8. Herbs and Moose

I opened my eyes to an oh so familiar roof. I felt a numb throbbing coming from my arms. I lifted my head and looked at them. The sight I saw was rather disgusting. Ants. Ants were crawling all around my arms. I winced in pain as they nibbled at my still exposed skin. It's lucky that it somehow hasn't gotten infected yet. Actually its nothing short of a miracle. Especially after bathing in river water that probably isn't all that clean.

Due to my annoyance at the pain and the fact I was being eaten by ants, I quickly froze all of the dozens of tiny ants. While it wasn't hard to do that I felt a pang of pain in my head.

"How annoying, at least I have something to eat though."

Despite saying that it was hard to eat tiny things on your arms when you can't use your arms. I simply dumped them on the fur I had been using as a pillow, and sucked them up like a vacuum. Not all that sanitary since the fur wasn't clean, but I didn't care very much at the moment. Today was the day I stalk rabbits.

With this in mind I crawl out of my hole and breathe in fresh air. I looked around and spotted a rabbit. As lucky as that was, it quickly ran away. I smiled as I followed its path. Of course I ended up losing the white rabbit in a sea of white snow.

'How am I even supposed to follow those things? Their hearing is so sensitive, their small, blend in with the environment, and they leave basically no footprints. Wel,l I guess I can just look around for them. Eventually I'll find one eating some herbs I can take for myself.'

With this plan in mind I started looking around for more rabbits. Over the span of the next couple hours I went around looking for, and scaring, rabbits. I wasn't trying to be mean but I needed the herbs. The most unfortunate part of everything is that half the herbs didn't even help me. The reason I know this is because the Winter Sprites said so.

After a bit of testing I found out some things. The green ones with purple tips are poisonous. The poison isn't that strong but it does numb the body by a good amount. The one with small dark green leaves is also poisonous. It's a bit more severe since it prevents the blood from clotting or something. Oh, but the one with the red leaves is good. It accelerates the production of blood cells. How did I find this out? Well it's not exactly difficult to tell what's going on inside my own body.

So after about 5 hours I got around 14 different herbs. A total of 53 herbs. Some prevent infections, some accelerate healing, some clear my mind which isn't exactly needed for healing, some even taste delicious! Well, anyway the point is I have all the herbs I need for now. What I need to do now is store them to eat later.

I started walking back to my home. It was a bit after noon so it wasn't as cold as it usually was. There was also great visibility for me. So in the distance I spotted a herb poking out of the ground. I recognized it so I went over to it and started digging it out with my feet. I held all the herbs in some piece of wood I found. My wrist wasn't very fond of the weight.

While I was digging out the herbs I realized the Winter Sprites were going a little crazy. I looked around and didn't see anything, but I heard a snort come from behind me. I turned around and saw a moose. Yes, a moose. Not a female but male moose. And he really wasn't happy. After all, it was around mating season for moose. Which means this one is most likely going to attack me no matter what I do.

That's why when It charged at me with its antlers pointed at me I wasn't all that surprised.

'I can't run or fight properly, because of my arms. So I'll have to do something like…'

Soon the moose was around 5 feet away from me. I put a small wall of ice in front of the moose. This caused it to trip. I then formed a pillar of ice which it's head crashed into. Stunned, it fell onto the ground moving disorderantly. It was about half a foot in front of me so I formed a sharp spike on my foot. I lifted my foot before slamming it into its eye.

Now here's the problem. The skull is a lot tougher than I thought. No doubt I cracked its skull. Cracking the skull doesn't mean the brain is done for. The pain from the stab knocked the moose from its stupor and it roared in pain. It quickly got up and shook its head violently. With my foot attached to its skull, I swung alongside its head. However the ice I made was rather fragile. So when the ice broke I went flying straight into a tree.

Fortunately I didn't hit the tree head first. Unfortunately I hit the tree stomach first. Not only were at least 3 of my ribs broken, but I hit my head as my body formed a crescent. I fell into the snow which cushioned my fall, not that it mattered all that much. I landed on my back, and I looked up at the sky. My vision was blurry, I felt nauseous, and I felt an intense amount of pain all throughout my body.

I rolled over onto my stomach and I threw up. Not a pleasant sight. I felt a bit weak, but I stood up with shaky steps. I looked over to where the moose was before, only to see that it was laying on the ground. I slowly walked over to it. When I got close enough I gave it a small kick. It didn't react. It was dead. With this knowledge I chuckled to myself before collapsing.

'Well at least this time there isn't a lot of blood. Either way I'm not sure how long I have till something comes over. Foxes and other things aren't much of a problem. Bears and wolves are a different story entirely. I really shouldn't use my powers again but…'

I groaned as I stood back up. Despite my horrible condition I was still conscious. Of course every movement of mine brought about a lot of pain. The pain is only temporary though, so I promptly ignored it to the best of my abilities. The problem now was how I was going to eat this moose.

Turns out the plan was rather simple. Cut into the moose with a foot blade. Get down onto my knees and grab its hide with my mouth. Then I use my legs to push myself up until the hide tears away. Yes, it's a lot more difficult than it sounds. Normally a little girl like me wouldn't be able to do something like that. But I'm not the average little girl. So after around half an hour I had a sizable bit of meat revealed.

With that said I collapsed.