After a while went by, we did some attempts at finding water and tracks. Eventually, we found a little rabbit gnawing at some fresh spinach covered in dirt in its roots. The poor vegetable was still stuck inside the ground, defenseless, and hopeless.

As I started approaching the animal. My mother gripped my right arm while using her other free hand to cover my mouth.

Our eyes traded a glance and I nodded at her serious expression. The released me and signaled me by placing a finger in front of her nose, to be quiet.

Upon this gesture, I understood Rosaline’s actions and whispered as low as possible while facing her.

“What’s wrong?”

With an equal tone, the mother responded seriously.

“Checking if it’s a normal bunny that is harmless or a horned rabbit that can use magic.”

“Uh? They can have horns?”

Ignoring me, she placed her right hand on the sword pommel while letting go of my arm. Her feet advanced towards the animal gaining a better view of its head. Upon closer inspection, she took normal steps back to the daughter with a relieved expression.

“Everything’s fine, dear. Regarding your earlier question, yes, they can. There is a monster race of bunnies that can be very menacing as they strike in groups. And like us, they, too have different elements, making them capable of magical combat.”

“Are they strong?”

I questioned, concerned, glancing over to the rabbit who didn’t notice us, casually chewing its food.

“Remember what I taught you: every race that isn’t human or animal is stronger. We must approach them with caution and with the intent to kill. Most of the time is best to simply escape, to not face a possible loss or ultimately death.”

At that, my expression became firmer, and so did the nod I gave her.

“Without the use of magic, catching a rabbit would be pretty hard without making a trap for it. But I want to take that one with us later and teach you a different dish, so wait here.”

With the last whisper to this quiet conversation, I calmly answered.

“Good luck.”

Through cautious steps, Rosaline approached the prey, hiding her hand behind the torso as it started glowing in tones of blue. Once the woman reached a range that made her confident about hitting the spell, she voiced out.

“Aqua trap!”

As the arm rotated from the back to the front, the rabbit’s eyes glanced over to the source of the voice staring at the human in fear. The moment the little animal readied its legs to jump away, a cage of water nullified its motion, leaving but the head out.

From a bit further away from the two, I who saw the entire scene grew in admiration for my mother’s talent with magic.

Rosaline took large steps toward the bunny, placing her hand inside the water. Her fingers clutched around its neck, leaving it zero chance to get away. She then glanced back at me, gesturing with her head for me to approach.

Once close enough, I commented on something any kid of my age would do upon such fluffiness, “it’s so cute!”

Normally this would bring my mother a smile, but as we were into survivalist training. She coldly answered as her arm approached the creature to me.

“Grab its neck with both hands while I hold it for you.”

Feeling the menacing and iciness of such a tone, my expression became wary of what she wanted me to perform. Little to no avail, I, with a heavy and bumping heart, twisted the bunny's neck, tearing up in the middle of the process. Its tail along with the legs moved in random patterns for a few seconds till they stopped, eternally.

My mother took a folded small bag from within her pockets, leaving the rabbit in my hands, allowing me to take the entirety of its weight. 

This was something Rosaline chose to do, so I could mature a bit more.

With a whimpering voice and a tear running down my cheek, I voiced out, “It’s dead, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it is.”

I remained quiet, trembling,  waiting for her to open the bag, which seemed to take an eternity. Then once she did, I quickly placed it inside, causing the hole to widen and the bunny to fall into its dark abyss.

“Don’t cower, and don’t fear my little girl as life only gets worse the more we partake in it.”

I muttered inaudible words due to crying, knowing fully well that the rest of the kills I had done were no different, but somehow, this one had been tougher to handle.

Her hand passed by my hair briefly, “come we need to move.”

Despite the sadness my feet moved along, accepting to a little extent what transpired, allowing a few more tears to fall as we went deeper into the forest.

A while passed, and Rosaline pointed at a peculiar bush with dark purple balls on its thin green branches.

“Look daughter, blackberries! This is one of the sweet things you can eat if you ever get lost, along with raspberries that are rosy and wild strawberries that are redder.”

Upon picking some into a different bag, my mother gave me one to try it. I made a faint smile at its mild sweetness.

“It’s good.”

“Keep in mind that you should never eat any white-looking ones. They’re poisonous.”

“Oh? Alright.”

Noticing my change of mood ever since I killed the bunny to my short and dull answers, she thought to herself.

‘Might take a bit from her to recover from it. While I don’t want my daughter to become a killing machine, I need her to be ingrained with some coldness, in case one day she needs it. Especially if she becomes a helper in some years.’

After making me pick a full bag of blackberries, we moved through the forest, eventually finding the exit.

“For today, we’ll call survival training a day. I was looking for mushrooms but couldn’t find any. Next time, I’ll teach you more about them.”

“Sure.”

