Fight or Flight

Chapter 7

Enola

Dad was right. Ketchup is delicious.

I scowled at the traitorous thought as I chewed on the roasted deer leg. It had taken all afternoon before Simon had finally said it was ready to eat... but as much as I hated to admit it, the wait had actually been worth it. There was still something extremely satisfying about eating a catch raw, with the warm blood still steaming through the meat... but... I could see why humans enjoyed eating meat this way, too.

And slathering ketchup over the still-sizzling meat I had plucked off the roasting stick only added to the taste. His annoying personality and stubborn persistence aside, this nuisance of a human had one thing going for him. He could make one tasty meal.

Even if it took him all day to do it.

The taste of the meat lingered on my tongue even after I swallowed the mouthful – something that happened far too quickly – and I happily tore another leg from the deer. Simon had thrown much of the animal away – the fur, the skin, some of the organs – but I had to admit that the texture was improved by that, too. This was a strange, almost wasteful way of eating, and one that took far too long to be practical... but as a treat on a special occasion, it could be nice.

Which, a small voice in the back of my head whispered, means you owe him.

I chewed on the second leg as I mulled over that thought. Simon had hauled that ketchup in from who knew where, even if the nervous horse watching us from the base of the hill had helped the journey go faster. The human had also mentioned that it was a special recipe meant for travel, which meant it had likely been even harder for him to get ahold of. And on top of that, he had sprinkled ground-up plants over the meat while it was cooking – something I still did not understand the reasoning for, but which my tongue was convinced had helped in some manner. I had expected the meat to be polluted with the taste of grass and weeds, but instead there was a spicy, almost sweet taste to the meat now.

So even though my mage senses had been dulled to the point that I couldn't feel it or determine the cost, I still knew I was building up a magedebt by eating the unfairly delicious meal. The fact that I had been the one to catch the deer in the first place only made it all the more annoying that I would owe Simon a magedebt over it. Even if it was only a day or three's worth of my magic.

Though for all I knew Simon had tricked me by dumping some rare, exotic weed on the meat, and I would find out later it had cost him a year's worth of pay, or some other such ridiculous trickery of humans. There would be no telling how long my magic would drain away paying that kind of debt, until after I had already paid it. And the last thing I wanted was to go even longer without magic. Even if it was only a day or three's worth.

It was smarter to just give him what he wanted.

I crunched down on the bones in the leg and swallowed, then sprawled lazily out beside the campfire. The gray horse made a nervous sound and backed further away from the hill, tugging uselessly at the lead tied to a stake in the ground, but I ignored the beast. 'Smokey' was Simon's problem, not mine. I took a moment to calm myself, and inhaled more of the delicious scent of the meat still roasting on the fire. Blasted humans. Bothering me and making me owe them. By feeding me one of the best meals I have ever had. Stupid jerks.

"Very well." I exhaled and looked over at Simon, who was sitting on a small rock between me and the horse while he chewed on a strip of deer meat. "What would you like to know about me?"

If Simon was truly here to learn about me as he claimed – which I still doubted – then the magedebt would consider that a fair trade for the meal. And if he was after something else, then I would squish him and just suffer through another day or two without magic.