Unsurprisingly, Autumn didn’t know how to field dress a bear. Not even a little one. Wilderness survival, fantasy themed or otherwise, hadn’t been one of her elective classes in highschool. All she’d gotten was track and home ec. Granted, she loved track, but knowing how to survive being flung into another world would’ve been nice.

Thankfully for her lackluster education, Nethlia was more than willing to give her a hands-on lesson.

Proudly, the demoness strode into the encampment, back unbowed by the massive carcass slung over her broad, naked shoulders. The noble beast had to weigh at least 450 pounds, yet Nethlia was undaunted by the weight. A testament to her heroic strength.

Autumn watched on in silent awe as Nethlia approached.

The towering demoness shouldered the carcass down before the dark-eyed witch with nary a grunt of exertion. Seemingly, the mighty warrior had strangled the majestic beast to death. Only mud and blood matted its pristine hide.

While the bear bore no wounds, the same could not be said of Nethlia. Great claw wounds ran down the berserker’s arms, streaming bright blood down her red skin.

The sight of such shocked Autumn from her trance.

Gasping, she rushed over to the wounded demoness. “You’re hurt!” Autumn accused frantically. Concern warred with pride in her breast as she fretted over her victorious lover.

Nethlia blinked in confusion, glancing down at her wounded arms. “Huh, so I am,” she spoke curiously before favoring Autumn with a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry. It looks worse than it is.”

Despite the berserker’s roguish smile and confident tone, Autumn was not reassured. She stretched out a hand to heal Nethlia’s wounds.

“Let me heal you.”

Before Autumn’s outstretched hand could touch her hot, blood-slick skin, Nethlia gently caught Autumn’s wrist. Quietly, firmly, she spoke. “Hey, didn’t I tell you to rest? You needn’t bother with these little cuts — I’ll stitch them up later. You just take it easy.”

Autumn blushed, but glared up into Nethlia’s bright orange eyes. “Nethlia. Don’t push your luck. While I like you taking care of me, it goes both ways. If I want to heal you, then I will. So, let go of my hand, shut up, and sit down, please.”

Nethlia chuckled at Autumn’s commanding tone, but obediently obeyed. “Alright, alright.”

When the bloodied demoness finally sat down before her, Autumn reached out and placed her pale hands upon one of Nethlia’s bulging biceps. However, she paused before casting her spell and spoke apologetically to the demoness.

“Uh, I’ve not gotten around to making the spell painless yet. Sorry. This might hurt a bit.”

Nethlia smiled. “I think I’ll be fine.”

Autumn nodded. Concentrating, she poured a stream of violet magic into Nethlia’s injured body through her own. A twinge of pain accompanied the flow, skittering down her arms like thousands of pins. Fighting back a wince, Autumn deepened her focus and weaved her healing spell into being. Thankfully, it coalesced without issue, granting the dark-haired witch brief control over Nethlia’s torn flesh.

Embarrassingly, Nethlia had been right. Despite the grim visage her wounds portrayed, they were superficial in damage. Somehow, none of the bear’s clawing strikes had carved deeper than the berserker’s scar-clad skin. Still, Autumn took her time stitching the wounds together.

Molding Nethlia’s thick flesh was a tough task. Like working iron after only having experienced clay before. Her skin was thick with scar tissue and stronger besides.

Nethlia stoically endured the pain and discomfort of Autumn’s exploratory healing with nary a whimper or grimace.

Once she was done, Autumn withdrew her touch, panting slightly as the spell faded.

“There,” she said out of breath. “All done.”

Nethlia turned her arm over, curiously admiring the fresh scars adorning her. Unfortunately, they hadn’t healed as much as Autumn would’ve liked, having overtaxed herself near the end, leaving them still raw and red. The demoness didn’t seem to mind. She favored Autumn with an honest smile.

“Thanks, but you really didn’t need to do that.”

Autumn blushed. “Yeah, but I wanted to.”

“Urgh, can you two not?” Pyre interrupted, making gagging sounds from beside them. “I don’t want to hear you two flirting. Do it on your own time.”

