My Beastly Fertility System Chapter 19: Explosion of Flavor

When the fish turned a perfect golden brown, Claire pulled the stick from the fire and handed the biggest one to Rufus.

"Try it."

Rufus hesitated.

"The bones..."

"Oh, right, I forgot to mention, this kind of fish only has one big spine, so let me pull it out for you."

She'd chosen this type on purpose—no tiny bones, nothing that would make eating it a hassle.

Claire laid the fish on a broad leaf, gripped the head with one hand, pinned the body with a stick, and gave it a quick shake so the meat slid cleanly off the spine.

She folded the leaf around the fillet and held it out to Rufus.

"Go on, eat. There aren't any bones left."

Looking at the steaming, fragrant fish in front of him, Rufus felt oddly moved.

This little female had gone to all that trouble just for me?

She couldn't be ... trying to bond with me, could she?

"Eat already."

Claire urged him, then grabbed another grilled fish for herself and dug in with real appetite.

It tasted exactly the way she'd pictured it—really good, though a little chili heat would have made it perfect.

Rufus pushed his wild guesses aside, tasted one bite, and then started devouring the rest in big mouthfuls.

"This is amazing, it's so damn good, I've never eaten anything like this in my life."

He kept shoveling in bites while praising it from the bottom of his heart.

Claire chuckled under her breath as she deboned the rest of the fish and passed them all over to Rufus.

With her small frame, one whole fish was already enough to fill her up.

Rufus tore through the grilled fish like a storm, polished off every last one, and still looked at Claire like he was starving.

Claire knew males could really pack it away, but this was her first time seeing a beastfolk eat like that.

Zane always ate so refined and politely that it actually made her feel a little self-conscious.

Rufus, on the other hand, was all wild edges and zero restraint.

"See, I didn't lie, you can grill fish like this, you can stew it so the broth turns rich and sweet, you can even dry it into jerky that smells salty and amazing."

The more Claire described, the more Rufus felt his craving spike.

Too bad he had absolutely no idea how to cook any of it.

He'd never even heard of most of the methods she was casually describing.

In that instant, he decided this female knew way too many incredible things.

She could conjure fire from wood and turn the fish all beastfolk shunned into something irresistible.

Aside from his obsession with flying, Rufus had one more secret weakness—good food.

He was hopeless in the kitchen but insanely picky, and anything truly delicious could completely break his self-control.

He couldn't help thinking, if Claire could cook for me every single day, that would be perfect.

The second the idea formed, it scared him half to death.

That was way too dangerous.

He was absolutely not getting himself a mate.

Claire saw the expressions on Rufus's face changing wildly and felt a jolt in her heart.

Did this bird man have a split personality or what?

Keeping her face neutral, Claire quietly scooted a little farther away from him.

She still planned to forage more food, and with half the day already gone, she needed to hurry before evening.

She said, "I'm heading out to forage now."

With that, she took the chance to slip away fast.

Rufus licked the lingering taste from his lips and watched her small figure disappear from his sight.

The noon sun was warm and heavy, chasing the chill from his body.

He stretched his wings out comfortably, sprawled across a big rock to sunbathe, and dozed off in no time.

Claire followed the stream downstream, where the fish grew larger and thicker, caught more than a dozen, gutted and cleaned them, then hung them from branches with tough grass to dry.

Along the way, she also searched the area and picked a few scattered berries.

But compared to the foraging grounds near the clan, the berries here were pitifully few.

"Winter lasts so long that even if I find piles of these, they won't keep. If only I had a storage space to preserve them ... I still don't know what kind of reward space Pome keeps bragging about."

Thinking of that, Claire's hand drifted unconsciously to her still-flat belly.

She wondered if a tiny new life might already be forming inside.

Lost in her thoughts, she didn't see the obstacle in front of her and stumbled.

Fortunately, her reflexes had improved; she wobbled a bit but didn't fall.

When she turned to check what had tripped her, she spotted a familiar cluster of leaves on the ground.

"Sweet potatoes."

Claire had spent a few childhood years at her grandpa's place and knew sweet potato vines by heart, and those hand-sized green leaves climbing the ground could only belong to them.

She followed the vine to its base, carefully dug around with her stick, and soon unearthed several fat, oversized tubers.

"These are huge. One of them is enough for a full meal, this is perfect—thank God, no, thank you, Beast God."

Claire combed the surrounding ground and dug up more than thirty sweet potatoes in total, some big, some small.

Her fur bag was nearly bursting at the seams, but she still managed to cram them all inside.

Too thrilled by the haul to care about the dirt on her hands, Claire just swiped the sweat from her forehead, letting pure joy flood her chest.

Right then, the sudden beat of wings stirred the air behind her.

She turned to look.

It was the gyrfalcon.

Rufus was flying low, wings flapping weakly as his body wobbled in the air like he was drunk, barely managing to steer himself toward her.