She put the thought of Golems out of her head after a few minutes, focusing once again on casting her Venom spell. The results were immediate, and there was no time in between the thought of casting it to when it actually occurred. She felt the flow of venom in her mouth and was very pleased that it had happened so easily. However, once again, she had to actually catch a fish to make all of this worthwhile, otherwise she’d be right back where she started. The tip of her tail twitched as she watched the water, waiting for another silver-scaled fish to swim towards her position.

Fira made a sound of annoyance in her throat when she came up empty-handed again. Maybe she should just go back to hunting rabbit instead? She knew she could just give up on this whole thing, as she’d practiced all of her skills, and she wasn’t really very hungry. But at this point, it was a matter of pride. She needed to use this spell on something! Actually, come to think of it, it would be easier to use the spell while hunting land animals. That way the water didn’t wash all the venom away. Okay… hunting rabbit, then. She turned away from the river to begin her search.

She concentrated on her venom flow again, and it worked easily. Okay, good, at least something was working right. She began to slowly make her way through Polaris, using her natural senses to track down some prey. She didn’t have to wait too long, maybe a few minutes. The venom had stopped producing, but it was still there in her mouth, and would work if she could only find something to bite. Hopefully this would go better than fishing had because if she failed now she’d have to give herself a serious Magic rest. She wasn’t used to casting so much and it was starting to tire her out…

The rabbit that flew directly towards her caught her off guard, but, luckily, she managed to come to her senses just as it attempted to dart between her legs. She snatched it up in her jaws mercilessly, letting the venom flow into into the wound. The rabbit’s body became stiff as the paralyses took hold of it, and Fira took the opportunity to shake it hard by the neck and kill it. She then dropped it between her paws and began to eat. Finally, she had succeeded, and she felt good about that. She had successfully cast all of her spells, and used her venom spell on prey. She supposed out of all of her activities today, she’d have to work on fishing the most. She wasn’t quite okay with the amount of Fail that had happened there, but she would work on it!

With a contented sigh, she continued to eat her freshly killed rabbit.

After finishing up her rabbit, Fira sprawled out in the grass and took a nap. She really only dozed, half-awake the whole time. She was just asleep enough to experience hypnogogia — those kind of “hallucinations” one experiences before falling completely asleep. Some small part of her brain was vaguely aware that she was dreaming. She experienced the feeling of floating in the air and watched a giant herd of rabbits ran past her. Together, they sounded like a giant stampede of deer, and eventually, the sound became so loud that it woke her back up completely. Sheepishly, she looked around to find that there was no herd of rabbits, and that the sound she had heard was actually the rushing water of the Crystal River nearby.

Fira didn’t know how much time had passed, but she remembered from some time ago that she had wanted to give Destiny a present of some kind. She decided to lay there and think about what sort of thing the platypus might like. It couldn’t be anything like a shiny rock or something else pretty to look at because… well… Destiny was blind. It had to be something useful. She remembered that she had decided that replacing the bedding in the den had been her gift, but she decided that she did actually want to give Destiny something physical, too. Like… something she could touch, maybe? Since she couldn’t see? Something soft… like maybe a feather, or… Ugh! Fira was no good at this kind of thing!

… What if she just filled Destiny’s sleeping area with a bunch of feathers? But that would take forever. She’d have to go hunt birds, which was very difficult since she couldn’t fly herself. Maybe she could look around for some bird’s nests and collect the feathers that fell from them. But even doing it that way could take the rest of her life. Okay, so feathers weren’t really an option. What about… Oh! Flowers! Like, the nice-smelling kind. Those would work, and Fira could collect those fairly quickly. She might have to go farther than Polaris to get all sorts, though. Like Eridanus, maybe. But she refused to leave Polaris right now. She needed to stay here until the babes were born and old enough to care for themselves. Well, she could start in Polaris. She was sure there were some nicely scented flowers around here somewhere. Maybe some leaves, too, like mint. Mint smelled good.

The longer Fira thought about this, the more excited she became. Maybe she’d even start a garden beside the den. The leopard just loved projects, that was all. She loved that feeling of accomplishment that came with success and getting her paws dirty for a good cause. She grinned as she thought about Destiny’s reaction to a great-smelling bed. Yeah, this would awesome!

The problem, though, would be finding a way to carry that many flowers. Sure, she could do it all by mouth, but if she went all the way to Eridanus, she’d need something to carry the flowers in. Again, she thought of Macawi and the coyote’s strange satchel. Macawi had told her it had come from Orion. Fira didn’t remember if she’d ever been there, but Macawi had given her direction, and apparently, it wasn’t far from Polaris, just one tunnel away… Maybe she could leave her home for just a day or two to find a bag to carry the flowers in. It didn’t need to be as big as Macawi’s to work. It just needed to carry more than her mouth could.

Well, she should still start here, probably. She needed to tell Destiny she’d be leaving for a bit, anyways. And maybe she would hold off on that until after the babes were born, after all. She didn’t want to miss that for the world. She needed to be there to describe what the children looked like to Destiny. She needed to be there to know what it felt like to be a mother watching her children come into the world. But that wouldn’t happen for a few days, yet. In the meantime, she really wanted to start gathering flowers and leaves here in Polaris.

Fira got to her paws and began sniffing around. One bushel should be good in the beginning. Then she’d bring it to the den and find Destiny to have her test out the smell. With a smile, she went on her way…

…

Some time later, she returned to the den, carrying as many plants as she could stuff into her maw. The taste of all of them together was making her eyes water, but she’d taste-tested them first to check for poison, and they were all fine. She happily dropped the bundle into Destiny’s sleeping area and went to the river for a drink. That was the other reason she needed a satchel to carry all of these. She really didn’t want every plant covered in saliva the whole time. It didn’t make them very appealing. Now, to go find Destiny and ask for her opinion. She hoped the platypus would be pleased…

[Exit Fira]