Chapter 50: A Plan for the Future (1)
Cerus, who had originally gone off to look for dinner, eventually came back and decided to hunt the giant bird instead.
"Won’t its friends come after us to take revenge?" Maeve asked, confused. The last time Ikarus killed one of those birds, a whole group of them had shown up and even tried to hunt him down.
"This one is kind of fat," Axan spoke up after observing the bird for a few moments.
Maeve raised an eyebrow and thought that remark didn’t seem very related to her question.
"It probably ate its own friends," he added.
Alright, now it started to make sense.
After all, it was almost impossible for any creature to become fat in a dying world like this.
"They seemed so loyal to each other, though," Maeve murmured. "I didn’t think they would actually eat one another."
"Anything is possible when you’re trying to survive," Axan replied. "The conditions in this region are even worse than back home. It’s only natural that the creatures living here have two choices; leave or eat each other."
Maeve slowly nodded. A moment later, she let out a quiet hiss when she saw Cerus holding the bird while he and Ikarus plucked its feathers one by one.
"Then we have to make sure no one ever goes hungry in our home," Maeve said. "That way, none of us will ever have to eat each other."
Axan suddenly went still. For a brief moment, he simply stared at her. "Our home?" he repeated.
Maeve immediately nodded, puzzled by his reaction. "Yes? The Azuryn Settlement."
Axan looked straight at her and suddenly formed a faint smile. It was so faint that she almost missed it, but she still managed to see it.
"Yes," Axan said softly. "That’s our home."
At that moment, Maeve finally realized why he had reacted that way.
It was the first time she had ever called the Azuryn Tribe her home, a place where she felt safe and a place where she belonged.
"Maeve! Which part do you want to eat?!" Cerus shouted from a distance. He lifted the giant bird’s head and waved it in her direction. "This one’s meat is a little tough, but it tastes really good when it’s roasted!"
Maeve immediately frowned. She never liked looking at her food when it still looked too much like a dead animal.
"Anything is fine!" she called back after a moment. "Just not the head!"
The bird wasn’t nearly as disgusting as the Cindermaw, but its head was still about the size of a human’s, maybe even bigger. That alone was enough to make Maeve avoid looking at it.
"What a waste..." Cerus muttered. "Well, I can eat it."
Since Ikarus had already gathered plenty of firewood, they were able to start roasting the meat right away. What Maeve couldn’t understand was how he had managed to collect so much wood so quickly.
The dry forest was quite far away, and he would have had to walk all the way there just to find fallen branches scattered across the ground.
Pinky suddenly spoke. [They can move much faster than you think, Host!]
[These days, they’ve only been walking slower because you move as slowly as a snail.]
’Hey! I do not walk at snail speed!’ Maeve protested in her head. ’My legs are just shorter than them!’
Still, she couldn’t really deny it. If it weren’t for her, the triplets would probably be traveling much faster than they were now.
"Here." Cerus handed her a piece of meat skewered on a thin branch. "It’s still hot, so blow on it first."
Maeve accepted it with both hands. Calling it a skewer felt wrong when the piece of meat was so large, so it looked more like a steak with a stick stabbed through it.
"Thank you," she said.
To be honest, Maeve still wasn’t sure whether her stomach could handle normal food again. But there was one thing she knew for certain: the sight of the roasted meat didn’t make her feel sick at all.
"Let me help." Ikarus leaned closer and gently blew on the meat, cooling it down for her.
Across from them, Cerus let out a quiet growl because he had just missed a perfect chance to earn Maeve’s attention.
"Do you think you can eat it?" Axan suddenly asked.
The others immediately turned toward her as well. Judging by their expressions, they had all been wondering the same thing.
"I don’t know..." Maeve admitted softly. "But it looks really good to me."
As soon as she said that, Ikarus finally stopped blowing on the meat.
"I think it’s cool enough now."
Honestly, Maeve would have loved it if someone had cut the meat into smaller pieces for her. But she supposed she needed to get used to eating like this.
Taking a small breath, she lifted the meat toward her mouth. At the same time, the triplets watched her so closely that it almost made her nervous.
Ikarus had even prepared a clean cloth in his hand, ready in case she threw up again. The moment Maeve took her first bite, everyone held their breath and their eyes followed her every movement as if they were watching something incredibly important.
One bite went down, and then Maeve took a second bite, this one even bigger than the first.
She didn’t say anything or complain, but her actions alone were enough to prove that the meat wasn’t upsetting her stomach at all.
"This is really good!" Maeve suddenly exclaimed after swallowing her second bite. Her eyes lit up with excitement. "The meat is a little tough, but... it’s actually really tasty."
She couldn’t help swaying slightly from side to side, happy because she could finally eat something normal—the Cindermaw’s brains definitely didn’t count, thank you very much—and not throw up afterward.
"You should eat too!" Maeve said excitedly.
She even hurried them along because being the only one eating while everyone else stared at her felt incredibly awkward.
The triplets finally did as Maeve said. They ate the bird’s meat as well, and for some reason, it tasted even better because their mate was finally able to eat happily.
When Maeve finished the last bite, she looked at Cerus with a slightly embarrassed expression.
"Is... there any more?" she asked quietly. "I think I can still eat a little more."
