"So what do you think, Lady Iocasta?" Lady Madison asked as they looked over the dead alpha wolf.
"Having scrapped the surface in several places, the burning is mostly on the surface," Lady Iocasta said. "Most of the meat is still good. We should be looking at about one and a half tons once we remove all the inedible parts."
"That much, huh?"
Lady Iocasta nodded. "That's just from this big guy here. That doesn't count the wolves we killed back at the farm. Or the wolves you and Shalista killed further out. Once we factor all that in, we could very well be looking at another one and a half tons of meat. Oh, the things I can do with that much. Wolf stew, wolf jerky, wolf stir fry, barbecued wolf, deep-fried wolf..."
"There's no way we can eat three tons of food," Lady Madison said.
"But a lot of people could," Shalista said, seemingly coming from nowhere. "There are lots of people who don't know where their next meal is going to come from. Walking around your town, I've seen more than a few. This would be a great chance to satisfy their hunger, even if only for a few hours. This would also be a chance to show just how great sexy warriors can be as people."
"Feeding the homeless," Lady Madison said. "A good idea. But how are we going to butcher and cook it all. We only have one Lady Iocasta. Lady Glinda can help with the butchering, but we only have one cook."
"Aren't you forgetting someone?" Shalista said. "You have the world's sexiest butcher and cook right here."
Lady Madison looked around. "I don't see Lady Belinda around. And she can't cook or make the proper cuts."
"I'm talking about me," Shalista grumbled. "Growing up as a farm girl taught me how to be resourceful. Remember when I made you breakfast."
"Yeah, yeah," Lady Madison said. "So we have two cooks and three butchers. It's going to take more than that to prepare three tons of wolf."
"Hello," Sophia said. "In case you forgot, there's a rich girl standing here. I can just hire any help we need."
"Way to go, Legs," Shalista said. "Go order us up some people to chop up the wolves. We won't need cooks until tomorrow. We will need to preserve the meat until then."
"Ice magic," Lady Madison said. "If we create blocks of ice around the meat, we can preserve it without freezing it. Because it's magic ice, it won't melt too fast, even if it's in the sun for hours. That will make transporting it back to town easier. Hopefully, the farmer has some wagons and horses he'd be willing to let us use."
Sophia smiled. "I'm sure a few coins will convince him to part with them. I'll negotiate with him after I hire some butchers."
Suddenly, Hilde came running over. "Big trouble. Barbarians have shown up at the farm. Lady Audrixia and Akiko are trying to fight them, but Lady Glinda is trying to keep them separated."
"It couldn't be..." Lady Madison said. "I'm on the way." She hurried with Hilde in tow.
Upon getting to the farm, she saw it was, in fact, who she thought it was. "Corlos?"
"Hey, lass," Corlos said.
Lady Audrixia and Akiko stopped what they were doing. "You know these barbarians?" Lady Audrixia asked.
"Yeah. They're okay."
"I told you so," Lady Glinda said to Lady Audrixia and Akiko.
Lady Audrixia grumbled. "Barbarians..."
"Sorry," Akiko said, bowing. "We have a habit of killing barbarians whenever we see them. But if Lady Madison gives you the okay, then you must not be that bad."
"No hard feelings," Corlos said. "It's all a part of being a barbarian." He extended a hand to Lady Audrixia. "No hard feelings."
Lady Audrixia didn't shake his hand. She only grumbled.
"Okay..." she said, turning back to Lady Madison. "I couldn't hep but notice the pile of dead doggies at the entrance. Looks like you've got quite the meal planned."
"You guys know how to prepare wolf?" Lady Madison asked.
"Do we?" a barbarian asked. "We love the stuff. Eat it all the time."
"Do you know the cuts?" she asked.
"Yeah," Corlos said.
"How would you like to make some money?" Great. Now she was funding barbarians. Not exactly becoming of a member of the Emporan military, but the offer was already out there.
"So you need help dicing up the doggies?" Corlos asked. "We're barbarians. We don't need money. Just give us some of the meat and we'll be fine."
"That works." All she had to do was tell Sophia, who just happened to be headed their way. "Good news, Sophia. You don't have to search for or pay butchers and cooks. Corlos and his friends say they'll do it for nothing more than a share of the meat."
"Really?" Sophia said. "And I was looking forward to tossing around some cash. Oh well. I guess I'll save my money for another day."
"You can still pay the farmer for any carts and horses he'd be willing to loan us."
"Oh yeah," Sophia said. "I'll get on that."
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