Going up the mountain, I found a surprisingly large number of creatures, ranging from birds clad with armor to lizardmen.

The only one we even considered eating was the birds though.

“There’s none that look tasty.”

“Yeah.”

I say as I cook a bird nonetheless.

We climbed to about halfway up the mountain in search of good food, but with these disappointing results, we decided to settle for a late lunch of the birds.

“It really is different what food you can and can’t find depending on where you are.”

“Yeah, I didn’t think it would take this long to find something we’d eat.”

Seriously. We searched that hard, and we only found one creature that looked decent?

“Alright, it should be good now.”

When I was about to slice the meat to see if it was cooked inside…

“Piiii, piiiiiii”

“Hm? Whoa!”

That was close! I was about to step on it, phew.

It’s… a baby bird? It’s yellow and covered in fluffy feathers all around, and it’s a little bigger than the average chick.

“Piiiii”

It jumps while flapping its wings cutely, but… don’t do that right now, you’re right next to a fire.

“What’s with you, are you hungry?”

“Piiiiii!”

“…Ril, do you mind if I share a bit with it?”

“Sure, but… are you planning to make it your familiar as well?”

“That’ll be decided a little bit later. If it wants to stay with me after this I’ll make it my familiar, but I’ll let go if it wants to continue living in the wild.”

“I have a feeling about what’s gonna happen…”

Ril looks a little upset, but it’s not like I’m exchanging you for it, you know?

“Wait, can this little guy even eat meat?”

It looks really happy about it, but is it really ok?

“Why don’t you give some to see?”

As I reach out my hand with some of the meat on it, it starts to peck at it, eating some.

“It really ate it…”

“Well, that’s good. Let’s eat too.”

It started to walk a bit unstably with a protruding belly, so I put it in my pocket so it won’t get lost somewhere.