after wiping the pemadras with a rag, she carefully wraps them with a cloth and put it in the middle of the rucksack. Value confirmed. She is storing them in a way they won’t be broken or even scratched.

Oh, brains. They areuseful to tan the hides, I just remembered. I pick the soup pot, and gather the brains in it. I need to boil them with water.

I gather the wolf remains in a corner of the clearing, go back to the girl and put the pot near her bedroll. Then I point inside, make an eating motion then a negative.

“Eat kayukan!” - she takes the pot from my hand, and shakes her head.

“krayuuukran!” - I nod. It seems to mean ‘can’t do’.

“You can’t eat wolf brains.” - she confirms while pointing at the gray mass inside. I just figured out the word for brains.

“Can’t eat wolf brains!!!” - I nod again. She smiles happily. We are still hungry, but now it is just a matter of getting some stones.

I walk around the clearing, and find some suitable stones. I also gather more dry wood, because we can’t let the campfire die.

I then put two stones on the sides of the campfire, and set the larger flat stone aside. I start to wipe the flat stone, to clean it. Then she comes to my side, and begins to chant

“[Create Water]” - a small ball of water splashes on the stone. I wipe the stone again.

After some repetitions, the stone is cleaned of debris. Since it is going over the campfire, it will be sterilized by the heat.

I begin to grill some wolf meat, and I use the herbs set aside on the other girl’s pack for seasoning. It won’ be delicious, but at least won’t be bland either.

Meanwhile, she uses a rope and crafts a makeshift changing room with the damp bedroll. While saying something I am sure translates to “No peeking” to me, she goes behind, and washes herself. I’d like to clean myself too, but maybe this way it fits better my “filthy monster” persona.

After she finishes cleaning herself, she is now wearing brown trousers and a gray shirt. I’d like to have some clothes to even begin with. Anyway, its dinner time.

I share the softer parts of the grilled wolf with the girl, and keep the stringy meat to myself. Tusks, do your job. The other one that is not impairing my speech. She eats the wolf meat while drinking from her water skin and eating more black bread. I also eat the black bread from the other kid’s rucksacks.

- Skill [Cooking] level 1 acquired.

Yeah, I was expecting that one.

After eating lots of wolf meat, The girl yawns and walks to her (borrowed) bedroll. I am not sleepy, and I’d like to tan the hides before dawn. But I need to boil the brains with water.

“Groww” (hey, lass)

She looks at me. I pick the soup pot and point at it. Then I make splashing sounds and poke her staff. She picks up what I want after a while.

“[Create Water]” - A water ball drops into the pot, filling it. I set the pot aside.

I look around for some other container. A bucket or something. Why those newbie kids didn’t bring a bucket? She frowns when I begin to rummage through her companion’s rucksacks, but out of fear or respect, she doesn’t stop me.

Nope. No buckets. But I found some water skins. I take the water skins to her, and make drinking motions, then point inside. She fills the water skins with magic. I drink the water. Woot! Fresh and sparkling! Then fill again. I set the water skins aside. Maybe this is not enough water to tan all the hides. I dig a hole on the ground, stomp the earth to compact it, and make her fill the hole with water.

“I’m going to sleep now” - she says with a big yawn.

- Skill [Language rudimentary understanding] level 1 acquired.

Rudimentary? Oh, well, can’t look the horse in the mouth, eh?

She lays down inside the bedroll, and I tuck her in. Good night kiss? No way. Get a hold of yourself, me.

She falls asleep right away. Maybe magic is tiresome.

I then dismantle the Red Streaks carefully. This guy’s hide is my trophy. I also take out the brains, add it to the pot for boiling, and put the pot on the stone over the campfire. The Red Streaks’ pemadra is not black. It is larger than the other one, and has a red tint to it. Pretty, after you forget it was inside a gooey tumor. Shivers.

I take all the wolf hides, the boiled brains, and mix some water with ash from the campsite on a second hole. I dip the hides on this slurry, it will help with the tanning. Then I take out the best hides, the ones I want to keep the fur on, and begin to sand the flesh side with a rough rock. After it is down to the leather, I smear both sides with the boiled brains. Now I tie the hides fully stretched to tree branches, and let them dry through the night.

And now since I broke the monster repellent, I have to keep watch over the girl.