Lady of Curses

''All set?'' Kayne looked around to see if everyone was ready. ''Let's go.'' Getting some visual confirmation and some nods, Kyane led the party to the exit from the cave.

''Please.'' When they walked close enough to the living cage's edge, Kayne asked June to dispel her spell. June waved her hand and the cage retreated back into the earth. After the cage disappeared the party moved on.

''How's the meat?'' While making their way out of this cave, Sam approached Aella. 

''It could be softer, but it's edible.'' Right now Aella had peace of meat in her right hand as she accompanied the party, and from time to time she took a bite.

''I still don't understand why would you willingly eat it.'' Sam was a little confused about why Aella was eating the monster's meat. She would understand if Aella needed to ration her food, but the dark lady didn't even need to eat. But even if she did the party had enough rations that they could easily share with her, and they taste better.

''Well this meat is full of mana, after all the monster you guys took out was strong, plus it doesn't taste bad after you cook it.'' Aella took another bite before continuing. ''Only a little bit chewy.'' 

''If you say so.'' Sam still remembers the first time Aella decided to cook the giant monster's meat. After Aella and Sam finished their conversation about potions, Aella went and looked at how injured was Hubert. 

But Aella didn't spend much time there and pretty quickly went to a quiet corner and started to experiment with her curses. She spent some time experimenting until she got bored. When Aella got bored she looked around to do something and at one point she decided to see if she could cook a monster's meat.

Her first thought was to go and grab some random chunk of meat from one of the dead screaming savages, but then she decided that she wanted the big monster's meat instead. 

So she went for her meat. When she returned where the party was they were surprised when Aella had a peace of meat in her hands, and she was bloody. They didn't really know what to do so they just observed her. That was until she took a limb that once was a monster's and ripped out a bone from it, and then used that bone as a skewer to cook her meat.

It took her a few tries to get the meat to stay on the makeshift skewer, but after she got it right she just held it over the fire and slowly rotated. 

Kyane didn't know why Aella was doing that and just assumed she wanted something to eat, so he approached her and offered some of his rations to her. But she refused at told him that she just wanted to try the meat, after that the party mostly left Aella to her devices.

Aella couldn't say that meat was good, but it had given her some mana, plus it didn't taste bad. So after the first try, Aella went to get some meat from the monster's dead body from time to time. And the monster's corpse wouldn't rot for some while because of the mana in its body, so she didn't need to worry about that.

Of course, that wasn't the only thing that Aella spent her time doing. The party estimated that they were in that cave for three days so that they could recover. So Aella had to do something else besides cooking meat. That something else was experimenting with her abilities and talking with Sam and sometimes with Alex.

Aella originally wanted to talk with June about potions, but the elf girl was always resting and Aella didn't want to disturb her, only later she got to know that it was because June used a mana potion. 

So she spent more time with Sam talking and learning. And thanks to all that time she spent talking with Sam, they became somewhat of friends.  And from time to time Alex joined their conversations, as he mostly spent the time lying near Sam without moving much because he wanted to get his leg back to full functionality as fast as he could.

***

''Good to be back outside.'' Kayne breathed in the fresh air as he stepped outside the cave. It didn't take long before the party found their way outside the cave, and as there were no monsters in the cave it made the way back so much easier.

''I will have to agree.'' June too was enjoying the fresh smell of nature, after all, it wasn't a pleasant time when she needed to spend all that time with a mountain of corpses all around her. 

Aella on the other hand didn't say anything, she just popped the last bit of meat in her mouth and looked around while she chewed it. But she couldn't see much. All she saw was the little clearing that was around the cave's entrance, the trees around that made this green forest, and of course the sun and the blue sky.

While Aella was looking around she saw in the corner of her eye June walking somewhere. Taking a better look she saw the blond woman walking to a big tree near them. When June got close to the tree and touched it, Aella saw how the tree opened and slowly pushed out a bunch of backpacks from inside it.

''Neat.'' Aella couldn't help but say out loud her thoughts about storing things inside a tree. Aella wasn't the only one who saw June's movement. One by one the party started to walk to where June was to get their stuff.

While everyone was taking their stuff, June was looking through her own things trying to find something, while Grefured just obediently stood by her side.

''Got it.'' June pulled out a black cloak from her backpack. After she got the cloak she went to Aella and gave it to her. ''Here.'' 

''Thanks.'' Aella accepted the cloak, but she didn't put it on yet, after all, she was covered in blood, and she wasn't too keen on dirting the cloak the moment she got it. So she decided to just carry it in her arms until she could clean herself.

''Is there somewhere close that I can wash myself?'' Aella wanted to get this blood off of herself, it wasn't that it made her sick, it was just that the dried blood didn't feel comfortable on her bare body.

''There should be a river near here.'' Sam was the first who answered, the dark-haired beastkin knew that there should be a river near here because they saw one before they went into the cave.

''We should probably visit the river before we depart further.'' June similar to Aella wanted to wash her body. 

''Then let's go, a nice bath would be great.'' Kayne was in agreement and started to slowly lead them where the river is.

It didn't take long before Aella started to hear the river. Hearing the river the party started to walk a little faster with anticipation. With their now faster gait, they arrived at the river's shore soon after.