Circus Party

Bringing in a deer instantly got Kir on the good side of half the caravan.

Given how few villages there were compared to the distance traveled, and the fact that the circus would be saving itself for wintering in the big city, the majority of meals would be made of cheap, well-preserved, and mostly flavorless food.

Most people in the caravan also pulled double-duty foraging, so there were a lot of local ingredients to be had along with the venison.

Brigit contributed salt and fire to the event, with three separate firepits - one in the middle of the circle for the meal, two outside the camp for smoking and preserving what wouldn't be eaten that night. The beast's hide was also being treated, but it would need to get to the city for proper tanning.

Kir was offered five silvers for the hide, but knowing it came from a crystalbranch made him want to keep it instead. The man who agreed to treat it didn't seem to know the difference, and so he let it go without a fuss, thanking Kir for the meat.

With not a lot to do, Kir had wanted to sit back and have some thought experiments over what went wrong with his railgun attempt, but his moms insisted that he hang around while the deer cooked.

Thus, he found himself sitting on a log, watching as people salted and spiced portions of meat, cooked soups at smaller fires, or otherwise made merry. There were even a few children about, and they played games of tag or helped their parents.

The half of the caravan that appreciated the meat seemed intent on making their way to him one by one. More often than not the men would hand him a mug of beer that he politely accepted before passing them off to Darlae, who downed each of them within moments.

The half of the caravan that distrusted him seemed mostly to be people from Darlbridge or other small towns that joined up with the circus on their way.

Kir noticed more than once, over the couple of hours he sat, that Lugh made his way to different groups of villagers. He never heard what they said, but sometimes they would steal glances in his direction, either laughing or scowling, and it made his claws itch.

After he seemed to get to most every villager, Lugh finally wandered away and out of sight.

Still, the villagers Lugh talked to seemed to be subtly watching the people handling and sampling bits of the venison as if expecting it to be poisoned.

Some of them were less subtle.

"Deer, deer, deer. It's going to be deer for bloody days..." One old man complained loudly, staring at the spit where several large chunks were cooking in the central fire.

Darlae, drunk, immediately stood up, "Hey. My boy caught that deer. You got a problem?" she challenged.

The old man turned, "Woulda been nice if he caught some rabbits. Venison gives me the runnin' shits."

"That's not just any venison, old man, that's crystalbranch meat!" She said, pointing with the hand holding her latest mug.

"It's all the same to me-" he countered, right as Kir stood.

"I'll get something for you then," he stood and turned, having just remembered he forgot about his traps.

"Kir, you don't need to..." Darlae started, but he was already slipping between the wagons back toward the forest.

His claws didn't itch, which told him that the old man wasn't actually complaining because of him. His assumption about him, because he was a villager, had been wrong. He wanted to help not simply because the old man wouldn't enjoy the venison, but for himself.

Kir had hoped he was above the prejudice that was applied to him, but clearly, he still had some growing to do.

After making his way back into the woods, it took Kir half an hour to find his traps.

The first few turned up empty but in the last of them was a decently sized wild boar. It looked like an adolescent male, and thankfully not a magic specimen. The beast snuffled and grunted angrily as Kir loomed over it, letting out a squeal that warned him to stay back.

Since it was helpless, Kir didn't want it to suffer, so he placed a barrier over the hole and withdrew the air slowly. Eventually, the boar passed out, and he ended it quickly by severing its spine with water before raising the earth beneath it to bring it up.

Cleaning and dressing the boar took less time than the deer, and while there were plenty of holes to bury the offal, he left it out for the other animals just as he'd done earlier with the deer.

Hopefully, he was far enough from the camp that any predators that stopped by wouldn't cause trouble. From what he'd seen of the wilds outside the village, animals in this world tended to be far larger and more aggressive than those on Earth.

He felt an enormous sense of relief when he pulled out the heart and felt only mild curiosity and more than mild revulsion. It didn't have any magic crystal in it and so he'd tossed it away with the rest of the offal.

He'd just finished refilling the other holes and picking up his kill when he heard a loud rustling nearby.

At first, he assumed it might be another boar, but boars didn't giggle, and they certainly wouldn't sound like a woman even if they could... he hoped.

"Ow! Careful with the wings!" He heard the woman say, and he knew then that it could only be Morn. Her voice was on the line between angry and normal, so he decided to check in on her.

That said, physically trying to trundle through bushes would be a pain and risk getting him caught.

Instead, he closed his eyes and listened, circulating mana through his ears to grant them a bit of extra sensitivity. The boar he placed on a low-hanging branch as he leaned against the tree, tilting his head until he heard speaking again.