Nighttime…
As it was already late in the night, the others and I didn't stay awake much longer after we had our share of food from the cauldron.
The food that we ate earlier was just as I had predicted. It was a simple soup containing bones and a few other ingredients like tomatoes that had been squashed after a great fall.
However, unlike the vegetable soup from last time, it was tomato soup, combined with bones that gave it a flavor reminiscent of beef broth.
Because of the interesting combination of ingredients this time, the taste wasn't as bad as the soup I had the first time. In fact, it was quite a contrasting positive compared to the flavor of the previous foods our captors had given us.
'But why? Are there no leftovers to throw down this time? Is that why they used fresh ingredients?'
As I lay down, gazing at the few stars visible through the hole at the top of the cave, I couldn't help myself from continuously questioning the kind of schemes my enemies might be brewing.
I was really curious, but unfortunately with the lack of clues, as time passed, I quickly grew tired and realized that I could only let go of such pondering thoughts to the force that was drifting my spirit into the realms of dreams. I fell asleep without knowing exactly when worn out by the fatigue of the day.
…
Next day, when I woke up, or rather, in the morning when the sun was already up, I noticed that I was the first to get up. The others were still deeply asleep.
I didn't bother to wake any of them up. Instead, I stood up and went to check on the cauldron. There was still at least a tenth of the cauldron's worth of soup, as we had not eaten much yesterday before we had gone off to sleep. However, my interest wasn't in the remaining food; rather, I was curious to understand how the cauldron worked.
"Can this cauldron heat up the remaining food? Or, does it only know how to cook?" I muttered to myself as I inspected the cauldron, bringing my head close to it.
I gave the cauldron a light kick, hoping it would show a reaction. Unfortunately, nothing seemed to happen, even after following the kick I used nudges and strokes.
I realized the cauldron functioned not in the same manner as the teleportation circle. It did not react to touch and movements.
"Ugh, no. If it's supposed to work like that, shouldn't I mess with the drawing inside the cauldron instead of its exterior?" Alone, I continued my small and inaudible ramblings as I tried to figure out how exactly the magic of the cauldron functions.
After the realization, I was about to bring my hand towards the bottom of the cauldron but stopped midway. It would be difficult to experiment with the magic circle because how the circle could not be seen due to the soup that was sitting on top of it!
Although my goal in the first place was to heat the food, I also wanted to see how the magic circle would react to certain things. One way I figured out how to do both of these at a similar time was to store the food somewhere else other than inside the cauldron.
I decided to use the eleven bowls that were neatly stacked near the cauldron, but while doing so, I quickly realized that these bowls would not be enough to store the remaining soup inside the cauldron.
What I did to counter this problem was to drink out of the last bowl that I still had in hand. I did not want to eat so much, however, as I had promised myself to be cautious with the amount of food that I take in after all.
Fearing that I might age faster if I overeat, I looked around to find the perfect candidate for the job of overeating. In the end, my eyes settled on a sleeping figure.
Hazel! A person I was most familiar with and felt at ease making a request.
However, my choice was not because I felt comfortable asking her to do something for me that I was looking at her, but because I thought of her body to be the most malnourished one compared to that of the others!
'Her body… Our body!'
A sudden realization struck me. Seeing how malnourished she looked compared to the others, I remembered the one guy, my cell neighbor, who also looked malnourished compared to others. No, he looked even more frail than Hazel, considering his tall teenage body.
I too used to be very skinny, to the point I look like a skinwalker! Although there has been no reflection for me to observe the changes in my body, I'm not blind to not notice that my arms were quite frail before I was bitten by Hazel. It was only because of overeating that my body grew bigger and healthier.
'But why is it only the three of us were like that? Why do the others have more mass compared to us?'
As I pondered about such thoughts that could only remain unanswered for the time being, I made my way towards the candidate who would be overeating soon.
"Hey… Wake up." I nudged the teenager on his shoulder.
After realizing how much malnourished the teenager was compared to Hazel, I directly decided to wake him up instead.
He was way bigger than Hazel, but skinny as a tall slender man-like skinwalker. He definitely needed the extra nutrition more than her, especially since he would be more useful to me with a bigger and healthier body!