With shaking hands I fought the sleepiness that threatened to overcome my being. The sticks that I had gathered from around the forest were all bundled up to the right.

Slowly I started to build a little tower, the sticks slowly forming into something that would hold a fire.

Once that was done I flexed my aether and drew out all the cold from the sticks, changing them from wet to sparking. I frowned when I did that, usually when I was assigned to make a fire it would take longer to spark the wood. It was like my power had gone up a level. I knew it wasn't a problem with skill because I had enough of that. My control over aether was second to no one.

Well not no one but everyone in the alliance had lesser control over their aether.

I shook those thoughts out of my head and blew on the sparks. The sparks quickly ignited into a blazing inferno that I stoked with more wood that I had gathered.

Soon enough it was stable and I could just feed it wood while Naomi rested on my shoulder the both of us waiting for Aoif to return with food.

..

"Wake up" A loud voice echoed in my ear.

Opening my eyes I see in front of me Aoif holding what looks like a dead deer. The wound on the deer looked fresh, like it had just been killed.

I looked behind her and I could see where the deer had been dragged, the grass being flattened.

The fire in front of me crackled as I felt my stomach grumble in hunger.

Watching Aoif I see her bring her dagger from its place on her hip and cut the head of the deer off.

For a moment everything was silent as Aoif let the deer bleed out all the blood in its body.

Once that was done Aoif dragged her knife across the skin of the deer then ripped it open like a bandaid. The skin was haphazardly thrown to the side as the red meat was revealed beneath.

Within a couple slashes the revealed meat was cut into neat slabs of deer that could be cooked nicely.historical

Seeing the food being cooked didn't help my hunger at all, I was counting down every second that it was cooking waiting for when I could eat it.

I don't know when but at some point Naomi had woken up, her hunger was even worse than mine, her body unable to move from how much pain the hunger was causing her.

A slab of meat was finally placed before me but I opted to give it to Naomi who needed it much more than I did.

Once I had given the food to Naomi she devoured it like a woman possessed the food gone in not even a couple seconds. A blush appeared on her face from how unsightly Naomi looked while she was eating the food, however that was soon gone after she was distracted by more food coming into her view.

I giggled a little at the expression Naomi was making, her eyes were glowing with hunger and her mouth hung open, strands of drool slipping down, thankfully onto the ground and not me.

The food that was in front of us was meant to be mine but I opted to just give it to Naomi, I could endure a little hunger but Naomi looked almost like a ghost with how much energy that buff had taken from her.

..

I sat with a content look on my face, I had just eaten at least three servings of some form of meat. I couldn't tell what the meat was by taste but by that point I was so hungry that it didn't matter. Gabriel could feed me bugs and I would be content to devour them raw.

Yawn~

My mouth opened involuntarily and a sleepy yawn came from my mouth signifying the tiredness that came from eating so much. I didn't regret it though, I was so hungry I would have eaten anything to get rid of it.

Yawn~

Another yawn came through my mouth and this time I had decided that I was going to sleep but before that a cheeky smile came to my tired lips as I got an idea.

While Gabriel was busy eating her food her tail wagged behind her at the food going into her mouth. That was where my idea came into play.

I pounced with considerable speed, pinning the tail down and snuggling myself into it. The soft fur of her tail both warmed and comforted me.

What did surprise me though was that Gabriel did not wag her tail harder to get me off but actually curled her tail up wrapping my body in the soft, fluffy, warm tail.

I couldn't resist petting it and a yelp came from my mouth as I realized that I heard something come from Gabriel's mouth.

Purr~

A purr, Gabriel was purring. This was the happiest day of my life, well except for the whole brush with death but other than that, just the sight and sound of Gabriel purring was enough to make me go through hardships twice as much as this to hear her purr again.

However I didn't get to revel in Gabriel's purring for too long as the sleepiness that filled me was soon back and took from me my consciousness.

..

I looked down on my soon to be subordinates and smiled. The sight of them cuddling was cute. Gabriel had wrapped Naomi in her tail and the ethereal wings of Naomi were covering the both of them giving them warmth.

Soon enough I had gotten sleepy and decided to rest. I had no one to sleep with tonight and Darwin was not with me to hug me to sleep so I had to make my own bed. Using the hide that I had just skinned I made a makeshift blanket to wrap myself in for the night.