“He is tough, but he'd lost a lot of blood...” Lephas shook himself. “I'll worry about Karn later. For now, just not starving or freezing to death would be an achievement.”
The demon pulled a long thin wire from his pack andflexed it back and forth a few times. Lori watched on curiously.
“Is there anything I can do to help?” she asked.
“Do you know much about tracking rabbits?” He raised his brow curiously and smiled.
“Less than nothing I'm afraid.”
“Figured as much.” Lephas shook his head. “So, first I need to tie this up...”
He deftly bent the wire into a small loop and wrapped it around itself securely. Then he turned his attention to the other end and fed the wire through the loop he had made.
Lori pressed her lips together as the wire formed a sinister-looking noose shape. Lephas placed his fist in the looped section and pulled it to the correct size.
“Any bigger than that and you'll only catch the rabbit's middle or back end. We need to trap it by its neck,” he instructed, holding up the wire to show her.
The demon reached into his bag and pulled several more pieces of wire out. He quickly and professionally bent them all into the same noose shapes.
“We'll need to set a few. Rabbits are difficult to out-smart.”
“Poor bunny...” Lori whined.
“There's no 'poor bunny' about it. Do you want tostarve?” Lephas retorted sternly.
The princess sighed. “No... It's just so sad. They're so cute.”
“They carry diseases and destroy farmland,” Lephas replied, getting carefully to his feet. “It's not sad, it's life. Now come on.”
“Where are we going?” Lori asked, hopping to her feet as well.
“I need to find some rabbit tracks and find a place to put these snares down. After that, it's just a waiting game.” The demon glanced up at the sky as he shrugged his bag back on. “It's probably about midday, maybe just after. We should keep walking for the time being until we find somewhere to camp and then set the snares nearby.”
Lori dutifully filed in behind Lephas as they began trudging through the snow once more.
“So, these snares may not even catch something tonight then?” Lori asked.
“No, potentially not and those biscuits are hardly the best bait either. However, we do have the weather on our side. Rabbits will be especially hungry at this time of year.”
The faerie nodded, listening intently.
“If I can find a few rabbit runs, we can put the biscuit down as bait to draw them in. When we flush them out, they will use their runs as escape routes. When a rabbit runs through one of these, it'll–”
Lori held up a palm. “Please, spare me the details. I really don't want to know.”
“They're only rabbits, Lori. Did you never have rabbit served to you back in Awrelwood?” Lephas scoffed.
“Well, yes, but that was already cooked and sliced up so it didn'tlooklike a bunny any more.”
Lephas laughed. “But this is how that rabbit got to be on that table. Or maybe by even worse methods. I've heard they–”
“No, don't tell me!” Lori squealed, hiding her face. “I really, really don't want to know.”
“Alright... But you need to harden yourself up to things like this. You're no princess out here with me, remember?” The demon grinned.
“Honestly, I don't think I could be considered a princess any more, full stop. My father certainly seems to have forgotten,” Lori replied bitterly.
“Then it's definitely time to start experiencing the real world. We'll start with hunting rabbits.”
