The wounds weren’t going to take long to repair, as there were no missing limbs or organs.
There was heavy internal damage from the blast, but for cleric healing that was one of the easier forms of damage to heal, right behind simple cuts. Even broken bones were harder to mend than soft tissue damage.
Tessa and Lotus already had everyone on their feet, though a few were still weak and exhausted, as healing used some of your own energy to do the mending.
They had been pushing hard to get away from danger, so they didn’t have a lot to spare, and now with the healing, they were going to need a proper meal and a short nap before they were back in top shape.
That process was already started, and while it was a simple meal with no need for cooking, energy was energy. The part that really mattered was getting as far as possible from here by the time that it got too dark for the Spellblades to efficiently travel.
They would be headed northeast, in order to increase their distance from the incident’s borders, and then they would start heading for the Beastkin Nation border.
That was going to take them most of a week, and they would have to cross from the open grasslands through a large portion of marshland before entering the jungle.
That was going to slow their progress even more than the fact that the Spellblades didn’t have superhuman strength on their side, so their travelling speed was mediocre, even with magical assistance.
Ophelia could cover more ground than they did in a day, just relying on Werebear form.
“Everyone finish eating and then get some rest. You have one hour, and then we’re moving out again.” Corbin warned his team.
Hawk landed next to the camp and brought out chunks of boar to roast. Only Thor didn’t enjoy a good chunk of ham, and with so much in his inventory, Hawk was even willing to share with the Not Dana Mages.
The fact that this one came fresh from the zone and not from his stockpile was mostly irrelevant.
Even with all the extra people to feed, a whole boar was far too much food. But they only had an hour, according to Corbin, so they began picking the prime cuts and preparing to roast them for lunch.
“What do we even do with all this extra? Unlike you, we can’t just store it indefinitely in raw form.” Corbin sighed.
“Either leave it here or bring it to a farmer. Grab as much as we can cook quickly, and I will have Hawk drop the rest off for a group of farmers. The ones outside the incident will still be short on meat.”
Hawk mentally laughed at the idea. Hurling half a boar at someone’s porch sounded like a lot of fun.
The Spellblades made a five-metre-long fire, and then arranged the strips of meat on an extendable pole intended for their tent. Narrow strips draped over the top cooked quickly and were easy to flip. Then they just needed to cool the pole and clean it after they were done.
If they had more time, that was how they would smoke and dry jerky. But nobody wanted to stay too close to a dangerous situation.
Once the meal was done, the mages lay down for a short nap, and Hawk took off with the remainder of the boar, looking for a suitable target to donate it to.
He was flying high in the clouds, as the presence of a flaming blue avian monster with the wingspan of a full-grown Roc or Phoenix would panic the locals.
He wasn’t seeing many good targets at first. However, about ten kilometres north, a young boy was kneeling in the yard with his hands folded in prayer and his tusked Trollish head facing the sky. He couldn’t hear him, but he could read his lips well enough even with the tusks.
[Gods, please forgive my family and end this famine. Grant us the food to make it through the winter and a strong harvest to send my sister to school.] The boy was pleading with the sky.
A sharp turn as Hawk released his claws sent the remains of the boar hurtling towards the farmhouse at well over a hundred kilometres an hour, and into the budding stalks of the corn plants in the field in front of the Trollish child.
The boy froze in shock as the animal flew over his head, then began to cheer and call for his parents to come outside as it crashed to the ground on the other side of the fence.
Hawk was laughing uncontrollably in Karl’s mind as the farmers tried to determine why a gift from the heavens would be a Giant Boar, already gutted with the best cuts removed. It came from the sky, they had all seen that much. But why this boar in particular? Did they do something right to be gifted so much fresh meat? Or did they do something to anger the gods and make them take out the best cuts first?
[Was it as good as you hoped?] Karl asked the happy bird.
[All that and more. You should see the looks on their faces. They’re so confused.] Hawk agreed.
[You’re going to do it again, aren’t you?] [As soon as I can find another boar. Forget throwing monkeys. Hurling food at people is much more fun. I saw in a book that the humans used to use it as a punishment, but the Trolls are so happy.]
Remi giggled. [That’s because you threw the food to them and didn’t hit them with it. The punishment was to hit them in the face with food while they couldn’t run away.] That wasn’t quite how the stockades worked. But they weren’t entirely wrong, either.
[As long as you’re enjoying yourself and you don’t hurt anyone. Just make sure that you don’t drop a living boar in someone’s yard. They might not be prepared for a fight.] Karl warned.
[Got it. Only dead food.]