No sooner had the words left Tako's mouth than all of their attention was drawn to the ground vents and doorway, where a skittering scraping and faint thump can be heard. A slight tearing is also heard from the door flap as a total of 17, now angry, brown, black, and grey horned rabbits have stormed in from each of the openings, a random assortment per hole. The rabbits are sniffing the air looking for something and glaring at the 3 occupants of the tree hollow who are now all gathered next to the fire with their backs to each other.
"What could they want? It's not like we have much and if they lived here, we would have found droppings." Justine says as they grab and brandish the knife the other 2 prepping their perspective claws and nails as they watch the horned rabbits warily. One of the rabbits in question that is larger than the others, sniffs closer to the pan, first whimpering then growling and facing the 3 clones who look nothing alike each other hackles raising. Hiper has a clear view of this and tells the others" I guess they wanted the stew and now their angry because the scent went up in smoke. We're kind of trapped do your best to kill them if they attack. Tako try to scare them off."
Tako obliges happily, quickly spreading its wings and letting out its best roar while also breathing a bit of dragon fire to try to scare the rabbits off. Unfortunately, this action instead of scaring the rabbits away agitates them more. Suddenly with various screams the rabbits attack many of them lunging at the 3 clones others gathering protectively around the pan and various piles of edible plants. Hiper dodges one and manages to grab another quickly digging their nails into its neck and throwing it at the wall. Tako manages to grab one as well this one from midair and breaks its neck with a bite, while another rabbits' horn tears its sleeve and scratches the scales. Justine does the best while wielding the knife, managing to stab and fling aside 3 in quick succession. And just like that 17 goes down to 12.
The clones do not have a chance to acknowledge this as the rabbits just get more enraged and charge with new fervor. Hiper takes a horn to the arm, better than the chest where it had been aimed. This also gave Hiper a chance to grab the rabbit and twist its head and body opposite ways to a satisfying but also chilling snap. meanwhile with a couple new tears in the clothing Tako has managed to grab two more rabbits and bites one head off swallowing it with a gulp and twisting the other one mimicking Hiper then tossing it aside. And Justine has offed another two hearing the third alert in their hive mind since the beginning of the fight. Now the tides have turned the much larger 3 clones have partially cornered the 7 remaining rabbits against a wall between 2 of the vents.
"7 left" Justine gasps out with a smile happy for the brief respite they have been granted. "Don't you dare let a single one escape this hole in my arm hurts like a motherfucker, so they owe me." Hiper growls and Tako chuckles. "I would argue- now!" The sudden exclamation had nothing to do with trying to surprise the rabbits but instead just signaling the other two clones to lunge in before the rabbits can escape. Tako and Hiper each manage to grab two by one hand and Justine manages to stab one, Unfortunately the last two manage to escape through vents but the four in hand and quickly dispatched with a couple of bites and a couple of stabs.
The three clones gather the rabbits into one pile and Tako tears off some of a sleeve and wraps it tightly around Hiper's arm letting the Tiefling hold it in place with their other hand. " I would argue that you already killed the one who owed you, so the debt is fully paid." Tako says with a smirk, finishing the thought from earlier, and grabbing the knife to heat it up using dragon fire. "That may be true but in my opinion this pain requires interest now hurry up with that knife, knowing what's about to happen is making me more anxious." Hiper replies with a grimace on their face. "That's like telling a pot of water to boil faster, just have patience my bloody self." Justine says with a stupid grin. "Ha... ha... ha... telling an injured person to be patient because now they are a patient you must be reaaally proud of yourself for that one." Hiper quips back with a bit more of a grin than a grimace this time. "I know I am." They start laughing and Tako struggles to focus on heating the blade as fast as possible.
Finally, after about 30 seconds there is a noticeable glow, and they stop finally and take a deep breath while they hand the knife back to Justine. Hiper releases the fabric as Tako puts a soft stick in Hiper's mouth. Hiper then bites down on the stick and inhales before Justine presses the hottest side of the blade against the wound and the hollow fills with the smell of searing flesh and a muffled yell for a moment. Once that is over and the wound has been successfully cauterized, Justine wraps it again for the panting Hiper. "Fuck we have burned ourselves willingly before but that was a whole new Experience. Also why did they have to get so mad over not getting to eat someone else's food? It almost seemed like they were intelligent, but I do have to guess that in this world like most others it's the survival of the fittest out here and based on numbers we should not have won that fight." Hiper says exhaustedly.
