Peek: Food For Thought (Patreon)

Pul slowly draws his bow, his eyes tracking his target. The rabbit has no idea he's there, and he intends to keep it that way. The hardest part about shooting a rabbit is that they never stay still! But he keeps his head clear, Yvonne's guidance echoing in his ears. He can use his gravity to help nudge the arrow where it needs to go, and even make it faster, too. He needs to be careful with his mana, though, as wild rabbits are usually sensitive to buildups.

The rabbit pauses for a moment, standing to look around, and Pul releases the arrow almost before he can think. He doesn't need to guide it, the rabbit looking the other way before the arrow pierces its chest. It falls, dead before it even knew what happened, and Pul sighs in relief as he stows his bow.

Ragnar put him in charge of dinner tonight, and even showed Pul what he had on hand to work with. The fatty chunk of bacon would go great with rabbit meat, and now he has some. He takes the time to skin and prep the rabbit there, and checks on what it was sniffling at before he got it.

His first instinct is that it's some kind of carrot, but as he understands it, the plant is a lot thinner than this is. Still, if the rabbit was interested, and if the plant looks kinda like a carrot, maybe it really is something good?

He puts away the meat and takes a few minutes to dig around. He's not especially confident, but the meat will be fine for a few minutes while he plays in the dirt. Turns out, it was a good thing he looked. There's a small patch of wild parsnips there! He only harvests a few, not wanting to make too much of an impact... and not wanting to cook too many of them, either. They have a sweetness that'll go well with the chowder he's planning, but he doesn't want it to overpower the meal.

It also reminds him to keep some of the bones to add a bit more flavor. He's known about bone broth for a long time, but his parents never cooked with bones, so it was an abstract thing to him. but Ragnar swears by it for campfire cooking, and after the things the dwarf has managed to turn into delicious meals, Pul is willing to take his word even if he says to eat the bones whole!

He snorts at the idea of chewing the bones like wolves, before he feels something moving in the shadows. He hurries up a tree, sending a shadowy distraction darting off into the underbrush before he gets settled. A mountain lion soon pads into view, nose in the air. It homes in on the discarded bits of the rabbit, and after a quick glance around, gobbles it down.

It doesn't look especially lean, which is a relief. Yvonne has told him that skinny animals are often desperate. If this one is looking healthy, it'll probably be happy to get a free snack and continue on its way. True to what the Ranger has been teaching him, it soon wanders away, and Pul gets to release the breath he was holding.

He decides to make his way back to camp along the trees, practicing what Thedeim called wirework. He still doesn't get what wires have to do with it, but he does enjoy making himself light enough that he can dash across twigs and leaves, easily hopping from tree to tree as he makes his way back.

He smiles as he sees the camp come into view. This trip has been good for him, but he's looking forward to getting back home. It'll be nice to see his friends again... and it'll be a good chance for him to get some cooking gear. He has a long way to go to meet Ragnar's standards, but that the dwarf trusts this evening's meal to him says he's doing well.