Free Web NovelChapter 32: Everything Is on My Menu
Nuan successfully scooped a massive amount of premium clay from the slow-flowing riverbank.
To carry it all, she unbuttoned her cargo shirt and tied it into a makeshift sack, quickly pulling on one of the fluffy wool crop tops she had bought from the raccoon vendor the day before.
Now, she was covered in dirt, and her cargo pants were officially ruined with wet river mud.
She looked over at Koda, who was completely ignoring her struggles, busy splashing around and swimming in the river like a happy puppy.
"Survival logistics require sacrifices," Nuan muttered. She limped behind a large tree trunk, peeled off her muddy cargo pants, and wrapped one of her new animal-skin skirts around her waist.
A blue translucent screen flashed in her peripheral vision.
[ Countdown: 01:39:12 ]
"Ugh, I really have to hurry up," Nuan murmured, hopping back over to her bundle of clay.
By now, the muddy soil had leaked its excess water through the shirt fibers, achieving the perfect leather-hard density required to begin shaping.
The moment Nuan touched the soil, the Master Pottery skill completely took over her motor functions.
Her hands moved with fluid, hypnotic grace.
She began by kneading the clay into a large, seamless ball. Then, with steady precision, she pushed her fist directly into the center, pinching and rotating the edges outward to form a perfectly symmetrical bowl.
Wow, it really works like a charm. This ability is incredibly smooth, Nuan thought in pure awe. She dipped her fingertips into the river water, lightly smoothing out a few tiny hairline cracks along the rim.
While she was deep in her artistic zone, Koda finally trotted out of the river, shaking water off his grey fur. Intrigued by her weird witchcraft, he shifted into his beastman form and stared at the spinning mud. "What are you making, Witch?"
"A bowl," Nuan explained, without looking up. "You put food or water in it. It makes storing resources a hundred times easier in the den."
Suddenly, a massive, swift shadow hovered in a perfect circle directly above them.
Koda’s ears instantly pinned back, and he let out a low, aggressive defensive growl, baring his young fangs.
Nuan looked up, squinting against the sunlight. "Koda, calm down. I know him, he’s not a threat. Lower your logistics."
It was Aerin, the Sky Tyrant.
Koda glared at the descending Eagle beastman but reluctantly sat down, intentionally positioning his body directly between Aerin and Nuan like a tiny, stubborn wall.
Aerin landed flawlessly on a nearby boulder, his massive, feathered wings folding smoothly against his back.
Nuan didn’t stop working, immediately grabbing another lump of clay to start a second bowl. "What are you doing out here, Aerin?" fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓
"I came down to the river for fishing," Aerin replied, his sharp, golden eyes locking onto her. "But then I spotted you peeling off your skin... no, those tight leg-clothes you call pants... and then you started playing in the mud."
Nuan froze, her clay-covered hands hovering in mid-air. "Wait a minute. You saw me changing?! I thought you were supposed to be a noble gentleman, but oh my God, are all you beastmen just completely shameless?!"
"I did not see the whole process, Nuan," Aerin clarified quickly, a rare tint of color dusting his high cheekbones. "As I said, I was hunting for fish from high above. But your bizarre behavior caught my attention. I thought I should come down and properly apologize again for my behavior from last time."
"Hm? Well... I find it hard to believe that someone whose eyes are literally eight times sharper than a human’s didn’t see anything," Nuan snorted, dipping her fingers back into the water to smooth the surface of the new bowl. "But whatever, don’t worry about last time. You were actually very polite compared to a certain wolf."
"May I ask what you are doing, Nuan?" Aerin asked, leaning forward, genuinely fascinated by her nimble finger movements.
"Oh, this? It’s just pottery. For storing things. I have to mold as many as I can before the countdown—I mean, before Kael wakes up. We’re going on a big game hunt today."
Aerin stared at her, his expression turning deeply skeptical. "You are going to hunt? Yourself? In that fragile body, and with a broken ankle?"
"I absolutely am. And for your kind information, Mr. Eagle, I have hosted—I mean, survived—the worst hot and cold deserts on Earth. Compared to those, this jungle is an absolute heaven! There are so many insects, so many rabbits, and fat lizards everywhere! At the very least, I will never starve to death here. I just need a little time to set up my structural traps, and i can survive almost anywhere."
Aerin stared at her in dead silence for a long moment. His sharp gaze traveled from her confident smile down to her elegantly working hands, which were already finishing up a third clay container.
"Can you show me how you do it?" he asked softly.
"Huh? What? This?" Nuan blinked, gesturing to the mud. "You want to try pottery?"
"No..." Aerin said, shaking his head. "The hunt. How do you hunt? You live on the ground and claim to be a predator, but you do not possess the vertical pupils of the land carnivores, nor do you have the horizontal pupils of the land prey. Your pupils are circular and round—just like mine. But you are not a bird of the sky. What exactly are you, Nuan? How do you hunt without claws, talons, or remarkable fangs?"
Nuan’s lips curled into a sharp, confident smirk. "Wow, you really do have the observing eyes of an eagle, don’t you? Well, if you’re so dying to see how a human hunts, how about you watch me from the sky later today? Just make sure your massive shadow doesn’t alert my prey."
Aerin tilted his head, a challenging glint in his circular eyes. "So, you can only hunt ground prey, then?"
Nuan’s brain snapped at the words ’can only.’
"Excuse me?!" she gasped, her competitive survival-host pride instantly flaring up.
She abruptly stopped her pottery, grabbed her newly carved wooden spear, and stood up on her good leg. Hopping with practiced balance, she marched right to the edge of the rushing riverbank.
Koda and Aerin both watched her, completely silent.
Nuan stood perfectly still, her eyes sharply scanning the rushing, glittering water. For a few minutes, she became as motionless as a statue, tracking the erratic shadows beneath the surface, calculating the water’s refraction index.
Suddenly, her arm blurred. With a single, lightning-fast motion, she drove the spear violently down into the water.
SPLASH!
When she hoisted the spear back up into the air, a massive, heavy salmon was impaled directly through its upper tail section, thrashing violently.
It had barely managed to miss a lethal spinal hit, flopping wildly against the wood.
Acting with ruthless efficiency, Nuan quickly shoved her fingers deep into the salmon’s gills to secure her grip, yanked it completely off the spear tip, and jammed her thumb into the wound to ensure it couldn’t slip away.
Without breaking eye contact with the stunned eagle beastman, Nuan brought the thrashing fish to her mouth and took a massive, savage, raw bite right out of its side, tearing the flesh away.
She swallowed it cleanly, wiped the blood from her chin with the back of her muddy hand, and tossed the heavily bleeding, flopping salmon straight at Aerin’s feet.
"Help yourself!" Nuan cheered, her eyes flashing with a wild, untamed spark. "I am a super-predator, Aerin. With enough preparation, the right tools, and the power of human logic, everything in this jungle is on my menu!"
