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Slowly, I stirred the scrambled egg concoction as it began to thicken. “Done!” I exclaimed after a few minutes. I fished a forkful out and when nobody volunteered, I shoved the fork into my mouth and overexaggerated my enjoyment as I ate it. At least at first, because damn, these eggs were good.
“Thor,” I called him out. With the expression of a lamb being taken to the sacrificial altar, he approached, obediently opening his mouth when I brought the fork up to his lips.
I snickered, even though I appreciated his self-sacrificing gesture. It didn’t take long until I was rewarded with the surprised expression I had hoped for. “This is good.”
I nodded vigorously. “Of course it is.”
Tentatively, Sel-Gor stepped up next, probably because he was the culinary expert and his curiosity must have won out over his reluctance. After he proclaimed, “Good!” with a smile spreading his wide lips, the others lined up to have a taste.
It didn’t take long for my batch to be gone. “Now I’ll show Sel-Gor how to make these every day, and many other delicious recipes, but I need your help first.”
“Holly wants to catch the clucking birds,” Thor filled the others in.
“They’ll fly away, unless we keep them in cages,” Oredeon cautioned.
I shook my head. “Not if we clip their wings.”
We spent the next couple of days making cages from branches and sticks, and I explained the kind of net I wanted. Thankfully, Oredeon knew how to make those.
Last, but not least, we built an enclosure not far from the cave entrance where the chickens could spend their days searching for food, laying eggs, and doing all the things they did in the wild. All but fly.
Just a few days after Thor and I had encountered the fowl, we were ready to capture the flock. To say that I was nervous was an understatement; the men had worked very hard for the past few days on their downtime to make this happen, and I would have hated to disappoint them.
It went off without a hitch, though. Thor had organized warriors to hold the massive net we made. As hoped for, the birds were back where Thor and I had seen them last, and the men were able to sneak up on them, hiding behind bushes. Earlier, Thor and I had spread breadcrumbs in a small circle. The chickens now flocked around, pecking away at the unexpected treat, letting their guard down just as I had hoped.
I held my breath as I watched the men throw the net over them and didn’t inhale until it hit the ground, catching most of theunsuspecting, clucking birds. Only three got away, and I felt bad for them that they would lose their flock now, but I was more thrilled about the ones we had captured. Now we would have fresh eggs every day, plus they would multiply, giving us feathers and meat.
Thor and his men gathered the clucking chickens caught in the net and carried their loudly protesting loot up to the cave, where I showed the men how to clip the birds’ wings without hurting them. Each bird that was clipped was released into the enclosure we had built, where, loudly protesting, they tried unsuccessfully to fly off.
“You did it,” Thor said with pride in his voice as he stepped up next to me, securing an arm around my waist.
I snuggled into his side. “It’s funny, but I feel a bit guilty.”
“They will get used to it.” And with a wicked grin, he added, “And so will we—to their meat.”
I boxed him in the side, but despite my misgivings, my mouth watered at the thought of roasted meat. I wasn’t sure if I would actually be able to eat the chicken, but part of me had hardened over the past few weeks. Going hungry for a time will do that.
Still, I was torn between allowing these birds back into the wild and domesticating them for our own survival. I supposed the decision was out of my hands now. I guessed the men would be more than peeved if I had to advocate to let the flock go now, after all the work we had put in.
At night, we put them into the cages we built, and over time, I figured we could construct a real chicken coop, maybe even inside the large main cavern when the nights would eventually get colder.
I was very proudof Holly. Her idea had been a stroke of genius and her eggs delicious. Even better, we didn’t need to go bird hunting as often and could concentrate more on larger game as well as keeping our cave safe from others.
Over the next few weeks, our nights were filled with passion and our days with work where I caught myself increasingly frequently trying to catch a glimpse of my wonderful mate, whose industrious nature constantly impressed me.
Her next project was what she called a garden, and many of my warriors volunteered to help her to prepare the soil.
Back on Jahrle, I had grown up surrounded by farms, something I had been missing since we got here. I supposed we could have made more of an effort to try and build a farm, but none of us had known the plants surrounding us and we had been busy defending our cave and hunting. Without Holly, we would have never known that the clucking birds were domesticable.
Now though, I wondered… “What other animals could we domesticate?”
She wrinkled her forehead and nose adorably deep in thought. “If you take me more into the wilderness, I could point them out to you.”
So the next morning, I took ten of my best warriors, along with Holly, into the woods. We brought provisions and sleeping bags in case we needed to stay out longer, because Holly said some of the animals might not be in the forest, but on the other side where the land was flatter and open.
“Are you sure you’re up for this?” I asked for the tenth time after we had left the cave.
“Thanks to the furs and shoes, I will be as comfy as comfy can be. Plus, what can possibly happen to me when I’m surrounded by all you burly men?”