Autumn jumped slightly, having forgotten Pyre was still here. Reluctantly tearing her eyes away from an amused Nethlia, she rounded on the alchemist, face bright red. “We weren’t flirting! I was just making sure she was ok!”

“Uh, huh. Sure~” Pyre drawled dryly.

Seeing an argument brewing between the two girls, Nethlia stood up, grabbing the pair’s attention as she spoke. “Alight. Enough of that. No more fighting, okay? Let’s just process the bear before it cools. Have any of you gutted a bear before?”

Both girls shook their heads.

“City girl,” Pyre said. “Never been out of the city before now.”

Autumn nodded in agreement. “Same, but it was a small town for me. Well, small for my world. I’ve not gutted anything not brought from a store.”

“And you’ve not done so since coming to our world?” Nethlia asked.

“Nope. The only thing I’ve caught was a snake and I gave that to you. Since then, I’ve been eating rations, whatever you’ve cooked, or…other things.” Autumn shuddered. “The less said about that the better.”

Nethlia huffed, rubbing her eyes. “This really should’ve been something we covered. I guess I got so wrapped up in fighting techniques I forgot about it.”

“Hey, learning to fight was important. It probably saved my life, and Pyre’s too.”

Pyre nodded in agreement.

“Alright,” Nethlia nodded slowly. Reaching over, she hauled the massive bear onto its back, splaying it out before them. Autumn idly noted it was a male bear. “Well, here’s your first lesson then. Once you’ve killed an animal or other such beast you wish to butcher, you need to remove the guts quickly so that it can cool lest the meat spoils. As we want to keep the hide, you need a sharp knife and clean cuts.”

Taking said sharp knife in hand, Nethlia methodically cut a hole around the bear’s vent before slitting it smoothly up the middle from groin to neck in one go, spilling its steaming guts into the open air.

Autumn gagged at the smell.

“Now, you want to be careful not to pierce the intestines,” Nethlia continued, reaching elbow deep into the bear's guts to remove the intestines for them. “Getting shit in the meat will spoil it. Plus, we want to save the intestines for casings once we wash them out. Here, help me with this,” she said, holding out a pile of organs for Autumn to take. “Spool it out on the spare hides we’ve got.”

Swallowing down her nausea, Autumn swiftly shucked off her coat and, sans sleeves, took the hot, sticky organs from Nethlia. Gagging slightly, she carefully spread them over the clean hides.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

While Autumn did so, Nethlia quickly and cleanly harvested the other lower organs from the carcass.

Those with alchemical properties were given to Pyre while the richer, heavier delicacies she kept to be cooked later. Given that it was a male bear, Nethlia even harvested the bear’s testicles.

Autumn declined Nethlia's generous offer to share. While she was far more adventurous now, she wasn’t that adventurous.

Following the lower organs, Nethlia methodically separated the bear’s diaphragm from its ribs before extracting its heart, lungs, and esophagus.

Holding the sizable organ in her hands, Nethlia offered it up to Autumn. “You know, they say eating a bear’s heart raw is good for one’s valor. It’ll make you brave, they say. Want to give it a try?”

Autumn wrinkled her nose as she leant away. “Who says these things?”

“Wise women,” Nethlia said with a shrug as she placed the heart aside with the bear’s kidneys and liver. “It’s usually wise women who spout that kind of nonsense. It actually tastes quite good. Cooked, that is. I’ll make you some later.”

“Sounds…nice?”

“It is,” Nethlia reassured her. “But first we need to skin the beast. Pay attention — if you’re not careful, you can ruin the hide.”

Taking up her sharp knife once more, Nethlia cleanly cut lines down the inside of the bear’s legs to its paws before sliding the blade gently between the skin and meat. Swiftly, she flayed the beast, teaching them how to do so without nicking or cutting the hide in the process. Before too long, Nethlia had the entire pristine pelt cut from the carcass and handed over to Pyre to treat alchemically. The smaller girl buckled under the weight, almost collapsing onto the ground.

