Venison.

Back when Houren spent a few weeks living in the woods by himself as a form of training, he had become quite acquainted with the meat; likely, he had eaten entire families of deer, but it wasn't something that he wanted to talk about. Farmer Jim had called upon him one day and told him that deer were troubling him, that they were trampling on his fields and eating his plants, so he wanted revenge on him. No, not just revenge, he wanted genuine payback, to do to them what they had been doing to his plants. In other words, he had requested Houren kill them so that he could cook them later on for his dinner. Houren felt somewhat less guilty about this than the wolf; after all, deer were pretty populous in this area, so it wasn't as though he was going out of his way to making a species extinct in Marigold. If anything, deer were easily seen as pets and their meat could be used for food. If Houren killed them for coming onto farm property, then nobody could say anything, right? Or perhaps, after having killed and eaten so many deer during his training in the wilderness, he had become completely immune to the sufferings of deer, to the point that his empathy would completely shut off when they became involved.

"They love my cabbage, you know? Here, I'll give you some, I think you might be able to use it as bait to lure them in, you know? You're a mage, and a big guy to boot so taking down some stags shouldn't be too difficult, right?" Farmer Jim chortled to himself as he handed some cabbage to Houren. He knew that this old geezer loved his cabbages, that he wouldn't give them to just anybody unless he felt like he was getting something out of it. In return for a couple of cabbages, Houren would, later on tonight, be presenting him with two adult deer worth of meat. That must have seemed like a pretty good trade to Farmer Jim. He took the cabbages and went to the fields where he waited for nightfall when the deer would come; in all honesty, it felt like Houren had been doing a lot of waiting around in this old man's farm. Before, he had been here, idling around while waiting for a wolf to show up and he had spent two other days tilling the fields and crating some cabbages. Now he'd be murdering some deer so that the old farmer could have something nice to eat for his dinner? And wait, wasn't he wearing a wolf skin coat earlier? He was, wasn't he?

Oh well, it wasn't as though it mattered now. The wolf pups, if there were any, were probably dead and if they weren't, that meant they were completely able to fend for themselves now. He had done an honest job, and the wolf had fought well too, so Houren didn't need to feel guilty about it. He inspected the cabbages that Farmer Jim had given him and began to eat the tastiest looking ones. Deer probably couldn't tell the difference between a good cabbage and a bad one and would eat without discrimination. If that was the case, then Houren could just take the good ones for himself and let the deer have the rest. It wasn't the best last meal in the world, but at least it was something, right? Houren sprung into action just as night began to fall, It seemed like these deer had been doing this exact same thing for a while, and it could even be said that they were veterans when it came to destroying fields and stealing plants from honest, hardworking farmers like Farmer Jim. Houren was hiding behind a tree in prone position when the stags came, and in order to entice the less than bright animal towards him, he threw a cabbage at them. The deer were not startled though and with their impressive vision, they were able to distinguish the cabbage in the dark, and as such, began to walk towards it.

Right into his trap, that is.

The deer weren't as stupid as Houren had thought, and actually seemed to have some sort of strategy. One of them walked up to the cabbage first, sniffed it to see if it was genuine and when his suspicions were cleared, he took a bite as a final test. After that, he turned back towards his friend and made some sort of weird deer noise to ask him to come over. That was perfect, Houren thought, they were probably under the impression that they were being smart but by being in such close proximity to each other, he could take them both out without giving either of them the chance to run. The two deer were greedily gobbling the cabbage when Houren sprung, sickle in one hand and hoe in another, two old yet sharp items that he had found lying around in Farmer Jim's shed. He knew that he could not kill them both simultaneously and decided to aim for the legs. If he cut their legs, then they wouldn't be able to run very far. As they dropped to the ground, Houren put them out of their mercy as quick as possible by slicing their throats. As they bled out before him, he grabbed them by the legs and dragged the two all the way over to the farmhouse where he knocked on the door. Farmer Jim opened the door, already in his apron and from the smell behind, he had already begun to prepare herbs, vegetables and all sorts of things for tonight's dinner. All that was left was the main event, that is, the big meat dish of venison. The old farmer even invited Houren to join him for dinner before payment, but he insisted on the money. This would be his last night in Marigold; he had another place to be.

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