Chapter 1293 - Circle of Life (Part 1) (1/2)

”We did it!” The two kids rejoiced, hugging each other in triumph.

”Congratulations, young mages. To the victor go the spoils.” Lith gave them a round of applause.

”What do you mean?” Leria said.

”Why is it doing that?” Aran looked at the fish writhing on the ground.

”Out of the water, a fish can't breathe. It's fighting for its life.” Lit conjured another bubble that gave the creature respite from its suffering.

”I don't want to kill it. Can we throw it back into the water?” Leria asked and Aran nodded. They had never questioned how the food that arrived on their table looked like before being cooked.

Leria lived in a blacksmith's house while Aran, now that the family had money, had never seen the livestock aside from when he helped Elina to feed the chickens.

”Your dinner, your choice.” Lith did as they asked. They had already learned a lot for a single day, the law of the jungle could wait a bit longer.

”What are we going to eat?” Now that the sun was gone, Aran suddenly felt his body aching from mana abuse.

A snap of Lith's fingers dug a hole in the ground while a wave of his hand made a warm crackling fire appear. Several vegetables and mushroom skewers came out of his pocket dimension and slowly spun above the fire to get grilled.

”While we wait, we can eat the leftovers of the roasted potatoes from lunch. They are vegetables, after all.” The pocket dimension had kept them warm and crispy, but hunger was the seasoning that made them taste like heaven.

Onyx and Abominus checked each other's muzzle for blood before drinking enough water from the lake to erase the smell of blood from their breath.

[”I want to go home.”] The Ry dearly missed many things. His pack, the woods, the long afternoon naps, and the many hot meals a day without the need to work for them.

[”Me too. This place sucks. It never took me so long to catch a single deer and the locals are assholes.”] Onyx said.

”I'm sorry, Abominus, I let you down. I failed to catch fish for you.” Leria hugged the Ry, enjoying the contrast between the warmth of his fur and the chill of the night.

The magical wolf was actually full and had given little thought to Leria's promise to provide him food. Yet the honesty in her apology made him forget about the hardsh.i.p.s of that day and focus solely on her happiness.

Abominus licked her face, tickling Leria with his fur and making her laugh for the first time during that day.

”Onyx, was the fish good?” Aran was regretting letting go of their only catch of the day. Just like it happened for Lith, vegetables and fruit would fill his stomach only for so long.

The Shyf nodded while l.i.c.k.i.n.g her lips at the tasty memory.

”At least someone had something to eat. Maybe tomorrow we could follow her example.” Aran said.

”Yeah, but only if you kill it.” Leria shuddered at the thought. Their dinner was light, but at least she would get to sleep at night.

”I can do it for you.” Lith said while offering more skewers of roasted mushrooms to the kids to make them regain their strength.

”Isn't it bad to kill, big bro?” Aran asked.

”You listened to plenty of my stories. I had to kill a lot of bad guys when I was a Ranger. Does that make me a bad guy as well?”