“Hunger is the best sauce in the world,”

Don Quixote, Miguel De Cervantes

Namir’s POV

I awoke to the smell of roasting rabbit, or rather, I was awoken by the squirming of Nyx attempting to escape my clothing and attack the roasting rabbit. Rather than risk myself or, more importantly, in this weather and our current climate, my clothes being torn up in the process, I hurriedly released her.

She shot forward with a jump and short flight to settle on Kai’s shoulder. He stood over a small fire pit where a rather large rabbit was roasting. Eagerly urging him onward to give her a piece, which he happily did. The smell of the roasting rabbit seemed to have distracted her from the offal pile in the room's corner.

Kai placed her down in front of it, and despite her preference for the roasted meat, the starving dragonling quickly attacked the remains. She had been growing increasingly lethargic without a proper supply of protein, and with our shipwreck, we had lost all our supplies.

“Morning,” I muttered, pleased to have seen he had solved another one of our problems. A decent mage made every hunt easier; if they could keep up, that was. I preferred to hunt alone with proper supplies, as they rarely could. Still, it was difficult to argue against the comfort they could bring. Kai had only been awake for a day, but in that time, he had solved the issues of shelter, food and water. It even looked like he was in the process of solving the problem of our current clothing.

The child was impressive, no matter how you looked at it. I knew no child of his age no matter their race, who could have coped as well with what we had just gone through and still be functioning so well. Even a beastkin would have struggled to return with so many catches from a single hunt so soon and with so few supplies to actually hunt with.

Four enormous rabbits hung stripped of their skin from the ceiling, but that wasn’t all that they were missing. Looking closer, he could see that each tendon from all the rabbits had been removed. It was not difficult to guess what they would be spending today doing. Beastkin cubs would often be given the task of making the most from every meal, but it had been years since he had bothered to do so.

“Morning, Namir,” Kai said as he carried a rabbit leg forward. “Thanks for saving my life.”

“Only doing my duty,” I answered. As a retainer of House Silversea, that was the appropriate answer, but I would have done the same with or without that obligation. The child was special.

“Pass me the tendons,” I said as soon as I had broken my fast. He had clearly dried them with mana, but some jobs were easier with claws, not to mention my stats. Running my claws down the tendons I was soon stripping them into fibres we would be able to turn into strings we could use to bind the furs to ourselves.

“What are we making first with the rabbits?” I asked.

“Hats. Your stats might keep you warm enough, but without my mana to warm me up, I’m going to freeze quickly enough and who knows what else I might need to use it for.” He continued to cook the remaining meat, sharing it out between Nyx, me and himself.

“Hats?” They were not what I thought we would be aiming for, “Not a cloak?”

“No hats, mittens and boots first. Covering the extremities first, they are the most likely to freeze first. Our clothes are not exactly warm enough, but at least the rest of our bodies are covered. Oh, and they are called Arctic Hares, at least according to inspect.” He explained.

“Hmph.” I had never made it this far north and never needed much clothing working predominantly across the southern kingdoms.

“Besides, if you are up for a hunt, there are some wolves to our west. They would be large enough to make trousers, tunic and coat.” He added.

I knew as I ran I had crossed multiple groups hunting areas marked by their scents. However, I had been avoiding conflict, skirting them where possible, or racing across them when not. Never knowing quite how strong the opponent was or how large the group was. Kai, with his sensing abilities, had obviously located some, and with a base to work from, it was worth spending a day or two to recover and resupply before attempting to make it to Giant Country and Tramontana.

“After lunch.” I agreed. “And maybe after Nyx is back on her feet.” I laughed at our little mascot's belly protruding as she lay on her side in an attempt to digest some of what she had wolfed down.

. . .

Kai’s POV

We left later than we had planned for our next hunt. But suitably outfitted with a fashionable hat. Who was I kidding they looked ridiculous but they were keeping our heads warm. Or would have if I had been able to convince Namir to wear his. He argued his stats and his own fur would keep him warm enough but I was sure I had seen him shivering as we left our shelter and stepped back out into the icy winds of the endless ice.

No storms on land for as far as the eye could see but our close proximity to the sea of storms that we had sailed through and the open landscape seemed to ensure that whistling winds never stopped blowing.

Without tannins to treat the fur my hat was going to dry a little rigid so I had worked quickly to get a sort of triangle hat. It looked a little ridiculous with the fur on the inside but maybe in time and after catching a few more hares I would be able to had an out later to improve the look and potential camouflage returning it to white.

Namir had insisted I work on covering myself first so I had some fur wraps for both my hands and feet. I would not go as far to call them boots or mittens yet but perhaps in time with a little more work they might get there.

“Which way are the wolves?” Namir asked.

I pointed, “That way.” With wolves being primarily nocturnal hunters, our own hunt of them would be worth it for two reasons. Firstly we needed more meat and fur, secondly, if we cleared out the pack before night fell they would not be tracking us down during the dark.

It was freezing despite my efforts at dressing myself and regardless of the mana drain I activated the amulet to keep the bitter cold at bay. The fact that Namir soon offered to carry me proved to me at least that he too was feeling the cold as he enjoyed the warm area surrounding me.

“How many?” He asked as we approached their den.

“Four,” I answered. It looked like another family. I idly wondered whether removing the wolves would help the Arctic Hares to flourish.

“Levels?” he continued to question.

“Low enough.” I shrugged.

“Be precise.” He critiqued.

“Levels 5, 6, 9 and 10,” I answered. The inspect coming back as Arctic Wolves.”

“Still first tier, good.” He smiled. “Well, care to demonstrate your skills.” He gestured for me to take the field and lead the hunt. “I’ll take care of any that escape your efforts.”

This was a large step up from the Hares. The den only had a single exit, so I did not need to block anything else off. Also, I doubted a sound alone would be enough to deal with any of them. I ran through the same steps as I had with the Hares, checking things over. Then I continued to layer up my defence for when they inevitably would come screaming at me. As effective as throwing fire might be at killing them, that would also ruin the pelts we hoped to gain from this.

Finally ready,” I signalled Namir. “You might want to cover your ears for the first salvo,” I suggested.

“Bala Skouzou” was the first spell that I sent down into their den, but it was quickly followed by “Bala fos”

It would hopefully be as effective as a flash bang on the poor wolves. Woken by the shriek, they would hopefully be blinded by the light. They stumbled out of their den, highly disorientated even if my first two spells did not kill them.

The next spells hopefully would. With the weather and environmental mana supporting their formation, my ice spear spell formed beautifully and without hesitation. Launching themselves at the stunned family.

“Pago dori!”

“Pago dori!”

“Pago dori!”

“Pago dori!”

The first two fell to my ice spears, still stumbling as they were from the disorientation of ruptured ear drums. The other two were rapidly recovering and threw themselves toward me across the open snow, regardless of the spear they were impaled with.

But I had not left myself defenceless. Their bodies broke through the thin layer of ice I had surrounded myself with to cover up the trench I had magically excavated and impaled themselves on the ice spears I had buried beneath it.

“A few more holes than last time,” Namir commented on my success.

“But good enough. How are you going to get them back?”

“On this.” I started working on building a simple sledge out of ice. We had no rope, so we would have to push it, and it would hardly last for very long if we picked up any speed, but for the short journey back, it would work effectively enough.

Our day’s hunt over; we loaded up the four wolves and set out for home.

It was time to return before dark fell.

. . .

Safe and secure in our little shelter, we took stock of our improved circumstances.

"So what next?"