Chapter 2326 Rabbit Food

--- Kat ---

The group was resting on a spot that looked like a mountain peak, though was probably just an outcropping of the original. They were nowhere near high enough for the actual peak... unless it fell oddly far before freezing in time anyway.

The portal had dropped them off here and was hovering over in the distance while the rest of the platform extended downwards though the honeycomb of little caverns did not bode well. Some were large enough to walk through, and while Kat couldn’t see any other portals, it felt like there was probably one inside one of those tunnels.

Still, that ’fun’ could be saved for later. Right now, Appoline was brewing up some potions while Kat was organising food for everyone. It was just opening up packaging for the most part so that it was all available to eat... and then Kat started to hand over bites to Appoline as she brewed. How did that happen. "Wait how did you talk me into this?" asked Kat.

"I didn’t even try. You said the food was ready, and then I replied with ’Alright just let me finish this potion I’ll be about fifteen minutes’ and now you’re handing me bites of... I want to say lasagna? I’m not paying that much attention to what I’m eating frankly. Don’t care enough to spare the brain power," answered Appoline.

"Wow am I really that bad?" Kat queried... as she handed over another forkful of food for Appoline to chomp down on. "Though... is it safe to eat whatever I give you?"

"Ha, like you could sneak poison past my senses. Even the stuff that’s tasteless and odorless has some tells to it that I’m pretty sure I can look out for. Well, that and the fact I trust you not to accidentally poison me," offered Appoline.

"Accidentally?" mused Kat.

"I’m sure I’ll ask you to intentionally give me poison at some point so it would be unfair to blame you for that yes?" responded Appoline. Kat didn’t really know how to respond to that so she just shoved another bit of food towards Appoline.

Lily was internally giggling off to the side. Mostly because it was hard to laugh with cat vocal cords. [Hahaha. Should I be offended my girlfriend is hand feeding someone else?]

*Clearly not because you’re finding this so amusing.*

[Don’t pretend to be annoyed. You could just stop doing it if you felt uncomfortable.]

*Urgh, I don’t hate the fact I’m doing it. We need to be ready to move whenever and I don’t want to waste any time. With Appoline taking the most of it, it just makes sense that she eats while brewing. The problem is, I didn’t ask, nor did she. I just signed myself up for this shit. Why did I do that?*

[I mean... how many times did you feed fussy kids back at the orphanage?]

*A lot. It was less in that last year when I was trying to pass the torch a bit... but yeah, the answer is a lot.*

[That probably answers your question then. It’s been too long since you had the chance to do something like this for someone.]

*What? Doesn’t spoiling you count?*

[If I had to guess? No actually. It likely satisfies a completely different part of your brain, at least, that’s what I’d guess.]

Hmmm. Kat didn’t like that Lily was probably correct on that front so she turned her attention to their surroundings. She couldn’t see anything but she could hear the monsters below them. None seemed to be moving upwards but it did confirm that they were around. Not ideal, but hopefully not too much of a problem.

It was also interesting how they’d essentially set up a soft ambush for Souris if she came through the portal, mostly due to the fact the best place to set up was right next to it. Though... it was odd not to have seen her so far. Even if she was waiting for a bit, surely she wouldn’t want to wait too long. Though... hmm... *Hey Lily, what are the chances Souris thought we sent Wiggles to Thyme already?*

[Surely she could feel him?]

*See... maybe, but I don’t think Wiggles is Souris’ familiar though? He belongs to one of the twins. Despite hanging around with Souris, they don’t have any sort of magical connection... so what way is there for her to know?*

[Huh... a good, if exceptionally awkward point. What do you think that means? Are we just going to be stuck with him?]

*My guess is that she’ll make a complaint to Thyme, or just send him to medical after the six hours are up.*

[Should we be worried about the complaint?]

*No I just think the complaint itself will be a second path to medical. Not that Wiggles needs it... though... hmm... should we give him some food? And if yes, what food can he eat?*

[I mean, we could just ask?]

Kat saw reason that wouldn’t work so gave Lily the go ahead. This caused Lily to roll her eyes, but she did transform and ask, "Hey Wiggles, are you hungry?" The rabbit nodded. "Alright... what do we feed you? Wait no you can’t answer that. Um... look to my left if you can eat anything, and look to my right if you’re diet is more restrictive." Wiggles looked right... but only slightly? Then he sort of bobbed his head a bit, as if he was looking further right, and then snapping back to mostly in the middle.

"Um... you SHOULD eat more restrictive things but you CAN eat a lot of you want or have to?" Lily voiced. Wiggles gave a nod in confirmation. "Alright um..." Lily glanced over at Kat. "What are we recommending for him then? Like, what do we have? I was sleeping when you cooked most of the stuff."

"Well, there’s salads of course. Probably got stuff in it that a normal rabbit can’t eat but I imagine that’s the safest," Kat mused. Wiggles shrugged. "Alright so we also have some sandwiches, they’ve got at least some meat on them, but are mostly other stuff. Wiggles shrugged again. "There’s some soups? Some of which have meat?" Once again Wiggles shrugged.

"Are you shrugging because you could eat those things but don’t really want to, or because you can eat them if you have to but it wouldn’t be that useful?" asked Lily. Wiggles... shrugged again. "Mixture of both?" Wiggles nodded.

Lily sighed. "Just bring out half a dozen things and we can let him pick,"

"Yeah probably should’ve done that to start with," admitted Kat as she handed over one more bite of food to Appoline before pulling out a bunch of food for Wiggles to look over. Everything from ingredients to fully cooked meals. Kat wasn’t feeling too precious about it, even the meals that took more effort. It’s not like any of them cared. Lily’s favourite meal was raw, or mostly raw, fish and Kat had always been happy to eat whatever.

Eventually the little rabbit did end up picking one of the salads, though it had some chicken adjacent meat in it. The carcass hadn’t looked like a chicken but cooked and placed in a salad like that? Kat knew it both looked and tasted like chicken. So it was a chicken salad. It was handed over to Wiggles and then he sort of just... glared at them.

"What you also want to get hand fed?" asked Lily. Wiggles did his best to wiggle his arms. "Why does that matter? You don’t have hands?" Wiggles gave a smug look. "Are you telling me you can use cutlery without hands?" Wiggles nodded. "Ok... I... alright then I guess?"

[Are we letting his arms free so he can eat?]

*Um...* "Appoline how much of that stuff do we have for softening rocks?" Kat asked.

"Enough," confirmed Appoline. "Using it on such a small area takes barely a drop. We’re fine. Might become an issue if we need it for something else or we go like... a week or so of replacing it to feed him but yeah, should be fine."

Kat nodded as Appoline passed a potion bottle over. "Alright then, Wiggles, we’ll free you for the meal... but if you try to run it’s going to be a very unfun time." Wiggles of course, nodded, there was no way he’d do anything else. Kat snapped the rocks around him in half and then placed him down on the picnic blanket next to the chicken salad, and handed over some cutlery.

She was then surprised when he managed to use it. She had no idea how that worked considering Wiggles didn’t seem to have telekinesis... so how the heck could he hold that fork in his paws? It was just... sitting there? *Can you do that Lily?*

[Not without just using my shadows. There has to be a trick... but I’ve got no idea what it is. Honestly? It’s impressive.]