a ha'penny will do

Peggy trotted through the plains with a cottontail dangling from her jaws. She'd never been entirely comfortable with the snake-infested land, honestly, and wasn't entirely certain why her Uncle Bass had chosen it to begin with, let alone why every single alpha since then had kept it. They were lucky no one had died from a bite from one of the more venomous inhabitants, especially with the various batches of puppies that had been raised in Abaven.

Now, though, she could be perfectly comfortable here knowing that all of the reptilian residents were hibernating away from the chilly autumn air, and hunt the ubiquitous rabbits that drew the serpents there. She wasn't by any means an expert hunter, nor did she have any particular urge to become one, but her father had taught her and her siblings enough to keep themselves fed when they were younger. She wasn't sure she'd know what to do in a group hunt, but she could hunt most small prey animals by herself. As a healer she knew that rabbits had too little fat to healthily sustain someone on them alone, but as long as it was supplemented with other fattier foods the little creatures were a great quick meal for someone hunting alone. Besides, she had an eye towards skinning it out as well as she could manage without much experience, to trade the fur to a hunter in exchange for the fat from something like a bear or waterfowl. She'd heard that it could be rendered down into a greasy substance that could be used as a carrier substance for different herbs. She wasn't sure how to do that, but she was willing to experiment with the idea. She'd just need to find a way to make fire, or maybe use the heat from the nearby volcano or hot springs somehow...