I stretch my body a bit as I pick up the fur I laid on. While looking at it I could tell cleaning it would be difficult. Not only is there skin and blood, but there's also some chunks on them. A little scrubbing won't be enough.
'Do I really want to spend the next 6 hours cleaning two pieces of rabbit fur? The answer is no. No I don't. What I need to do first is secure food for the day. After that I need to fix up my home a little. There's also that bush over there.'
I look at the bush huddled in the corner. Its white bark and blue leaves gave it quite the appearance. Other than looking unique it's no different than any other bush. I have a faint feeling that it's something special though. With that in mind I have to investigate it later.
'First things first, food. As well as some snow eating. Eating snow on the ground doesn't seem very sanitary though. I'll eat the snow on the trees then.'
Eat the snow on the trees I did. Climbing isn't exactly my forte, but I climb the tree rather quickly. Climbing all over its branches and munching on snow. Which isn't good for me since frostbite is a very real thing.
After getting my fill I jump down into the snow. I look around.
'Since the sun rises from the East and Sets in the West, I should go East. The sun is currently rising so I'll get more of the sunlight. It'll be easier to spot things that way. The sun is rising to my left currently so.'
I start heading east. After around half an hour I spot a rabbit. It was a bit hard to see because of how far it is. In fact, it's a bit of a miracle I can see it at all in this forest. The only problem now was how I'm going to catch it. I can't use my abilities from this far. Running at it would make it run. I'm very bad at sneaking around.
'Can I somehow use my magic from this distance? No, the further the Winter Sprites are from me the harder they are to control. I could throw something but I have no experience with throwing weapons.'
My time to think soon ended as the rabbit prepared to leave. Seeing that I couldn't wait any longer I dash out from behind a tree towards the rabbit. The rabbit looks at me and prepares to run away. I form 2 small, but sharp, icicles in the air which shoot at the rabbit. A sharp pain hits my mind making me trip and fall. I hear a high pitched squeal.
I look up and see the rabbit impaled by one of the icicles I shot out. The other one disappeared into the snow. With my vision a bit blurry I slowly stand. I grunt at the discomfort I feel from my legs.
'I didn't even know I could do that. Seemed to take a lot more from me mentally. Why didn't I think of trying to blast things through the air yesterday? Winter Sprites float all the time so things created from them should be able to as well. '
I shake my head as I get to the rabbit. I pick it up and I make sure it's dead. I plan on eating out in the forest this time around, but I had no plans of getting blood all over myself. The plan is simple. Cover my arms with ice, skin the rabbit, cut the rabbit into pieces, and then eat the rabbit. Forming clawed gauntlets isn't difficult.
The difficulty comes from making them more durable than glass. Forming the gauntlets will make my head hurt. Trying to condense more Lower Winter Sprites into them will amplify that. Making it twice as tough will drain me 3 times as much.
Knowing this, I was quite careful when dealing with the rabbit. After about 24 minutes I was done. My hands and arms are covered in blood. I dissipate my gauntlets into Lower Winter Sprites causing all the blood to fall onto the snow. The snow was already soaked in blood before so nothing really changed.
"That took longer than I hoped. I do have to say I'm rather good at this. Not that the process is enjoyable. Far from it actually. Especially when I think about how it was alive not too long ago. The best way not to get sad by it is to convince myself there's nothing to be sad about."
After giving myself a rather sad talk I started eating. No matter how bad I feel about killing something, I have to eat. And I'm certainly not going to go around scouring the ground for plants to eat. Not only a major waste of time, but also very inconvenient.
After finishing I pick up the fur, which is frozen stiff, and I go back home. I place the fur alongside the other two before looking around.
'First I need to flatten everything evenly. After that I'm going to build something like a door of dirt. While it hasn't happened, it's possible something like a fox or small wolf comes in while I'm asleep. If that happens and it decides it wants to kill me I would be defenseless.
Flattening everything with my hands would be stupid. So, I got a big stick to help me. After getting things somewhat even I went around with stones to make sure everything was right. To make a door I gathered sticks. Some of the sticks were a bit weird since I could bend them a lot. It was with these bendy sticks I tied to other sticks together. I ended up with a half circle half oval shape.
I then proceeded to put some stones in between the sticks. Why? Because it might make my door stronger. After that I covered everything with dirt, before compacting it as much as I could. By the time I finished I was breathing heavily and covered in sweat. That says something since it's just a bit above freezing. I put the door in place and admired it. It blended in with the dirt walls pretty well.
"Now, let's see what this special looking bush is all about."