Phantasia: The Princess Knight

Chapter 3: Troubles Brewing

After collecting a bunch of long grass and large leaves Alicia went to work creating a small basket. She used the tip of her stick to poke holes through the leaves at intervals so that she could then weave the grass through it to create and strengthen the basket. When she was done she had created a basket that was sixty centimeters in diameter. She then looked around for some vines to use as a long rope. After a bit of searching in the forest, she found a long thin vine that was perfect for the job. She stripped the leaves down and tied one end to a small stick.

This entire creation process took about an hour to do. Alicia looked at her creation and smiled. She hoped that this would bring her a good meal for tonight. "Now to find a place to set it up."

As Alicia was searching around trying to find a decent place to set up her trap she spotted a white rabbit with a horn protruding out of its head. It was eating a green leaf off a bush. Seeing the rabbit in front of her, her eyes started to play tricks on her. The rabbit suddenly became furless and its pink bare skin slowly turned a dark brown color. Saliva dripped from the corner of Alicia's lips. She quickly shook her head and looked at the plant that the rabbit was chewing on. Seeing that it was eating the leaves pretty heartedly Alicia picked up a rock and threw it at the bush next to the rabbit. The rock hit the bush causing the rabbit to become scared and take off.

Taking this chance Alicia ran forward and grabbed the entire bush and pulled it out of the ground with all the strength she could muster. It took a few minutes to accomplish but when she was done she set up her trap and then placed part of the leaf into the back of the trap. She unraveled the vine that was attached to the stick holding the basket up very carefully before hiding in a nearby bush and waiting.

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Her eyes never left the trap. If she was distracted by anything right now and the rabbit took the bait she would miss her chance at catching her dinner. A few hours passed and the sun had already passed the highest point in the sky. This entire time Alicia had not moved a muscle. Finally, her patience seemed to have paid off. Another rabbit with a horn on its head showed up. Alicia was not sure if this was the same rabbit or not. She watched carefully trying to time her actions just right. She clenched the long sharpened stick in her hand and the vine that she had in her other hand. Right as the rabbit went to the back of the trap to sniff the leaf, Alicia sprang into action and pulled the vine causing the basket to collapse onto the rabbit. She dashed out of the bush she was hiding in and stabbed right through the basket!

"Squeeeeek!"

A painful cry rang out from inside the basket. Alicia ignored the painful cries as she continued to stab the basket over and over again until the cries stopped. She looked at the blood dripping from her sharpened stick and gave a faint smile. She had actually caught a rabbit! She quickly took the basket off her prey to find that her prey was fully dead. Smiling foolishly Alicia picked up the mangled rabbit that was riddled with holes from her excessive stabbing. She placed it inside her basket and then started to look for dry wood.

Alicia spent a good four hours in the woods to catch this one rabbit and collect a batch of dry firewood with tinder. She also found some solid rocks that she could use to create a spark. With her goods sitting in her basket and some wood slung over her back she took her sharpened wooden stick in one hand and walked out of the forest.

After returning home Alicia skinned and cleaned the rabbit. She hung the rabbit skin to dry and saved the horn to use as a weapon. The horn from the rabbit was long and pointy. It was also very solid so it would not break very easily. Doing all these things was easy for her since she was taught how to do so by her father when she was still Akari.

It took a bit of trial and error but she soon had a fire going and she stuffed a stick into the cleaned rabbit and slowly roasted it over the fire. About fifteen minutes with the continuous spinning of the rabbit on the end of her stick, the smell of roasted rabbit entered her nose causing her stomach to rumble.

The first bite that Alicia took was like fireworks going off in her mouth. The taste was gamey but at the same time, it was heaven. This was the first time Alicia felt that eating something tasted so good. The juices of the meat filled her mouth and as she swallowed that first bite she was a little regretful that she did not savor the taste a bit more.

"I have to eat slow If I eat too fast I will end up getting sick. That would cause all my hard work to go to waste." Alicia reminded herself. She would hate herself if she ate too fast only to get a stomach ache and end up puking up the meat she worked so hard on.

Alicia took almost two hours to finish eating the rabbit meat. Her fire had long died out. She leaned against the wall of her tattered hut and patted her now full belly. "I will need to get some rest tonight then attempt to fix up this old hut a little more."

Little did Alicia know that trouble would come knocking on her doorstep the next day.

The next morning Alicia was woken up by the sounds of two men yelling at each other right outside her hut. "I am telling you the little bitch won't say anything. She probably died out in the woods where we left her!"

"If she died, then why is there a fresh fire pit sitting there! Brother the little bitch is still alive. If she were to tell the Village Chief that we robbed her of her food the village chief will kick us out of the village!" A tall skinny man said.

"Brother Berel if the Village Chief cared about the little bitch he would not have stuck left her in his shack! He is just waiting for her to reach ten years old so he can sell her off!" A Short skinny man said.

"Wait, Brother Emory, if we sell her off, wouldn't that mean we can get some copper coins to use? We can buy some good food with that!" Brother Berel wiped a bit of saliva from his mouth.

"Oh! Why did I not think of that! That damn Village Chief was going to keep the good stuff from us. Okay, go grab a big stick we will knock her out again and go find a brothel to sell her to in town!"