Koyuki, the Necromancing Foxkin

After the first round of drinks we decided to order some food. The menu had a lot of meat.

“You can order an entire grilled chicken? Isn’t that a bit much?” I wondered.

“You can also order half of a chicken. And some people are hungry.” Skadi said.

“I am gonna go for a crispy pork knuckle.” Helena decided.

“Oh, they have some spicy sausages. I am gonna try those.” Cassie said.

Should I try the chicken? Hm. They had some boar ribs. Maybe I would go for those. The only boar I ever had was the horned one we killed. And it was nice.

We signalled the waiter and ordered our food. Skadi actually went for a whole chicken.

“What would you like as side dishes?” The waiter asked.

“What do you recommend?” Helena asked.

“We do have various forms of potatoes. A salad, mashed, fried, baked,... Or, we do have some very nice bread. You could have a basket to share with some variety.”

“Let’s go for the bread,” Skadi suggested. We nodded.

We had another round of beers until the food arrived. I was starting to feel a bit tipsy. Having a tap right in front of you was devious. I loved it.

My ribs were glazed with a slightly sweet and smoky sauce. They were delicious. The bread we got was a mixture of pretzels, slices of sourdough and some other pieces with seeds on them. It was warm, fresh and went well with the meat.

As I finished my first rib and tried to place the bone back on the plate a head appeared. Nyx, who was still on my lap, bit into the bone.

“You want that?” I asked her.

A chewing noise was the reply. Nyx devoured the bone rather quickly.

“She has never done that before.” Helena noted. “It’s not the first time we eat something with bones.”

“Maybe there is something special about the boar?” I said.

Skadi took a bone from the chicken she was eating and held it in front of Nyx. It was devoured as well.

“Nope. Looks like she wants all sorts of bones. Maybe she is growing? I mean, besides her shapeshifting. Do you think her biggest form can grow bigger?” Skadi wondered.

“I have no idea. Maybe she can use it to strengthen her bones? Or help them repair?” It was an interesting development. There should not be any magic in our food. Undead essentially survived on magic, as far as I knew.

“Or she is just turning into a glutton.” Helena suggested. Nyx ignored her and stared at the ribs.

I ate the next one and fed the bone to Nyx. At least she patiently waited for me to finish the meat on it first.

Being a smart feline, she quickly realised that my lap was not the most efficient place to get fed. So she moved to the centre of the table. Helena and Skadi had bones as well, after all. Cassie started stealing small bones from Skadi’s chicken to feed Nyx as well.

When we were done, all the food was gone. And all the bones had been devoured. I felt rather full. Nyx returned to my lap. The waiter was a bit surprised as he collected the dishes.

“What happened to the bones?” He asked.

“My pet ate them.” I responded.

“How can a skeleton eat things? It does not have a stomach.”

“Magic.” I replied. “It’s called devouring.”

“Huh. You learn something new every day.” The waiter said. “We just throw them away usually.”

“That seems like a waste.” Helena said. “Can’t they be used for necromancy?”

“I don’t know. I suspect most necromancers don’t need chickens. But if you want them…” He shrugged. “You would have to talk to the manager.” He finished collecting the plates and left.

I noticed that my mug was empty and refilled it at the tap. The beer was really nice.

“Maybe you could get free bones from all the restaurants!” Helena suggested.

“What would I do with them?”

“Meow!”

“Besides feeding Nyx.”

“Couldn’t you combine them into some super undead?” Skadi asked.

“Combining them would be possible but complicated and not worth the effort. Besides the difficulty of the spell you would also need to make sure the creature functions. It would need to be able to walk without falling over. The other problem would be its behaviour. An undead wolf still has the fighting instincts of a wolf. It knows how its body works. It knows how to use its teeth.” I explained.

“But you could animate a boar. That might be useful.” Cassie suggested.

“I don’t think they have a full boar skeleton. They don’t serve all parts of it. The most complete skeleton would be a chicken.” I said.

“You could still have an army of undead chickens…” Helena sounded slightly disappointed. “Wait, what if they could change size? Become giant chickens?” Some of her enthusiasm returned.

“I can’t replicate Nyx. Changing her size is her power. Not something I added. I think…” I said.

“But you could give them frost power.” Skadi said while refilling her mug.

“I am not sure how powerful a chicken would be, even with that…” I said.

“Wouldn’t you be missing the heads anyway? It’s not like they are served as food.” Cassie pointed out.

“True.” I admitted.

“Maybe you could get them from a butcher…” Helena pondered.

“Or, there might be a reason why necromancers are not working with restaurants.” I said.

“Pff, others just lack vision! I think we are onto something here!” Helena refilled her mug.

I had another sip of beer. Was there really something we were missing? Could I find a use for a bunch of animal bones? A chicken was lacking a strong natural attack, or the ability to use weapons. Frost powers could help but how much magic could you stuff into a chicken? It might just be a waste of mana to animate them.

“Explosions!” Cassie said.

“What?” I asked.

“You don’t need the chicken to do anything, just strap bombs to them!” She suggested. Then she tried to have a sip and noticed her mug was empty. She quickly refilled it.

“YES!” Helena exclaimed. “An army of exploding skeleton chickens!”

I scratched my head. Was there something wrong with the idea? I mean, it could work… “Might be expensive to create a lot of bombs…”

“Besides bombs you could add other things. Like the smoke stuff. People wouldn’t see chicken as a threat. They are small. If you can make them fast…” Skadi mused.

“We need to do this!” Helena said.

I took another sip of my beer. Maybe it was worth a try.