While Pyre staggered back to her tent with the pelt, Nethlia showed Autumn how to butcher the beast. She showed her how to slice the fat cleanly away from the meat to be used as lard and also how to remove the meat from the bones, seeing as how Autumn wanted them intact.

Every cut the berserker made was immaculate.

When there was no more meat to cut, Autumn took the bones away to the cookfire, and after fetching buckets of water from the river, she set the cookpot to rolling boil.

The next few hours saw Autumn carefully dunking the bones into the boiling pot to clean off the leftover bits of gristles still clinging to the bones. While she could’ve done so with magic, she didn’t want to run the risk of damaging the bones nor garnering Nethlia’s ire.

On the plus side, by the time she’d finished, Autumn had made a nice bone broth ready for Nethlia to use, even if it came at the cost of a bit of fun cackling.

What? She had to! A witch stirring bones in a cauldron required a good cackle or two.

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Later that night, the party ate like kings.

Sat around the crackling fire upon thrones of stones and wooden stumps, they happily gorged themselves on the massive banquet of bear-based dishes Nethlia’d crafted for them. There were so many dishes, Autumn almost didn’t know where to start. While a vast majority of them were heavy on the meat, not all were.

Using the bear fat, Nethlia had expertly cooked a stunning variety of vegetarian options for both Nelva and Autumn. They being the only ones of the group who couldn’t survive off an only meat diet. Apparently, a Manus could live off just meat and beer. Or just beer, if Edwyn could be believed.

Autumn wasn’t entirely sure they were joking.

Not knowing what was good, and feeling a little adventurous, Autumn tried a little of everything.

While the sweet-and-sour stir-fry and the red-braised cubed bear-steaks tasted heavenly on her tongue, Autumn would kill, literally kill, for another bite of the pepper-and-mushroom pulled-bear rolls. She eyed Liddie’s plate for the briefest of moments as she considered violence.

Liddie glared back as she shielded her prize from avaricious eyes.

Thankfully for the sanctity of the camp, and their current dearth of magical dry-cleaning to get the blood out of their clothes, Nethlia distracted Autumn with another plateful of food. This time, a heaping bowl full of an aromatic simmering broth teeming with thinly sliced meats, flavorful mushrooms, soft vegetables, and glistening dumplings.

“Here, try some of this,” Nethlia said, holding a bowl out for Autumn to take as she stepped between the witch and pirate.

Like a fugitive given a chance at freedom, Liddie quickly devoured the last roll once Nethlia broke Autumn’s line of sight on her, fearing a curse sent her way should it remain in play.

Autumn pouted. Turning her attention to the bowl Nethlia handed her, Autumn questioned the cook, whom sat down beside her.

“What is it?”

Nethlia chuckled. “It’s a traditional Inferni dish called a Firepot. There aren’t any set ingredients — you just cook what you like in a simmering pot of spiced broth. This time, it’s made from the bone broth you made and some spices we picked up back in the city.” Leaning in closer, Nethlia whispered. “I also added a few heart-and-liver dumplings to yours.” She winked.

Blushing, Autumn took a trepidatious bite of the spiced bear meat. Almost instantly, her face flushed bright red as the spices set her mouth aflame.

“Too spicy?” Nethlia asked, clearly holding back laughter as Autumn’s eyes teared up.

Wordlessly, Autumn nodded in fiery pain.

“Wait here. I’ll be right back.” After saying such, Nethlia strode over to Liddie and whispered to the pirate. While she grumbled at whatever was requested of her, Liddie withdrew a clay bottle from her bag in the end, handing it begrudgingly over to Nethlia. After pouring out some amber liquid into a wooden cup, she strode back to Autumn and pressed the cup into the witch’s hand. “Here, drink this. It should help.”

Unable to speak, Autumn down a large gulp. As the harsh, foul-tasting liquid hit her throat, she couldn’t help but cough.

“What—what is that?! It’s worse than mosswine!”

