I don't think I could be considered a survival expert in my previous life. In fact, I'm pretty sure I would have died the moment I left the comfort and safety of civilization.

However, as I was very quick to find out, there was no such thing as choosing whether to be good at survival or not in this world. It was either you were amongst the best, or you were just a corpse.

I bit my lips, tearing my mind away from those thoughts and back to what was important: the small rat in my hand.

These things were far from scarce around our camp, but even then, they were extremely difficult to catch. In fact, it'd taken me almost 4 days, even with the help of my mother, to catch one.

Well, 'help' is a big word. She'd simply given me some suggestions whenever I asked for them or looked like I was on the verge of breaking out into tears, or otherwise just looking on as I sniffed around the camp, looking for the damned rodents.

So far, I'd found nine rats in total, not including the one in my hands, but all of them had escaped before I could catch them. I blamed my clumsy body for that, by the way, because dear god was it hard to navigate through the snow with such the body of a young kid.

Still, I'd finally caught one, and I had absolutely no intention of letting it go, my hunger nearly driving me to chomp down on it right there and then despite its pitiful squeaks.

However, my pride at having finally caught something on my own managed to overshadow the ravaging throbs from my stomach.

And so, I quickly ran back to my mother with the rat in hand, careful to hold it the way I'd been taught by her. When she saw it, she gave me a large grin.

"Good, good. It's small, but not bad for first catch. You are too young to contribute, so what you catch shall be yours. When you grow up, you will share with the tribe, just as we share with you. Understand?" She said gently yet firmly as she patted my head.

I nodded eagerly, and once mom took a step back, I bit the rat's head off with a single bite, savoring the taste of flesh and bones as I crunched them down and then swallowed.

Unlike how mom ate these poor things, I wanted to savor them. Hence, I didn't just swallow it whole, but rather, I bit off small chunks, trying to get as much taste and enjoyment out of my first meal in days as possible.

Nonetheless, it was still gone far too quickly for my tastes, my hunger having only been pushed back rather than truly sated.

After licking my hands as thoroughly as possible, my cat-like tongue helping a lot in scraping off any bits still sticking to it, I gave mom a tight hug before waddling away, unwilling to starve myself any more than necessary.

Now that I'd finally managed to get some experience with rat hunting, my success rate increased sharply, and by the time the next feast was scheduled to be held, I'd caught a grand total of 6 rats of varying sizes, although none were bigger than my small fist.

Apparently, none of the tribe members really bothered with the pests, since they were so small and weak.

I'm pretty sure mom had also given some sort of order to not hunt them, leaving them as training for me. After all, I highly doubted that the tribe would allow so many walking morsels to remain alive so close to our home.

And, despite the danger said tribe posed to them, the rats seemed to like the relative safety that living within the camp of a highly aggressive group of top predators entailed.

But enough about that. I waited alongside everyone else as mother put the finishing touches on today's grand feast, trying my best not to droll at the delicious smell wafting out from the longhouse.

Apparently, it was one of mom's roles as our leader to organize these feasts. Not that I really knew all that much about that, considering that I was still so young that the only real thing expected of me right now was learning how to hunt small prey on my own.

Apparently, the tribe didn't quite believe in educating their young, if the lack of any actual teaching besides what I managed to pick up here and there meant anything.

Still, I waited there anxiously, watching as the remaining seven members of the tribe did their own thing. I was tempted for a moment to go talk to them, but I really didn't know what to say, so I just kind of stood there feeling awkward.

At long last, mother emerged from the tent, and after sweeping her gaze through the gathered fox-kin, gave everyone a nod and went back in. For a moment, I thought everyone would chaotically rush in, but instead, everyone waited while staring at me.

I stood still for a moment, confused, before realizing what the stares meant, and I scrambled to enter as quickly as possible.

Apparently, being the daughter of the tribal leader meant a tad bit more than what I'd expected it to.

After I'd entered, the others came in one at a time, following some sort of hierarchy that I couldn't yet understand. In my heart, I resolved to pull mother aside and force her to answer some questions after the feast.

But that could wait. The delicious smell of blood and semi-frozen flesh filled my nostrils, and I had to physically stop my tail from wagging like a dog. Despite my wishes to, I couldn't tear my eyes away from the huge amount of food there.