Noticing the displeased expression on Rosaline’s face after my answer, I lowered my chin, taking a few steps forward onto the open plains. To this, she exasperated not saying anything as she too had gone through a similar behavior when her father taught her. Though in her case he had been a lot more aggressive about it, even going as far as to slap her due to how moody Rosa was at the time.

With a natural approach to my mom, I gathered the courage to say a few words on her own.

“Is it further ahead... the straw for the scarecrow?”

My chin rose to face her, who kept on smiling kindly back at me.

“Yes dear, if we find a nice farmer who won’t mind giving us some for free, we’ll call this a very successful trip, after all, money doesn’t grow on trees.”

Rosaline voiced it out in a teasing tone, winking at the end, making a faint smile pass by me who understood her words and the roles we as peasants played to some extent.

A while went by, reaching the time of the day when the sun reached its peak, and the two of us remained behind one of the farmer’s cruck houses, hiding in its shadow while eating some strawberries and drinking some water produced by her.

“So far we weren’t too lucky...”

Upon finishing such words, I took another strawberry with a happier expression.

“These fields are pretty vast. We’re bound to find someone who won’t mind giving us some.”

As a bit more time passed with the heat-reducing, we moved out of the shadows into the light and resumed our search.

Not too long after, we were casually greeted by an old man.

“Good afternoon to you two.”

“Hello, good afternoon!”

We replied in unison with a smile while sweating a bit from the forehead due to the long hair and the warm weather.

“You two don’t look like farmers. Are you perhaps lost?”

To this I explained my adventure from the moment I left my house till we reached this one, making the old man laugh loudly with a bit of coughing here and there.

“Well, by all means, you can have some of my straw for that scarecrow of yours, and in exchange, you’ll have to make him wear this hat of mine.”

The old man went inside the house, grabbed one, returned, and placed it in my hand.

“My sister made it when she was younger and since my sibling is long gone, a new owner for it is just perfect.”

I smiled widely at the old man, who was very friendly to us.

“I’ll make sure to treasure this gift. And if one day I happen to be able to repay this debt, I’ll do my best!”

The old man glanced at Rosaline, noticing a proud expression painted on her face, and then returned her eyes to me, laughing lowly. Overjoyed with my words that were unusual for someone of my age.

“That’s a deal then!”

He shouted happily and went to a nearby cellar, grabbed some straw, and gave it to Rosaline, whose arms were long enough to better get a hold of it.

“Don’t forget our promise, little Iris. I hope to see you another day!”

“Sure Thomas. Whenever I get a chance, I’ll visit you again!”

This time around, we took the shortcut and went through the town’s west entrance and left through the south one, heading home with cheerful expressions. My hands carried the bag that contained the berries and the rabbit, having accepted it within my heart, and looking forward to making something out of it for us.

Through two of the books I read in the system library related to cooking, there was a bird and a bunny stew, one in each of both volumes, which in a way, it made me happy since I would shortly be able to put them into practice.

As soon as we got to the entrance of the house, we placed the straw next to the door and went inside all the way to the bathroom, washing our faces and hands with the water in the bucket, refreshing ourselves and one another like children play. Soon as all good things come to an end, and at times rough things must start. We took the bunny out of the bloody bag, resisting the smell that came with it.

“The first thing is to place it on this wooden board so it doesn’t slip.”

My body did as the steps that left my mother’s lips. A bloody waltz was about to begin.

“Now you do a cut here.”

The woman pinched the rabbit’s back hide, allowing me to cut it horizontally with a knife. 

“Another one from here to there, but turn the edge upward. We don’t want to open the stomach of it.”

I nodded, feeling slightly sick, but even then, I did as I was told, the best possible granting a proud sentiment to Rosaline.

“Now you take the fur off by using your index and middle fingers of both hands to create an opening like this...”

After the demonstration, I did my best to achieve it.

“... steadily, with a firm grasp, hook up under the skin and pull with your strongest hand all the way to the rear, keeping the head steady.”

After a lot of struggling and tries, taking into account extra tips as they occurred, I managed to skin the rabbit fully. Finally, my hands took out the fur off the rabbit’s legs with slight cuts, doing a final slash and removing the feet one by one.

“Alright now we have it fully skinned and need to open the belly to remove the parts that are bad for the meal.”

My mother pointed a direction, and I carefully did an incision around the pointed area slowly.

“Now you open this chest location while doing a cut from the ribcage down through its pelvis and then remove these parts.”

With some signaling and pointing, my hands removed the innards, cleaning the carcass upon tips.

“Now we remove the poop while I save the heart, kidney, and liver. If they’re red-looking, they’re good. If not, we throw them out, as it would mean the rabbit was sick.”

“Sure.”

Last, we chopped the rabbit into different portions based on what they were: two back legs, front legs, two belly lumps of meat, and three loin sections. To that, we peeled some potatoes which went towards the cauldron inside the oven, along with a sample of salt, very cheap wine, and a few spoons of olive oil.