Nethlia laughed as she sat back down beside Autumn, grabbing her own bowl of the spicy stew. She gave a hum of appreciation at the burn. “It’s a liquor of some kind. Don’t know what. Liddie stole some from the tavern we stayed at,” she gave Autumn a what-can-you-do shrug. “Normally, I’d give you a cup of Agoroth milk to cut through the spice, but we work with what we got. Anyway, what do you think of the dumplings? Have you tried them yet?”

Autumn had not.

Gingerly, she scooped one up and gave it a venturesome bite. Rich flavor immediately spilled forth into her mouth as the dumpling’s skin burst between her teeth. The heavy taste of liver and heart mixed wonderfully with the heady mixture of spices and broth.

Surprising herself, Autumn found she rather enjoyed the taste. She vowed to be a bit more trusting of Nethlia’s culinary recommendation in the future.

She still wasn’t eating any bear testicles though, no matter how good a cook the berserker was.

Autumn underestimated just how much meat an active team of mostly carnivorous adventurers could go through in a single sitting. While they’d still be having smoked bear sausages, minced patties, and a heap of jerky for the next couple of days, the party had somehow gotten through almost 10lbs of the almost 90lbs of meat they’d harvested from the massive bear.

By the end of the night, it was a sleepy, slightly tipsy, Autumn that retired to her tent to sleep off her meal alongside both Eme and Nethlia.

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The next morning came hard and fast, dragging a sluggish and sore Autumn into its hellish embrace. Once more, she toughed her way through Nethlia’s grueling training, this time paired up with Liddie to go over her footwork and disarming techniques with the rogue.

Once she’d quickly bathed away the grime and sweat clinging to her in the icy stream, Autumn retreated to where she’d stashed the cleaned bones the night bore.

There, she excitedly got to work.

It was like a ghoulish puzzle, putting the bear back together. Spinning off long threads of fear like she’d done before, Autumn stitched the pale bones, weaving them together with shadowy muscles and tendons. Piece by piece, she formed it into a skeletal frame, hung aloft before her like a puppet hanging by its strings.

If that was all she wished to create, it’d be fine. She’d have a terrifying creation to pull their future war-wagon. One that never tired. Never spooked nor ran.

All she needed to do now was breathe a shadowy semblance of life into it and she’d be done.

But Autumn wasn’t satisfied with just this — she wanted something…more.

As she slowly circled the skeletal bear, Autumn took the leftover bones from her previous two mounts and reinforced the ursine frame with measured intent. Wishing to create a grand beast capable of seeing them through the battles to come, she thickened the bones of the bear’s neck and skull, forming large overlapping plates that continued down its jagged spine.

Satisfied, she next expanded the ribcage.

The overlapping wider rib-bones created an enclosed storage space within the hollow of the bear’s chest. While she didn’t know what to store within it just yet, there was just enough space for her to curl up inside, if she so wished. It took a while for her to work the overlapping plates until the bear retained just enough flexibility to turn or rise with only minor difficulty.

However, with the added weight, Autumn needed to bulk up the bear’s legs lest they snap or it became prone to toppling over.

First, she thickened the bear’s leg bones to almost three times their original size, having to adjust the hips, shoulders and knees to accommodate them. She then next widened the already enormous paws to terrifying sizes, complete with enlarged, razor-sharp claws to give her creation as much traction and lethality as she could.

The last thing she did was to craft a set of thick D-rings directly onto the sides of the bear’s jaw where a bit would go, creating loops for the others to thread the reins through later.

Taking a step back from her monstrous creation, Autumn watched as the undeath animation spell completed, awaking the massive armored beast to her unholy will.

Black smoke poured freely from the bear’s eyes and jaw, spilling onto the ground like mist as it lumbered to life. It turned towards Autumn, a dark gleam flashing in its hollow sockets as it recognized its creator. On thick, powerful limbs, it plodded towards Autumn, lowering its armored head gently into Autumn’s palm.

A sinister rumbling vibrated Autumn’s body as the bear chuffed happily at her touch.

“I think I’ll call you…Ursa Ossa.” Autumn smiled at her joke.