Chapter 41: Sledding Training
Seeing as it was already dark outside by the time Aoni finished building his little sled, and Glacia was happily snoring away using the said sled as a bed, Aoni gave up the idea of training her and got ready to call it a night.
It had been a long day of busy work, and by his estimate, it was already around 1 or 2 in the morning, so walking over to the sled, the lad scooped up his sleeping summon and went to sleep.
---
Bright and early the next morning, as the sunlight bathed the cave in its glowing warmth, Aoni's eyes cracked open only to be greeted by a pair of emerald eyes inches away from his face, and surprisingly enough, he didn't react outwardly.
'FUCK, that scared me…' the lad mused internally while reaching up and petting Glacia's head several times before gently picking the fluffy ball of white fur up and sitting up.
'I swear, she's going to give me a heart attack one of these days; well…, at least she didn't assault me like she did before…still, it's quite unsettling waking up to the hungry face of a baby yeti.' Shaking his head, the lad and summon quickly unsealed an MRE, ate Breakfast, and soon were sitting beside the sled.
In Aoni's hands was the notebook, and he was back in preschool teacher mode as he drew out several pictures for Glacia.
The first was of the sled, and more importantly, some vines were dangling off the front.
Second was a poor rendition of Glacia walking over toward the vines.
Third, Glacia picked up the vines and put them in her mouth.
Fourth, Glacia goes outside dragging the sled.
Lastly was a picture in which Aoni constantly drew circles, indicating he wanted her to run around dragging it outside.
Each one of these pictures was drawn in a small box, almost like a comic strip, and one by one, the lad went picture by picture, forming a small story while narrating it for his summon.
He did this several times until Glacia eventually got the hint and ran over to grab the vines and…
CRUNCH
Bit through them like a carrot.
'Oh, for fuck sake…' Watching her innocently chewing away on the vines, Aoni facepalmed and realized the error in his ways.
Much like how the vines wouldn't be able to handle being pressed directly against the hook blades, Glacia's sharp teeth no doubt tore through them with ease.
'Now how am I going to solve this one…' Sliding his fingers down his face, Aoni began rummaging around for something that wouldn't hurt Glacia by being in her mouth, yet was strong enough to protect the vines, yet no matter how hard he looked, there wasn't anything suitable.
First off, there was no way he would get Glacia to bite down on wood; not only was Aoni worried about mouth splinters, but even getting her to try would be a task in and of itself.
So, without any other options, he tried thinking outside of the box, and that's when he thought of something quite decent.
"Stop eating the vines, Glacia, and come with me…" Shaking his head, Aoni scooped up his jacket and headed outside to where he had stored all the corpses.
'I need to find a bone thick enough that she won't bite through it in one chomp, yet long enough that both ends can have vines tied to it…the femur of those Fox-Mole things should work.' Making his way outside of the cave, Aoni, with Glacia in tow, made his way over to two basins, one right side up and the other on top of it, like a box, and rummaged through the remains before pulling out a bone which met his description.
"Now, Glacia, listen carefully. DO NOT BITE THROUGH THIS, okay!" spinning around, Aoni quickly cleaned off the bone, using some nearby snow, and opened his mouth wide.
"I Wan you to goo lih dis.." Biting down on the bone, Aoni ignored the faint metallic taste of blood and held it in his mouth before spitting it out and having his summon open her mouth like him.
"Gaaaaooooooo om," the moment the femur bone was in her mouth, Glacia's eyes shot wide open with innocence, and Aoni could tell she wanted nothing more than to bite down with all her might and break it.
"Genntllee, that's a good girl; now you need to be gentle with it, okay?" kneeling down, Aoni petted her head several times, causing her to smile with crescent eyes, enjoying the head pats.
With that issue down, Aoni had Glacia spit out the one-foot-long bone into his hands and walked back into the cave with the white ball of fluff hot on his heels.
Upon arriving at the sled, the lad then sat down and, using his knife, carved out two notches into the bone, one on each end.
"Listen carefully, Glacia, you can't chew through this; if you do, it will be bad, and you won't get dinner later." Looking over his shoulder, Aoni paused his carving and hid a smirk when he saw her expression.
No matter what he said, there was only ever one topic that the little fur missle truly understood: FOOD!
"GASSSPPP OoOOOoo Gao GAO OooOO!"
And he wasn't in the least bit disappointed.
Glacia looked horrified; the prospect of no Dinner was a concept she had never once thought possible, and no matter how little she understood the words coming from her Lord's mouth, she FULLY understood that if she broke the thing Aoni was holding, she would be going to bed tonight with a grumbling and empty belly.
"Good, glad that you get how important this is." Fighting the urge to burst out laughing, Aoni went ahead and began the process of securing his longest vine to each end of the bone, crafting some reigns for the sled and looping them through the holes he had carved in the hull of the sled so that they wouldn't be ripped from his hands the moment Glacia pulled.
Now, all that was left was the final step, rigging up his summon!