Once everyone was inside, mother glanced at every fox-kin once more before giving one last nod.

"It's time to eat."

And with that proclamation, all hell broke loose, just like last time.

This time, however, I had absolutely no intention of allowing myself to leave with an empty stomach.

I could stave off starvation by hunting rats, but somehow, I knew that the small critters simply weren't enough. The hunger in me demanded I feast on the corpses before me, these energy-filled, delicious corpses, rather than the trash that were those small rats.

My mind didn't even register the strangeness of my thoughts as I dove into the fray, latching onto whatever I could with undeveloped teeth and claws. Apparently, while the adults had no reservation about physically fighting each other over the food in front of me, they didn't seem willing to go that far against me, which was good for me, as I would no doubt lose.

I bit into the leg of a large deer, tearing into it with a fury I didn't even know I possessed. The meat was hard, having been frozen for some time, I suspected. However, that didn't stop me as I shook my head side-to-side, tearing off as much as I could and immediately swallowing it before going in for more.

I avoided the food my mother seemed to claim for herself, just as everyone else did, but everything else was free game. I wasn't tall enough to reach out with my hands to grab the food from the benches, and so, I instead straight-up jumped onto the table to grab what I wanted.

Nobody stopped me from doing it, and so, I took that as permission.

Finally, when the last scrap of flesh had been stripped off and the last bone broken and its marrow drunk, I began to cool off from the hunger-induced madness.

I felt a bit bloated, which surprised me, in all honestly. It wasn't feeling full that did, however, but rather, it was the fact that I didn't feel like I was about to explode.

After all, while there's no way to accurately tell, I must have eaten at least a hundred times my body weight. Where did all of that even go?

As I absentmindedly wondered about it, I noticed my mother walking over to me, and so I turned to face her, duly noting the way she was licking some pieces of intestines from her cheeks, the smell coming from her not too different from that of a slaughterhouse in my previous world.

"Kira." She said, crouching down and patting her knees, beckoning me forward. I eagerly waddled toward her, and she just as eagerly picked me up and held me in her arms.

"You did well today, I'm proud of you." She praised, rubbing her cheeks against my own, an act that I was coming to understand was incredibly similar to a cheek-to-cheek kiss for humans.

I let out an incoherent mumble, burying my face deep into her collar. "You are still young, but you're so much smarter than I ever was at your age, my love." Mom silently praised me even as her hands began rubbing my back and tail.

"When spring comes, we will go hunting together for larger game. It will be a good experience for you." She promised me, her voice prideful. Then, she twisted her head, landing a glare at one of the women who'd lingered around for a couple of moments too long while observing the two of us, causing the foxy woman to quickly flee the tent.

I nodded, giving mom a large, toothy, and gory smile. Then, I allowed my head to fall back in between her neck and shoulders. "I'm tired, mommy..."

"I know, I know. You need time to digest, dear. It's normal." She answered offhandedly while rubbing small circles on my back, even as she walked us out of the longhouse and back to our home.

My sleep that night was extremely uncomfortable. I felt as though I was boiling from the inside out the entire time, and all of my body throbbed painfully as though it was being poked and prodded at with hot needles.

When I woke up the next morning, my entire body felt sore. Surprisingly, mother hadn't left earlier in the morning to go do her own things as she usually did and instead had waited for me to wake up.

She didn't say anything, but the look she gave me made me unconsciously stand frozen, not moving an inch as her hands roamed around my body, checking for something I didn't know.

After a while, she nodded in satisfaction. "Good, good. Absorbing so much magic for the first time can be problematic for some, but you appear to be fine. You've grown a bit, too." She smiled, her sharp canines almost shining from the light rays peeking through the door.

Magic? Wait, I didn't know magic was a thing. Well I mean, I suspected it existed, I suppose, but what did she mean?

Thankfully, mom didn't appear to be in a rush to leave as she sat down and crossed her legs, easily picking me up and putting me in her lap, her hand going to stroke my growing hair.

"It's time for me to teach you about what it means to be a Northern-Tailed Fox, dear. Do not interrupt me, or else." She said, and I unconsciously nodded, feeling a bit of fear when she said the 'or else'.