The First Night Together

As the Sunya, Sato, Prix, and Idalec passed a bend in the forest road, the demoness’s body was out of sight, yet fresh in their minds. Prix lifted her hands off Idalec’s eyes as they kept walking.

"I guess it could be a good idea to scout ahead for a bit before making camp." Prix gulp waving for everyone to keep pace. Yet the road remained stubbornly unending and their pace sluggish.

“We should turn around or else it’ll be dark before we get back to Luna-” Sunya said meekly,

“Yes!” Sato announced to everyone looking up at the setting sun “I can tell based on the sun that we should go back now.” causing Idalec to snicker.

“Do you think Luna ran away?” Sunya asked Idalec nervously,

“No”, ‘Revrho never once abandoned his duty to me- of course he didn’t get many chances...’ Idalec sighed. All of them turned around and started walking back down the road.

The four of them almost missed the spot where the warrioress was killed, the only thing left behind being a puddle of blood on the road. “Where did she go?” Sato asked as if he couldn’t possibly comprehend the idea that her body had been moved.

“The real question is, where is Luna?” Prix said, tapping her foot as she looked around,

“Luna’s a good man, I’m sure of that.” Idalec said defensively before approaching the bush where Luna ran off into, “LUNA! LUNA!”

“You're back?” Luna grumbled, sticking out her head from the trees,

“AHH!” Sunya purred, jumping surprisingly high,

“I set up camp~” Luna grumbled, then vanished into the tree. Idalec quickly followed her in, while the other, very reluctantly, followed after Idalec.

Before long, they were all in a small clearing; three tents had been set up in a line with Idalec’s tent lying unassembled in its pouch. A large cauldron with something boiling stood over a fire pit, providing a meager source of light since it had been dug a couple of feet into the earth.

"Look at you making dinner for all of us," Sato said as he sniffed the nauseating air, which smelled of boiled meat, wet fur, and burning wood.

The one positive was the nice ambient crackling sound from the fire.

"All of us?" Luna repeated, offended at the mere thought that she was making food for anyone but herself.

"So what is it?" Sato asked, sitting down on a convenient log near the fire. Sunya sat down right next to Sato, Prix took a seat to the right of Sato on the same log as Sato, and Idalec sat opposite them.

"Well-" Luna said grumpily as she stood over the pot, "It's just- some stuff I hunted and-" Luna walked away from the pot, entering the largest tent and coming back with two spoons and a ladle but no bowls. “This is my tent.” Luna asserted, pointing to where she came out of,

“Shouldn’t we talk about this since there are five of us but only three tents?” Prix objected gently,

“I found this place!” Luna scowled, handing Idalec a spoon,

“What if you found this place? We should be prudent in how we divide up the tents. Clearly-”

"No. I discovered this place. I deserve my pick. PRICK." Luna said, crossing her arms, as she stared Prix down,

“Can I get a spoon, Luna?” Sunya begged, catching an angry look. Luna didn’t think twice before handing the second spoon over to Sunya. As Luna pulled away, looking down at her empty paws as she slowly walked over to the cauldron and scooped out a ladleful of water with a chunk of rawish meat in it, “Yum yum.” Luna downed it.

“Where are our bowls?” Sato asked, watching Luna eat another ladleful.

"I gave you spoons, didn't I?" Luna snarked as she kept eating,

“Luna, bring out some bowls.” Idalec requested. Luna ignored him as she kept eating. “Luna,” Idalec repeated, catching her glance,

“Fine.” Luna yielded, but not before eating another ladleful.

Luna vanished into her tent for a moment before emerging with three wooden bowls, a knife, and a five-kilo slab of meat. “You, fiends, can take one if you want.” Luna sassed, dropping all three bowls onto the ground. Sunya instantly dived to get hers; Idalec and Prix civilly stood up to grab one each.

Luna began cutting more raw chunks of the meat into the cauldron.

“Wait!” Prix rushed over hand outstretched, “We should fry the meat instead of boiling it, that way it would have a nicer taste.” Prix added, bowl in hand, as Luna just kept slicing more meat into the cauldron.

“You wait!” Luna softly laughed. Prix looked like she wanted to say something, but thinking better of it, she retreated to her seat to wait. Once Luna deemed the meat ready, she faced Prix, Sato, and Sunya; her eyes glinted a lime green in the darkness. “If you want to eat, you’ll have to pay for it.” Luna grinned. Everyone’s stomachs growled as the three of them just kept sitting, unsure what to make of it.

"Give everyone some food." Idalec stood up feeling fatigued, as he walked over to the pot,

“It’s free for you, sir~” Luna poured Idalec some of her soup without so much as a complaint,

“Thank you.” Idalec put a hand to his heart for a moment before sitting back down. Prix and Sato grew emboldened, stood up, and approached Luna with their bowls.

“You two have to pay up,” Luna said staunchly,

“Fr fr?” Sato bemoaned, “No cap?” Sato asked. Luna’s expression didn’t change. “On god?” Sato tried a third time, causing Prix’s eyebrows to jump up for a moment,

‘I wonder if there is a god in this world?’ Idalec wondered as he tried some of the meat, which had a fatty, whitish exterior, biting into the cold interior; it had the same taste as chewing on rubber with bits of metal flakes that had leached into the water from the rusting cauldron. A mysterious foam floated on top of the soup. ‘What kind of game is this?’ Idalec could help but wonder; he had hunted on one occasion in his youth. Of course, Idalec didn’t know what kind of animals stalked these woods, but Idalec could confidently say he had never eaten this sort of meat before.