"Yes, You're right. We shouldn't have won that fight, but we did!" Tako says with a wicked grin their throat, lower jaw and clothes slightly blood smeared from their fighting style of choice. "Now lets cut off these horns and skin the rabbits with savable pelts and swallow our new meal before we attract a new predator. Because if the rabbits are this tough I don't want to fight whatever eats the rabbits." It says as it uses one of its dragon claws to start sawing off a horn and handing the rabbit to Justine to be skinned. "I can tell you the horns tickle going down but we want as many valuable resources as we can for the future. sad that 4 of these pelts are beyond saving but at least we only lost one horn and 2 live prey. Although that may be a good thing considering we have 3 of us and 15 rabbits, 5 a piece sounds nice." Tako keeps rambling as they work away, Hiper is responsible for storing the fur in the storage bag and fleshing as many as possible
Hiper starts the process by using one of the rabbit horns to carve teeth into a stone flake to create a decent fleshing tool. Then turning the pelt without blood on it inside out and storing the others away as they come so that the smell of blood wont linger for longer than it takes to clean up. Justine stacks the skinned rabbits on top of a flat stone nearby. By the time all of the savable rabbits had been skinned Hiper sill was working on the pelt since they knew how to skin not to flesh. This was further evidenced by the fact that somewhere around the sixth rabbit another notification had rang in their mind that they had scanned and ignored for future review that stated they had gained a skinning skill and leveled it up once. So they decided to try to skin the rest and once they were all done Hiper had finished fleshing it and stored it away.
"'Always have been better in the kitchen than other places." Justine says as they hand the last pelt to Hiper and place the skinned rabbit on the pile. Tako long since done with the horns has divvied up the bones, the skull and a couple larger bones for Itself. About 8 medium sized bones for Hiper and a bunch of smaller bones and fragments for Justine until the piles are about equal. "Dessert first then five rabbits a piece." It says with a smile. "Then we can clean up before we finally get a chance to check out all those notifications we got earlier. after that digestion. and sleep."
"Ok agreed" The other two say in unison. And the three of them set about swallowing the bones, Tako taking the biggest of them because they hadn't had time to test the probably nonexistent limits of the other 2 forms. Or at least probably very similar limits. Still finally having the chance to watch Tako swallow the skull with ease was surreal, especially watching the bones follow down the throat. however not as surreal as watching a slightly tall skinny 12 year old human and Tiefling swallow large skinned rabbits over and over. mouths easily stretching unnaturally wide time and time again lips sliding over bumps and legs with ease.
Finally once they have eaten their prey they use dirt to remove the blood from skin and scales the set about scooping all the blood soaked dirt into the pan and putting any wood and plants inside the spatial storage bag along with the pan. Then they undress putting the blood soaked clothes inside the bag as well in order to avoid spreading blood scent anywhere. Then Tako speaks taking charge again despite the three of them thinking the same thing.
" I will fly to the spring with as many dried containers as there are in the bag and fill them up. I will then wash the clothes and pelts in the spring and then come back. We'll wash up over the ashes and check the notifications then go to bed Hiper will set up the bedroll and spare tarp for us and Justine will make more skirts and vine ropes. We will still have to stick with our bras from whoever reincarnated us but that's ok. We can carve more stones later, we also need a mortar and pestle as well. It also looks like the self repairing works slowly so that's something to keep track of. and with that I will be off."
Tako says and lifts the partially torn tarp flap and leaves through the foliage they placed in front of the entrance making a mental note for Hiper to actually plant some bushes while It is gone and washing the pelts and clothes. Tako flies up and away in the direction of the spring staying just below the mess of branches that starts around 80 feet up and only descending once they have reached the spring. Silently hoping that their flaming hair doesn't draw too much attention in the night. All three of them set about their perspective tasks and reunite on the bedroll about 90 minutes later their distended bellies having already shrank by almost half way.
"I don't know about you two but I need to rest badly. we can check the notifications in the morning" Tako says tiredly and the three clones chuckle as the lay down in a pile using whatever as pillows. Each other, the storage bag, the moss stuffed tarp, the actual bedroll pillow. Doesn't matter as long as it feels comfortable enough. "Damnit I miss Lady, best snuggle-bug of a dog ever. I hope Mom and Nathan are taking good care of her and she isn't missing me too much. That dog loved me and I her, A lot. Well, I'm living a new life now, Going to have to make due with pleasant memories. See you in the morning" Tako says and the temporary break in the silence ends as the three clones fade off to sleep.