Already, the cave was looking a lot better. Greenie had copied what I did and put everything that wasn't his poop in one pile.

Now, the stone floor of the cave only had dry misshapen pieces of excrement and the occasional puddle of urine here and there. I couldn't forget the walls either. The walls were dirty too, flecked with brown smears and handprints.

How was I going to get all this nasty stuff off?
The smell was so overpowering, I'd already been taking multiple breaks as we worked to clear my head. Better to get wet in the rain than have the horrible smell rattling my brain the whole time.

I'm guessing the skill [Scent Detection (Blood & Decay)] was more of a permanent thing than one I could turn on and off.

If I could stuff some leaves into the 2 holes where the bridge of my nose met my face-area (my nose were holes in my face now) it would have been nice. But too bad, my beak, wings and talons weren't capable of doing something complicated like that. There was a chance I could accidentally stab myself in the nose.

Ditto having Greenie wrap a leaf around my beak like a covering. It would be too difficult to explain that to him, and there was no guarantee he could follow my instructions even after the explanation.

It would also be nice if I had magic to wash this whole cave out with a good wave of water. If that was how magic worked in this world. My status had shown N/A for that Magic stat, but having a magic stat in my status meant there was magic out there.

We get half the cave, the area closest to the entrance done, until my stomach clenches with hunger.

Right, I hadn't had breakfast yet. Greenie and I had already devoured around 1/4 of the large snake, but there was still plenty of white meat left for me to rip off and swallow down my gullet.

But the snake meat tasted a little different today. A little acidic, with hints of fishiness and dirt. Which was strange, since I'd been making sure to eat the upper rib areas of the emerald snake, the parts that weren't touching the ground. Why was the meat tasting like dirt now, when it had tasted like a really boring, bland chicken just yesterday?

Where Greenie had put the snake made it harder to see, since the light didn't reach into the depths of the cave.

Strolling closer to where the light was,

Hrrrrk! ECH! Ach!
My throat constricts, as I try to get the meat out from the back of my throat, choking a little.

Hrrrk!

Greenie plays with a ripped piece of silver chainmail we'd found, running over the broken chains on the edges with his fingers and watching me with a worried look on his face. Don't mind me, Greenie. Just trying to regurgitate what I had just eaten over here.

Finally, the meat I had been eating comes out into the light, falling with a plop! on the messy dirt floor. Yep. Just like I thought. Our meat had spoiled. The pure white flesh had changed color overnight, now tinged a dark green around the edges and a lighter green, then white towards the center, parts that hadn't been exposed to the open air until I'd removed it to eat.

The rain fell in heavy sheets outside, millions of drops cold droplets pounding into the ground outside. Glad we weren't out there in that.

We couldn't go out to hunt, or go back to the Ice Cavern and pick up some meat from our cave/refrigerator. This snake was the only source of nutrition we had.

Guuurrgle. My stomach clenches again.

I try hyping myself up. You're a Carrion Raven now, Raven! Act like it!!
Eat the meat! Eat the meat! Eat! The! Meat!

I gulp. Better do it quick while I still had the willpower.

Bobbing my head with the mental chant to cheer me on, I go back to the snake and use peck, accidentally snapping a thin, sharp rib bone in two.

Rip off a piece. Swallow. Repeat. I do this while ignoring the strange mixture of bland chicken flavor and metallic dirt in my mouth. Greenie picks at his teeth, and chews on the thin rib bone I'd snapped off, like an old man would use a toothpick after his meal.

At least one of us was satisfied with the meal.

Buuuurp!

The burp came from me. My stomach was full now with snake water and the rain water I'd drunk to rinse my mouth between bites.

[Rot Resistance obtained!]

That was to be expected. I'd basically had a whole happy meal of molded snake meat just now...

As much as I wanted to take a shower at this point, our work was still not done.
The poop was waiting.

So far, I'd used miming to communicate what I wanted Greenie to do. After much thinking on this while I'd eaten, there was one way to act out getting rid of the poop.

Prodding each brown, disgusting chunk with my beak was a no-go. My nose would probably die if I got that up close and personal with my pet's feces.

Let's see if this works...

Poot! I kicked the poop with my clenched talons as hard as I could, punting it out the cave.

Wow. This was working better than I thought!

SInce they were hardened in dried out chunks, they flew out the door with every kick.

Woohoo! I was so glad this was going right.

I'd thought about bundling the sticks we had together to make a broom, but had to give up on that plan once I realized we had no rope or vines to tie it together with.

The goblin puts down the chain mail and comes towards me. He looks at the poop on the floor and then back at me with his beady eyes, like he's contemplating something.

Kick!

Greenie kicks the pile of dung in front of him to me, all the while grinning wildly. The excitement I could feel from his was telling me he was enjoying this.

Which made me think. I should enjoy this, instead of taking this like a chore. After all, we were cleaning up our home!

So we played our little game of soccer, the goblin passing his feces to me while I punt it out the door. Until most of the dirt cave floor, from what I could see was clean!

Woohoo! We'd done it Greenie!

I lift my wing for a high-five, and he raises his hand, mimicking me. The rain had made the air too heavy to fly up in, so I lowered my wing. This was fine.

Already the cave was starting to smell a little better. Wet and moldy scents were a little stronger now under the overarching stench of poop.

I had a use for the urine in mind.

The descriptions of the bits of cloth I'd appraised while organizing come to mind.

{Torn Burlap Cloth}

{Adventurer's Cheap Shirt (Damaged)}

{Woolen Cloak Fragment}

I leave Greenie to kick the smaller, broken off pieces of poop out the door, which he does with sharp focus.

Before becoming a research analyst, I'd dabbled in Anthropology as a hobby, being a part of the Anthropology Club in college. It was a secret from my family, since they were the ones that often told me that anthropology and psychology were the two majors I shouldn't even go near, since they wouldn't take me anywhere.

Of course, when you parents are telling you that you couldn't do something, you have to know what it's about right?

Hence the strange tidbits of information that would pop up in my memories now. Something was telling me that one of the civilizations we'd discussed in the club had a usage for urine.

How did it work again? I wrack my brain trying to remember the details.

I take the bloodstained clothes and ripped clothing and drop it into the yellow-brown puddles. The old brown blood stains were coming out of the woolen cloak fragment I'd dropped in one of the puddles earlier.

Urine would have ammonia, the main ingredient that made pee smell so bad. And old urine like this, well the strong was stronger which meant stronger smell=more ammonia.

I'd developed a habit in my former life of reading the backs of cleaning product labels while I sat in the bathroom, doing my business. Using phones wasn't allowed in the company, so it was the only thing I could do to kill time. The toilet breaks were the only solace I had from my boss and the overwhelming load of work that waited for me at my desk then.

And in most of the cleaning product labels I'd read, they'd contained- You guessed it!

 

Ammonia.