I watched the woman go to a stream to wash the dishes as I groomed myself. She had a also taken the big pot with her which she washed out and filled with water. Once she started up the incline back to her cottage, I quickly tracked a mouse, the same one from her house, and snatched it between my jaws. I ran to her cottage and was there just as she opened her door to go in.

“Oh, my! That was fast work, Shadow! Very good!” she complimented as she opened the door and brought everything back in. I stepped in and waited for her to be ready. The mouse was frozen with fear in my mouth, but it was still alive. I thought Reggie, a predator himself, would prefer that.

Once Griselda had put her things down, she reached down and grabbed the mouse by the tail. She was surprised when it started wiggling, but dropped it into the snake’s container. I watched as the snake came to life, coiled itself up and struck the little mouse. Not much sport in it, but then again, I couldn’t sense much intelligence in the poor beast. The back part of its tail was at a strange angle to the rest of the body, but he managed to strike the mouse and settled in to swallow it.

“Thank you, Shadow,” Griselda commented and patted my head, scratching behind my left ear. “That will keep him for a couple weeks!” She closed her door and opened the door on Leonore’s cage. The bird squawked loudly.

“Oh, don’t be that way. Shadow won’t eat you! Will you, Shadow?” Leonore squawked again and hopped out of the cage and flew out the window. “They'll be back. Probably a little jealous is all. Leonore does like to stretch their wings after a long night.”

“Shall I show you around the forest? Perhaps we can hunt a little for our dinner, eh?” Griselda asked, looking down at me. I swished my tail in response. Meat and blood are always on the menu. She laughed and it sounded to me like tinkling bells, like the humans used from time to time.

I waited patiently for her to be ready. I was eager to explore my new surroundings. Humans had such complex systems of covering themselves. I groomed myself a little while I waited. Griselda changed her clothes and pulled on a long coat. She took an empty basket from one of her shelves to take along, then finally opened her door and we both went out.

We strolled through what she called her garden. It was filled with strange plants and mushrooms most of which I had never smelled before. She named them and told me what they were used for. I was only half interested since I preferred blood and meat.

“What do you think about this one?” she asked and I could tell by her smile she was expecting me to have some sort of reaction. I stepped up to it to smell it more closely. The odors of the garden were a bit overwhelming and it was getting difficult to discern particular ones. Then, it hit me and I pawed some of the leaves and brought them to my mouth.

“Now, now,” Griselda scolded pulling me out of the small patch of plants. “Don't eat all the catnip in one go, silly! Let’s make it last. Don’t worry, you’ll have plenty!” She laughed at me, but I didn’t mind. The feeling I had inside me matched her tinkling laughter.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“Do you have a sense of things that are poisonous, Shadow? I don’t want you eating something that will hurt you,” Griselda told me as we walked down a path to the small creek that ran nearby. “Show me something you would definitely not want to eat.”

I followed the path down to the creek and sniffed around. There was something nearby that definitely gave me a bad feeling deep in my stomach. I followed the scent, hopping over tree roots until I found it. There was a patch of herbs only a little taller than me near the edge of the creek with purple spots on the stems. I pulled some of it into my mouth, careful not to taste it. Then I ran back to where Griselda was waiting. She had pulled out a net from the bottom of her basket. But stopped her work when she saw me return.

“Oh! Very good, Shadow. I’ll take that from you,” Griselda carefully wrapped it in some white cloth and set it into the basket. “That’s water hemlock. Very deadly and a good find. I thought it should grow along here. Now, let’s see if we can find some nice fish for our stew. Have you ever caught a fish?”

I wondered what a fish was and she laughed again.

“Well, you’ll see.”

She pulled off her long coat, boots and foot coverings and waded into the water. I sat at the edge watching what she was doing. She placed the net in the water. I looked in the stream, but couldn’t see anything. I lapped at the water wondering if I could taste something. It did taste different than puddles I had tasted in town. It tasted green and vibrant.

Suddenly, Griselda whipped the net out of the water and something wriggled and landed on the shore along with a shower of water droplets. I was not expecting anything like that and I leaped back at first, then pounced on the wriggling thing. It was silvery and slimy and when it stopped wriggling I wondered if I was even supposed to grab it. When I let go, it immediately flopped around again and Griselda yelled at me to get it, so I hopped on it again before it got back into the water. This time, I closed my jaws over it and picked it up and stepped closer to Griselda. She smiled at me.

“That's a small one. Eat it if you like. I’ll get something larger for our stew,” she said and waded deeper into the stream. I took the little fish up the bank to a soft, dry patch of grass and held it down on the ground until I could figure out where I should bite it to kill it. It had a head, so I went for the neck area, but it seemed to take some time to die. When I opened it’s belly, it was much like any other animal. Now that it was cut, I could smell and taste the blood although it was not warm as I was used to. Still, it had some very tasty organs and the meat was quite satisfying.

I sat in a patch of sun, watching Griselda and grooming myself after my kill. Eventually, she came back and sat beside me to put her foot coverings back on.

“I'm glad you liked the fish. I got a nice one to cook up in the cauldron,” she explained although I could clearly see it still wriggling from time to time in her net. “I need to get back and read the signs. I have a feeling something is coming and I’d like to be prepared. Catch me a wren, will you? Like that one there. Thanks, Shadow.” She gave me a quick pat on the head.

She had pointed at a bush with several small brown birds flitting around it before moving back up the path to her cottage. This would be an easy task. Only I didn’t want to end up on the stream, so I had to plan my attack carefully.

It seemed right to repay her for that tasty fish. I crouched down near the bush which at first, made the wrens settle down and stop moving. Once they got used to my presence, they started moving around again. When one made the mistake of hopping on the ground in front of me to peck at something in the mud, I pounced on it, killing it with a single bite. I hoped Griselda didn’t want this one alive.