Iron angel (Book 1 of IA)

[13] The flaming weasel

44 minutes.

That was all the time I had left.

Roasted chestnuts were apparently one of the flaming weasel's favorite foods. So for the past two hours, I had been laying down a trail of roasted chestnuts happily supplied by Ms. Nuts. By the time I was done, the trail extended for almost a kilometer with most of its path winding the forest. I know the plan sounded risky, and it was. But what I found out online was that flaming weasel are often calm when eating, and only set things ablaze when it felt threatened. The forest, being a place where it was less likely to encounter people, and being almost impossible to drive a car in would reduce its annoyance. With all those facts considered, the risk decreased drastically, but the stakes were also raised to a whole new level.

"K. All good to go."

"Kard." Rin said.

"Yes?"

"I'm hungry."

"How can you be hungry? You are just a hologram!"

"I don't care! I am hungry!" Rin exclaimed, eyeing the trail of roasted chestnuts.

"Just shut up! You're going to scare it away." I snapped retreating into a nearby bush.

"Kard!"

"WHAT!?" I snapped.

"I am seriously hungry! If I don't eat soon..."

"Soon what?"

"I will run out of power, and won't be able to function at all." She said with carefree voice, paused then continued:

"However there is a way to charge without using solar power."

"What is it?"

"Eating of course." She replied innocently, "You see, when you consume nutrients into your body, the arm extracts a portion of those nutrients and converts them into energy the way humans how human digestive system works."

"Like eat anything?"

"Practically anything edible. But plants are the best. They have the most vitamins and are gluten free. Look there!"

She said, pointing to a bunch of ferns.

"With just a handful of dogwood furs, I can go on for days without charging!"

"Really?" I asked, only half convinced.

"Go on, try it!"

Half doubting and persuaded, I reached for the branch of ferns, ripped some ferns off. Paused, then threw them into my mouth and chewed for about one or two seconds, before immediately regretting it and spitting it out.

"I can't believe you actually fell for that Kard!" Rin laughed off to one side, her blue Kaomoji flashing.

o(*≧▽≦)ツ┏━┓

"Curses! I swear once I get cross dimensional powers, I will gun you down in the streets like the..."

"Be quiet Kard." Rin snapped from dying of laughter to deathly calm in a millisecond, which made me panic, even for the briefest moment.

"Who you calling to be quiet? Wait what's going on?"

"Don't move. It's here."

I didn't need to be told twice, I froze. Several meters behind me where the trail ended emanated the sound of tiny footsteps and crackling sounds. I began to back up, and turned around when it finally felt like a safe distance to look.

"Yep. That's our target." I said, as I watch the tiny creature devour one chestnut after another like it was air.
The flaming weasel was no bigger than the average house weasel. It was however bright red with equally bright orange stripes across its body. But its most distinguishable feature was a flame on the tip of its tail.