6. Bear?

As the rabbit ran away I concentrated. I willed the Winter Sprites to over and hold it's leg to the ground. The Winter Sprites surged towards the rabbit. The rabbit fell as a chain of ice came out of the ground and bound its leg. I felt a bit drained but not enough to really affect me.

I quickly caught up to the squealing rabbit and stomped on the back of its neck. It sunk a bit into the snow as it continued to squeal. To make the process easier I formed a small spike of ice on the bottom of my foot. I stomped down again and the rabbit went limp. I nodded in satisfaction.

'Honestly this makes things a lot easier. Although there is a limit to how much I can use the Winter Sprites in a day. If I use them too much then I won't really be able to get anything done. Not to mention I will end up passing out. While I'm relatively safe from bigger animals in my home, I'm still not completely safe.'

With these thoughts going through my mind, I think about how I'm going to carry the rabbit. I get on my knees and wrap my hands around its head. I try to stand up but I get pulled down.

'Oh, it's still stuck to the ground.'

I will the Winter Sprites to separate and the binding slowly disappears. I feel another drain on my mind but it's a lot less than before.

'Doesn't take as much to separate them into an intangible form as it does to solidify them.'

I noted this down and started walking back to my home. I quickly noticed the evident pain coming from my arm. The added weight of the rabbit was really going well with my wounded arm. I sighed and stuck the rabbit from my hand to my thigh. I felt a bit tired but that was it. Wasn't exactly hard to mostly ignore the feeling thankfully.

As I made my way back I wondered what I would do.

'I know finding a source of water would have to be done later. I would have to find a way to heal my arms faster. I need to figure out how to use my abilities to the fullest. I also need to figure out a better way to travel safely. It'll take me a couple weeks to map out everything within a couple hours of here. Well my arms come first anyway. Other than hunting I'll mainly be looking for herbs. They'll be buried under the snow though.'

As I made my way back to my home I stopped. I titled my head a bit in confusion. The hole seemed to be a bit bigger than it was. Snow and frozen dirt was scattered. Whatever was digging didn't go all down though. The hole was around 2 - 2 ½ feet deep. I looked around and saw paw marks. I walked over and referenced the paw to my hand.

Seeing how the paw print was around 4 - 5 times bigger than my small hand. I nodded to myself.

"Most definitely a bear. Wolves and bears in the same place. Not surprising but it can be a problem."

I sighed to myself. Since the bear was digging around there's something it wants down there. It's entirely possible that it caught my scent. Either way I didn't have enough time to think about all of it. I was hungry, and a hungry young lady is a savage young lady. I chuckled at my stupid attempt at a joke. Well it wasn't really a joke attempt.

I went down into my home and set the rabbit down. I sniffed myself and frowned. No doubt I smelled horrible. Unfortunately that isn't something I'll be able to deal with right now. Despite that being a little upsetting, the real problem was in front of me.

'How am I gonna eat this rabbit? Can't really use my arms. Using my mouth would be wholly inefficient and difficult. Well sitting here thinking is going to get me far.'

With that said I did have some ideas. First I put my knee on the rabbit to hold it down. I didn't really have anything sharp, so I made a somewhat sharp dagger with the Winter Sprites. This gave me a headache. I tried to cut into the rabbit's fur using only my wrist but it wasn't working. I even ended up cutting the side of my leg. It certainly hurt and the bleeding was pretty bad.

Unfortunately there wasn't much I could do about it, so I ignored it. After trying a couple more things I ended up covering my feet with a thin layer for frost, and I frosted the ice knife to my feet. I stepped on the rabbit with one foot, and cut into it with the other.

Balancing wasn't even the hardest part. I was so hungry I started feeling nauseous. Concentrating in a state like that was near possible.

Eventually I managed to tear open the fur. I detached the knife but I didn't have the energy to get rid of the frost on my feet. The frost was cold but I could barely feel it. I took out some organs like the intestines, but other than that I just started eating.

I'm not sure why, but something about raw meat is so attractive to me. I couldn't cook it even if I wanted to. There wasn't much of a taste to it. I did really like the texture and everything though.

Well despite me calling myself a lady I certainly wasn't eating like one. Then again anyone who is starving would eat like a wild beast. Not being able to use my arms made things a lot harder than they needed to be. Stuffing my face into the torso of a dead rabbit was less than pleasant, but not totally unpleasant.

As I finished my meal I looked at my hands. Very messy. Sticky, bloody, and other things. I sighed.

"Change of plans. I really need to find a way to clean myself."