>>6067234While Seafood lounges in the tree shade fanning himself with a palm, gently killing the tree and the grass he's lying on, you set off into the woods for food.
When goblins hunt it's usually in groups of four or more. You get better odds coming at something from four directions, even with just thrown rocks and wood spears. You might even get a Humie, if you don't mind alerting the locals. At the worst one of you gets killed, say, fighting a babwyn (an eusocial and aggressive great ape; a chimpanboon); the rest might just snag his body, or whatever of it is left, before fleeing, so that they can laugh at him while eating his remains; so that they have the energy and morale to plan and try again. Why NOT eat the fallen? He's not feeling it, but YOU are: YOU are feeling LUCKY it wasn't you. You are feeling STRONG because you did not DIE; you are stronger than HIM, and you tomorrow will be STRONGER STILL than you TODAY.
But alone. Oh alone. There's only once chance to win, one head to lose. Alone, if you fail, it is you who are weak, and if you win, no one else will see. Alone is worst. But you are STRONG, Toady, even when alone. You are BEST because you are YOU.
Seafood wants wine and blood; there's plenty of both in the wilds if you're smart about things, patient, and not picky. You'd really rather hunt if you could, but there's no certainty in that, especially alone. If you failed, not only would you have nothing, you might be bitten, or poisoned, or gored in your attempt, you will have also failed your Seafood. No telling what he might do to you THEN, if just asking for a little plup-plup from his borrowed body resulted in THIS:
>¶¶¶¶A A A A A A A A A A A a a aa aaa...>...aaa aa a a A A A A A A A A A A A¶¶¶¶Her presence is SO weird, hanging on your back just screaming at you big weird-like, and she's starting to give you a kind of a headache in the eyeholes, but at least it doesn't seem to get any worse, and she doesn't bother you while you're doing your real business: sniffing and rooting for grub.
Seafood said GuiLi will keep moaning through your noggs like this, and will keep getting louder over the course of days unless you do the Conjugal Performance Ceremony, Six Times for every Thirty Six Times. You already memorized the instructions for the Ceremony because it's IMPORTANT, and as you go rooting the ground, upturning rocks and rapping for hollow trees, with half a mind you remember the additional materials you're supposed to get. Whenever you find something that might fit the bill, you put it either in your armpit or your bag with the grubs and tree sweets.
Well. What you have is not actually a bag: it's a layered pad of leaves in the middle of a green three-crooked branch, secured at the top with a bit of climbing vine. Good enough for grubs. Just stick it upright somewhere if you need to climb or swim or stalk.
Youre getting bugs steadily, steadily, but what youre looking for is small spoor and beer-plants.
