Mirefa enjoyed her run alongside the caravan. She thought she had seen quite a bit of the world through her extra trips to the elf places, but she couldn’t have imagined seeing this. This being a large stretch of land with no trees.

Yes, absolutely no trees. Mirefa remembered the story about how elves attacked her ancestors for trying to cut down trees and thought it was silly back then, since even if you cut a few trees, they’ll always grow back eventually, and not to mention there are a lot of trees. Definitely more trees than fingers on her hands, which made them pretty hard to count. Yet here, there was just grass with no trees. Did her ancestors in the past cut all this down, so that the elves had to put a stop to it?

She felt rather exposed out in the open like this. How could she even stalk some deer if the deer could see her from really far away? The good news was that she could also spot the deer from really far away too, but it’d take a long time and effort to hunt deer this way.

Thinking about deer made her somewhat hungry, and she started to wonder if those large birds pulling the caravan were tasty. Sofare did cook some assorted meats before, but couldn’t name the animals, but some of them were quite good. Mirefa wondered if these birds were included as part of the meat. That being said, Mirefa doubted that it was a good idea to hunt these specific birds down, but maybe there were some bad birds out there that refused to pull the caravan that became dinner instead.

After spending so much time with her sister and the elves, she got a lot more used to being awake when the sun was up. That being said, it still felt weird to her, but as expected, the caravan stopped when it became darker. Running that long did tire her out, so it was a welcomed break at least.

Mirefa let her sister and the elf set up their weird tent and also let them prepare the food too. They didn’t use their fancy magic cooking things, but the meat and the weird spongy white stuff was pretty tasty. It didn’t even require those weird tools that her sister insisted that she learn how to use to eat, and could actually just use her hands.

After the meal, she decided to ask some questions that were bugging her, so she started with, “Are those birds that pulled the caravan tasty?”

“What?” Sofare replied. “Do NOT eat those birds. Please.”

“I know that, I’m just saying in general.”

“Uh, let me ask then,” her sister said as she got out her writing tool.

There were a few loud squeals from the elf and some writing that went on, and the big elf even came by for some reason and joined the conversation. Mirefa waited patiently for them to finish so she could get her question answered.

Eventually, Sofare finally said, “So, uh, if you had the chance to have a small bite of those birds, would you be willing to fight for it?”

Were there other birds that were available and all she had to do was hunt it? “Of course!”

“Okay, so apparently, the birds are in a mood to fight, and after seeing you run along with the caravan, the muscular elf there thought you could potentially be a good sparring partner for them. If you win, he’ll carve a tiny piece of their meat for you to eat.”

Wasn’t quite what she was expecting, but that’s probably fine? Poor birds though, that sounds painful. “And if I lose?”

“Nothing really, other than the fact that it might be risky, although the man claims that he’ll intervene if it begins to look lethal. You don’t have to participate by the way.”

“That’s fine. It sounds fun. The birds can’t use magic or anything, right?”

“No they can’t. Also, remember that you aren’t supposed to kill the birds either.”

“So how do I know when they give up?”

“Uh, if the elf tries to pull you away from the bird, you know you won.”

Mirefa grabbed her spear from the luggage pile, only for Sofare to tell her it wasn’t allowed. She tried to bring her knife instead and was told it was also not allowed. Sofare explained again that the purpose was not to kill the bird. Mirefa knew that and was wondering why her sister put that much emphasis on the no killing part. She was only planning to stab or cut the bird in the leg so it couldn’t move.

In the end, she was given what essentially was a spear handle with a rounded end. Mirefa had never faced a bird and was also not quite used to her prey actually fighting back. Not to mention that this bird was quite a bit bigger than she was. So when the signal was given, she wasn’t quite sure what to do. 

The bird didn’t care for her hesitation and went straight for her. She panicked a bit and leaped to the side. The bird barreled past her but came charging right back. This happened a few times, and Mirefa realized that the bird was terrible at turning. The next time around, she leapt to the side and then gave the bird a hard thrust with the rod. She wanted to aim at somewhere that would really hurt, like the eye, but the bird was too tall and moving too fast, she just poked it at its side. The bird screeched angrily and went right at her with increased speed.

Mirefa continued to thrust at the bird with her stick, until the bird decided that charging was not going to work and decided to peck and claw at her instead. Luckily for her, the stick was long enough that Mirefa could keep her distance and still poke at the bird.

The bird began making faster and wilder swings until it rammed its own head at the rod in an attempt to peck at her, which gave the bird a concussion.

That apparently was good enough for a win, and the big elf said some stuff and then carved out a small chunk of flesh from the bird and handed it to Mirefa. The big elf then started glowing and before she knew it, the wound disappeared and the bird was back to normal. Well, besides the fact that the bird seemed extra cautious of Mirefa while it was staring at the meat in her hand. After some squealing done by Never Mind, they left. Apparently, “Never Mind” wasn’t her actual name and was the result of a misunderstanding, but since she did not have an actual name that could be pronounced, the elf will still be Never Mind in her heart.

It was time to cook the bird, which really meant Sofare worked her magic while Never Mind added a bit of water. Mirefa bit into the meat and was somewhat let down. It wasn’t bad at all, but it was rather tough, and most definitely inferior to deer. Not to mention that deer don’t charge at her and try to kill her. As Mirefa finished off the bird, she confirmed that deer is still the best.

When Mirefa climbed into the weird bed to go to sleep, she realized she never finished asking all her questions. However, she was already extra tired and there was always tomorrow.